8
“I see, so that’s why you—”
“Yes! That’s right! That’s what Subaru said. If I go to the very top of the tower, I’m sure to find something that can turn this around!”
Briskly answering, Emilia accelerated while carrying Echidna.
At first, they had run alongside each other, but Emilia started getting impatient and picked her up at some point. Echidna didn’t stop her. It was certainly faster this way, but…
“Shouldn’t you avoid overexerting yourself? The first floor is unknown territory, right?”
“Eh? Ah, you don’t need to worry about me! Anastasia’s body is really light, and it isn’t any different with you inside her. This is easy-peasy!”
“Because me being here has no difference on Ana’s weight…no, that’s not what’s important.”
Echidna’s eyes narrowed as she studied the unfamiliar beauty.
Emilia’s name had been stolen by Gluttony’s authority. Her situation should be the same as Julius’s, but she hadn’t lost heart. Was that simply due to her natural resilience?
Or was that how big a difference it was to have someone who supported her?
Emilia had said it herself. She wasn’t worried because Subaru remembered her. It was a terribly simple and even romantic sort of phrase, but at the same time, it felt like there was a truth to it. It was unclear why Subaru seemed to be outside the effects of Gluttony’s authority.
More precisely, it wasn’t as if he didn’t experience any effect, either, though, since him losing his memories was caused by Gluttony.
So she couldn’t write off all of it as just Subaru’s unique position. So there might have been a way. Some method to protect memories and names. If that was possible, Anastasia and Julius…
“ ”
What made Julius and Emilia different, even though they were placed in the same situation? The difference was having a person at their side. Was it not having a person at their side who tried to support them?
Could Julius have avoided collapse if he’d had support? Maybe if it was someone who was like what Subaru was to Emilia?
“I…”
Echidna didn’t have an answer to what she should do.
It was enough to make her wonder if this was the most she had ever racked her brain in her entire life as a hollow artificial spirit.
“Echidna?”
“…It’s nothing. More importantly, is it true? That you made it through the second floor examination…through Reid Astrea’s violence?”
“Mmm, it is. Argh, but if you’ve forgotten that, too, then explaining it will be really hard.”
Emilia’s cheeks swelled adorably, but it surprised Echidna to hear that this girl had gotten through the examination of that man who was violence incarnate.
It was hard to imagine she would lie in this scenario. Even in this short time, she could tell that Emilia wasn’t the type likely to lie, so it must be true.
“In which case, what evidence is there that things can be resolved by going up to the top of the tower?”
“Subaru said he heard the tower’s fifth rule from Shaula. He mentioned it would solve things after he thought about a lot of different stuff, so I’m sure it’s right.”
“That’s some pretty blind trust…”
“If doubting it would make things better, then I would, but I think there are times it doesn’t help… You trusted Subaru, too, since you came with me, right?”
There wasn’t a single doubt in those eyes looking at her, and faced with that, Echidna couldn’t respond. Seeing that, Emilia suddenly broke into a smile.
“See, my knight is a really hard worker.”
Emilia was proud that his efforts were being acknowledged, and Echidna also felt a bit of an out-of-place emotion, clutching Anastasia’s chest and exhaling.
“ ”
She told herself that that emotion was dangerous. It was incredibly illogical and out of place. At the very least, it wasn’t something to be feeling in this moment right now. If possible, she would prefer to forget it forever, but even if she couldn’t, then at least right now…
“—And that Subaru is counting on me!”
She was jealous of the girl who could believe so wholeheartedly in herself, and in the person who stayed so close to her.
She should forget this moment and focus on resolving this situation.
“ ”
Emilia’s long legs spun gracefully as they raced up the stairs to the second floor by leaps and bounds. And after she made it through that staircase that should have been so long, there was a tremendous silver flash and sparks flying.
Before them, covering their entire field of vision, unfolding left, right, and all around, was a knight with light purple hair fluttering and a white uniform stained by blood—Julius Juukulius.
And facing him…
“Ghh, kah!”
“Oraoraoraora! You think that’s enough to do anything? Don’t look down on me. Did you come here to play? If you wanna play, then put on some makeup. Do that and I’ll bully you as much as you want!”
With a vulgar mouth, Reid Astrea, the manifestation of violence unleashing nightmarish attacks with the two sticks in his hands, was performing a dance of death all across the stage of the second floor.
It was a struggle beyond normal human comprehension, but sadly, even to an amateur, it was clear at a glance that Julius was in the worse position.
“That’s enough.”
What interrupted the two swordsmen was a clear, mellifluous voice. But in contrast to the voice, the way she burst into the fight was stirring and heroic. Echidna was speechless at that incredible scene.
“Huh?”
Reid looked overhead with a dubious sneer, and Julius’s eyes widened in silence.
The object that unfolded over their heads was a massive icicle large enough to cover the whole ceiling. That mass of destruction that could splinter even a dragon cart in an instant crashed down at the two of them.
In an instant, Reid and Julius had completely opposite reactions. Julius leaped aside to avoid the oncoming hunk of ice, and Reid just grinned.
“Hah!!!”
With a feral grin, he thrust a single chopstick at the falling hunk of ice.
It stalled for just an instant. The chopstick bent, and just before it broke, Reid stepped down firmly against the floor. Transmitting the force of that through the chopstick into the ice, both the chopstick and the ice shattered.
“…You’ve done it now.”
Shards of ice scattered all around as Reid turned. When his one blue eye was fixed straight at Emilia, who was pointing her palms at him, her cheek tensed.
“Rarin’ to fight, huh? I don’t hate that in a woman, but…ah?! The hell?! You’re hot as hell! A total babe! What’s a doll like you doin’ in the middle of this desert?! C’mon, come be my doll.”
