CHAPTER 6
RECOMMENDATIONS FOR LIVING TOGETHER IN A TOWER
1
“Stay here and rest until your wounds are properly healed, Julius! No buts!”
Emilia shouted adamantly as she hurried the battered and bruised knight into the green room.
Following the initial relief at seeing Subaru and Julius after they finished the climb down to the fourth floor, that was Emilia’s immediate reaction.
Being able to shift gears quickly is a virtue, and I appreciate the way she did it without allowing any back talk. If she doesn’t ask why, we don’t have to try to explain it, either. She must’ve had lots of things she wanted to ask Julius, too…
“I’m sure you already said what needed to be said, so for now, he just needs to rest, and everything else can wait. Right?”
Subaru shrugged as Julius sat down on the bed of plants.
“See?”
Emilia, with her hands on her hips and an imperious look on her face, was still cute.
“Of course. I have already caused you and Subaru far too much trouble. I will not behave so shamelessly as to go against request. I shall obey.”
“So many words when a simple ‘I got it’ would—”
“Right! Then that’s settled. You’re the one who is hurt and needs to rest and recover! Don’t worry about troubling us. That’s what it means to be comrades.”
“ ”
“Patlash, watch Julius, please. If something happens, whinny loudly to call us.”
Brushing aside Julius’s roundabout apology, Emilia turned to Patlash, who was also in the green room, recovering from her wounds.
There was a limit on people who could be in the green room, so with more people wounded, Subaru and Emilia couldn’t stay there. Because of that, it was best if someone in the room being treated could keep an eye on things, and in this case, they left it to Patlash.
“I am ashamed that you would feel the need to go so far, Lady Emilia. I shall simply hang my head in shame here as I was told.”
“Once you lose trust, it’s hard to get it back. On that point, there’s no one who can beat Patlash, who is always at the top of the class when it comes to trust. If he tries anything, bite him without holding back.”
Patlash whinnied, gladly accepting the request. The most understanding woman in Emilia’s camp looked to be feeling responsible for letting Julius go alone before.
“See? Patlash is saying ‘I won’t let this blockhead escape again.’”
“It’s strange. For some reason, it really does look like she is saying that.”
“According to our bilingual wartime advisor, that was at least the gist of it. She’s a proper lady, though, so it probably had a more ladylike ring to it.”
With how deep our bond has become, I’m getting better and understanding her even without Otto lately. But if I said that, she would swat me with her tail. A maiden’s heart is a complicated thing.
“I shall focus on healing my wounds. Being able to recuperate in tranquility surrounded by ladies like this is quite the privilege.”
“As a reminder, all the women in this room other than Anastasia are mine.”
“I do not belong to you… In fact, you’re my knight, so doesn’t that make you mine?”
“That is a crazy embarrassing appraisal that makes me insanely happy!”
Emilia touched her finger to her lips as she made a rather bold statement that left Subaru feeling equal parts elated and anxious as he turned back to Julius.
He knew the mountain before him would take time to overcome. But he was checking if he at least had the room to breathe and line up at the first station on the route.
“Anyway, while you’re resting, you might feel the urge to curl up into a fetal position while thinking about what happened, but don’t forget Patlash is watching.”
“Do not worry. I would not do something so unsightly. It would be too inelegant.”
“…Got your groove back, huh?”
“Mmm.”
Getting an answer that sounded like the usual Julius, Subaru felt a little relief, and his expression softened a bit.
I’m glad I didn’t leave him alone on those long stairs.
If that had at least helped a little bit, then the experience of the massive embarrassment Subaru had suffered at the castle would at least have served some good.
“I’ll be counting on you, Patlash.”
With that last request to his trusty steed, Subaru left the green room with Emilia.
As they were leaving, Subaru could tell Patlash moved closer to Julius, and he heard Julius’s wry laugh at Patlash taking up guard. She was a smart dragon and took her instructions very seriously.
With Julius’s state of mind and Patlash’s faithfulness, it should be fine not to worry about the people in the green room for now.
“…Should I freeze the door closed?”
“Again, I’m amazed at the power of your imagination, but I think I’d rather keep that as a last resort. I don’t want to risk that upsetting the spirit of the room.”
“Mm, yeah. Hee-hee, it was just a thought. I was mostly kidding.”
Emilia stuck out her tongue cutely as she apologized for her joke. Subaru’s lips softened at that reaction, but he did not mention that he was tucking away a mental note about that option.
