Re:Zero Kara Hajimeru Isekai Seikatsu (LN) - Volume 22 - Chapter 6.6

6

“And at the other end of the tunnel was a land of snow.”

It was a joke that did not really describe the odd scene before him at all.

He had passed through a wall and not a tunnel, and it wasn’t a land of snow, but a cold desert breeze and the night sky that awaited him. Stars shone bright while a black sea of the desert extended far, far into the distance all around them.

None of it connected to what he said at all. Instead…

“…Natsuki?”

Hearing Subaru’s hoarse murmur, someone with light purple hair fluttering in the breeze turned toward him.

She gently held down her hair as her green eyes met Subaru’s. It was just the person he had been looking for.

“…It’s a great spot for a view on a night stroll.”

Hiding his shock, Subaru shrugged at Anastasia as he changed the subject. Anastasia smiled slightly.

“Yeah. It’s definitely a nice view. But it’s a shame the scenery itself is all black. It would have been different if there were at least a town to see in the distance.”

“Well now, I don’t know about that. It’s not so bad. Like the sea at night. And more than anything…”

Subaru pointed up instead of out. Drawn by that, Anastasia looked up at the night sky filled with stars.

“The air is cool and clear, so the stars look super bright. It’s pretty romantic, right?”

“The stars surely are lovely… I guess because at this height we’re above the miasma hanging over the desert? Looks like we can see the stars that were hidden before.”

Looking up, Anastasia’s lips softened. Seeing that, Subaru stopped about five yards away.

And…

“…So what’s your excuse?”

“Excuse?”

“Slipping out of bed in the middle of the night, slipping into a secret passage no one knows about, all so you can enjoy the night breeze and play with some birds? That’s way too suspicious.”

Anastasia had a curious look on her face, but Subaru doggedly followed up.

The birds…

It was just Subaru and Anastasia face-to-face there, but a proper crowd was watching them on the balcony: birds that did not budge at all, watching silently like dolls.

And not just one or two, a disturbing number of them. Lining the edge of the balcony, there were at least fifty birds resting their wings. There was a flock’s worth of birds. A flock’s worth instead of an actual flock, since they were not all the same species.

White, blue, black, speckled, big, small, thin, fat. There was no unifying principle to the crowd of birds. That alone was already strange, but even eerier to Subaru was how they moved.

Even though there are this many birds, I don’t hear any bird calls, and I can’t even hear wings rustling.

The wildly varied birds were all united in silence, just sitting there.

“It makes sense why you might be uneasy about that, but…” Anastasia put her hand to her cheek. “But secret passage is selling it a bit hard, ain’t it? You wound up here, too, didn’t you?”

“That’s… The bird guided me here, ish.”

“Which is the same as me. I was wanderin’ around the tower for a stroll when a bird came flyin’ by. I followed it after wonderin’ what was goin’ on, then found myself here.”

Anastasia’s eyes narrowed as she spread her arms and mimicked a bird flying.

It went without saying that wasn’t a convincing explanation. Subaru did not have any evidence to disprove it, but he refused to believe such a convenient story, putting himself up on a special pedestal in the process.

“These birds—”

“What’s with these birds?”

“Ngh. That’s what I want to ask.”

Her evasiveness is really uncomfortable, and the way that the birds all feel like they’re quietly watching us seriously bothers me. I can’t read anything in their eyes.

The birds, the balcony… What is she thinking?

“Is that the bird that was flying during the sand time?”

“These are definitely the birds Ram used her Clairvoyance on. I don’t know what happened to them after we reached that field of demon beasts…looks like they made it here safely, though.”

Anastasia’s lips curled ever so slightly into a wry smile as she tickled the throat of the bird. The bird did not react, and Anastasia sighed.

“They’ve been like this the whole time. I’m pretty much puzzled by it.”

“From my experience, it’s basically impossible for me to believe that.”

“What do you mean?”

“Whenever I run into some sort of situation like this carelessly, it’s pretty much always life-threatening.”

He had a wealth of experience when it came to careless actions that led to near-death experiences.

The oldest was when he went wandering around the mansion at night and got himself beaten to death by Rem. Omitting many, many other examples, Subaru had more or less come to the conclusion that careless actions always lead to danger. And his current situation was extremely dangerous…

“Relax. I’m not thinkin’ about anything like that. I don’t have any hostility toward you. Or anyone else in this tower…Well, except the examiners.”

