6
“What’s this…? Could it be…I was being toyed with? Is my imagination to blame?” Liliana asked.
“Uh, no. You’re to blame,” Subaru quipped.
The two were walking back toward Earlham Village.
When Subaru pointed out how ditzy Liliana was, she gave him a hurt look and said, “Wh-what a horrible thing to say! I don’t think that’s any way to treat a poor maiden who’s devastated by the realization that she’s been deceived… Don’t you agree?!”
“Oh, no, Subaru is always a lovely gentleman.”
“How am I supposed to deal with such blind devotion?!”
Liliana was nearly in tears after Rem disagreed politely. As Subaru watched her struggle, he sighed, realizing that his days would be quite eventful for some time.
Liliana had fallen into Roswaal’s cunning trap and agreed to stay at his manor under surveillance. They were currently on the way back to Earlham Village to gather her things. On the surface, Subaru and Rem were there to help her, but really, they were there to watch over her and make sure she didn’t try to escape.
Roswaal had given Subaru strict instructions not to let Liliana out of his sight, and Subaru assumed that Rem was there because he wasn’t reliable. In other words, neither Subaru nor Liliana were trusted.
In reality, Subaru was reading too much into things, and Rem was merely there because she had wanted to come.
“But man, Rozchi is so mean sometimes… Not like I don’t get what he’s trying to do here.”
“Chore boy, do you have an inkling as to what the marquis is thinking?”
“Roughly, yeah. But for similar reasons, my lips are sealed. That’s the one area where he and I agree. It does piss me off, though.”
“Mrrgruff.”
When she failed to get Subaru to talk, Liliana let out a cry like a mythical beast. Subaru did feel bad for her. She was so close to achieving her mission, but the thing she was searching for was nowhere to be seen.
“Look, leaving your mark on history isn’t so easy,” Subaru grumbled. “As for this hero’s epic you’re searching for, I have no idea how anybody is supposed to find history in the present.”
“Exactly! It’s quite hard. Ideally, I would find a hero who hasn’t made a name for themselves yet, follow them around, and turn their life into a song…but without some way of seeing into the future, that’s never going to happen!”
“B-bu-bu-bu-but there’s no…absolutely no way you can see into the future! Dumbass!”
In a way, it wouldn’t be such a stretch to describe Return by Death as peering into the future. So when the conversation seemed to touch upon his unique ability, Subaru visibly panicked. Liliana cast a suspicious glance at Subaru—but Rem intervened. She smiled, clapped her hands, and said, “Well, I have great news for you. It turns out I have a lead on this new legend.”
“What?! D-do you really…?!” Liliana’s face turned into a warped expression of surprise and joy over the unexpected news. Given Rem’s consistently friendly demeanor, it was believable when she offered to help.
Of course, Subaru couldn’t let that slide without saying anything. If Rem was thinking what Roswaal was thinking, then it would be premature to divulge that secret to Liliana. Ultimately, there was little point in worrying over what Rem would say, because she proudly smiled and pointed to the person beside her.
“It’s Subaru.”
“Uh—what?!”
“Here is your newest legend. The hero whose name will echo throughout history is Subaru.”
Subaru and Liliana let out a dazed grunt in unison. Rem hammered her point home by pushing Subaru forward. Her recommendation was so confident that Subaru forgot to interject, Is this a bit?
“It’s Subaru.”
Rem repeated herself again. It was hard to tell whether she was serious or whether she was engaging in subterfuge. But if nothing else, Liliana had her answer. She looked back and forth between Rem and Subaru and said, “The muse has spoken! I present you with my new song—‘The New Legend of the Womanizer.’”
“Shut up!”
With a snarl at Liliana (who showed no signs whatsoever of believing Rem), Subaru heaved a loud sigh. A marquis’s manservant had foreseen the disaster about to befall the village, had put his life on the line to stop the demon beasts, and had kept the villagers safe and earned their trust—who in the world would buy such a story?
“I was being serious, you know… It’s sad that you don’t believe me.”
Judging by the way Rem’s shoulders fell, she really did look sad. Subaru was starting to feel guilty. He had enough self-awareness to know he didn’t deserve such pure faith.
Return by Death was Subaru’s one and only special ability he had gained when he came to this new world. Even armed with that power, Subaru had failed countless times to protect the village and Roswaal Manor from tragedy.
Somebody else could have done better with this power. His self-doubt ran deep.
“No matter how you die, it always hurts the same… It’d sure be nice if I had an easier and more painless way to reload my save point.”
His ability was always initiated the same way. The trigger was nothing short of death. Not only had he never asked for this power, but it also wasn’t an ability he could welcome with open arms. If he ever met the supernatural being that’d bestowed him with this unwanted gift, he’d sooner punch them in the face than thank them.
Then the atmosphere took a sudden change.
“Subaru…” Rem’s voice was low and filled with caution, and her hand had stretched out to bar his path. The grave tone in Rem’s voice jolted Subaru out of his thoughts and back to reality. He quickly realized why Rem had gotten his attention.
