6
At long last, our story returns to the duo in the first chapter: Subaru and Puck.
“When I started falling, I thought I was a dead man…” Subaru muttered.
“So did I,” Puck said. “But I’m glad you didn’t die. And I established a mental link with the pink-haired girl.”
“Your ability to fly saved my ass… Y’know, I wouldn’t have minded if you’d picked me up and flown.”
“I was worried I’d just pull your hair out.”
“Why would you pick me up by my hair?! There are better ways!”
Sniping at each other, Subaru and Puck were en route to rendezvous with Ram. Right after Subaru finished tumbling, he grabbed ahold of Puck, who had flown down to see if he was dead. Using the spirit as a go-between, Subaru and Ram worked out where they would rendezvous. Ram had proposed descending the slope to meet him, but having experienced how steep it was firsthand, Subaru had advised her to avoid it.
“If I just climb back up the slope, I should be able to find you just fine,” Subaru argued. “I don’t want to put you in any danger if we can avoid it.”
“Okay, I mimicked your tone and delivered the message,” Puck said. “Wanna hear what she said back?”
“Hah!” Subaru scoffed, mimicking Ram’s condescending tone flawlessly.
“Whoa, you sounded just like her!” Puck applauded in awe. Then, as Subaru gave himself a satisfied smirk, the little cat tilted his head and said, “By the way—did you manage to eat the rice ball Lia made?”
“Yeah, the inside part survived. And as gross as it looked, it actually tasted good. And knowing that Emilia shaped it by hand gave it a special flavor…”
“Maybe I’ll help form the rice balls next time. Think you can guess which ones I made?”
“Wouldn’t that be too easy? All the furry ones would be yours.”
It was a silly conversation, but it was all Puck’s way of keeping Subaru calm. They had been walking uphill to rendezvous with Ram for nearly two hours—and while they had significantly risen in elevation, the forest was getting darker and darker around them. And Subaru’s head swam with the sneaking suspicion that they were going the wrong way.
Just after he exhaled in exhaustion, Puck’s voice on his shoulder hit his ear. “Subaru—stop.”
The sensation of the spirit’s breath stopped his own breathing and tensed his hands and feet. Meanwhile, an eerie noise tickled Subaru’s eardrum. His body instinctively recoiled—it was the sound of a predator hunting its prey.
Then the source of the sound slowly emerged from the bushes in front of Subaru. Its body was covered with moist, green scales, and the bloodcurdling growls came from a mouth lined with sharp fangs. But most distinctive were the two sets of red eyes shining out from the darkness.
The twin-headed snake glared at Subaru. And growing from its heads were short, white horns.
“A demon beast…impersonation done by a smart snake, maybe?”
“An amusing interpretation, but no, that’s a demon beast. A two-headed snake. It’s surprisingly aggressive—poisonous, too.”
“A two-headed snake…but it’s not quite what I imagine a two-headed snake would look like.”
The demon beast before him did not have a long body with two necks growing from it. It was more simply constructed: a long body with a head on either end. It was indeed two-headed. Its name was not incorrect.
“I wouldn’t call that a two-headed snake—I’d call that a double-sided snake. How does it even poop?”
“As a rule, demon beasts absorb their food and convert it to mana, so they don’t defecate.”
“Dang, they’re just like pop idols. And they’re giving a big middle finger to the food chain.”
Though Subaru acted confident, his instincts were screaming as he beheld the two-headed snake before him. The demon beast was about seven feet long, about thirty feet between it and Subaru. It was a distance the demon beast could probably cross in one breath.
“I didn’t ask earlier, but can you fight today, Puck?”
“He-heh, a demon beast like that? Easy-peasy. The only potential difficulty is, since Lia isn’t here, I might not be able to chat with you anymore after I kill it.”
“Since I’d rather that than be dead, by all means, kill it, Professor.”
“If I must, I must. I shall live up to your expectations and—wait a minute.”