“Shaula and Reid?” Anastasia’s expression soured when Subaru said their names, and he noticed. “Ah, right, you didn’t hear since you were asleep. The guy on the second floor… That’s Reid Astrea. The first Sword Saint. Apparently, he was summoned from the past, or at least that seems like what’s happening.”

“This tower sounds more and more crazy the longer we’re here… What was the guy who made it thinking?”

Hearing that, Anastasia responded with a stunned reaction, followed by a short follow-up. Sensing the Kararagi accent slipping from her tone, Subaru inhaled sharply.

Up to then, he had by and large interacted with her as if she were Anastasia, or at least that was what he had tried to do. But her real nature was…

“…It’s just the two of us here right now, so want to talk openly a bit?”

“Hmm…”

“Honestly, talking to you while you’re wearing someone else’s skin is… Whatever you say, I won’t ever be able to actually believe it. So…”

“You want to talk to me instead of me acting like Ana.”

In an instant, Anastasia’s tone changed as she responded to his proposition.

Her whole being transformed instantly like someone had flipped a switch. Even though she still looked exactly the same, it was like a completely different person was standing across from him. The feeling in her eyes, her thoughtful expression—it all changed.

“ ”

And as Subaru caught his breath, Anastasia—or rather, the artificial spirit Echidna—turned around and leaned her bag against the short balcony. She started to rub the head of the white bird that had stopped on the railing.

“It’s the first time we’ve spoken like this in a while.”

And accepting Subaru’s proposition, she smiled faintly.

“Not going to come here?”

“No, I’m not great with heights, and the safety measures look incomplete, so I’ll pass.”

“Even if you let your guard down, it’s not like I’m going to push you over the edge.”

“I can’t trust that sort of comment. You sound just like the original.”

Hundreds of yards up in the air, with a waist-high rail as protection. Echidna invited him over innocently enough, and she furrowed her brow at his refusal.

“You mind? I’ve asked you before, but could you stop lumping me in with that original Witch? If I’m being blunt, there’s not a lot more annoying than being compared to someone you don’t know. Even if it was the person who made me.”

“That also… No, you’re right. Sorry. I’ll try to fix that.”

She was speaking in Anastasia’s voice and looked just like Anastasia, but…

Even that sounds just like what that Witch would say, but if someone said I resembled Echidna, I’d want to sue for defamation of character, too.

“By the way, how can you so casually touch those birds? Aren’t you afraid of them all suddenly swarming up and pecking you to death?”

“Your imagination is a lot more scary than they are. Don’t tell me that’s also your experience talking?”

“There was a time that a bunch of cute bunnies jumped me.”

Ever since then, he was always a bit nervous around large groups of animals gathered in one place.

I can say with confidence that there wasn’t any easy death in all my loops, but that memory was particularly bad.

“…With how pale your face is, I won’t force you to explain. I don’t feel particularly close to them, either.”

His face had apparently turned visibly pallid and convinced Echidna to quickly pull her hand back from the bird. Then, placing her hands on her knees, she looked at Subaru again.

“So then, you proposed talking openly… So what exactly did you want to talk about with me now that I’m not acting like Ana?”

“As a first topic, your connection to this place and these birds.”

“I can’t tell you anything different than the answer I gave as Ana. I was led here by a bird just like you were. To that end, I don’t really have any clue why. But…”

“But?”

Subaru was almost let down by that unchanged answer, but the slight hook at the end made him raise his eyebrows. Echidna hesitated for a moment at that reaction before continuing.

“Honestly, I’ve been meaning to ask you the exact same question.”

“Me?”

“Maybe it sounded like a joke in Ana’s tone? I ended up here because it was like I was being guided. And now that I’m here, I’m talking to you… You, standing between me and the way back into the tower.”

“ ”

“The caretaker of this tower, Shaula, knows you. Or at the very least, she is interacting with you as if that is true. Taking that into account, saying this now that we are here just the two of us might be unfair, but…”

Caught up in what Echidna was saying, Subaru did not interrupt her. She paused for a second before asking her question.

“Who are you, Subaru Natsuki?”

“Who am I? What’s that question supposed to…?”

“Going back to before Pristella… A year ago, after the ceremony celebrating the slaying of the White Whale and Sloth, Ana decided to investigate you.”

