Chapter 8: The Result of a Choice

"—You have shown this house your concern time and again. I cannot thank you enough."

"No, no, that's only natural. It's not the kind of thing you need to thank us for."

Shrinking with embarrassment, Subaru answered the man serving their tea, Wilhelm, by flustering and waving both of Beatrice's hands where she sat on his lap. Beatrice shot him a flat look for it, but she could probably tell how tense he was from the heartbeat thudding against her back. She let out a resigned sigh and went on dutifully playing Subaru's puppet.

—Having just finished their meeting with Filore, the woman currently throwing the Royal Selection into a whirlpool of chaos, Subaru and the others had heard at the Church of the Divine Dragon that Crusch had woken. Unable to sit still, they had come straight to Karsten Manor in the Noble Quarter.

Naturally, proper etiquette required an appointment before calling. But the visit had been such a social failure that they'd forgotten even that, and they had been warmly received all the same. Shown to the drawing room by Wilhelm, the four of them sat in a row on a long sofa (Beatrice on Subaru's lap), waiting for the moment to arrive. Perhaps Subaru's eagerness was obvious, because Wilhelm bowed deeply from the waist.

"I must ask you to allow Lady Crusch a little more time to prepare. My apologies."

"No, no, we're the ones who showed up out of nowhere. If anything, we're just grateful you didn't turn us away."

"Turn you away? Never. Lady Crusch was delighted to hear that you, Subaru, and Lady Emilia had come to call."

"No, no, no, on that front it's the opposite, or it might end up being the opposite, or... I mean, I might start crying the second I see Crusch awake, so..."

It was a pathetic thing to admit, but there was a real chance of it happening, no joke, so he wanted Wilhelm, Emilia and the others to brace themselves in advance. For now, all he could do to hold his eagerness in check was swing Beatrice's arms, whoosh, whoosh, whoosh, whoosh, in time with every "no" he gave Wilhelm.

"Honestly, that is far too much flapping of Betty's little hands! My shoulders and arms are getting tired, in fact!"

"Ngh... Sorry, my bad, forgive me, I just can't settle down. I mean..."

Beatrice, who had been faithfully serving as Subaru's emotional-support doll, reached the end of her patience and howled. Poking her cheek, Subaru stopped there for a beat. He was impatient and on edge. But it was worth the wait.

"I mean, Crusch is..."

"—Yes. There is no doubt of that."

At Subaru's breath, heavy with everything he felt, Wilhelm nodded with emotion just as deep. —No, "just as deep" was a shameless thing to think. Wilhelm's relief had to be many times, dozens of times greater than Subaru's. The recovery of the one he had sworn his loyalty to was that great a thing.

"I know I've said it lots of times already, but I'm really so glad for you, Wilhelm."

It was Emilia, seated beside Subaru, who thanked Wilhelm for his efforts once again. Emilia had been there when Filore used the Church's sacrament to treat Crusch, so she had been able to comfort Wilhelm and the others that same day. Even so, Crusch hadn't regained consciousness afterward, and now that the chance to speak with her awake was finally at hand, Emilia's violet eyes were shining with anticipation too.

"Good grief, at this rate I dread the blunders these two will make. Rem, if Betty and you don't keep our heads, this could turn into a disaster, I suppose."

"You're right. If things go too far, leave it to me. I'm slowly getting used to handling the iron ball and its weight."

With Subaru and Emilia so restless, it was a comfort that Beatrice and Rem were keeping the composure proper to visitors and were ready for the crucial moment. Still, the faint rattle of chain that came with Rem's slightest movement was frightening and thrilling at once. Whenever he asked Rem to back him up, Subaru would need to steel himself first.

"Oh, speaking of backup, where's Ferris? Helping Crusch get dressed? There's a bunch of stuff I want to talk to him about too."

Noticing that a face that should have been there was missing, Subaru asked the question. Subaru and the others, and Wilhelm too, all felt a joy at Crusch's recovery beyond anything they had dared hope for. But the one who would feel it most of all had to be none other than Crusch's First Knight. Of course, the fact that Crusch had been saved by the Church of the Divine Dragon must have cut him deeply, healer that he was. Still, Subaru had no doubt that he was the kind of person who could rejoice in Crusch's safety more than he blamed himself for his own helplessness.

