9
The battle cries he heard were a victory song that shook the very air itself.
“Agh!!!”
The dark-skinned women warriors with bows on their back, rampaging all across the battlefield, roared, singing a song like he had never heard.
The Shudrak people’s surprise attack had pushed the imperial army’s camp to the brink of collapse. The soldiers no longer had even the means to resist, and could only flee in terror as they were brought down one after the other.
“This is…”
“Turning the tables and going on the offensive, stealing the enemies’ weapons, burning their medical supplies, and targeting their commanders with precision. Without its hands or head, the body can do nothing but flee without concern for appearances. The would-be swordwolf is a pathetic sight.”
Subaru could see imperial soldiers down below, scrambling in flight, driven by the black smoke and great bows. But they couldn’t escape the Shudrak who survived by hunting in the jungle. Able to see into the distance, their arrows struck the fleeing soldiers’ backs, piercing their hearts with precision.
How many people had escaped? How many had survived?
How many had died?
“This is…”
“Why are you speechless, Subaru Natsuki? Your wish has been achieved by your comrades, using the information you provided. If you cannot smile now, then when can you smile?”
As he peered down at the camp that had turned into a battleground, Subaru’s mind drifted. Abel forcibly affirmed the reality of the situation and spoke as if this was exactly what Subaru had wished for.
Unable to bear it, Subaru grabbed Abel’s shirt front with his newly healed right hand.
“You think I wanted this? This… This?! Don’t give me tha—”
“Did you think your wish could be fulfilled without bloodshed?”
“Ngh!”
Cut to pieces by Abel’s tranquil gaze and sharp tongue, Subaru fell silent.
He couldn’t say anything to that.
He had thought it was possible to do things without bloodshed. Had thought he could do it, even.
Since…
“Allow me to rephrase my question, Subaru Natsuki. Did you believe that your wish could be fulfilled without spilling any blood other than your own?”
“—Ah.”
“An absurd thought. A foolish and incorrigible belief. Did you really think that people who are fighting and have no relation to you would be stopped if you simply spilled your own blood? That is even more malignant than your meaningless heroic aspirations. It is pure delusion.”
“ ”
Abel showered Subaru with blows as the strength slipped from Subaru’s hand, holding Abel’s shirt.
“You are a human, Subaru Natsuki. Neither a hero nor a sage. And so whatever you do, people will continue to spill blood, to die, to rob and be robbed.”
Subaru’s teeth chattered, and he shook his head like a child in denial.
Of course it was true. He couldn’t deny the reality of it. He knew that. But he couldn’t accept it. He had not grown up in a world that accepted it as natural.
Even now, after this long in this new world, Subaru Natsuki’s principles were still that of a Japanese high schooler’s.
“I do not want a hero. I would never cling to them, rely on them, or entrust my fate to them. Bearing everything and building a road toward prosperity—that is something a hero cannot do.”
“Wh-what… What do you want to do…?”
His strength slipping away, Subaru sank to his knees, unable to understand Abel.
We faced the ritual of blood together, and he was probably the one who wrung victory from the jaws of the demon beast. We meshed surprisingly well, and I would have said we weren’t the worst match. But I can’t understand what he’s thinking.
Of course I can’t. —How can I understand someone who hides their own face?
“What can someone who hides his face say…?”
“My face, you say? Then I shall let you see it.”
Subaru did not even have time to raise his voice in confusion.
Hearing Subaru’s desperate, faltering argument, Abel put a hand to his own face, and then undid the knot holding the rags. Then the wind blew.
Whipped by the wind, the mask flew off into the sky.
It soared out over the camp that had become a battlefield, riding the wind into the distance…
“It might even be carried all the way to the capital. To the city holding the throne where I should be seated.”
Abel watched the rags dance through the air.
Looking up at his bare face, Subaru quietly gasped. He couldn’t look away.
There stood a handsome man with black hair and striking eyes.
He looked several years older than Subaru, maybe in his early to mid-twenties. He had a stunning face, and, having spent some time in the jungle and the village, his hair was messy and there were blemishes on his cheeks, but even that only served to enhance his natural beauty.
He had long, slender limbs and a lithe body, a fully formed fine figure of a man.