“Sorry for interrupting,” she said with a soft expression. “But Julius has to win against you…”
“Say what?”
Reid’s forehead warped when he heard that, but Julius, who had been saved by her, looked even more perplexed. She was an unfamiliar person to him, and his handsome brow furrowed when he heard her trust in him.
“I can see that you’re here to help, but…Echidna, who is she?”
“It’s a bit hard for me to explain, too. But in short, she’s someone in the same position as you.”
“What…?”
Julius looked fixedly at Emilia again, upon hearing that. And then he realized that not being able to remember such an absurdly distinctive person was all he needed to know.
“Silver-haired, purple-eyed elf…are you?”
“Yes. I reeeally get how you feel right now, Julius.”
“Then it is…”
As one of two people whose names had been stolen by Gluttony, he immediately understood the situation. Standing with Emilia and Echidna behind him, he turned his knight’s sword on Reid again.
“If you are in the same position, then that is enough to acknowledge you as an ally. I am grateful for your aid earlier. However, I do not understand your words. You said I must defeat him…”
“I think Reid knows the answer to that.”
Julius’s eyes narrowed at Emilia’s confident response. However, before he could probe further, there was a frustrated voice.
Reid cocked his head, tapping the patch over his right eye wildly.
“Oy, oy, what are you, babe? Why can’t I stop you? It’s not like I suddenly fell head over heels, so… Did you already clear the damn examination?!”
“Yes, that’s right! You touched my chest with a chopstick and lost!”
“Kah! Talk about a satisfying way to lose. Shame I can’t remember it!”
That all he could do was gnash his teeth a bit was proof that the shackles that bound him no longer restrained Emilia. In other words, there was nothing on the second floor stopping Emilia…
“Julius, I…”
“Go, beautiful lady, who is just like me, whose name I do not know.”
Unsure of what to say, Emilia faltered a moment, but Julius interrupted her, pointing his knight’s blade toward the stairs. Julius smiled gallantly at her quiet, stunned face.
“You have your own role, and it is not to aid me. This is enough. Be well.”
“…You too!”
With Julius’s encouragement, Emilia nodded and started running. Reid couldn’t stop her sprint. She raced to the innermost area of the floor where the stairs leading up continued. Stopping in front of them, she turned around.
“My name is Emilia. Just Emilia. Let’s meet again after all this!”
Leaving her name with them, Emilia raced gallantly up the stairs. Watching her leave, Echidna let out a long, deep breath.
Emilia’s job was to continue upward. And Echidna’s role was…
“You will remain to watch my battle?”
“If you’ll allow it… No, that’s not it. I’m staying because I’ve decided that I should.”
“ ”
“Not because I can do anything, but because this is what Ana would do if she were here. My place in this tower is untenable. So I at least want to stand behind you, of my own volition. Since…”
She looked at Julius’s face, his lips pursed tightly, and then continued.
“…Since you’re Anastasia Hoshin’s knight. Isn’t that right?”
It took an incredible amount of courage to believe something that didn’t feel real.
Compared to believing in something with a physical presence, she had no idea how much strength was enough to feel confident believing in something that couldn’t be confirmed.
However, believing in that indefinite thing, Echidna kept her eyes right on his back.
Julius looked down with his long eyelash-rimmed eyes. He took a long, deep breath…
“That is surprisingly reassuring. Someone mustering the courage to believe in me, to have expectations of me, when I might as well be a stranger to them.”
“Julius…”
To Julius, the ground beneath him was unsteady.
To Echidna, the bond she should have known was unclear.
Relying on something so unreliable, the two of them had to rely on a bond besides the one they should have already had, but in this moment, at least, they were indeed seeing the same thing.
So…
“Julius, I have a message for you.”
“A message?”
“Yes. ‘People are fighting all around the tower, so finish up quick and come help the others.’”
“ ”
Knowing that Subaru had meant it as an encouragement, in his own way, Echidna shared the message with Julius word for word. In response, Julius’s slender shoulders tensed just a little bit.
He mulled over the message, taking it in. The reaction was clear and dramatic.
“Hah.”
It was short, almost like a sharp breath. But it wasn’t that.
It was a laugh. A single laugh from the depths of his stomach. And if there had been anyone who knew Julius there, they would have been stunned.
Julius Juukulius laughing in the middle of a battle was unthinkable.
“If he has broken from his shell, then I cannot allow myself to lose, either.”
It was quiet, but there was an intense emotion dwelling in that resolution.
Raising his knight’s sword in front of himself, Julius faced his enemy. Reid had been looking bored for a while, but suddenly he grinned, like a shark.
“You ready to do this?”
“How rude. I am at all times serious in the face of battle.”
“That ain’t what I mean. You get it even if I don’t spell it, don’t ya?”
Still smirking, Reid raised his left hand and flipped up the eye patch covering his eye. Revealing a second blue eye that seemed perfectly healthy, the man who stood at the pinnacle of swordsmanship greeted his challenger with open bloodlust.
His sheer presence was so powerful, so palpable, that it seemed like it could kill a more timid man. But Julius faced those gleaming eyes head-on. Behind him, Echidna endured it as well, even as her body went stiff.
When he confirmed that Julius had stood his ground, Reid bared his fangs.
“Stick Swinger Reid. Remember that name, as you die.”
“ ”
In battle, to exchange names before crossing swords was evidence that a warrior had been acknowledged as an equal.
There was no telling how seriously Reid took that practice, but Reid’s thoughts aside, it had a dramatic impact on his challenger.
Exhaling and controlling his racing heart, Julius responded in kind.
“Allow me to reintroduce myself. I am Julius Juukulius. Knight of Anastasia Hoshin, candidate for the royal selection of the Kingdom of Lugunica— My pretense as a nameless knight ends here.”
As if engraving himself into the very world, he spoke his name with pride.
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