And yet—

"—"

"—? Wilhelm?"

For an instant Wilhelm's face went rigid, and Subaru knit his brows, puzzled. But Wilhelm quickly said, "Forgive me," smoothed the stiffness away, and went on:

"As for Ferris... the truth is, he has fallen somewhat ill. Immediately after the matter of Lady Crusch's health was settled, it seems all the strain he had been carrying burst forth at once."

"Oh no, that happened after I left? ...I'm worried about Ferris. Crusch finally gets to wake up, and then he's the one who collapses? Ferris is going to blame himself."

"Yeah, you're right. Wilhelm, is Ferris in bad shape?"

"...No, I expect rest will see him well again. I would only ask that you refrain from visiting him for the time being. I believe he himself would not wish to intrude upon the feelings of those who have come to see Lady Crusch."

"I wouldn't think of it as intruding... but okay, I understand. We'll see him another time."

It wasn't quite a case of misfortune piling on misfortune, but if that was how things stood, Emilia nodded at Wilhelm's suggestion, and Subaru agreed. They planned to stay in the capital a while longer yet. Even if they missed him today, there would be other chances to thank Ferris for everything he'd done. For now, they ought to respect his wishes. That settled, Subaru and the others had just let out a breath when—

"—Forgive me for keeping you waiting so long."

At those words, and at the sight of the person who opened the drawing room door, Subaru shot to his feet without thinking. In the doorway stood a beautiful woman, slender and willowy, with striking long green hair, wearing a dark nightgown with a pink stole draped over her shoulders: Crusch Karsten herself.

"—"

The last time he'd seen her, Crusch had been gasping for breath in pain, barely able to sit up in bed. Now she was standing under her own power, appearing before them like this, and joy and emotion beyond anything he'd dared hope for welled up in him. Even so, as she looked at Subaru with a fragile smile, half her face was still wrapped in a bandage that covered her left eye, and that was what his gaze couldn't help landing on first—

"Please, set your mind at ease. I wear this bandage only because one eye is still a little difficult to see out of. Most of the affliction... no. The affliction has been removed."

"Ah..."

"So please, don't let your face cloud over like that."

Told that, Subaru chided himself: he'd come here to visit the sick, and instead he'd made her worry about him. It was a shock that the bandage was still covering her face, but what mattered far more was that Crusch had walked here on her own two feet to see them. Her condition had been so grave that even that had seemed an impossible feat.

"—"

"—Lord Subaru?"

Noticing that Subaru had gone quiet, Crusch narrowed her amber eyes mid-smile. Under the gaze of the one eye she had for now, Subaru chose his words carefully. After all, one wrong word, one wrong breath, and everything he was holding back might spill out in drops.

"...Hey, Crusch. There's a lot, really a lot, I wanted to say to you, and most of it was 'I'm sorry' and 'that was on me,' apologies, basically."

"—Yes."

"But now that I'm actually seeing you face to face, all that comes out is 'I'm so glad' and 'what a relief.' I'm really, really relieved..."

He'd prepared any number of model answers for this visit. On the way to the mansion, and all through this wait, he'd frantically run simulations in his head of the best possible thing to say, and thought he'd picked out the perfect reply. And yet the moment he met the real Crusch, every bit of it was blown away, and all that came out was a childish, half-formed, rambling sort of relief.

"—"

At those words, wrung out of Subaru's sorry awareness of himself, Crusch's eyes went wide for a moment, and then the soft smile returned to her lips.

"Hearing you say that puts me at ease as well. You have seen me in such an unseemly state so many times, Lord Subaru, I feared you might have finally lost patience with me."

"No way! Not at all, nope, never! I mean, you're barely back on your feet, I shouldn't be making you stand around talking. Um, please, have a seat."

"Hehe. Then I shall."

Flustered and thrown off his rhythm, Subaru offered her the chair across from them, and Crusch, laughing behind her hand, accepted his escort. For some reason Subaru had ended up playing host, but it was her house, so he deserved to be laughed at. Unable to shake the awkwardness, Subaru watched Crusch take her seat with Wilhelm's help, then shot a reproachful look at Emilia and the others beside him.

