Chapter 40 - Let's Do This Together

"—Got a sec, a teeny-tiny sec, lover boy? Wanna have a chat, just the two of us, buuut?"

Stopped in the corridor like that, Subaru turned around to find the "Black Dog" standing there. Having finished their talk with Melty and parted ways with her as she went off to see Russell, Subaru and Beatrice were on their way to check on Crusch, who had fallen into a deep sleep, worn out by the battle. And then the "Black Dog" turned up, with timing that made it seem almost as if he'd been lying in wait—

"Wait, no 'almost' about it, huh? You were waiting for us?"

"What's this, what's up, with that face, all unexpected and unforeseen? Finding it surprising, startling, oh so shocking that I didn't go barging in on your little talk with the 'White Sheep'?"

"Pretty much, yeah. Didn't know you could wait your turn or read the room."

"My, what a hurtful and uncalled-for appraisal, how fine and dandy. So, what's your answer to my offer, hmm?"

"Answer? You mean the just-the-two-of-us thing? I don't mind, but..."

As he spoke, Subaru lifted the hand he was holding with Beatrice. They had only just been deliberately split apart in the fight against the "Beloved Children." What with the drain on his Mana and the need to replenish his Beatrice, he did not want to be separated from her right now.

"So yeah, I'm with Beako, which rules out just the two of us. Being generous, it'll be two and a half people, tops."

"And which of us is counted as the half, Betty or Subaru, I wonder? Besides, Betty with Subaru at her side is as dependable as a hundred people, in fact."

"You hear that? Which makes it a private chat for a hundred and two. That's a pretty big crowd for a hushed little talk, but if you're okay with that, I'm in."

"Sophistry and hair-splitting, thanks for the effort. Fiiine, fine. Better and preferable to count you two as a set from the start than have a hundred people tattling on me. Rooger."

Tattling made it sound like they were up to something shady, which pricked his conscience a little, but it seemed a shame to throw cold water on the "Black Dog" when he finally seemed willing to talk. Taking advantage of the fact that nobody was coming, Subaru carried on the conversation with the "Black Dog" right there in the corridor, Beatrice beside him. Anyway, what the "Black Dog" had gone to the trouble of ambushing them to talk about was—

"—Bet the 'White Sheep' told you this, that and the other, right? About how and by what twists and turns we ended up working under that guy I can't stand."

"There's a lot we still don't get. Melty herself was frustrated that her memories are full of holes. But we did get to hear the most important part. —What she wants, and how far she's prepared to go."

"And Betty and Subaru promised to lend her a hand, I suppose."

"Oh-ho, how kind and generous and big-hearted of you, glad to hear it. Cracking that distrust of people of hers, huh."

Distrust of people seemed an unlikely way to describe Melty, and yet it was not a description he could flatly deny. Born with the power of the "Charmer," Melty could never wholeheartedly believe in other people's goodwill. She could not tell whether the kindness shown to her came from the people themselves or was caused by her own power. Whether there was any point in making that distinction was not something outsiders had any right to casually debate. —Perhaps the "Black Dog" had felt that same frustration too. Either way, the "Black Dog" kept a close eye on Melty.

"But if that's the case, then the 'Black Dog' is even more..."

"A tragic man whose odds of ending up in a pitiful position keep going up, in fact."

"What's this, what's up, with those looks! Don't go pitying people willy-nilly as you please! For starters, me and the 'White Sheep' aren't like that. Sure, when she's moping it gets itchy and twitchy and drives me up the wall, but..."

"Staaare..."

"Quit it, idiot, stop, that's not it! To me, the 'White Sheep' is... yeah, like a pet. It ticks me off that I can't train her the way I want. I can see all these clever ways she could do this or that better, but she just can't pull them off. So before I know it, I'm butting in, hands and mouth both."

"That sounds less like treating her like a pet and more like..."

