My heart is in a hurry, but my steps are careful.
Subaru was deep in the forest - his consciousness was hazy, but he continued to walk through the dark night, following Luca's words that he had managed to squeeze out.
My mouth went dry, and my throat felt tense. I held my breath, and suppressed my footsteps, and walked forward through the ever-dark forest. There was a hint of hesitation, but no sign of weakness or fear of moving forward.
Despite his bold talk with Rem, Subaru doesn't think that his actions have no chance of success. In fact, he doesn't think highly of himself to the point that he can fearlessly jump into a situation where there is no chance of winning.
Just as he had fallen into a downward spiral for no apparent reason in his original world, in this world too he has the lowest opinion of himself - perhaps to the point where the only people below him are nonsense.
It is because of this judgment that he does not take the foolish step of stepping into a situation where he has no chance of winning. Even in situations where he absolutely cannot back down, he is a small-minded and cowardly person who looks for excuses.
It is because we are aware of this that we are able to follow the thin, easily overlooked thread and struggle to cling to the answer.
"Think back to the current situation. If the magic beasts were just like those dogs..."
We tend to focus on the frightening words and the fact that the curse actually takes lives, but if we look at it from a bigger perspective, the chances of success become clear.
No matter how lethal the traps you set, the one who set them is still that weak puppy. If your goal is to have a puppy that fits snugly in a child's hand and looks cute, and has the appearance of fighting power,
"You can't lose, right...?"
A pathetic way of hoping for success is by relying on the opponent's smallness.
However, he didn't think that this was far from the point. Subaru had already had the curse removed from him by Beatrice. So, if Beatrice tried to put him under her spell once again - it should be possible for him to land the first blow.
The potential advantage that could be had if a battle were to break out is the driving force that keeps Subaru moving forward. Of course, he is aware that this is only possible when conditions are in Subaru's best interest.
Naturally, one could imagine the worst case scenario, butーー,
"Stop it, stop it. The god of this world has a way of painting the worst possible scenario, and then happily crossing that line to bring about an even worse situation."
Considering past performance, he puts up a defensive line before suffering a brutal retaliation. Even though he knows that mercilessly tearing that defensive line away and digging into the wound hidden underneath is the way this world shows affection.
"--!"
A sudden sense of discomfort made me hold my breath and stop in my tracks.
I could clearly feel the change in the air on my skin, and I could feel the temperature of the sweat on my forehead, which had been dripping from fatigue, suddenly drop.
The sensation of needles poking the skin is the unconscious aftereffect of its dense presence. Just the mere presence of it makes your instincts feel fear.
The change in temperature of the air caused the airflow to become turbulent, bringing with it a foul odor. The forest, which had previously been filled with the smell of lush grass and earth, was now filled with a fishy smell that made me frown.
Unlike Rem's extraordinary sense of smell, even Subaru's nose, which is practically normal, could clearly detect it. It was the fishy smell particular to living things - or, to put it more bluntly, the smell of an animal.
Unable to stop the bad feeling that was stirring within him, Subaru held his breath and stepped forward.
Peeking his head out from between the trees and looking towards the source of the smell, he realized that the thin thread he was clinging to had been completely severed.
--It was covered in jet black fur that blended in with the deep darkness of the forest.
Its physique is comparable to that of a large dog. Its long limbs firmly plant themselves on the ground, supporting a body that is just as heavy as Subaru's.
Its well-developed claws and fangs that cannot all fit inside its mouth are a culmination of violence that has evolved specifically to pierce and tear flesh.
In the darkness where the light was blocked by the branches and leaves, it was impossible to miss its shining red eyes. They glared around it dizzyingly, as if waiting at any moment to sink their prey into their fangs.
This is clear when you see it floating in the darkness.
--That strange appearance, which exudes pure menace, is what a demon beast is.
"And that guy..."
Checking her appearance closely, Subaru touched his chin and searched his memory.
The figure of the magical beast before his eyes - it looked familiar.
It bears a striking resemblance to the horned one that fought Subaru in a deadly battle at the end of the previous loop. At first glance, the presence of a horn on its forehead cannot be confirmed. However, if it is the same one,
"I guess I unintentionally got my revenge last time..."
It's not that it's any consolation, but knowing that I'd gotten my revenge did give me a little bit of relief.
However, just as all of the events from the previous loop remained only inside Subaru, it was impossible for this fact to bring about any change in the situation before him.