"Hey, isn't it kind of unfair that I'm the only one flapping around here? Why am I the one getting jerked about?"

"Well, you were the one who worried about Crusch the most, weren't you, Subaru? So I thought you'd want to be the first to talk to her."

"It isn't my place to push myself forward here. Besides, I had Beatrice to look after."

"Look after Beako? Wait, huh? Why's Beako on your lap, Rem? Weren't you sitting on mine?"

"I was, until you stood up and sent me flying, in fact! If Rem hadn't caught me so neatly, I'd be sprawled flat in the middle of the room right now, I suppose!"

"R-right, sorry about that. You were literally not in my field of vision..."

"That's a terrible way to put it, in fact!"

Cheeks puffed out, Beatrice clung to Rem in a fit of stubbornness. Leaving her to Rem, who seemed perfectly willing to accept the hug, Subaru added this to his list of regrets: he'd been far too blind to everything around him. Then, at their exchange, Crusch gave a soft "Hehe," and her smile deepened. Seeing that, Emilia narrowed her violet eyes.

"I'm sorry we're all so noisy when we're supposed to be visiting you."

"Not at all. I don't dislike a lively room. And that you came to see me the moment you heard... that made me happy."

"Then I'm glad. ...Oh, but I'll make sure they don't get too carried away."

Mindful of Crusch's health, Emilia tacked on one last remark that was so very like her. There was consideration in it, and a clear effort to choose her words properly, and even at a moment like this Subaru could see how much Emilia had grown. Of course, it wouldn't do to take what Crusch said too much at face value, either—

"How are you feeling?"

"Much better, thank you. It seems my strength will take a while longer to return, but I don't believe there is any serious problem."

With that, Crusch adjusted the stole draped over her shoulders. She had only just recovered, and her complexion was still a little pale, but her answers came easily, and her sharp mind showed no sign of dimming. From what Subaru could tell, she walked steadily too, and apart from the bandage over her left eye, no trace of that day seemed to remain on her. For now, at least, that was a relief. That said—

"I have received reports of what happened while I was bedridden. ...Including the news that Priscilla has passed away."

If that sharp mind was intact, then Crusch also understood perfectly well that this was no situation in which she could simply rejoice in her own recovery.

"—"

They had known the subject was unavoidable, but it had seemed wrong to raise it so soon, and hearing it from Crusch herself, of all people, made Subaru and the others stiffen instead. Today they would celebrate her recovery and save the deeper talk of the Royal Selection for another time: it was as though she had no use for that kind of comfort.

"As far as I can remember, I barely exchanged a word with Priscilla. But there is no doubt that she had convictions of her own when she joined the battle at Priestella... and, by extension, the Royal Selection. Which is exactly why we must carry the Royal Selection forward for her sake as well."

"—Yes, I think so too. For Priscilla's sake, I don't think we can stay down in the dumps forever."

"You do? Good. I'm glad you feel the same way, Lady Emilia."

Letting out a breath of relief as Emilia nodded, Crusch raised her teacup to her lips. Once she had wet her tongue and lips, she fixed them with the amber gleam of her single right eye and went on: "In that case,"

"I believe you will agree that what we must prioritize now is the stability of the kingdom. The Witch Cult's deeds were certainly a grievous blow to the Royal Selection, but devoting too much time to countering and dealing with them would stray from the Royal Selection's true purpose."

"Mm, I understand that too. The Royal Selection is for deciding the kingdom's future, not for doing something about the Witch Cult. That's what you mean, right?"

"Yes, exactly. Of course, dealing with those people is a task that those who govern must take on, but putting it first would be playing right into their hands. We must remember the very essence of the Royal Selection."

"In that case, Felt is in the Royal Capital right now too. It sounds like Anastasia hasn't made it back yet, but if we can all talk it over, I'd be happy to—"

"—Besides," Crusch said, cutting Emilia off and leaning slightly forward. For an instant it felt like a naked blade had been laid against her, and Emilia's eyes went a little wide. Crusch paid that reaction no mind, and the light in her amber eye only grew fiercer.