While they were talking, the body and eye color of the two-headed snake changed. Dyed in attack colors, the demon beast gave a giant lurch of its body, ready to spring at Subaru—
“Fura—!”
Then, the next moment, a gust of wind slashed the snake in two. And as Subaru watched in shock, the demon beast died without uttering so much as a whimper. As the demon beast spurt blue-green blood, Subaru looked at his bag. The little cat shook its head. And then—
“Woman’s intuition strikes again.”
Ram emerged from the bushes where the demon beast had appeared and got in the punchline. After several hours apart, the girl holding a staff had been his salvation.
“Thanks, Ram…you saved me.”
“Did your map help?”
“Ah, how fleeting my joy over our reunion. Your spicy sass is glorious as always, Ram.”
With a snort at Subaru, who had flopped onto the ground in relief, Ram shut away her staff and approached the two-headed snake corpse. Then, after a thorough examination of the demon beast—
“D-dude! What’re you doing?” Subaru gasped.
“What else? I’m accomplishing our mission. Though this was exactly what I was aiming for, you sure made it easy, Barusu.”
As she spoke, Ram cut off part of the snake—the section by its front head—and ripped a sort of white crystal from it.
“It’s a pure mana crystal formed in a demon beast’s body. And this one’s much bigger than I could have hoped for.”
“So that’s your fourth ingredient? A venomous snake’s innards—worse than I could’ve imagined.”
As a satisfied Ram collected her ingredient, Subaru despaired that his worst fears about their quest had come true. That explained why Ram had kept her mouth shut. If Subaru had known demon beasts were on the list, he would have been more cautious—
“Ah! Now I know the real reason why you brought me along! You used me as demon beast bait to lure the venomous snake to me!”
“For once, you’re quick on the uptake. And thanks to you, I could secure in half a day what would have ordinarily taken me several days. You did well. Credit where credit is due.”
“You little…”
Ram’s lack of remorse beyond the pale, Subaru’s blood boiled with rage. Subaru and Ram once ventured into the forest together to rescue Rem. So, of course, Ram knew about Subaru’s particular constitution and how vulnerable he was. Yet she had taken advantage of that and pushed Subaru past the barriers to lure demon beasts to her. It was downright deceptive—
“No, wait a minute—just when did I cross over the barrier anyway?”
Noticing the preconditions were strange, Subaru looked at Puck. Carefree though he was, a spirit was still a spirit. And there was no way that the little cat spirit wouldn’t have noticed they had crossed a barrier.
Puck flinched at Subaru’s suspicious stare. “Mmmm, so you found out, I guess? Listen, Subaru—”
“Mighty spirit.”
But Ram cut him off. Subaru noticed something was amiss, but Ram took no notice and turned to start walking.
Then she suddenly wobbled.
“Whoa, Ram!”
Hastily reaching out to grab the staggering Ram, Subaru was shocked by how hot she was to the touch when he caught her. Upon closer glance, her forehead and neck were drenched with sweat.
“It’s just like that time with the Urugarum—you used up too much mana! Ram!”
“I’m fine…no big deal. Let me go.”
She seemed arrogant rather than healthy. Before she could complain, Subaru scooped her into his arms. She was light as ever. And her body was still burning up.
“Lascivious.”
“Just shut up and let me carry you! Hey, Puck! Put those ingredients in my pack for me! Then take me to the bolk tree. You can use my map…you know the way, don’t you!”
“Well, you did discover my evil plan, after all. All right, all right, your wish is my command…”
With the disgruntled Ram in his arms, Subaru took off running behind Puck as he flew. He ran without paying attention to his surroundings, branches scraping his legs and shoulders.
Subaru’s skin was covered in countless cuts as he ran. This would have happened to anybody who ran single-mindedly like that.
So it was inevitable a multitude of red marks would also cover Ram’s pale skin as he cradled her in his arms.
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