Echidna was revealing a part of the strategy that Anastasia’s camp had worked on.

A theory for how to compete with her opponent Emilia and Emilia’s knight, Subaru, who had just received a valorous commendation.

But even Anastasia Hoshin, the great merchant who lead the Hoshin Company…

“Your identity was a complete mystery. Ana grumbled that she only just had the barest level of information. And that was probably more about what the people around you had done than you yourself.”

Hiding the details of my identity… If someone in our camp was actually involved in that, the obvious guess is Roswaal, followed by Otto or Clint.

“Either way, the furthest back she could find anything about you was right before the start of the royal selection, when you were involved in an incident that allegedly happened in the capital. According to Sir Reinhard’s testimony about discovering Felt, who would become one of the candidates, apparently, you were involved somehow. But that’s all.”

There could not be records any further back than that.

With that final piece, Echidna’s—or, in this case, Anastasia’s—retracing of Subaru’s footsteps was pretty much perfect.

Other than the fact that it was incomplete as far as she was concerned.

“ ”

Echidna’s eyes narrowed as Subaru struggled to think of what he should say.

Me not being able to tell people about my returning by death and not being able to explain what I know from that has caused plenty of problems before, but this is a first.

Subaru Natsuki’s origin, him being an unknown person, was the chain holding him back this time.

“I’m…”

“And now that I’ve tediously laid it all out like that.”

“…Huh?”

Subaru’s expression was grim as he struggled to figure out how to say something, anything in response, but Echidna merely spread her hands. Her tone was so light that it caught him off guard.

Seeing that reaction, Echidna nodded to herself with satisfaction.

“Yeah. Ana’s and my understanding of you is that you are an unknown, rookie knight who has achieved multiple great feats… That was where we stood until Pristella. But that impression changed a bit during the battle with the Witch Cult and the journey to this tower.”

“ ”

“I hope you can forgive me, but it’s only natural to feel a bit uneasy and on guard when we’re burning the midnight oil, just the two of us, together in a place where no one else can see.”

Crossing her arms, Echidna smiled as she cocked her head.

Subaru listened to her all the way to the end in stunned silence as he moved his dry lips, seriously struggling over how to take that.

But while he was struggling with that, he noticed it.

That she was clutching her hands on her knees tightly enough that her fingertips had gone pale.

“…Are you…genuinely scared?”

“That’s an upsetting thing to say. What exactly is your relationship with Shaula?”

She answered his question with another question.

“I’ve never met her before. I don’t know anything about her.”

“Is it really just coincidence that you solved the third floor’s examination that quickly?”

“…It is…”

“And you just happened to notice a hidden passage and followed it when I happened to be here?”

She pelted Subaru with sharp accusations. But the series of questions was telling Subaru something.

“Imagine how I feel…”

“But even so, for various reasons, I calculate the likelihood that you are hostile to me to be low. I’d appreciate it if you considered the fact that I told you all that a demonstration of my sincerity.”

Putting her hand to her chest, Echidna explained what she was thinking.

I’d love to believe in her and reflect on how shady my identity and my actions must seem. I’d love to, but…

“Apparently, my creator really left a deep scar on your heart.”

The more Subaru felt like the artificial spirit Echidna’s behavior matched the Witch of Greed Echidna, the harder it was for him to believe her no matter how much she demonstrated her sincerity.

That was the residual stench of the Witch.

“I…get…what you are saying. I…understand. Whether I believe you or not…is a different matter…”

“It is really obvious how conflicted you are.”

“For the sake of argument, say we met here by coincidence. So then what is this place? Why do you think there’s a balcony here?”

“I have a theory about it. Three days ago…do you remember what happened in the desert?”

“Three days ago, so before we reached the tower? It’s more than a little bit chaotic, but…”

“While we were being chased by oiran bears, we were attacked by a white light. Apparently, that was Shaula’s work, right? So that’s what this is.”

“Her vantage point for watching the desert?”

Subaru snapped his fingers when Echidna finished.

Her hypothesis made sense. And Shaula had used what she called her Hell’s Snipe to hit anyone who started to come close to the tower. Thinking about it, I had wondered where she did it from since there weren’t any windows or anything to look out from…

“Most likely, there are several places just like this one all around the tower’s outer wall. From the look of the desert out there, this isn’t the angle we approached from.”