"I heard that you opened the way to the tower of the 'Sage'... the Pleiades Watchtower. A remarkable achievement, and I am deeply impressed. If that tower truly holds the power the rumors claim, it will serve as more than enough of a deterrent against other nations. How it is to be handled must be weighed carefully with the 'Council of Sages.'"

"Crusch..."

"And the 'Ceremony of Dragon Kinship' itself... the vote that will decide the next king is now less than a year and a half away. From here on, the merits of each faction's claims will be scrutinized all the more. More than ever, we must look at the faces of the people around us and listen to their voices."

"Wait, Crusch, I do want to talk. But don't rush like this. Right now—"

"—I...!"

"—!"

Crusch's words had poured out all at once, without pause, and in the very instant Emilia tried to hold back that torrent with her own feelings, one forceful cry split the drawing room. Crusch set her teacup down hard on its saucer with a sharp clink, and tea slopped over the rim. Wilhelm at once drew his mistress's hand away, laid a handkerchief over it where the tea had nearly splashed it, and swiftly moved the cup out of reach. Through all of it, Crusch let him do as he would, and never for a moment took her eyes off Subaru and the others. Still without looking away, her thin lips trembled, and

"Am I... wrong...?"

"—"

The resolute, intelligent tone of a moment before had come apart, and the question was wet with tears. In truth, there were no tears in Crusch's eyes. But her voice was crying. The sheer size of that gap between reason and emotion cut Subaru's heart to pieces.

She understood. Crusch understood. She was clever, a woman of keen insight, someone who had worked hard and kept facing one responsibility and challenge after another, so it made no difference whether Subaru and the others chose their words carefully or failed to.

She understood that the way she had been saved was unworthy of the king she had set out to be.

"...How can anything be that ridiculous?"

Looking back on the certainty that had taken shape inside him, Subaru ground his back teeth. Ridiculous. There was no other way to put it: truly ridiculous. Saved the wrong way? That made it sound as though it would have been better for Crusch to still be suffering under the malice of "Lust." Nothing could be more ridiculous than that. Why should someone as admirable as Crusch have her dreams and goals cut short by the deeds of a pack of lunatics like the Witch Cult?

It had been senseless suffering. An injustice she'd had no reason to endure. So what if someone's kindness had been what saved her from it? Thank you for saving me. I'll never forget this debt, and I'll keep giving it everything I have from here on. Why wasn't that good enough?

"—You're not wrong."

Welling up in his chest, along with an anger he could do nothing about, was something else. As though it had shoved him from behind, before he knew it Subaru was on his feet again, gripping Crusch's hand tightly across the low table. On Crusch's pale fingers, where the handkerchief had slipped away, those hideous black blotches were gone. This was Crusch's real hand, a hand no one had any right to defile.

"Lord... Subaru."

"You're not wrong. No way you're wrong. Let's do the Royal Selection properly. Talk properly, think properly, and all of us compete properly. I'll do whatever it takes."

He said it fully prepared to be scolded and cursed for making another rash promise. They were rival factions. Anyone would think Emilia would be far better off if Crusch, a formidable rival, simply dropped out of the Royal Selection right here.

"But that's wrong. That's not how it's supposed to go. This Royal Selection, where every one of us wanted our own person to be king, where we all decided we'd make it happen... it's not supposed to get settled like that."

"—"

"So, Crusch, you're not wrong."

He wasn't at all confident that his "so" had actually followed from anything. But Crusch, though taken somewhat aback by the force of Subaru's outburst, let out a breath, as though something pulled taut inside her had slackened a little.

"Geez, Subaru, you went all whoosh and said almost everything I was going to say before I could. No fair."

Perhaps sensing the change in Crusch's mood, Emilia, still sitting on the sofa, pouted and chided him for it. All at once Subaru realized he'd gotten worked up and charged ahead all on his own, and his face burned right to the tips of his ears. Telling himself this wouldn't do, he hurried to get back to his seat—

"—Lord Subaru, your hand..."

"Huh? My hand?"