“Who the hell are these guys…?” he murmured.
On the path ahead, standing between them and the village, were four silhouettes. They were clearly bad news—all of them were swathed in white cloaks. Their faces were hidden, as were their limbs and the rest of their bodies. It was impossible to tell who they were in those white head coverings, white masks, and white costumes. The strangers were covered from head to toe in white.
“Wow, lucky me. And here I thought Roswaal was the only pervert I’d get to see today…”
Subaru made a little quip, his eyes racing over his surroundings. First, there was no sign of another band ready to attack while the four robed figures distracted them. Still, from the way they were quietly blocking the path, it was hard to mistake them for traveling performers.
“If you’re lost, check your feet,” Subaru told the group. “Ground without any grass is what most people call a road. Incidentally, the lord of this land’s manor is behind us, and past you guys is a small village…”
“ ”
“Aha. So you aren’t a lost band of travelers asking for directions,” Subaru said provocatively.
The quartet answered Subaru’s taunt by silently raising their long white sleeves to reveal a glimmer of sword tips. As the strangers slinked forward with their partially obscured weapons in hand, Subaru caught his breath. Without warning, all four raised their blades high, ready to strike Subaru and his stupefied party.
“I do not know who you are or where you come from, but I have deemed you hostile.”
As soon as Rem finished saying that, her fist made contact with the white-hooded face at the front of the pack. With the distinct sound of something hard smashing into flesh, the stranger flew backward and crashed into the ground headfirst. Rem’s victim landed face up, limbs splayed and white mask stained red.
The heinous sight made Subaru grit his teeth. He murmured, “That’s gotta hurt…”
“Huh—?”
The white-robed men had just broken their silence with a grunt of disbelief. The way they recoiled after seeing what happened to their battered ally suddenly made them seem very human.
Not that it would change what was about to unfold.
“I lost my weapon in the forest the other day, so I’m afraid I shall have to fight barehanded until I find a replacement. Is that all right?”
Rem had put it rather adorably, but her misplaced weapon of choice was a demonically gargantuan spiked morning star, and her pale, thin arms belied how lethally she wielded it. There was a beauty in her martial prowess, as she had demonstrated earlier with the devastating punch.
As Rem raised her fists menacingly at the men in white, they immediately set into motion.
“Retreat!”
The men slinked away with slippery movements just like when they attacked, carrying their unconscious ally on their backs as they beat a hasty retreat. Rem’s eyes followed them as they disappeared into the trees. She didn’t relax until she could no longer sense their presence.
“I was a little nervous. Whenever I meet ruffians like that unarmed, I always fear I will be unable to protect you, Subaru.”
“For someone who was nervous, that was a pretty sick straight right.”
“Oh, Subaru, you’re making me blush.”
After nodding at Rem, whose hands were pressed to her pink cheeks, Subaru looked at the trees where the white-robed men had run off to. They didn’t look like typical bandits to him.
“What’s your theory? Were they here to hinder Emilia’s claim to the throne?”
“That is one possibility. Master Roswaal is also a man who has many enemies. While this sort of incident isn’t exactly frequent, it does happen.”
“Are you shitting me? Way to make a guy question the safety of his workplace. Also, one more thing…”
Rem had casually said something quite concerning, but Subaru’s focus was somewhere else. He glared over at the girl who had remained silent this whole time and was already in the process of sneaking off.
Grabbing her shoulders from behind, Subaru forced the kindest smile he could muster onto his face and said, “And where do you think you’re running off to, Liliana?”
“Eep! I’m sorry please forgive me I’ll apologize just please stop sneering at me like that you’re scaring me!”
“I’m not sneering! I’m smiling to relieve tension. See?”
“Eep!”
Liliana only cowered more at the sight of Subaru’s giant smile. Subaru was shocked by her reaction, but Rem pulled Liliana away from him and patted her back as if she were soothing a whimpering puppy.
“There, there, Subaru is nothing to fear. His eyes are just lovelier than the average person’s.”
“Th-that’s a rather subjective opinion…but I’m okay now. I’ve calmed down. Yes.”
“Okay, I feel weird for a buttload of reasons…but whatever. Anyway, why’d you try to bail on us? Maybe I’m being paranoid, but are you…?”
Are you in league with those white-robed dudes and your real goal is to stop Emilia’s bid for the crown? Subaru had suspected that might be why she had approached them. But before he could voice his question, Liliana fell to her knees on the spot.
“I’m sho shorry! Butbutbut I didn’t do nothin’ wrong! Those guys have just been chasing me forever…so I thought, Gee, it’d be nice to put a stop to that…then I started to think, Gee, maybe I could ask the people at that marquis’s manor for help, then one thing led to another and—!”
Subaru’s eyes went blank as he watched Liliana prostrate herself and beg for forgiveness. Based on her sheer desperation, he decided it was safe to assume she wasn’t their enemy.
“So that excuse you gave about being targeted by assassins during that nap—that wasn’t a lie?!”
A much more substantial problem had just surfaced. All Subaru could do was clutch his head and groan.
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