The "Black Dog" wore the face of a man who had successfully put their relationship into words, but to Subaru it felt like something with far more warm blood in it than a pet: closer to the way a parent looks at their child.

"...Melty told us you have no 'Memory' and no 'Name,' I suppose. Is that really true?"

As though snatching the topic away from Subaru, who was hesitating over whether it was all right to point that out, Beatrice turned the question on the "Black Dog." In response, the "Black Dog" fluttered both hands.

"If you mean nobody remembers me, not me and not anybody around me, then yeah. Pretty funny, right? No memory and no record of who I am or where I'm from. What, was I born a baby this big?"

"That's gotta be rough..."

The "Black Dog" played the clown, but the closest thing to his lonely situation was probably Rem, right after she had woken up in Vollachia. Still, Rem had had Subaru beside her, someone who remembered her. That alone had caused no end of friction between them, thanks to how clumsily Subaru handled things, but the thought of Rem thrown out into the world on her own without even that was chilling. And the "Black Dog" had been left in exactly that chilling situation, with nothing and no one to turn to.

"Don't you have any leads on yourself? Anything?"

"...Joining up with the 'Six Tongues' let me figure out and pin down that the Archbishop of the Sin of 'Gluttony' was involved, no question. But still, that's it. Might've been different if I could've talked to the 'Gluttony' they caught, but before I ever got my chance at a sit-down with the guy..."

"Roy got killed, huh. And now you're traveling with us."

"Exactly~"

The "Black Dog" handled modern slang with ease, but perhaps it was the very lack of a "Memory" and a "Name" inside him that let that kind of knowledge settle in so naturally. Even as that fragile impression came over him, Subaru frowned and said, "But..."

"What did you set this up to talk about, then? Is this the mutual understanding scene, where we go, 'Hey, now we know your story too'? I mean, I guess that would kinda deepen the camaraderie."

"Ha! Camaraderie, now that's a fine one, makes me want to laugh and squirm. Sure, we're comrades, all right. —Comrades getting used however the 'Silver Fox' pleases."

"...We're being used by Mr. Russell?"

The "Black Dog" had lowered his voice slightly, and his words seemed to mean something other than the two months they had been forced to travel with the "Six Tongues." Of course, Subaru knew Russell was making use of their position and abilities. But they were borrowing the "Six Tongues'" strength too, so he had considered them even on that score. However—

"The 'Silver Fox' is a much, much, muuuch nastier guy than you think and figure. The info he hands us pawns is carefully and meticulously controlled. For example..."

"For example?"

"That princess you think's sitting nice and quiet in the castle? Word is she ran off from it with another princess in the same boat. Now her whole camp's wanted. That kinda this-and-that story, the 'Silver Fox' hasn't told you, now haaas he?"

"Wha...?!"

At the "Black Dog"'s words, delivered with an exaggerated tilt of his head, Subaru stared, frozen. Emilia was supposed to be under house arrest in Lugunica Royal Castle in the capital. —He hadn't really expected her to sit still, but an escape came out of nowhere. If she had escaped, she had decided she needed to flee from something. That was as good as saying danger was closing in on her, and he had to make sure she was safe right away—

"Calm yourself, Subaru. —'Black Dog,' what's the basis for what you just said? The 'Silver Fox,' Roswaal's friend, is one thing, but you're in a rather fishy position yourself, I suppose."

"—Ngh, Beako."

Beatrice, working hard to stay calm, reined in Subaru's panic. At her question, the "Black Dog" said, "Whoa, whoa," tilting his head to the right, then the left.

"Way to talk and way to doubt me, shrimp. Weren't you the one who patched up my wounds just now, and sent me off to rescue the 'Gray Star' and the rest?"

"How one responds changes depending on whether it's an emergency, in fact. Melty laid everything out honestly, I suppose. It's high time you did the same, in fact."

"...Right and unshakable. That's what you call a fair point, preee-cisely."