At her words, Subaru looked down at the hand that had just been holding Crusch's. He assumed she was pointing out the rather glaring breach of manners he had, now that she mentioned it, committed, but that wasn't it. What had caught Crusch's amber eye wasn't Subaru's lack of manners, but

"Your hand, Lord Subaru. It had become just like my body... Surely your hand wasn't healed by the power of the Church of the Divine Dragon as well?"

"Ah, no, this was a lot rougher than that. It was more of a 'kaboom' kind of result, and I never really figured out the details myself, so honestly it's a little scary."

In truth, Subaru's hand had now recovered its original skin tone, but the way it got there had been violent enough that he could never let anyone copy it. To put it bluntly, it had been burned, blown off, and grown back. As things stood, his foot was in the same state, but he couldn't bring himself to test whether burning it, blowing it off and growing it back would work too.

"—fair."

"—"

Clenching and unclenching his fist as he looked back on that drastic treatment, Subaru thought he heard a faint whisper and caught his breath. He blinked and looked at Crusch across from him. Surely not, he thought. It couldn't be.

"Crusch, take it slow and rest your body first. After that, just like Subaru already said, I'm going to do anything I can too."

"...Thank you. You may come to regret it, you know."

"I think the me now can tell regrets that are okay to have from ones that aren't, better than the old me could."

But the unease and doubt that had crept into Subaru were pushed aside by the conversation passing over his head between Emilia and Crusch, an exchange fitting for two royal selection candidates. Subaru's and Emilia's offer amounted to nothing less than handing a rival the means to fight them, but if they avoided it and beat Crusch anyway, they could never be truly glad about it. So this offer, this declaration, was in keeping with what Emilia's Faction wanted.

"—Phew."

With that exchange done, Crusch let out a breath heavy with fatigue. She had only just recovered and her strength had not yet returned, and there had been that emotional moment as well. For someone in Crusch's condition, the visit had already run long enough.

"We should take our leave soon, Emilia."

"You're right. Thank you for seeing us when you're sooo tired and having such a hard time."

"Not at all. Rather, I must apologize for not being able to offer you proper hospitality. Wilhelm, would you see everyone out?"

As Emilia, at Rem's prompting, brought the visit to a close, Crusch smiled and said this to Wilhelm at her side. Wilhelm bowed and accepted the task, and as Subaru and the others got ready to leave, Crusch rose as well to see them off.

And then—

"Thank you, truly, for today. I was glad to see you."

"—"

Apologising for the discourtesy of seeing them off from where she stood, Crusch offered Subaru and the others her farewell. In that moment, Subaru hesitated over whether to say something—

"—Subaru, allow me to see you out."

As though he had sensed it, Wilhelm cut him off.

"I was most discourteous back there."

On the way from the drawing room to the front entrance, Wilhelm, walking ahead, broached the subject. At those words, Subaru, who was holding Beatrice's hand, widened his eyes. "I knew it," he said.

"I noticed you stopped me at the end there. ...But I don't actually know what I was trying to say back there myself."

"Even so, it was presumptuous of me to interrupt a guest. I acted solely out of concern for Lady Crusch, but I apologise for my rudeness."

"...You've noticed too, haven't you, Wilhelm? The way Crusch was acting."

"Naturally, she is far from her usual self, and she will need some time yet to recuperate. However, even if her body and spirit should recover..."

Wilhelm lowered his eyes and said nothing more. But Subaru could roughly guess what he had left unsaid. No one had put it into words back there, and that had been deliberate. Yet because Crusch herself felt it most keenly of all, those painful emotions had come spilling out.

Besides that—

"Ferris must be frustrated too. Right now he must want to be by Crusch's side supporting her more than anyone, and his body won't listen to him."

Glancing back toward the drawing room they had just left, Emilia voiced her worry. At her words, Wilhelm's throat moved faintly as he walked ahead of them. Then, without stopping, he said "Lady Emilia" in a grave voice.

"Earlier, I told you a lie."

"Huh? A lie?"

"Yes. —Concerning Ferris."

At the words and the name, Subaru and the others all exchanged looks. A lie about Ferris, Wilhelm had said. According to his explanation, Ferris had fallen ill and was resting—

"No, wait, that's weird. Isn't Ferris the type who doesn't get sick in the first place?"

