Re:Zero Kara Hajimeru Isekai Seikatsu (LN) - Volume 25 - Chapter 7.7

7

She’d had a suspicion since long ago.

The plan of Roswaal L Mathers, the master she had sworn to serve, required the death of the dragon that protected the Kingdom of Lugunica to achieve his final goal.

It was more than a decade ago that he had told Ram she was a crucial piece in that plan.

Saving Ram and ■■■ in that burning Oni village, Roswaal had asked for compensation.

And Ram decided to pay that price in exchange for the Oni tribe’s retribution.

For that sake, she would aid him, whether it was a plan to kill the dragon or whatever else.

“When the time comes, you’ll know. The role that you—that only you and your ■■■■■■—can perform.”

She recalled the fragmentary memory of when her master had told her his plan to kill the dragon.

Mysteriously, she had never once thought deeply about it before today…

“I finally understand…what Lord Roswaal’s aim is.”

All of Roswaal’s actions were for the sake of the final goal he had spent his extraordinarily long life pursuing.

For its sake, he had positioned himself at the foundation of the Kingdom. He had saved Ram and ■■■. He asserted authority over the Sanctuary and its trials. He had tested Natsuki Subaru.

She realized now why he had taken in Ram and ■■■. ■■■ had been adopted as a replacement for Ram’s lost horn. Together, Ram and ■■■ were one unit, an Oni that would kill the dragon.

Of course, even Roswaal couldn’t escape the effects of Gluttony’s authority.

Effectively, he should also have forgotten why he had kept ■■■ at his estate. However, even if he had forgotten, he had surely realized his own intentions.

And even seeing them so earnest to rescue ■■■ from the damage Gluttony had caused, he had said not a thing.

He is so utterly…

“There’s no changing that meticulous side of him.”

Despite Subaru setting his plan back, Roswaal continued working at it beneath the surface, ever vigilant. It was a truly troublesome part of his character, she thought in exasperation.

However, something else occurred to her—was the reason Roswaal had given Ram permission to join this trip with ■■■ because he had predicted the possibility of something like this happening?

It might be overthinking. Perhaps it was a delusion born from her adoration of the man.

“Either way, it feels better to think that the man I love trusts me.”

She chose to believe that he sent Ram knowing she would protect ■■■ and the others. Similarly, she chose to believe that she had noticed Roswaal’s hidden intent, and that she had turned over his trump card to kill the dragon, of her own volition.

It was much more comfortable to think that the man Roswaal L Mathers valued the ten years he had spent with the woman Ram.

And so…

“—I’m in excellent spirits right now. Stand there and be my punching bag.”

“Sisterrrrr!”

Still holding his face, she slammed Lye to the ground. Limbs quivering, Gluttony’s shape transformed.

Though he still maintained Rem’s appearance, his arms and legs swelled to different sizes on his right and left, growing and shrinking. He didn’t seem to be in control of the changes as his body instinctively tried to find the optimal response.

His mind was in shambles, and his sense of self was long gone. He was truly repulsive.

“Fool.”

Lying on the floor, Lye moved his large, unbalanced body, forcefully tearing himself from Ram’s grasp and leaping to his feet. Ram didn’t hesitate to close the distance once more when he swung his log-like arm at her.

She was bleeding from her forehead. But the pain and the emptiness she felt made Ram’s Oni blood boil.

It was infuriating. This…euphoria had always tormented her. The loathsome instinct that reveled in combat and displays of strength, the desire to kill enemies who deserved death. Ram had always hated it.

That was why, when her horn was broken that night, she had thought she was finally free.

“It’s ironic.”

Ram grabbed the log-like arm and threw Lye over her shoulder. Once he slammed into the ground, she kicked his head, sending him farther down the hall.

She wouldn’t let him get any closer to the wounded ground dragon or to the girl leaning against the wall behind her.

“ ”

There was a faint glow from the white horn on the sleeping girl’s forehead.

Ordinarily, so long as she was unconsciously sleeping, even if she was an Oni, she should not have been able to activate her horn. It had been forcibly awakened by the connection of shared consciousness.

A bond between two beings so closely related by blood that could not be denied even if Ram lost her memory.

The reason she had believed her connection to Rem without being able to speak to her this past year was because of that.

