Re:Zero Kara Hajimeru Isekai Seikatsu (LN) - Volume 21 - Chapter 2.6

6

“I understand the situation. You are quite the slave driver.”

“I can’t really say much when you put it that way… Do you really understand, though?”

“Understand what? Your villainous streak, asking me to strain myself to the limit on the same day that you told me not to overdo it? Yes, I understand quite well, you brute.”

“Ugh.”

Subaru grimaced a bit and shrank under Ram’s harsh gaze.

Emilia, who was inside the carriage listening, also chimed in.

“Ram, it’s not like Subaru is asking you to do it because he wants to. He just immediately went back on what he originally said because he thought that was the best choi—”

“Emilia, that isn’t helping. I suppose it’s also just going to make Subaru even more depressed.”

Subaru was shriveling away as Beatrice stopped Emilia for him. Watching the three of them, Ram sighed in exasperation.

“So then what do you say? It was my idea, but do you think you can do it?”

“Barusu is correct. I am the only one who can fill the role you are suggesting, Lady Anastasia. And…”

Ram looked toward the back of the carriage where Rem was sleeping.

On the roads and in the desert, she had not complained at all. So the only thing growing was the anxiousness and self-reproach of all the people who cared about her.

And even if she couldn’t remember it, as Rem’s older sister, Ram had experienced those feelings more than anyone else.

“There’s a good and well-considered reason for it. So I won’t hesitate.”

Because of that, she could confidently take on the task set for her.

“But your condition is a concern. Your clairvoyance, was it? That wears you out, right?”

“There’s no other person suited to this task. It is technically a secret art of the Oni tribe, so no one else can use it.”

“Right… It would have been better if I could have taken your place…”

Emilia averted her eyes. She had been volunteering for a lot, seemingly in great condition ever since entering the dunes. As far as Emilia could remember, Ram was the person who had taken care of her most at the manor. During the trip, she had been burning at the chance to pay her back, which was probably why she seemed ashamed to be unable to help with this.

“ ”

Subaru was the only one who noticed Ram’s kind gaze at Emilia. Probably because he was the one who had seen the gentle gaze she had for Rem more than anyone.

“So Ram is up for it—that leaves Meili.”

Not commenting on Ram’s gaze, Subaru turned his attention to Meili. She was sitting on her seat, propping her head up.

“Me?” Meili cocked her head.

“Yeah. We’re going to be doing a bit of a variation on a wave tactic, and we’re going to need your help for it, too.”

“You need to find the demon beasts, right? I can’t really say exactly where they are like that, but I can point you to the general place.”

“That’s what I wanted to hear.”

Subaru clenched his fist at that answer.

—That means the plan itself is at least possible to execute.

Anastasia’s suggestion for finding the opening during the sand time was incredibly simple.

“Using Ram’s clairvoyance, we can see what the demon beasts here in the dunes see. With the demon beasts active even during sand time, there should be a few that come across the crack in space wherever it is.”

“For that to work, we need Meili to help find the demon beasts so she can share the location with Ram. It’s a plan that will require quite a number of attempts, but…she won’t hold back.”

Subaru and Julius were holding the reins for their land dragons, waiting for the signal from inside the carriage that one of the attempts had succeeded.

Ram’s desperate attempts to challenge the sand time began the next day after they discussed it.

“ ”

Inside the carriage, Ram was concentrating and using her clairvoyance to peek on the demon beasts’ fields of view.

If she could find a trace of the crack in the sand time from one of them, they could pin down that demon beast’s location and rush the carriage there to get through the opening. But naturally, it wasn’t that simple.

It was an enormous desert, and there were an absurd number of demon beasts of all types. Ram’s clairvoyance could only connect with targets whose wavelength could be matched—she was going to have to try a lot of times.

“…Meili, skip the reports of demon beasts underground. There’s no point if they can’t see.”

“I can’t differentiate that much. Maybe you shouldn’t give up on ones you find so quickly?”

As the failures piled up, the physical and mental exhaustion continued to build, and it was particularly bad for the two main prongs of this plan.

No, Meili is just pointing out the location of the demon beasts. But Ram’s exhaustion from using her ability is getting worse and worse.

“Sand time comes three times a day. So those are the only shots we get at it. But we also can’t let ourselves get impatient, either.”

“We have a limited supply of rations and water. And the miasma here will affect them over time, too. It takes courage to choose to turn back. Remember we always have the option to return to Mirula.”

As two days blended into three, it became necessary to pay attention to more than just their progress in getting through the dunes.