"Surely not... I mean, it isn't as though we're talking about Reinhard."

"Sure, Reinhard's off the charts too, but in that sense Ferris is one of the off-the-charts ones as well."

Reinhard, a walking human marvel who could hoist a Dragon Carriage and leap off with it in a single bound, was a case of his own. Ferris was a healer, and the holder of the "Blue" title at that, said to rank among the strongest in the kingdom. Subaru had once watched Ferris get caught in a Witch Cultist's suicide blast and stroll back, unruffled, from the spot where the Dragon Carriage had been blown to splinters. A superhealer straight out of manga and anime: that was Ferris. Of course, he had run himself out of mana since then and poured everything he had into Crusch, so there was no saying that what held true back then still applied now.

"As you have perceived, Subaru, Ferris is not bedridden. At present, he is not in this manor at all."

"Not in the manor? Then..."

"—To the Royal Cemetery, if you would."

Wilhelm did not answer the question that had so suddenly surfaced. He only named the place, in as few words as possible, and showed them to the manor's entrance. The Royal Cemetery: from the name alone, the purpose of going there seemed plain enough. And yet Wilhelm's true intention in pointing them toward it—

"However much shame I heap upon myself, I am, at present, in Lady Crusch's service. I cannot act against my mistress's wishes. —I beg you, lend him your ear."

With a deep bow, Wilhelm saw them off. The anguish carved into his deeply lined face spoke of a problem that even the Sword Demon could not cut through with his sword, and yet one he longed to see resolved, however bitter the path there. It felt like a prayer.

△▼△▼△▼△

—The Royal Cemetery lay in the innermost reaches of the Noble Quarter of the Royal Capital Lugunica.

Just as the name sounded, and just as the words it called to mind suggested, the place was a cemetery: rows upon rows of gravestones raised to mourn the dead, a bed for those whose souls had been prayed to rest.

"You remember the White Whale subjugation? They said the graves of the people who fought in that battle and lost their lives are here too."

"I see. Then never coming here was pretty heartless of me. I didn't bring any flowers today, so next time I'll have to come properly prepared."

"Right. We have to tell them thank you, lots and lots, and that they worked so hard."

Past the black iron main gate, without a fleck of rust anywhere on it, stretched a stone-paved path laid in geometric patterns, flanked on both sides by rows of grave markers. Not a single one of the gravestones standing there could be called a mere stone slab. Some were crowned with statues of knights proclaiming the feats of their lives; others were built like little temples, adorned with intricate carvings that told the history of a family. Banners bearing family crests stirred in the wind, and the bright bouquets left by mourners were the only thing lending colour to that world of grey stone.

"Leave it to nobles to show off even with their gravestones. ...Minus the flashiness, it's sort of close to the cemeteries I've seen in Western movies and foreign TV shows, I guess."

Well-kept lawns and stone paths spread out around a gentle hill at the centre. There were none of the Japanese-style gravestones, wooden grave tablets, shrines or temples Subaru had grown up around. It was a place where a cool, lonely wind blew through.

"Come to think of it, I kind of avoided thinking about this... Do people here get cremated when they die? Or buried?"

"Cremated, as a rule, I suppose. When a living thing dies, its soul... its Od, slips out of the body. A body that's lost its Od just slumps and rots out of shape, and it's unbearable to look at, in fact. So before that happens, the body is shown that its role is over too, same as the Od, I suppose."

"I see. So it's not about stopping disease, it's because of how existence works."

Thanks to Beatrice answering on the spot, the mechanism made sense to him. No wonder, then, that during the Great Disaster in Vollachia, the hordes of zombies that rose hadn't come back with rotting bodies or missing limbs or in some half-finished state. In their case, the bodies had been formed out of clods of earth, modelled on the shape of the souls used to revive them. That was why those zombies had returned to this world looking just as they had in life.

"So then the place souls end up... that Cradle of Od Lagna or whatever, it must've been a pretty special place. Like the Sanzu River, or the End of Time."

"Don't go muttering something so frightening out of nowhere. The Cradle of Od Lagna isn't something you say even as a joke, I suppose. Word is that if you happen to meet its gaze, it'll steal your sanity, in fact."