But the most striking thing about him was his black eyes. And the overwhelming gleam in them, brimming with spirit, that could bring all who saw it to their knees.
Subaru was already on his knees, and he felt like the reason he couldn’t budge from that position was not because of his wounds or exhaustion. He could tell—it was because his soul was yielding to the man in front of him.
The reason for that overawing presence was…
“Vincent Abelks.”
“…Huh?”
“That is my name. At least, that is the name I have taken until I sit once more on the throne. Though it would be wiser to continue addressing me as Abel going forward.”
Abel’s lips curled as Subaru looked on in shock.
Belatedly, Subaru realized that it was a brutal, almost feral sort of smile.
Still not knowing the meaning of that name…
“—Abel! Subaru!”
…what unfroze him was the sound of a sharp voice.
Looking toward the source of it, he saw a figure waving as it approached. It was Mizelda, the Shudrak chief with dyed-red hair.
“The camp has been suppressed. Our injuries were minimal, and…oh? So that’s your face, Abel? You’re quite the looker…”
“Mizelda…”
“Ahem…”
Initially captivated by Abel’s face, Mizelda coughed, and then she looked kindly toward Subaru.
“Subaru, it is good you’re awake. If you had died without waking up, I wouldn’t be able to rest in peace.”
It was the gentle smile of someone paying tribute to a person on the verge of death, and Subaru’s heart and body froze. Like Abel, she had deduced that he did not have long to live.
“Holly, bring her here.”
“Mm-hmm, I know!”
Turning back, Mizelda called out to someone, and received a cheerful, easygoing response.
The yellow-haired woman—Holly—who had easily moved boulders lumbered over to them with a happy smile.
And in her arms…
“Don’t struggle. Poor Kuna still hasn’t woken up after you sent her flying.”
“Such selfish…agh! Let me go! What do you intend to do with me?!”
“Dear me, she just won’t listen.”
Holly looked a little troubled as the girl struggled and twisted around in her arms.
She had blue hair and an adorable face that was red with anger. The girl whom Subaru had most wanted to see, whose voice he’d most wanted to hear, and whom he’d most wanted to meet again here…
“Rem!”
In that moment, Subaru forgot his body’s poor condition, his awe of Abel, and his feelings of alienation upon seeing the battlefield covered in flames down below. He forgot all of it and ran to her.
And as he went to Holly…
“You…”
“Rem! Thank goodness you’re safe…”
“Are you the one who did this?! You awful man!”
Just as Subaru reached out to her, she swung her hand and slapped his cheek.
There was a loud sound, and Holly’s, Mizelda’s, and even Utakata’s eyes widened in surprise. The slap had quite a lot of force behind it, enough that he was almost knocked back.
But he wasn’t. Even if she’d hit him, he wouldn’t complain.
Because he had nothing to complain about. Because Rem was alive and there and talking to him. That was enough.
“Rem…”
“Ngh! You are…”
He had been slapped fairly hard, but he still hugged her tightly. Subaru pulled her into his arms, as if stealing her from Holly. Rem was surprised, and then her face flushed in anger.
She clenched her fist, about to unleash a powerful punch…
“…You’re…”
…but before she could land the finishing blow, she realized just how battered and broken his body was.
Subaru slumped, his strength draining away at the relief of seeing her. Wrapped in his arms, Rem fell speechless as she saw the wounds all over his body—his shoulders and torso, his legs and his left hand.
“…Well, the left hand was because of you.”
“I know that! But all these other wounds… You’ll die like this! You need treatment…”
“It is pointless.”
As Subaru smiled weakly, Rem registered a desperate plea, but Mizelda stopped her with a short, unambiguous response.
Rem looked up in surprise at the sharpness of her words.
Mizelda slowly shook her head.
“Subaru’s wounds are deep. They will not heal, even with treatment. He is being propped up by strength of will, but that will soon give out.”
“Give out— Why all of a sudden…?!”
“—? Because he got his woman back, of course.”
Mizelda cocked her head and answered as if it were obvious.
Rem’s breath caught in her throat, and Subaru chuckled wryly, unable to raise his head.