There was a limit to what provisions they could pack on the carriage, and the question of whether to go back reared its head every day—and soon every hour.

Was it some famous mountain climber who said the decision to turn back was the most difficult one to make?

“Do your best, Joseph! Everyone’s counting on your horsepower!”

“Sorry, but please do your best!”

They had Emilia’s ice wall, too, but in order to endure the fierce sandstorms of the sand time and keep moving forward, they had to rely on their new land dragon, Joseph. His abilities were specialized to the extreme climate, and the figure he cut pushing through the sand and the fierce wind was stunning.

But there was still a limit. Not just for dragons, but for Subaru and the rest, too.

“…Gh, no good. The connection broke.”

Ram shook her head.

The past few days, Ram’s exhaustion from all the misses she checked with her clairvoyance had been building to extreme levels.

Emilia and Beatrice wiped the sweat from her head and cast healing magic for her.

Ram’s condition would improve slightly after her treatment every night, but even so—

“Things are going poorly.”

“…Yeah, you don’t have to tell me that.”

Standing outside the carriage, Julius and Subaru were looking up at the bright sun.

When the sand time broke, the wind died down and the thick clouds parted, revealing a clear sky. Very much at odds with how their trip was going, the sky was actually bright and reassuring. At this point, it just annoyed Subaru.

“The idea itself isn’t wrong. It’s just a question of the stars aligning, I guess?”

Anastasia emerged from the carriage and joined the two of them.

“Stars aligning, huh?” Subaru scratched his head roughly. “In other words, it’s pure luck… But it’s not like any of us here are particularly lucky to begin with.”

“No luck, bad luck, and tragic luck. That’s the whole reason this trip started in the first place.”

It was a sad thing to admit, but at any given moment, there was a high probability that they were all going to be abandoned by fortune.

—Which is all the more reason we have to make our own luck.

“Like I’m going to let this be swayed by something as vague as luck.”

Subaru stretched his hand up to the sky and clenched it tightly.

Julius and Anastasia didn’t say anything. But they seemed to be of the same opinion as they both stared at the blue sky together with Subaru.

And as the three of them looked at the sky…

“Ah. A bird. I guess it would want to fly around when the sky’s this stunning.”

Shading her eyes with her hand, Anastasia looked up. Looking in the same direction, Subaru saw she was right—there was a bird flying in the sky.

It had been a while since they had seen a bird in the sky. They had not been uncommon on the road eastward before they reached Auguria, but by this point it was almost refreshing.

The air in the dunes is thick with miasma, though, particularly—

“A bird?”

Suddenly, a strange feeling stopped him.

Subaru furrowed his brow, trying to find the source of it. And then it hit—what the owner of the tavern in town had told them.

“—Ngh! Ram! Can you use your clairvoyance again?!”

On instinct, Subaru opened the door to the carriage and called for Ram. Ram was in the middle of treatment, and she glared at Subaru with a slightly reddened face.

“…What is it, Barusu? You should warn us before coming in—”

“I’m sorry! But save it for later! There’s a bird flying in the sky right now! Can you see through its eyes?”

“A bird…? Why should I…?”

Put off by Subaru’s intensity, Ram’s brow furrowed, but Emilia, who was beside her, gasped and put her hand to her mouth.

“Subaru, a bird…”

“Right, the story we heard from the guy at the tavern. That the birds in the dunes fly toward the tower.”

Of course, strictly speaking, it had not been anything so sure sounding as that. But at the moment, they needed all the help they could get to find a way through the sand time, so they should lend an ear to the advice of those who knew the area.

“Ram!”

“Stop shouting. You’ll break my concentration.”

Realizing the urgency of the situation from Emilia and Subaru’s exchange, Ram had already started moving. Slumping deep into her seat, she took a single deep breath. And then the air about her changed.

“ ”

Ram activated her clairvoyance, and her vision linked with that of the living beings in her surroundings. With a specific target in mind, she could see what it was seeing. However, there was no guarantee.

Whether the bird in the sky’s wavelength would match Ram’s was impossible to know—

“—Got it.”

“—Ngh! Julius! Get the carriage! Beako, come with me!”

—It was a once-in-a-lifetime shot, and they all leaped into motion.

Subaru held Beatrice as he leaped onto Patlash; Emilia slipped in next to Ram and supported her. Anastasia tumbled back into the carriage, and Meili went up to the driver’s seat.

And Julius cracked the reins, giving the land dragon the signal to run—

“Let’s go! This time, we’re gonna make it through the sand time!”

They started running across the sea of sand again, determined to break through.