"No, I'm not joking, it really... Then again, that was just Rui going on about it on her own, so maybe it's not all that reliable?"

Scolded by a scowling Beatrice, Subaru thought back on that pure-white space, where he had spent time that was, for better or worse, nothing if not dense. Rui Arneb, who fancied herself the gatekeeper of the place, had called it the "Corridor of Memories," and while it did have something of that about it, what exactly it had been remained a mystery. Rui's consciousness had vanished somewhere, and now that she had been reborn as Spica, there was no way to find out.

"If I had to pick something, I guess I could dig up another of Reid's books or whatever and take a peek inside, braced for something insane to happen to me..."

"—Um, I know you're in the middle of talking, but may I say something too?"

"Huh?"

"We came here looking for someone, didn't we? Ferris, was it?"

With a little tug on his sleeve, Rem put the question to Subaru as he turned around. There was deep doubt in her eyes; naturally, she knew nothing about what kind of person Ferris was. Being brought to a cemetery on those terms would certainly have left her with nothing to do.

"Oh, sorry, sorry! Okay, so the person we're looking for has cat ears and a whole cutesy, sparkly thing going on. Also a tail, and pretty darn cute, so I think you'll know when you see them."

"...I'd like a bit more useful information than that."

"No, I think I gave you some pretty good hints there... Oh, but when I say cute, I don't mean Beako-cute, I mean Petra or Meili-cute. About as tall as me."

"I see. That certainly is a different kind of cute."

With Beatrice hoisted up in front of her face, Rem studied her closely and nodded as though Subaru's explanation made perfect sense. Beatrice herself looked even more puzzled by that agreement, but her obliviousness to the finer points of her own cuteness was, you could say, part of her charm. Cuteness came in endless varieties, after all: beauties who leaned cute, cuties who leaned beautiful, and everything in between. That said, even with Ferris's features now shared with the group—

"What was that about, the way Wilhelm was acting? I'm worried."

"—Him knowing where Ferris is, and wanting us to be the ones to go talk to him... yeah."

"Mm, right. I'm happy when they come to us for advice or rely on us, but I always got the feeling that Crusch and Wilhelm don't really show that side of themselves very much."

Subaru could relate to how Emilia felt. What he could tell was that some kind of problem had come up in Crusch's Faction, and that Wilhelm couldn't take it upon himself to act and resolve it. Of course, Subaru could think of something that might have set that problem off. But even so, the bonds within Crusch's Faction were strong. Compared with any of the other Royal Selection candidates, those two had been bound together the longest, and the most firmly. The depth of that devotion hadn't vanished even when Crusch lost her Memories—at least, that was how Subaru had felt, and what he had believed. However—

"—"

Looking down at his right hand, Subaru glared at the lifeline running across the palm. What crossed his mind was the moment he had rudely grabbed Crusch's hands, and she had looked back at his. She had seen his hand, realized it was free of that black pattern, heard that it had been freed without the help of the Church of the Divine Dragon's sacrament, and then—

"—Unfair."

She had said it in a voice so faint it nearly faded away.

"I didn't mishear that... did I..."

He wished with all his heart that he had, but Subaru had neither ears nor an ego that convenient. That had unmistakably been a dark, honest feeling slipping out from between Crusch's lips. To be honest, it had been a shock. But wanting to forbid Crusch from even saying such a thing would be pure arrogance. More than anything, Subaru understood, painfully well, why Crusch would let those words slip.

"...There's no way I can bring that up with Crusch."

Crusch stood at the heart of it all, and with her body only just recovered, she now carried the risk of taking countless wounds to the heart instead. If he couldn't question her about it directly, did that mean he could ask her knight Ferris instead? There was no guarantee of that either. It was just that he knew if he slunk back to his companions like this, he would be left carrying the same answerless torment on and on.

"Hmm, I don't see Ferris anywhere."

Lost in thought, Subaru and the others found they had made a full circuit of the cemetery. The grounds were by no means small, but since the cemetery lay in the Noble Quarter, most of those resting here seemed to be people who had borne heavy responsibilities for the kingdom, and they were treated with more than fitting care in death. The deeper into the cemetery you went, the larger and more lovingly tended each grave became, and with mourners growing fewer, their faces grew easier to pick out. It was hard to believe they had missed Ferris. If they at least knew whom he had come here to visit, it would be another story.