Conceding Beatrice's blunt argument, the "Black Dog" let his shoulders slump heavily. Then he pushed his hood back, took off his mask, and faced them. Subaru's eyes went round at the face he so rarely showed.

"...What's with you, getting all serious all of a sudden?"

"Pretty easy on the eyes and the eyeballs, huh? The 'Gray Star' and that taste for pretty faces would be drooling, but don't go praising it or getting dazzled. I don't like this face. That's why I wear this thing."

As he spoke, the "Black Dog" twisted his bare lips into a coarse grin. With wavy light-brown hair and dark skin, the unmasked "Black Dog" was a handsome man who gave off a rugged, sharp-featured impression. Subaru had seen that face a few times over the past two months, on infiltration missions and the like, but he never could get used to the gap between those looks and the way he usually talked and acted. Even now, without that bared-teeth, beastly grin, Subaru would barely have recognized him as himself.

"Is talking with your face bare supposed to be your idea of good faith, I wonder?"

"I'm not saying I showed my face so trust me and believe me. Might work and do the trick on you two, but that's not the real aim. It just makes what comes next easier to explain."

"What comes next..."

"My mug can wait. More important is the proof you want to hear, want to know about. The info the 'Six Tongues' gather from all over ends up with the 'Silver Fox.' Then he picks and chooses what to pass along to us himself. With me so faaar?"

"That... yeah, I get it. That Mr. Russell isn't showing us his whole hand. But hiding things about Emilia crosses the line, no matter how you slice it."

However ruthless he had made himself for the kingdom's sake, if he did that knowing full well what Subaru and the others put above everything else, there could be no trust between them. As for whether it was true, the "Black Dog" drew a single folded sheet of paper from inside his clothes and held it up.

"For the record, I found out about the princess by stealing one of those bird letters he's so fond of. They're nasty, persistent things, coded and salted with fake info, but this part you can trust, I'd say."

The "Black Dog" waved the scrap of paper back and forth. A bird letter was something like this world's version of a carrier pigeon: a specially trained bird carried a letter that would burst into flames unless opened by the correct procedure, in the prescribed way. The "Six Tongues" used the method often to streamline their exchange of information. Naturally, intercepting or sneaking a look at a "Six Tongues" bird letter had to rank among the hardest things to pull off in the kingdom. If the "Black Dog" had managed it, the information he'd obtained ought to be highly reliable.

"You can have the bird letter. Decode it later however you like, whatever you please, and use it to back up my story or whatever else. Point is, the 'Silver Fox' can't be trusted. But that's about him as a person. Doesn't mean the info he's sitting on is no good, the whole lot of it."

"...I still don't see what you're getting at. You're not trying to win us over so you can campaign for work-style reform at this late stage, right? Besides, you getting hold of this bird letter in the first place is weird."

"Weird? Whaaat's so strange and out of the ordinary?"

"Well, isn't it? This isn't like picking up something somebody dropped. Finding out about Emilia's situation was just a side benefit for you. You had information of your own you wanted, and that's why you'd even think of peeking at bird letters. Which means..."

"—Quick on the uptake, good tempo. That's why you two are the right fit, just the ticket."

In that instant, the "Black Dog"'s hand seized Subaru's shoulder and pressed his back against the corridor wall. As Subaru's breath caught, Beatrice's voice went shrill: "Subaru!" Then she forced her small body into the gap between Subaru and the "Black Dog,"

"What do you think you're doing all of a sudden?! If you lay a hand on Subaru..."

"You'll what? Do what? You just blew it thanks to judgment that slow, didn't you?"

"Ngh—Murak!"

Provoked by the "Black Dog," Beatrice gritted her teeth and cast her spell. A pale light spread and took hold of the body of the "Black Dog," who had Subaru pinned to the wall. It would lighten him so that even Beatrice could shove him aside with ease—

"—?! The effect vanished, I suppose?!"

"Kahahaha, thanks for the meal!"

