2
“Still, it’s great that you woke up without any problems,” Mizelda said with a bold, heroic smile.
The young chief of the Shudrak, her black hair dyed red, embodied an Amazonian lifestyle. Her straightforward, carefree demeanor was infectious, and it made Subaru naturally want to cut loose, too.
“It’s thanks to you that I’m still kicking. Sorry for making you worry,” Subaru replied.
“Don’t worry about it. If you had died, your valiant Shudrak soul would have returned to the heavens, and your body to the earth. Nothing more. The fact that your soul remains here is something to celebrate.”
Subaru scratched his cheek awkwardly, unsure how to respond to her unflinching sincerity. He’d been prepared to die when first captured by the Shudrak, but the bond they’d developed after all the twists and turns was deeply gratifying.
“It’s a shame you already have partners. Have you thought about taking another after Rem and Louis?” Mizelda teased with a mischievous glint in her eye.
“Mizelda!”
Rem’s sharp voice cut through the air. She approached with a new staff for support, Louis clinging tightly to her arm now that she was awake. After surprising Louis with her sudden shout, she gently patted the girl’s head before glaring at Mizelda.
“That’s too much. I neither trust nor understand this man.”
“Then can I have him?” Mizelda asked playfully.
“Yes, of course. I’ll gladly give him to you,” Rem said coldly, without hesitation.
“What about what I want?!” Subaru exclaimed.
“Aauu!” Louis shouted, adding to the commotion. The bizarre exchange left Subaru flustered, but it was clear that Mizelda looked on Subaru favorably now. The rest of the tribe, including Mizelda’s younger sister, seemed to share her opinion—likely due to his having survived their ritual of blood.
However…
“That doesn’t mean my opinion of you has necessarily improved,” Subaru said to a masked man standing nearby.
“Hmph. Such arrogance. Are you claiming you could have achieved the same results alone? If so, your conceit is laughable,” the man shot back.
“I wouldn’t say that. I don’t even think it. It’s just…” Subaru’s lips curled into a frown.
“What?” the man asked, irritation clear in his voice.
Subaru shrugged, meeting his provocative gaze. “It’s hard to take anything seriously from a guy wearing a mask.”
The man wore a red-and-white oni-style mask that Subaru found unnerving. Since there were already people called oni in this world, it probably had a different name here, but that didn’t matter—it was intimidating, plain and simple.
The two of them stood in the largest structure of the Shudrak village, a simple wooden gathering hall. Mizelda and her sister Talitta represented the Shudrak, while Subaru was accompanied by Rem, leaning on her staff, and Louis, who clung to her arm. And right in the middle of them all stood the masked man.
“I received this mask and had always intended to keep my face hidden,” the masked man said. “Rewrapping the bandages whenever I washed my face was a hassle.”
“I bet it got itchy when it was dirty, too…” Subaru grimaced before narrowing his eyes. “But that’s not what I wanted to talk about. I want to talk with you one-on-one, Vincent Abelks.”
“ ”
Though the mask obscured his expression, the air grew heavy, and the temperature seemed to drop. Subaru’s declaration filled the room with tension, but he held his ground despite the pressure.
The masked man slowly shook his head. “I let it slide the first time because you weren’t fully lucid, but I will not repeat myself. There won’t be a third time. Do not speak my name so freely.”
“And if I said I didn’t want to stop?”
“Then you would receive a fitting punishment. I know any number of ways to make you admit defeat.”
Subaru instinctively understood that the man wasn’t bluffing. Even with limited options, he would do whatever he deemed necessary.
“You’re a real irritating guy…”
“Do you wish to test me a third time?”
“—No. I’ll leave it at that. I didn’t come here to pick a fight…Abel,” Subaru said, conceding for now.
The masked man—Abel, as Subaru had decided to go along with for now—nodded at Subaru’s decision.
“Wise. If you had persisted, blood would surely have been spilled,” Abel replied coolly.
“You’ve got a lot of nerve,” Subaru muttered. “But if we went at it, I’d say it’s a coin flip.”
“Let us see if you still believe that after you take a look behind you,” Abel countered.
Turning, Subaru saw Rem coldly observing their argument.
“Uhhh, Rem? Your face…”
“Oh, it’s nothing. I’m just watching someone who spent three days on the brink of death trying his hardest to get himself injured again over pointless stubbornness. Why don’t you just die in a gutter somewhere and save us all the trouble?”
Faltering under Rem’s withering gaze, Subaru desperately apologized. “Sorry! I was wrong! I won’t do it again!”
While he clearly failed to regain what little trust Rem had had in him, Subaru did have a realization. He’d likely survived his near-mortal wounds due to healing magic, and there was only one person who could have cast it.
“The handling of that matter is precisely why we need to talk,” Abel interjected, reading Subaru’s thoughts. “Mizelda, have everyone else leave. I and this man alone will be sufficient.”
“Awfully bossy. If you weren’t so handsome, I’d be angry.”
“Sister, please be angry even if he is handsome…,” Talitta muttered, her shoulders slumping as Mizelda breezily accepted Abel’s instructions. But she didn’t argue. As the chief, Mizelda made the final decision, and she and Talitta left the meeting place. Only Rem and Louis remained, the latter staring blankly, not comprehending the situation.
“Rem, could you please give us a moment? He’s got…something really important to talk about,” Subaru said.
“…And what if I said no?”
“Eh?!”
Rem’s sharp response left Subaru reeling. He had prepared himself for the difficulty of dealing with Abel, but her resistance caught him completely off guard. Truthfully, he was powerless against her criticism, always wanting to fulfill her every wish, no matter how small. But…
“…I’d rather you…not hear this…I guess?”
It was the best answer he could muster under her piercing gaze.