“Either way, we should leave the green room to its spirit. From the look of things, Patlash’s wounds are healing up nicely, so it shouldn’t be too long for Julius, either.”
“Mm-hmm, right. Julius’s wounds… They aren’t as bad as they look, so he should be better soon. It seems like that’s Reid’s style.”
“…Good at holding back just enough, huh? We can’t exactly let Julius hear that, though.”
Emilia chose her words carefully, and Subaru scratched his head while agreeing.
Reid using chopsticks as a weapon was the ultimate sort of bad joke, but that was just how overwhelming his fighting strength was that he could toy with someone as genuinely powerful as Julius like he was just a child.
The first Sword Saint, the man who worked with the Sage and the Holy Dragon to defeat the Witch of Jealousy… Given it’s a legendary hero like that, there’s not much I can do other than accept it.
Him being a terrible role model of a legendary hero on a personal level is another story, though.
“For now, we should—”
“Focus on finding some way to overcome the second examination until Sir Julius’s wounds are healed, right?”
A cold voice interrupted their conversation. Looking up, it was Ram, who was leaning against the wall of the passage, waiting for the two of them to come back. She had been forced to wait in the passage because of the limit on how many people could occupy the green room. Subaru scratched his cheek when she said what he had been thinking.
“Is my face really so expressive that you could tell exactly what I was thinking?”
“You just had a list of everything you were worried about pasted all over your face. Everyone and everything you are worried about at the moment are in that room right now, Barusu. That’s all.”
“That’s not true. I’m worried about everyone here, not just the people in the green room. Emilia and Beako obviously, but you, too, Big Sis.”
“Hah!”
Subaru flashed a thumbs-up, but Ram just snorted derisively. He pouted a bit as Ram turned away and started walking while Emilia put her hand to her mouth and giggled.
“It’s okay. Your feelings made it through to Ram.”
“I think you’re a bit biased, but if you say so.”
Glancing at Emilia, who was smiling slightly, Subaru cracked his neck and started following Ram. She was headed toward one of the smaller rooms on the fourth floor.
Stepping into the room…
“You are late. You kept Betty waiting. Is Julius all right?”
“Don’t worry. For the moment, it seems like he’s over the hump. I’m sure he’ll be worrying about all sorts of things, since he has such a strong sense of responsibility, but he won’t despair now.”
“If you say so, then I suppose Betty will believe it. In which case, it’s good to have one problem resolved.”
Beatrice nodded, and Subaru nodded as well before looking around the room.
There were many empty rooms on the fourth floor, but this was the one their gear had been carried into, and it could be called their forward base inside the tower.
Sitting in a circle in the base were Subaru, Emilia, Ram, Beatrice…
“Shaula, I want to ask you some more about that jerk.”
“Eep! You look scary, Master! But—but I don’t hate when you get strict with me like that, either. It’s just one more aspect of our love.”
“So it would seem, Master. How lewd…”
“I’m being framed!”
…And they were joined by a squirming Shaula and Meili, who had gotten used to following her around. Ram blaming him for Shaula’s crazed words was business as usual.
“Either way, first of all, thanks for your help looking for Julius. Even if I tell him not to bother, I’m sure he’ll apologize himself later, but for now, he’s safe.”
“It’s fine. Like I told him, I’m just glad we found him safely. I’m sure everyone else feels the same, right?”
“I would prefer not to be grouped with Lady Emilia.”
“Eh?! What do you mean?!”
Taking the lead, Subaru tried to move the conversation along, but a difference of opinion between Emilia and Ram quickly derailed it.
“From your report, it is seemingly necessary for everyone who entered the tower to overcome the second examination. And yet Sir Julius challenged it again a second time on his own judgment. If a single misstep was made, this action would have inevitably caused a fracture between our camp and Lady Anastasia’s.”
“Because Julius’s action might have led to everyone failing?”
“Yes. If that happened, everything we went through to this point would have been for naught. It is questionable whether the second-floor examiner would have allowed us to leave safely. Or that sham Sage there.”
Ram glanced at Shaula after explaining herself to Emilia. Not expecting to be drawn into the conversation, Shaula pointed at herself.
“Me? Sham Sage is seriously rude! I never claimed to be the Sage! My one and only name is Shaula, the name Master gave me! I’m for Master one hundred percent!”