So it was merely chance that she had noticed how to take advantage of their shared consciousness here.

Annoyingly, it had been thanks to Subaru’s idea. Because he had helped carry a portion of Ram’s burden with his odd ability, giving her the strength to fight. That had given her the idea to try something similar.

Two beings bound by a shared consciousness also shared powerful emotions, and at times even wounds and pain. She didn’t understand how it worked, exactly, but there was a theory in a book that Beatrice had read in the forbidden archive once.

Shared consciousness was a product of two individuals being linked by Odo.

Odo was the fundamental source of all power that existed deep within people—some would call it a soul.

It could also be used to cast magic in place of mana, but fundamentally, Odo was the essence of what made a person who they were. It was a domain where none could trespass, but as two beings born of the same womb, their Odo had become interlinked, naturally creating a shared consciousness. That was the theory, at least.

In the end, Beatrice had brushed it off as a folk explanation, but Ram personally liked it.

Being connected to someone else like that made for a wonderful story.

And if that connection with someone really did exist…

“…I would surely love that child from birth.”

Even as baby, she wouldn’t have hesitated to protect that bond, no matter the cost.

She would give everything to protect it, cherish it, shower it with affection, and love it.

So…

“Forgive me for being a bad sister, burdening you at a time like this.”

Using their shared consciousness, she was sharing her burden with her sleeping sister.

All because Subaru’s authority had shown her how. Ram could replicate most things, as long as she’d experienced them once before. Subaru’s ability was similar—in his case, it probably forcibly linked his Odo and the Odo of others, creating a one-sided sort of shared consciousness.

If he wanted, he could have sent the burden he experienced over to her, but Subaru was a fool, so he wouldn’t do that. Instead, he one-sidedly took everything upon himself to decrease the burden on his allies.

“Fool…”

It was the same thing she had just said to Lye.

However, the meaning behind that word could not have been more different.

Ram re-created the effects of Subaru’s authority using the shared consciousness connecting her and Rem. She didn’t know what had happened on Subaru’s end. But it was probably at least a little better now. And as a bonus, this allowed her to escape from the repulsive situation of staying connected to Subaru for so long.

Instead, she poured her burden into Rem, but…

“ ”

Still sleeping, Rem said nothing.

She just dutifully continued supplying mana from her horn into the white horn placed in her hands—Ram’s broken horn that had been remade as her wand.

There was no way for Ram to know how Rem’s body was being affected by the massive amounts of mana she needed to draw out. This needed to be a short, decisive battle.

“Sister!!!”

Lye leaped at Ram with a wild howl.

He had used the power of Leaping Dorkel’s Teleportation, a magical art that erased the distance between them in the blink of an eye—but even that phantasmic technique was meaningless.

Ram had seen it already.

“So slow, half-wit. I’ll be an old lady by the time you reach me.”

By peeking at her opponent’s vision with Clairvoyance, she could preemptively foil any attacks. Grabbing the five fingers thrusting toward her, she bent them backward, then drove her elbow into his neck. She topped it all off with a roundhouse kick that sent him hurtling into the wall.

“Kah…”

“Though even in old age, I would still be cute.”

She grabbed him by the collar and heaved him up, only to bash his head into the ground. And then she slammed her heel down on his face, smashing his nose.

Cleanly evading his outstretched arms, she hammered him with a barrage of wind blades from a distance.

“—Giiiaaaaaa!!!”

“Such a hideous cry for such a pretty face.”

As blood spurted from the cuts running up and down his body, Lye backed away.

His body kept shifting without settling on any one form, but from start to finish, from the neck up, he wore a familiar face.

The sight made Ram want to vomit. That wouldn’t be very elegant, though, so she refrained from actually doing it.

“ ”

Bleeding terribly, Lye charged without any particular skill or technique.

More precisely, he was probably using some sort of impossibly masterful move. He had probably merged the abilities of various incredible individuals, creating a technique that no one could emulate.

Ram crushed those attacks optimized from so many different angles with sheer fighting skill that surpassed them all.

A hundred, a thousand grand techniques, crushed by the strength of a billion. That was what this battle had become.

Unlike with Subaru, Ram’s connection with Rem was familiar and comfortable. She removed another two limiters.

She was probably at around 50 percent of when she was in her prime—actually, considering how much she had developed since then, she was probably stronger now. And not succumbing to that power was Ram’s strength.