Answering Beatrice's astonished cry with laughter, the "Black Dog" brought his right hand to his mouth, caught the fingertip of the glove he wore on it between his teeth, and pulled. With a pop, his palm came bare, and he thrust it out for Subaru and Beatrice to see. There—

"...An eye, on his palm?"

"An Evil Eye, in fact. And judging by what it just did..."

"That's right. I sucked up, absorbed, and swallowed your magic. It's what they call a 'Mana Drain' Evil Eye. So naturally, inevitably, you can guess where I'm from, right?"

"—Faradar?"

"Bingo, correct, ding-ding-ding! Probably!"

Stepping back, the "Black Dog" waved his hand with clownish flair. On that palm, an eye with greenish whites and a reptilian pupil, the thing called an Evil Eye, rolled about, insisting on its presence. Which meant this sudden act of violence had been—

"A demonstration so you could show off your Evil Eye? Just say it like a normal person!"

"Only a teeny little surpriiise. Besides, first off, it's your fault for slacking. You do get that what we're up against is a squishy, shapeshifting monster, right?"

"That and whether your little prank was justified are two separate matters, I suppose! What's more, Subaru's Mana that we've worked so hard to recharge just got whittled down again, in fact!"

"I got pumped up by the same amount. It's in stock now, so call it fine. Anyway, what were we on, how far'd I get... Ah, right, right! The part where me and the 'White Sheep' come from the same place. Maybe~"

"Can't be helped, but you can't be sure about that either, huh..."

The "Black Dog"'s testimony was short on anything like certainty, but that couldn't be helped. In any case, if the "Black Dog" belonged to the Evil Eye Tribe, then the idea that Faradar, which Subaru had only just heard about from Melty, was his homeland too was a fairly convincing one. Besides, both the "Black Dog" and Melty seemed to have fallen victim to Gluttony at some point in the "Beloved Children" business, and if the two had been a pair from the start, it made sense that they'd been together. They had been hit by Gluttony in the same place, and despite losing their "Memory" and "Name," they had built a relationship close to the one they'd had before. No, maybe that wasn't all of it.

"You and Melty, your eyes are the same..."

Picturing the face of Melty, who had been sitting across from him until a moment ago, Subaru took a long, hard look at the "Black Dog"'s golden eyes. He had known all along that they were the same color, but learning that the two of them shared a homeland and were both of the Evil Eye Tribe added a new weight to it. And that weight made him imagine that the two might be more than just people from the same place, something closer, perhaps even related by blood. If so, a lot of what he usually saw between the "Black Dog" and Melty would fall into place. But the "Black Dog" waved a hand. "Stop it, stop it."

"That's tiresome and ridiculous. Listen up, would'ja? That's not what I wanna talk about and tell you about. It's to do with Faradar, but it's the kind of thing I'd rather the 'White Sheep' didn't hear."

"...Which brings us back to the start, where you were waiting for us."

"Yeeep, we took the long way round and the roundabout route. Anyhow, all things considered, I guess that makes Faradar my homeland... except it's not there anymore, and everyone connected to it is probably dead."

"Wha... How can that be?"

"How or why, this is nothin' but a theory I pieced together from the info I got my hands on. Looks like Faradar fell into the hands of some real scary folks, land and all, the whole lot. But then nobody could figure out what it was supposed to be for anymore, so it got disposed of. That's how it seems to have gone, see."

At the "Black Dog"'s offhand explanation, Subaru and Beatrice exchanged looks. The "Black Dog" was relating the apparent destruction of his homeland without a care in the world, but just as he'd warned when he called it a theory, his account was full of holes.

"What do you even mean, they couldn't figure out what it was for anymore?"

"There's the theory that they were too dumb and too stupid, sure, but there's this one too. Originally, they grabbed Faradar for the sake of someone or other, but then everybody forgot all about that someone, and all that was left was a debt nobody knew the reason for... somethin' like that."