“She is quite earnest, it would seem, Master.”
“Quit looking at me when you say that! …And I can’t say you’re wrong about Julius, either.”
Even if he did not really like how excessively she said it, considering the worst-case scenario, Ram’s analysis wasn’t wrong. Julius had exposed all of them to danger with his actions.
Even considering the fact that he didn’t know the details of the examination yet. If anything, that made it all the more rash.
“I do not know Sir Julius nearly well enough to say it is unlike him. But even considering the Gluttony issue, he did not seem the sort of person to do something like that.”
“I agree with that, but… My thoughts are different. Him screwing up like that is sort of like a male-only measles.”
A disease everyone gets once. I’m not sure if I should really compare him running off on his own like that to it, but measles and chickenpox are a lot worse if you get them as an adult.
Especially since it can be deadly.
“This time, it wasn’t fatal. Just call it good enough for now.”
“…I just don’t want to be tripped up by someone else.”
Ram murmured softly as she looked away from Subaru.
“And you want to start a fight over that? Or do you want to talk things through? If you don’t decide, I’m not going to keep up with this.”
Just then Meili chimed in, stopping things there with the mood in the room on the verge of getting dark. Leaning against Shaula’s side, she was listlessly playing with her braided hair while looking around the room.
“If possible, could you not fight? I don’t like pain or scary things.”
“You… No, you’re right. It’s good having someone who can look at things with an outside perspective.”
“Really? Heh-heh-heh, then be grateful.”
Meili smiled a childish, innocent smile befitting her tender youth when Subaru thanked her.
Despite her youth, Subaru thought her independent view on things was valuable. Thinking back, it had been her suggestion that they retreat from the second examination.
“I’ll be counting on you going forward. It’s important to have someone who can look at things with a cool head.”
“So you say, but my job ended after we got through the desert, didn’t it? There’s nothing else I can do.”
“But the more heads the better. And even if we made it through the desert, we’re all still in the same boat here inside the tower. Just chalk it up as your misfortune and let me rely on you.”
Meili was taken aback by Subaru’s unvarnished admission of intending to ask her for help.
“I can understand why Petra is always worried.”
“—? What about Petra?”
“Nothing. More importantly, weren’t you going to interrogate the half naked lady?”
Meili’s cheeks puffed out as she looked away. She stood up and started pushing Shaula’s back. Shaula wasn’t going to be moved by those frail arms, but she still excitedly moved forward, kneeling down right in front of Subaru and lowering her head to the floor.
“I am a fool, but please take care of me forever.”
“Your admirable attitude is appreciated. Then, regarding a betrothal gift… Ow, ow, ow, ow! Emilia?! Beako?! Why are you pinching me from both sides?!”
“Just because.” “No particular reason.”
Subaru had no intention of being pinched for no reason, but Emilia’s and Beatrice’s moods made him think twice about pressing the point.
“A-anyway, there’s no mistaking that guy up there is Reid Astrea. So as a witness who knew him personally, I want to ask you, what sort of person was he?”
“Absolute trash.”
“You said that before, and we have confirmation ourselves having seen him.”
Shaula’s lips curled into an unpleasant look as she remembered the dead. The dead man just upstairs aside, it was clear she could think of plenty of bad memories.
I guess that goes without saying since she straight-up fainted when she saw him.
“We have to get past him somehow. I want to get as many clues as we can for how to clear the second floor’s examination.”
“Tell us about anything you can think of, no matter how small. Sword Saint Reid’s personality, habits, relations, likes, dislikes, weak points. Particularly his weak points. Talk.”
“You’re really layin’ it on thick! You think I wouldn’t have gotten back at him if I knew his weak points?! He doesn’t have any!”
“Tch. Useless.”
“This girl’s even more overbearing than you, Master…”
Shaula pouted at Ram’s high-pressure attitude, but she just shrugged in response to Ram’s glare and then dashed behind Subaru to use him as a shield.
“Why are you hiding? You’re definitely stronger.”
“It’s not about stronger or weaker. Probably because you’re scared, though, Master. I can feel it because our hearts are linked.”
“Don’t blame me for you being scared.”
Subaru, unable to relax as he felt something soft push against his back, grabbed Shaula by the neck and forcibly dragged her to where she had been before.
He started to resume the questioning, but…
“Um… In the end, you don’t know anything about the examinations, right, Shaula?”