If there is a harvest,
"I know that those claws and fangs are not just a bluff..."
I'm not expecting the claws to be fake and the fangs to be fashionable, but the knowledge that the threat is real is a bit of a letdown.
And then, as he confirmed the presence of the large magical beast, Subaru's resolve also began to fade rapidly. His already slim chances of victory were now completely shattered.
Based on his earlier self-diagnosis, Subaru's course of action was to avoid any reckless actions.
"Anyway, take it slow..."
I was just about to decide to leave the place and wait to meet up with Rem.
"――――"
Without taking his attention away from the beast, he stepped back, glaring at its strange appearance. Then, in the corner of his now slightly expanded field of vision, there was something that caught Subaru's attention.
In the depths of the forest where the monsters stand, there is a place where fallen trees are piled up. Perhaps in the gaps between the fallen trees is something like a den for the monsters.
--Next to the fallen tree, a young girl was found abandoned.
Her clothes were tattered. Her brown braids were frayed. Her white skin was smeared with blood in various places. It was hard to tell from a distance how badly she was injured as she lay face down.
But, the child,
"--cormorant"
A small, faint voice came.
It traveled through the air, passed through the forest, and struck Subaru's eardrums powerfully.
It was too far away to reach, or perhaps it was just an auditory hallucination that he had misunderstood what he had heard.
Upon closer inspection, the fallen girl was not moving at all, and all that could be heard was her groaning breathing; to be considered a miracle, the wish that was granted was far too feeble.
The only one here was Subaru. Only Natsuki Subaru.
If a miracle was to occur, if heaven wanted the girl to be saved, then the person present should be a more reliable, strong, and courageous hero.
For example, Roswaal. For example, Beatrice. For example, Reinhard.
If it were them, or if it were her, they would have easily overcome this situation. There was no way they would have been scared like Subaru, and ended up dying with their knees trembling.
He easily defeats the threat of the monsters, rescues the girl from despair, and leads the story to a flawless happy ending. Amazing, cool, elegant.
However, the person here was Natsuki Subaru.
He has no powers. No magic. No wisdom, no cleverness. If he could rely on a miracle, he'd push through the crowds and be the first to claim it. That's the kind of man he is, a hopeless man.
Subaru desires a miracle. There is no way he can become a miracle.
Subaru's teeth threatened to chatter, but he endured by clenching his molars.
I take a breath and touch my chest as if to check my heartbeat. It's beating. I'm sure it's beating, but I can't tell if it's fast or slow.
The passage of time was becoming extremely blurred. Feeling as though his vision was becoming distorted, he wiped the sweat from his forehead, rubbed his eyelids, and tried to stick to his original intention - to remain a bystander.
And yet,
"Hey, stop it..."
Muttering weakly, the demonic beast before his eyes turned its head around, looking towards the fallen girl. It scratched the ground with its sharp claws, moving slowly towards her. Step by step, it seemed to be chipping away at Subaru's heart.
He can't read the beast's intentions. It must have been him who dragged her here. He could have killed her at any time. And yet he still kept her alive. The girl he had kept alive has made a move, and now he's trying to stop her. It doesn't make sense. It's unreasonable. He's only a few steps away from reaching her. Wait, something's wrong, it doesn't make sense. What should he do? He can't see any chance of winning, no chance of success. There's no thread to cling to anymore, nothing, just,
--Emilia would certainly not hesitate.
"...Hey hey, hey hey hey hey, I'm thinking of something stupid."
Taking a deep breath, I steadied myself, dug my nails into my trembling knees and bit my lip. I bit my lip so hard that it bled, and the pain woke me up.
Natsuki Subaru can't perform miracles. All he can do is get down and dirty, struggle, squirm, and throw a tantrum, complaining that he doesn't want to face the approaching despair.
Subaru doesn't overestimate himself, and therefore knows the limits of what he is capable of.
The limit is to give fate a very small scratch. And if that limit is within reach, then that is the limit that should be achieved.
He took off his jacket and wrapped his butler uniform, which was torn in places, around his left arm. He tied it tightly so that it wouldn't come off, wiped the blood off, and turned to face forward.
"Here goessssssss!!"
He roared angrily, kicked some grass and trees aside, and leapt into the area where the beast was preparing itself.
The sudden loud voice made the demonic beast tremble and jump back, lowering its body and glaring at Subaru.
