Re:Zero Kara Hajimeru Isekai Seikatsu (LN) - Volume 22 - Chapter 2.1

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CHAPTER 2

A WHITE SKY ASTERISM

—Subaru was unsure how to feel about Shaula’s formal welcome.

He never intended to deceive her. But he was definitely not the Flugel Shaula had been waiting four hundred years for.

If that isn’t a betrayal, then what is?

“I understand the feeling, but you don’t have to worry too much, Subaru. Even if Shaula realizes you aren’t her master, I’m sure it won’t be the end of the world.”

Noticing Subaru’s glum look, Emilia chimed in supportively. She flashed a smile brimming with confidence as she played with her braid.

“I appreciate the vote of confidence, but what makes you say that?”

“I mean, she’s a good person, isn’t she? She helped us, and we are getting along perfectly fine. And there’s no reason to start a fight, right?”

“…Right…”

It was a far too optimistic outlook, but being too pessimistic all the time was also a bad habit. Even if Shaula learned the truth, that wouldn’t necessarily make them instant enemies. They just had to build a good rapport with her so that even if she found out, they could move past it without a confrontation. That was the ideal.

“—Mister? We’re here.”

Meili pulled Subaru out of his thoughts.

They had reached a room on the opposite side of the circle from the green room. Past the simple door without any vines covering it, there was a staircase in the middle that led upward.

“Just a normal set of stairs. Were spiral stairs out of season or something?”

“I suppose it’s natural to wonder, given the long set of stairs from the bottom floor, but the set going from the third to the fourth floor is a normal length. To begin with, unlike the spiral staircase where climbing is all that is required—”

“Right, if we can’t clear the examination, we can’t actually reach the floor.”

Subaru finished Julius’s line of thought for him.

The examination that they had already challenged and failed multiple times was waiting at the other end of those stairs. And according to the rest of the party, it would be faster if he saw it for himself.

There’s no penalty for failing, either, and they know better, so if they say so…

“Might as well then. Nothing ventured, nothing gained. Shall we?”

“Mm-hmm, that’s the spirit.” “That’s the spirit.” “That’s da spirit.”

Emilia, Beatrice, and Shaula all agreed in their own way, and Subaru stepped onto the stairs. He steeled his resolve with each step.

And almost disappointingly easily, he set foot onto the third floor, Taygeta.

“This is…”

The moment he entered the room, he felt something was off.

It felt like walking into an anomaly, or more like a space where nothing felt right.

—White.

The space was pure white.

The inside should have been a cylinder, a simple extension of all the previous floors, but when Subaru entered the room, he was greeted by a strange expanse that spread out in every direction. The area should not have been noticeably larger than the previous floors, but the overwhelming whiteness made it impossible to see the walls, making it feel endless. Looking up, he couldn’t make out the ceiling, either. Looking down, there was just a single black hole where the stairs emerged from the floor below. Everything else was so white that he was almost scared to walk on it.

He was hit by a disorienting feeling that the floor wasn’t there and he might just start falling into nothingness. The floor, ceiling, and walls were all the same. Subaru felt like he would end up wandering the vast emptiness if he lost track of where the stairs were.

And right in front of him in that white space—directly in front of the stairs—there was a mysterious object floating in the air.

“A stone slab…?”

That was his first impression. There wasn’t really any other way to describe it.

It was a rectangular black slab made of a material that was almost slick to the touch. On closer examination, it didn’t seem to actually be stone, but he didn’t think it was metal, either, so he wasn’t sure what to call it.

If I’m being dramatic, then maybe monolith would work.

The silent monolith was floating mysteriously, hanging in the air a dozen inches off the ground. Based on its height and width, Subaru felt it resembled a large tatami mat floating in the air.

“So this strange thing is…what, exactly?”

“If I was to put it into words, that is the device that sets up the puzzle for us.”

While Subaru was occupied by its strange brightness, Julius joined him in staring at the monolith.

Thinking of the trouble this thing had already given him, Julius’s expression was severe. As Emilia and the others entered the white space, they drew close, possibly to counteract the pervasive feeling of emptiness.

“I’d rather not spend a lot of time in a place like this.”

“Agreed. Staying here too long is draining. And seeing a certain someone trip on the stairs while leaving is not good for my heart.”

“Come on, Julius, don’t be like that.”

Anastasia’s cheeks puffed up as she protested Julius’s joke. Judging by that reaction, she must have been the one who tripped earlier.

But Subaru had no urge to laugh at that. The room had clearly been designed to screw with people’s senses. It was like a manifestation of its creator’s malice.

“So then, what do I do to get the riddle?”

“Touch that slab and the examination will begin, I suppose.”

“I just have to touch the monolith?”

“—Monolith? An oddly fitting term. That’s a good word for it.”

Ignoring how Julius was impressed by the strangest things, Subaru stood in front of the monolith. Even looking at it from up close, it wasn’t like there was some odd pressure emanating from it or anything. Other than floating in the air, it was just an inscrutable slab. Though the fact that it was floating was incredibly mysterious, so it could be considered a mess of mysteries…

“Either way… I just touch it, right? Can I get a countdown?”

“Ah, then I’ll do it. Three, two, one…”

“Too fast, too fast!”

Emilia raised her hand and immediately started counting down. In time with her, Subaru spun to face the monolith, and—

“Zero!”

Subaru touched it just as Emilia finished. The next instant, a swell of light shot out of the monolith, and suddenly, he started seeing double.

No… It’s not me.

The monolith suddenly started multiplying as its black surface gleamed. The front face shone while more monoliths appeared from behind it, one after the other. They flew at high speed around the white room, scattering to various points before stopping and hanging in the air.

The sudden change took Subaru by total surprise. He watched in stunned silence as a voice echoed directly in his head.

“Great hero destroyed by Shaula, touch upon his grandest splendor.”