“Of course not. Just that this isn’t the time to say something is all. Most likely, it will be revealed after all the tower’s mysteries are solved.”
“I see… That’s reeeally exciting.”
“Emilia is naive, so don’t trick her.”
“Even if you don’t know the Sword Saint’s weakness, what about habits or something? If he has any particular habits while fighting, we might be able to use it to beat him.”
“Habits, huh? Now that you mention it, when I tried to kill him for groping me, he kept scratching his butt while we were fighting! That’s something, right?”
“I think that was just him taunting you…”
“Also, he’s weak against pretty women. I bet he would let pretty women through.”
“In which case, it would be just me and Julius left behind? That’s a terrifying thought.”
“Maybe if you squint really, really hard…and someone pokes him in the eyes for good measure. Then he might think you’re pretty enough to pass…maybe…!”
“You’re cute to say that.”
When Beatrice tried her best to come up with a solution that wouldn’t hurt his feelings, Subaru wrapped her up in his arms and rubbed her head.
“Either way, Emilia getting a pass was just a fluke. It was a lucky combination of him letting his guard down and the challenger being Emilia, I suppose.”
“Why do you say that?”
“If Emilia had attacked to kill, he would never have let her attack hit him. So he let his guard down, and Emilia won.”
“Huh? Did you just compliment me?”
“Betty did.”
“Ah, I thought so. Heh-heh. Thank you. That makes me reeeally happy.”
Emilia celebrated Beatrice’s flattering analysis and the implied compliment while Subaru rewarded Beatrice with another head rub.
“It sounds cool saying his reaction changes depending on whether there is an intent to kill, but that’s just a given because of who he is. There’s no saying how serious he was or will be.”
“…His expectations need to be turned upside down. Barusu is right; we don’t know how demanding he will be, but we cannot allow him to get serious.”
“We can’t…let him get serious?”
Picking up on that thought, Subaru furrowed his brow. Ram was still deep in thought as she continued.
“Correct. Lady Emilia was acknowledged by the examiner because she managed to convince him to offer significant concessions and then cleared the new bar… The standard for passing the examination is quite fickle.”
“I agree the line is fuzzy. It reflects the examiner’s temperament.”
“So we have to make it so he enjoys himself while also setting out a standard that is sufficient for the examination. Doing that and then making the examiner lose is the requirement for clearing the second floor.”
Hearing that explanation from Ram, it clicked for Subaru.
With the one-step clause, a colossal number of attacks, and a little bit of luck, Emilia clawed out a victory—even if it was only after Reid let his guard down and with the most lenient possible conditions for her. We should probably assume that winning by brute force is impossible now.
“Still, though, it’s not like we can just say best two out of three at rock-paper-scissors, either…”
“Um, working at finding conditions that Reid will accept… Put that way, this examination is also a really difficult test.”
“Difficult, but more like this is a really sadistic test in an entirely different way from the one on the third floor.”
After testing knowledge (from a different world), now it is testing strength (against the world’s strongest). In both cases, the real goal of the examinations is something different from the surface level.
So even if the two tests are different, they are both clear manifestations of the maliciousness of the Sage who made this tower.
And…
“—It’s not like there’s a rush, is there? You can just take your time and have fun with me.”
“Even if you say that.”
While Subaru looked around the room in thought, Shaula, who was casually sitting cross-legged on the ground, cheerfully chimed in. Subaru’s face stiffened, but she did not mind it. Her eyes were just gleaming happily.
“You all can just stay here as looong as you want. Since I waited hundreds of years for you to come, Master.”
“That’s…”
“Take as long as you need, and just clear the examinations normally. I’ll always be watching. However many days, years, or centuries it takes.”
There was a weight to her words that could not just be laughed off.
She was in a good mood and smiling, beaming with affection for them—or rather, for Subaru, but her words also contained the weight of the centuries she had spent waiting.
The weight of the guardian who had protected the tower for hundreds of years in obedience to the Sage’s directions.
Shaula had said it.
It was forbidden to leave without completing the examinations. If that rule was broken, even if it was Subaru who she adored as her master, she would not show any mercy.
Even if she is friendly, even if she is affectionate, that doesn’t mean she is an ally.
When it comes to clearing the Pleiades Watchtower, the person tasked as the Star Guardian… Shaula is…
“Just have fun with me here!”
…not an ally who can be trusted.
Subaru felt it painfully clearly when he saw her smile there.
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