Subaru also shouted encouragingly and stomped his feet on the ground to intimidate the others.
"Ahhh! Over here! Hey, look! What's the matter, are you scared?!"
He spat and roared, his heart pounding as it exploded in pain throughout his body.
The beast's size seemed much larger than he'd imagined, as he was facing it from a distance. This was partly due to the fact that he was looking at it from a distance, but the overwhelming hostility it displayed also had a large impact.
What he had learned from his previous battle with a magical beast was that even if it was an entity that could be called a magical beast, its fighting style was still within the realm of the beasts that Subaru was familiar with.
Of course, in his original world, Subaru never had the opportunity to clash with a quadruped beast, but he had seen scenes of humans fighting beasts countless times in manga and anime.
Among these, the most effective strategy against an opponent that primarily uses biting would be to cover his arms with thick fabric, just like Subaru was doing.
Due to Subaru's poor equipment, this was the only solution he could come up with.
While screaming, yelling and threatening, he thrusts his left arm forward to keep the enemy at bay.
It would be best if the monsters were timid and would flee under Subaru's pressure, but just like last time, they would never let someone escape once they had decided on their prey.
In contrast to Subaru's angry roar that shattered the silence of the forest, the low-lying demonic beast didn't even let out a single growl. It simply flexed its limbs silently, glaring at Subaru as if waiting for the right moment to explode.
Subaru's excitement rose even more as his attitude made it clear which one was the prey, and he took another step forward with that momentum.
"What are you acting so confident about?! Come on!! Come here! Th..."
Disappeared.
Suddenly, the demonic beast that should have been in front of me disappeared as if it had melted into the darkness.
Shocked, his throat froze, and Subaru's eyelids twitching, he realized his mistake as the moment he blinked had been stolen from him. The beast had been waiting for Subaru to lose sight of it, even if only for a fleeting moment.
Subaru was horrified at the fact that the wild beast had resorted to such sophisticated tactics, waiting for the moment of its opponent's defeat. Then he ran his eyes over the whereabouts of the vanished demonic beast,
--The moment that scene flashed through his mind, Subaru jumped on the spot and drew back his right foot.
「――――!!」
"Serves you right! Let me see that!!"
The fangs of the demonic beast let out a high-pitched noise as they crunched the space where his right foot had been. Subaru dodged the blow, which would have dug into a nerve if he had been even a moment late, and kicked with all his might at the demonic beast's body from above, leaving it wide open.
The front kick, delivered in a collapsed position, was far from powerful. However, it did inflict damage on the demonic beast, which rolled around and screamed like a puppy.
Perhaps feeling humiliated by his weak cry, the beast regained its balance, glared at Subaru, and finally bared its fangs in a ferocious rage.
The red eyes were dyed in rage, and the fangs clashed repeatedly inside the drooling mouth.
--The hit just now was just a coincidence. Last time, he had chosen to attack first with his leg, so I trusted that this time too and landed a hit.
"Come on, come on! I'm sure you're pretty pissed off, but this guy is even more pissed off than you!"
--Here it comes!
It was a conviction with no basis, but at the same time, the demonic beast disappeared.
When it reappeared it was already in front of Subaru, circling around to his left and sunk its long fangs into his outstretched arm.
The feeling of sharp fangs tearing through the thick fabric and piercing deep into the flesh inside.
"Yーー!!"
The intense pain was so intense it almost made me cry, the sharp pain hitting my brain nerves directly.
However,
"--I don't want that!!"
He puts strength into his left arm and tightens the muscles. Naturally, the fangs become harder to remove, and combined with the effect of the entangled jacket, the magic beast's movements are completely stopped.
The crimson eyes met Subaru's, and he was about to be consumed by the overwhelming hostility.
"You bit me, you idiot――!!"
Grabbing the beast's body with his left arm, Subaru spun with all his might. The centrifugal force sent the beast's body flying upwards, and the momentum of the revolution slammed it backside into the large tree behind him.
Subaru thought he heard a cry of agony, but he didn't stop moving. Not wanting to lose the situation in which he had his fangs, the lethal weapons, he swung his body around again and again, frantically slamming the prey in his arms into trees, into the ground, slamming and slamming and slamming it.
And finally,
"It's over!!"
He swung it down on the fallen tree from above, smashing the beast's face.
The tremendous force returned to his arms, and the beast's body, which had been struggling to free itself from its restraints, suddenly went limp.