"...So you're saying it was a hostage to keep Melty or you in line?"

"And that went pointless once me and the 'White Sheep' vanished, I guess. So, here's the thing. I've got business with whoever disposed of Faradar."

"...Wait, revenge? You, when you don't remember anything?"

Catch whoever disposed of Faradar and hear what they had to say. Do it hoping for something that might connect to his own past, some clue to it. The reason a peaceful idea like that hadn't come to mind was the savage expression Subaru was seeing on the "Black Dog"'s face. What dwelt in those golden eyes was nothing like the look of a petitioner chasing his own past. It was fiercer, full of the black flames of rage.

"A guy who doesn't remember anything has his own way of settling things, as a guy who doesn't remember anything. Don't need you to understand, y'know? It's not something anybody or anyone'd get."

"...No."

"...?"

"I get it. Maybe not perfectly, but I get it."

Subaru was someone who had lost his memories once too, and been left empty. Granted, what Subaru had lost were his memories from after he came to this other world; he hadn't been reduced to a complete zero. Even so, the Subaru he'd become then had still had a wellspring for his feelings, and it was certain that what had piled up in that emptiness had become the foundation that drove him. It was probably the same for the "Black Dog." He might have started at zero, but he wasn't at zero now.

"Why aren't you telling Melty about this?"

"Hey, hey, didn't I say it and tell you? She's from the same place as me. Mea-ning! She's in a position to have the same motive I do. Just imagine if she woke up to the idea of revenge. She'd go and steal the reason to live I finally got for myself."

"...Well, Betty will let that be the story, I suppose."

"What's this, what's up, shrimp? Even cheekiness has its limits, y'know?"

Beatrice folded her short arms and let out a long sigh, and the "Black Dog"'s cheek twitched. Still, there was no need to worry he would do anything more than that. —It was simple, really. At its root, this confession was the same as the talk Subaru and the others had just had with Melty. His mouth was foul, his manner pushy, and his clowning made it hard to see, but the "Black Dog" had trusted Subaru and the others in his own way. That was why he had told them. That was all it came down to.

"So, after going around and around, what's the bottom line? Beako and I are about to take this bird letter and storm Mr. Russell's place, and you want to tag along and grill him about Faradar while you're at it... something like that?"

"Truth is, right now, while the 'Jade Beauty' is having her little nap, is our chance. In this castle, with none of the other 'Six Tongues' on board, we could force the 'Silver Fox' to spill. Bu-u-ut if I didn't tell you first, you two'd go running around in a flap, right? That's why."

"Got it... Melty just headed over to Mr. Russell's, so if you don't want her hearing about Faradar, now's not the time."

"I'll pick my moment, pick my moment! You get it, more or less!"

Whether he was careful or careless was hard to tell, and his intentions were tricky to read, but the "Black Dog" had told them something important, and he had shown his trust in a way that was very much his own. They would change course and head to Russell's right away, but before that—

"I get it, you wanting revenge. I'll help as much as I can. As long as it doesn't go against what Emilia wants, our goals, or my promise to Melty."

"Saying it all out loud again, we're pretty tangled up, in fact."

"But it's a tangle we chose to get into, so..."

Add the "Black Dog"'s share on top of that and the chains only grew heavier, but Subaru's clumsiness at choosing what to keep and what to let go was nothing new. Knowing full well how heavy they were, he would work the tangled chains loose one at a time. That was Subaru's way of walking through this other world.

"—"

At Subaru's answer, the "Black Dog" dropped his gaze to the Evil Eye in his palm. —What flickered across his eyes for a moment might have been longing for a destroyed homeland, one he himself had no memory of. He closed his hand into a fist, pulled his attention away from the Evil Eye whose gaze had met his own, and spoke. The name of his enemy. It was—

"—Sakura Element. That one dies for sure, for certain, by my own hand."

It stood opposed to the vow Melty had made to take it all back, and yet it, too, was a declaration of unshakable resolve.