“And the birds?”

“The birds are a puzzle. They don’t react when I touch them. But they do seem to have body warmth, so they aren’t fabrications. If possible, I’d like to autopsy one, but…”

Looking down at the bird beside her, Echidna’s eyes were callous and cold. But she pulled her hand back and looked at her fingertips.

“I can’t strain Ana’s body any more than I already have. It would be simple if you strangled the bird for me, but…”

“If it’s something that needs to happen at some point, then sure, I guess…”

Since being summoned to this world a little over a year ago, Subaru had gotten used to hunting birds and wild rabbits. Of course, killing something for food was a far cry from killing it for an experiment…

“Eating it after killing it would be more…”

“Right, there’s also the problem of food stores. So I’d like to request, say, twenty of them.”

“I’m sure they would start moving if I killed one, wouldn’t they?”

“…I can’t deny that.”

Echidna pensively covered her mouth when she heard Subaru’s concern.

The birds did not react to their violent conversation. They simply watched the two outsiders in silence.

Subaru stopped himself from going further down that line of thought when the idea of a sky burial came up.

“If we’re doing that, we should make proper preparations first. For now, it can wait.”

“They don’t seem like they’ll run away, either. Okay, that’s fine then. Honestly, it’s hard to imagine learning anything useful from examining these birds anyway.”

“Please stop saying things that make it sound like your inquisitiveness or lust for knowledge got the best of you.”

“…?”

Echidna really did not seem to know anything about the Witch’s temperament, but even so, the way her actions seemed to resemble the original made it impossible for Subaru to relax. So he ignored that and asked a question aimed more at the un-Witch-like spirit Echidna part.

“I didn’t really check too deeply before, but what’s going on with Anastasia?”

“…No changes yet. Ana is still sleeping deep in this body. I’ve never inhabited her body this long, either, so I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t getting anxious.”

“Anxious?”

“Like I told you before.”

Echidna touched her borrowed body’s chest, implying that Anastasia was sleeping in that location as she closed her eyes.

“It’s been a month now that I’ve been borrowing her body. I didn’t exactly take things lightly before, but…the feeling that her life is continually being shaved away is still heavy.”

“ ”

“So I have to give her body back to her as soon as possible.”

Echidna finished with that. The details made Subaru realize that he had been taking their situation too casually.

At the same time, Anastasia’s handicap felt almost too large.

“Can she really take the throne with her body in that…messed-up condition?”

“Do you mean that Ana should give up her right in favor of your master?”

“Gh! This isn’t a joke! That’s not what I meant at all! I—”

“Ana will never withdraw. She won’t give up, either. I know that much.”

Subaru stepped forward and raised his voice, but Echidna sharply cut him off. Overwhelmed by the force of it, Subaru blinked. And then slowly, carefully…

“…Does Anastasia really want her own country that badly? Even if she might have to give it up again before long?”

“It might be shorter than the time an average person has, but Ana will use that short time far better than anyone else. And Ana has her own reason for not being able to give up on the throne.”

Subaru’s voice was weak, and Echidna’s was filled with faith in Anastasia.

And the reason for not giving up that she mentioned.

That was…

“Because that is what she wants.”

At some point, Echidna had stood up straight and walked over to Subaru, standing face-to-face with him in the middle of the balcony.

She said that while looking him straight in the eye. Subaru was frozen in place.

It was a different sort of weight from the Pleiades’s examination pushing down on him.

He could not move, and no words came to his lips. Echidna did not say anything, either.

With the two of them frozen there, the only sound that split the night air was the beat of wings from behind, coming to join the resting flock.

Another bird coming to the balcony…

From behind…

“ ”

Subaru had not moved from the start and still had the wall of the tower at his back. If the noise was coming from behind, then it was coming from inside the tower.

Echidna and Subaru had been brought there by the flapping wings of a bird.

So then naturally, a third set of wings would also…

“What are…you talking about…?”

A voice that sounded almost dumbfounded, as if some core belief had been shaken.

At that sound, all the birds spread their wings at once and leaped into the air with a thunderous noise.

Taking to the night sky, toward the desert shrouded in darkness.

Leaving Subaru and Echidna feeling as if they had been left behind on a deserted island.

And Julius Juukulius as well.