Subaru took a heavy breath at that sudden reaction and collapsed to his knees.
Looking down, the beast's eyes were lifeless as it bit into his left arm. A large amount of blood was spilling from its mangled head, and the tree branch that had been pierced by it during the countless blows was sticking out of its back.
Slowly, it opened its jaws and removed its fangs. Its tongue lolled out. Realizing that all vital functions had ceased, Subaru regained his breath, which had nearly stopped.
"I won... huh?"
He muttered in a daze and removed his blood- and saliva-stained jacket from his left arm. The skin underneath was in a terrible state, with the fangs gouging the flesh and revealing the white bones underneath.
The pain he had forgotten in his excitement came back to him as he stared directly at the wound. He winced in pain, like a burn.
"Anyway, oh, that hurt. Shit, that kid..."
Crawling at a frustrating speed, he somehow made it further in, to where the girl was beside the fallen tree.
Even though it was a battle where life and death were at stake, there was not even a trace of a sense of accomplishment or reality from having won. All that remained was a heavy feeling of fatigue that made his body heavy, and a sense of aversion, wanting to quickly erase from his mind the murderous exchange that had just taken place.
There was no need for elation or the afterglow of victory right now. The feeling of urgency to find out whether they had regained what they had sought at the end of this battle was far more powerful.
"---I'm glad it didn't end in vain."
Holding his left arm, Subaru threw himself onto the fallen tree and let out a deep sigh of relief.
The girl next to him - her body was slightly stained with dirt and blood, but he could see that she still had the breath of life in it. In fact, her complexion was healthier than the children's, and apart from some minor injuries, her damage was minimal. Subaru's left arm was exposed right down to the bone, so his condition was far more serious.
"You've made me worry... well, it's fine. If the day comes when a scar is left on the girl's body, I'll have to take responsibility and make her my wife. Emilia-tan, it seems like polygamy is a tough one."
Once the sudden sense of relief hits you, the peace of mind that comes back from light conversation is restored.
Rem had told him it was just a way to buy time, but in reality it had completely eliminated the threat. He could be a little proud of it, but he wouldn't be punished.
"It's fine to buy time, but I don't think it's a big deal if we just defeat that thing."
It's truly a masterpiece, and it achieves a long-cherished goal that was not met in the original.
In order to drown the pain in his wounds, his thoughts kept wandering. He wanted to somehow take the girl to the village, but at the moment he didn't have the strength to do so.
It would be best to stay quiet and wait for Rem to join us. There's no time limit this time. At worst, I'll be able to manage if I fall asleep here.
"Well, I can't just be dozing off like that..."
He re-tied the untied jacket, using it as a tourniquet to catch his breath.
Suddenly, Subaru heard the sound of bushes rustling in the distance.
He raised his head and, just as he thought he had misidentified the sound of the wind, the same sound came once again, coming straight ahead - from the direction Subaru had dashed out from.
The direction Subaru had dashed out from was also the direction he had parted ways with Rem. So, was it the cool girl with the blue hair who was shaking the bushes?
"I'm tired of waiting... unfortunately, there's no one left to face you."
I prepare a line that I'd like to say at least once, and wait for the girl I'm meeting to come running in.
The grass and trees swayed, and something seemed to stop on the other side of the bushes. Sensing someone watching him, Subaru gave a wry smile.
There was no one to be wary of anymore, he said, raising his right hand.
--Suddenly, his whole body sensed the suffocating animal aura once again.
The bushes shook, and a short, four-legged shadow stepped out from the other side.
and,
"Hey hey, you're kidding..."
A pair of bright red eyes cutting through the night forest - countless points of light could be seen peeking out from behind the group of trees in front of me.
There are so many that it's almost too much to even count; you probably wouldn't even have enough to count all the fingers on your hands and toes.
Still holding his left arm, he stood up, looked out at the point of light floating in the darkness, and took a deep breath.
Suddenly, Subaru touched his cheek with his right hand and noticed that it was distorted, the corners of his mouth twitching in the shape of a smile.
Ah, I see, this certainly makes me laugh.
"--This thing is dead."
An overwhelming murderous intent explodes at that single word, and the silent forest is engulfed in frenzy.
All Subaru could do was shield the still unconscious girl from behind, stand in her way with his arms outstretched, and demonstrate his own resolve.
--The screams echoed high into the forest sky