"I've looked everywhere, but I don't see any woman matching your description."

"Technically, not a girl... No, forget it, it doesn't change how he looks."

"—? Then the only other place that stands out would be that building."

Rem gave Subaru a puzzled look for skipping the details, then gestured toward a white building seated on the central hill, its back to the stone monuments arrayed in neat rows across the vast grounds. A mausoleum, in other words. It wore a solemn, sacred air, and the way it held the graves along its perimeter in attendance, like vassals sworn to a lord, marked it as the resting place of the chosen. If this was the Royal Cemetery, and that was where its most honored dead were laid—

"—Looks like the mausoleum where the royal family's buried."

"Then the royals who passed away are in there..."

The royals: the reason the Royal Selection had begun at all. They had carried the time-honored bloodline of the long-enduring Kingdom of Lugunica down to the present day, borne a great role, and met an abrupt, anticlimactic end. Standing before the mausoleum where they lay, Subaru belatedly understood. The solemn air that hung over this place: in a sense, it was the Royal Capital in miniature. If the Royal Castle was the symbol of authority for the living, the mausoleum was the same for the dead—

"...We can't exactly drop in and pay our respects to the kings, huh?"

"Ordinarily, a royal mausoleum would be heavily guarded, I suppose. There are more than a few people who'd try to misuse the ashes of the mighty, in fact. How deplorable."

"But we could at least ask them who's inside... Oh, perfect timing."

The mausoleum might be the only place they hadn't checked, but it wasn't somewhere they could simply walk into. That made Ferris being there all the less likely, but Wilhelm had entrusted them with this, and Subaru didn't want to go back with the job half done. Just as he thought so, Emilia pointed sharply at the mausoleum's entrance. Sure enough, just as she said, someone was stepping out from inside.

It was a slender figure dressed in what looked like a dark navy tailcoat. Even from behind, the grace of their movements spoke strongly of respect and care for the mausoleum. Since they'd come out of the royal mausoleum, they were probably a caretaker of the cemetery or the mausoleum, or something along those lines. With that thought, Subaru hurried after Emilia, who had already broken into a run.

"Um, could I have a moment? It's about the building you just came out of. I wanted to ask if the person we're looking for was in there."

Emilia rushed up and spoke to the stranger without the slightest hesitation. That kind of boldness might easily put someone on guard, but guards stood at the cemetery's entrance and checked everyone's identity at the main gate, so in principle there was no one suspicious on the grounds. Subaru dearly hoped the other person would pick up on that—

"—Lady Emilia?"

The figure in the tailcoat spoke in a voice tinged with surprise, turning to look at Emilia. Seeing them face-on, Emilia let out a startled "Huh?" and stopped in her tracks. And looking past her, Subaru and the others saw them too. Standing there was—

"...Geez, you caught me at a weird moment, huh. It was Old Man Wil, right?"

Ferris said it with a faint, wry smile that was part exasperation and part self-mockery. His slender frame clad unmistakably in a men's tailcoat, he shrugged at them.

"—"

Seeing Ferris standing there with the mausoleum's entrance at his back, Subaru was struck speechless. There had certainly been times before when Ferris dressed like this, pulling on the uniform of a royal guard knight and dressing as a man. But that had carried the justification of being the knights' official uniform, and even then he had worked in touches of his own to show himself off.

The tailcoated Ferris in front of him had none of those touches, no flourishes at all. And what that meant was—

"...Ferris, what... happened?"

"Don't make that end-of-the-world face, and don't use that voice either. For you guys, Subaru-kun, it's nothing big. It's just—"

Still wearing that faint, rueful smile, brows drooping, Ferris started to tilt his head, then stopped. It looked almost as though he were saying goodbye to gestures like that. And Ferris went on in a way that lived up to that impression. What he said was—

"—I just got dismissed as Lady Crusch's knight, that's all. So Ferris-chan is finished, and I've gone back to being Felix Argyle."