5
—Echidna had been cut by a single slash from her left shoulder to her right side.
“ ”
—Ram’s torso had been blown out from behind, leaving a gaping hole below her chest.
“ ”
—Julius’s body was the grisliest, covered in countless wounds.
“ ”
—Meili was shielded by Julius’s back, killed by what seemed like a clean, calm blow.
Subaru threw up.
Whenever he saw their corpses, more times than he could count, Subaru Natsuki threw up.
Corpses, corpses, corpses, corpses, corpses.
There was nothing but corpses.
Echidna’s body had been rent by a large blade. Ram’s face was twisted in loathing, struggling against death until her final breath. Julius’s wounds were a result of fighting the killer to the last in order to protect the girl behind him, though his efforts were in vain. And he couldn’t understand why, but for some reason Meili’s face was terribly tranquil in death.
Their corpses were partially covered by white cloths. The four corpses other than Shaula’s showed signs of someone mourning them. That thoughtful gesture made no sense.
—Everything was beyond his comprehension. Subaru Natsuki was in hell.
“Emilia and Beatrice…”
He had found five corpses, leaving two suspects.
One of them or possibly both of them working together are responsible for this hellish scene?
When did this even happen?
“The blood…”
He didn’t have any special knowledge about crime scene investigation, but the blood spilled was dried.
They didn’t die peacefully. So for all the blood spilled to have dried, it would take at least a few hours, maybe a dozen? In which case at least that much time has passed since they died.
How long had he wandered beneath the sand?
“—Ah.”
“ ”
When he entered a familiar room in search of Emilia and Beatrice, his eyes widened.
In the green room filled with plants, deep inside it, his eyes met the giant black lizard’s eyes. It was the first living gaze he had met since returning to the tower—
“And it’s a lizard…?”
He clicked his tongue at such a disappointing encounter.
Ideally, he would have found Emilia or Beatrice’s corpse. It wouldn’t change the incomprehensible reality of what had seemingly happened, but at the very least it would have soothed his mind some.
Not managing even that much, Subaru immediately left the green room. He had no use for a room that was empty aside from a lizard. But…
“Don’t follow me!”
The lizard sluggishly stood up and came after him.
Its body had the imposing stature of a horse, and the sharp claws and fangs gave him plenty of reason to be wary. Finding no other target for his rage, Subaru glared at the lizard.
“I don’t have time to play with you! I gotta murder whoever’s still left alive in this tower! If you’re gonna get in my way, then…!”
He menacingly swung the sword he’d picked up from beside Julius’s corpse. Around a third of the blade had snapped off, but there was enough to serve as a weapon.
But the lizard just looked at Subaru swinging the broken sword with quiet eyes, not moving.
“Ugh…”
That this creature didn’t feel the need to bare its fangs at his weapon made him feel like it was laughing at Subaru’s weak heart. And in order to hide the fact that he was feeling overawed…
“—Don’t fuck with me!”
Subaru shouted as he hit the lizard’s neck with the broken sword.
The broken blade’s edge broke through its scales, and after a little resistance, stabbed into the flesh beneath. There was an unpleasant feeling and red blood started to flow from the lizard’s body. The blade had sunk in deeply.
“How about…that…”
“ ”
The exhilaration of wounding a living creature for the first time in his life immediately vanished.
The reason was the lizard’s eyes—They were the same as before he stabbed it, just quietly looking at Subaru. The lizard paid no heed to the sword stuck so deeply into it. It simply continued watching what Subaru Natsuki was doing.
Its reptilian eyes were unreadable, but Subaru Natsuki still screamed.
“Damn it…damn it, damn it, damn it! What! What?!”
“ ”
“You, everyone else, and the corpses, too! And the people still alive! And everyone else, too! What are you thinking?! What do you want?!”
Tearing at his head, Subaru hurled the unreasonable, confused emotions he felt straight at the lizard.
He howled, channeling all the desolate, pessimistic feelings that had built up as he wandered lost in a tower of dead people, wandered lost in a dark underground where he couldn’t see anything, wandered lost in another world where he didn’t know left from right.
“I’ll kill everyone who tried to kill me! I’ll push away anyone who wants to rely on me! So don’t get it twisted! Don’t get ahead of yourself! Acting all friendly ’cause it’s convenient for you… What bullshit!”
“ ”
“I don’t know any of you! Not a single one of you bastards! I couldn’t even begin to guess what any of you are thinking! Everyone’s just shoving their own problems onto me…! If you all have your hands full with your shit, then maybe I’ve got my hands full with my own shit, too!”
Screaming and shouting, Subaru fell to his knees. At some point he had started crying.
The lizard in front of him didn’t say anything, just watching Subaru as his shoulders heaved raggedly. He did not meet its eyes, just curling up and pushing his head against the floor.
“Just forget me already… Just abandon me… Just leave me alone…”
The tearful voice he managed to force past his lips echoed hollowly in the quiet passage.
Kneeling down, he pleaded. As if begging for forgiveness, as if praying for salvation, as if clinging to any god.
He implored the world itself to set him free from his hopeless predicament.
And his plea was—
“—Eh?”
—Answered by countless dark hands that appeared along with a tremor as if the entire tower was shaking.
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