Just then, Louis tugged on Rem’s sleeve and let out a small groan. The tiny girl seemed to be trying to drag Rem out of the meeting place with her meager strength. Subaru watched in surprise as a faint smile crept onto Rem’s face.
“Sorry. I just wanted to vent a little at this smelly person before we leave,” Rem said to Louis, her words calm but cutting.
“Smelly…,” Subaru muttered, feeling the sting of her remark but choosing not to respond.
True to her word, Rem left the room hand in hand with Louis. As they disappeared, Subaru exhaled deeply.
I can’t tell if she’s starting to trust me or if she actually hates me more than ever.
“Obviously, I’d love to be trusted, but I’m not getting my hopes up. That’s just my style…”
“What trifling perseverance and hubris. Come, I shall listen to your story,” Abel interjected.
Now alone, Subaru and Abel sat facing each other, the firelight flickering between them. Subaru sat cross-legged, while Abel reclined with one knee propped up, his mask still in place.
“The first thing I want to know is how much of all that was real and how much was a dream,” Subaru began cautiously.
“Ha. That is a question only you can answer. Were I to tell you it was an ephemeral, fleeting dream, and the situation unfolded peacefully, would you be satisfied?”
“There’s a girl among the Shudrak named Utakata, so I’d say your hypothetical is kind of distracting…”
The girl’s name sounded just like the Japanese word for ephemeral, but that clearly wasn’t what Abel meant. Subaru knew he wouldn’t let him avoid the subject with pointless jokes.
“I have no intention of indulging your timidity, Subaru Natsuki.”
“…Yeah, I know. So the attack on that camp was real, then?”
“Of course. The military camp outside of the Badheim Jungle was completely destroyed by the Shudrak. What you saw was no illusion or dream.”
Abel’s confirmation hit Subaru hard. His chest felt tight, and he was having trouble breathing. He had desperately wanted it to be a nightmare, something he could wake up from. But reality didn’t offer him that escape.
“…I see. So you led the Shudrak and attacked the imperial camp and drove them off.”
“Yes. However, that alone was not the reason for our success. That achievement belongs to you.”
“Huh?”
“Do you not understand? Our ability to crush the enemy was due to knowing the details of their deployment. Those details came from none other than you,” Abel said, resting his chin in his palm and his elbow on his knee.
Subaru froze, his mind struggling to process what he had just heard. His mouth opened and closed as he tried to form a response, but no words came out.
“What…what are you saying? I…I didn’t…”
“The formation, the positions of the enemy forces—knowing these details drastically improved our chances of success. Thanks to that, we achieved victory without losses. That was your contribution. You even secured a reward for your efforts.”
“…”
“That is what saved your woman. I reward performance, but there is no reward for the dead. I acted quickly while you still drew breath. Hmph. You are a lucky man.”
Abel’s words landed like daggers. Subaru couldn’t believe what he was hearing. Perhaps to Abel that was a compliment, but Subaru was from a culture that disagreed fundamentally.
What kind of reward was being a tool of war?
“I said something…about the camp? Why would I…?”
“The side effects of treatment. You were on the verge of death after the ritual of blood. Medicine was administered to keep you alive long enough to meet your woman. In your semilucid state, you answered the questions put to you.”
“So I just…told you everything while I was out of it?”
Subaru buried his face in his hands, his voice trembling.
It was true. He knew the camp’s layout fairly well. During his time as an errand boy, he had memorized details about troop numbers and weapon locations—information any commander would kill for. But so what?
“What medicine?! You forced some crap down my throat to make me talk?!” Subaru snapped.
“Without it, you would have died before reuniting with your woman. Her healing magic would not have helped you. A dead man has no right to complain about being saved.”
“Of course I do! I didn’t want to be part of a war! So many people died…and you—!”
“You misunderstand,” Abel interrupted, his voice icy.
“Misunderstand? What exactly am I getting wrong?”
“Even without the medicine, you needed the Shudrak’s help to save your woman. That would have required sharing your knowledge.”
“I…agh…”
“Whether you were lucid or not, the outcome remains the same. The camp’s secrets would still have been revealed, and the soldiers would still have died.”
Subaru tried to argue but found himself unable to refute Abel’s logic. Even assuming he had come out of the trial in better shape, he still would’ve had to share what he knew about the camp.
“At the very least, if I had been involved in the planning, I wouldn’t have agreed to any plan that led to deaths.”
“You think you could have convinced them? That you could persuade those who know no method beyond killing to devise a plan without bloodshed? One that could have saved your woman still?”
“That’s… I…”
“It is a flight of fancy.”
Abel’s words pierced Subaru’s heart. The gap between their values was insurmountable, and there had been no magic solution.
Even if there were, I probably wouldn’t have been able to find it in what little time I had before Rem was gone.
“Still, I didn’t want to give up,” Subaru muttered through clenched teeth.
“And in exchange for your refusal to give up, someone else would die. Perhaps a stranger, or perhaps your other half. Standing still and indulging in foolish ideals allows such deaths to occur.”
“And who are you to decide who lives and who dies? Do you think you’re a god?”
“Fool. I am neither god nor hero. Nor am I some detached observer. I am a king. A king among kings,” Abel declared, his tone as unshakable as his gaze.
“…”
“The people call he who stands at the summit emperor,” Abel declared, placing a hand to his chest. “That is I.”
Though his mask concealed his expression, Subaru could imagine the face beneath—a fearless smile and blazing eyes. His voice and words were so regal, they left little room for doubt.
While Subaru froze up, Abel—Vincent Abelks—spoke with unwavering authority.
“The seventy-seventh emperor of the Holy Volakian Empire. That is who I am.”
“…”
“Though at present I have been removed from the summit and my throne.”
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