“Breaking my horn turned out to be for the best.”

Were it not for that night, she might have given in to the lure of her horn someday.

She would have liked to say it was impossible, but she couldn’t answer that with any certainty. So Ram held her head high, proud of the path she had walked, choosing to believe it was right.

Thanks to losing her horn, she managed not to become the Oni that she so despised.

“Besides, if that night never happened, I would never have been able to meet Lord Roswaal. That isn’t ideal.”

After coming to the conclusion that there was nothing better than the route she had taken, Ram thrust her palm forward.

Lye appeared from space, right in front of where she thrust her hand. As the shock of having his path read spread across his face, she grabbed him by it again.

“You can’t leap again so soon, right? I’m bored of your tricks. And your face, too.”

“Wai—!”

“No,” Ram fired back coolly.

Still holding his face, she generated blades of wind from her palm.

In an instant, they tore through his eyes, nose, lips, ears—everywhere on his face.

“Aaargh, aaaaaaaaarghhhhh!!!!”

With a bloody scream, crying tears of blood, Lye writhed on the floor.

Looking down at him, Ram showed no sign of mercy, bearing down on the groaning Archbishop.

Hearing her footsteps approach, Lye changed his shape.

His new form was tall and burly. He batted down the oncoming fist, but Ram broke his knee.

Kicked down, Lye changed to escape Ram.

A big, bearded man, strengthening his defenses by curling up—she kicked his body up into the air, slamming him against the ceiling in a barrage of punches, turning him into a slack mass of flesh beneath that tough skin he was so proud of.

Lye changed shape once again to kill Ram, who was subjecting him to an endless torture.

This time, it was the bald old man with the phantasmic art. His trick had already been revealed, and Ram almost pitied him when she caught him. It didn’t stop her from dragging his face across the wall with all her might.

“Abwabahwababwaaaah!!!!”

Under the force of Ram’s grip, Lye’s whole body began to wear down from the incredible friction. He couldn’t escape, so his body shifted while still in Rem’s grip, seeking the right answer.

Responding to each and every one of his changes, Ram held a service for the hundreds upon thousands of victims who had been absorbed by Gluttony. The techniques they had polished, the paths they had walked, the emotions they had felt… All of it had been violated and defiled. Ram used every bit of strength she had to give them some semblance of peace.

Their techniques, paths, and emotions would never be used again by this man.

Because none of them worked on Ram.

“Take responsibility for your own actions.”

She pulled his arm and threw what was the battered defiler.

Rolling through the corridor, Lye shuddered and twitched. His figure slowly, slowly began to change.

He changed, relying on countless memories…

“Oh, it’s been a while. I wanted to see that face. The third from the top of the list, though.”

“…Ah, gahaah.”

Wiping the blood from her forehead, her lips softening. She was looking upon Lye’s true face.

This was him in the truest sense. Not the shortsighted being who had borrowed the faces and tricks of others, but Lye’s original body and face.

No matter who he became, no matter who he relied on or clung to, he couldn’t escape from himself. Just as Ram couldn’t change the fact that she was an Oni, even if her horn was broken. Just as there was no changing the fact that Ram was Rem’s sister, even if she lost her memories.

“Did you want to struggle with your own strength in the end?”

“ ”

“That reminds me, you said something curious on the stairs. You have a brother and sister. Why not stand tall for your siblings?”

As Lye slumped over, his painfully ragged breathing suddenly stopped.

It wasn’t that he had died. Ram’s words had elicited this reaction.

Brother and sister. When he heard that, his breathing calmed down ever so slightly. Slowly, Lye raised his body…

“Our…our…sister. Don’t…”

“Don’t lay a hand on her? Do you really think you’re in a position to say that? Have you ever helped someone who pleaded with you for mercy?”

“Even…so…”

“ ”

Twisting his bloodied face, Lye pleaded with a tearful voice.

Ram’s eyes narrowed slightly at hearing that pained request. And then, exhaling, she closed her eyes and said:

“I’ll—”

“—You’re too kind, Sister.”

The moment he escaped her eyes, Lye disappeared, leaving only those words behind.

Using Leaping Dorkel’s Teleportation ability, he disappeared without a trace.

—The man had fled.