“Mizelda… Phrasing…”
“Did I speak wrong? We did everything in our power to answer the final request of our brother. You are a man worthy of that.”
“Ha-ha, I’m honored and delighted…”
He was grateful for Mizelda’s honest and frank trust, but it was also horrible. Because he knew himself that their prediction and words were not wrong. And so they were putting an unnecessary burden on Rem, making her load just that much heavier.
And she already had enough trouble moving her legs without the extra burden…
“Why… Why…?”
As Rem’s voice reached his ears, he lost the strength to even move his neck.
Her voice was trembling, and at some point Subaru, who should have been holding her, was now instead being supported by her arms. Her blue eyes quivered, gazing at him in suspicion, doubt, and sadness.
“Why would you go so far for me? Why…”
“ ”
“Why?”
Why would he do that?
He remembered being asked something like that before.
He had been asked a similar question by a girl who was precious to him. And how had he answered?
His memory was growing fuzzy, and he was starting to fade, so he couldn’t recall.
So he just answered with where his heart led him…
“Why?”
…because she asked.
“Because I want you to be happy.”
“………”
“I want you…to smile. That’s enough…for me.”
I want you to be able to smile, surrounded by love and people who care about you.
Smile like a flower blooming, like a clear blue sky, like the stars glimmering far, far away in the night sky.
I just want you to smile.
“…Eh? W-wait, wait…”
Subaru slowly slumped down.
His head drooped. His neck could no longer support it. His upper body started to fall. Rem reflexively pulled him closer, holding him tight, calling out to him as his head leaned against hers.
But there was no answer.
“Peace to our comrade, to the soul of a warrior.”
Mizelda stood straight, speaking words of respect, then broke into song.
Holly and Utakata and the other Shudrak who had sung in victory now accompanied her.
It was a song of rest to send off a warrior who’d fought to the end, demonstrating his pride.
“Wait, please. That’s… I don’t…”
With their song filling the air, Subaru slowly let go of his life. Seeing his tranquil face, Rem shook her head in denial.
She couldn’t understand. It didn’t make any sense.
The words he’d spoken were no answer to the question she wanted to ask.
But she knew that, at this rate, she would never find out why…
“Please, don’t die like this…”
Her soul was telling her that the man who had looked at her with such tender affection couldn’t be allowed to die here, even if he was still covered in that unbearable, repulsive, instinctively bloodcurdling scent.
Rem bit her lips, wishing for something…
“Aauuh?”
Suddenly, she felt a hand on her shoulder and heard a child’s voice.
“Oh.”
Looking over with tears in her eyes, she saw the blond-haired girl resting a hand on her shoulder. The girl’s face was vacant as she looked at Subaru, who had lost consciousness.
And then she started making sounds.
“This is…”
A warmth flowed into Rem’s shoulder from the girl’s hand. It was gentle and oozed ticklishly into her chest. She could feel her breathing grow unsteady, and she couldn’t hold back the tears that started flowing from her eyes.
The warmth flowed from the girl’s hand, welling up in Rem, and…
“………”
It flowed into Subaru, who was even now on the verge of losing his life in her arms.
“I see. Healing magic? I did not anticipate this.”
“Eh…?”
A man’s voice reached Rem’s ears as she struggled to understand what was happening. Looking up, she saw the black-haired man’s eyes narrow as he gazed at her.
She was about to ask him something, but…
“Close your mouth, woman. What you are doing unconsciously is a sort of miracle that is happening due to the stars aligning. If you lose focus, the effect will be lost.”
“………”
“Questions and anger can wait until you have dealt with what is at hand. Do not let this opportunity slip away.”
There was a weight to his words that was difficult to deny, so Rem closed her mouth and bit her tongue.
He was right, and so she focused on sending the heat into Subaru’s body as she held him.
She did not know what sort of effect the warmth was having. But Subaru’s breathing, which had been fading, was growing ever so slightly stronger.
That was enough for Rem in that moment.
“…I still don’t know who or what you are to me. But…”
She hesitated there, closing her eyes.
The way he’d said that he wanted her to be happy had not felt like a lie.
“If you don’t live, you won’t be able to see me smile,” she whispered softly.
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