As soon as Subaru was dragged out through the door, he felt a sensation of floating, as if the world had flipped upside down.

“—Ugh!?”

Falling onto the hard ground with his back, he gasped for air as the pain squeezed it from his lungs. Rolling across the floor from the force, he finally came to a stop against the wall. Shaking his head as if to clear the dizzying sensation, he lifted his face, eyes squinting in pain.

“Beatrice…”

He uttered the name of the girl he couldn’t even call out to at their parting, but by now, that sound would never reach her. The ‘Door Crossing’ had taken place, creating an insurmountable distance between the two of them. Her rejection was high and deep, and Subaru’s voice could not pierce through it.

“Why am I… always…!”

Why did he only realize his mistakes after he had chosen the absolute worst option?

Even though all he wished for was to grasp the best means and the brightest future, why was he always insufficient, weak, and foolish?

“Why do you have the Gospel…? What are you…!?”

The black-covered book in her hands—the existence of the Gospel decisively widened the gap between them.

Until now, Subaru had believed firmly that there was certainly ‘something’ he had built up with Beatrice in a short time.

Even if they exchanged sharp words and made unpleasant faces at one another, Subaru was the only one who believed that there was something beyond that.

That was a delusion. It was arrogance. It was the height of misunderstanding.

The ‘something’ that Subaru had so stubbornly believed in was merely a self-serving product, and Beatrice harbored feelings towards him that were exactly what her words expressed. She had only indulged Subaru out of duty commanded by the Gospel, and deep down she had rejected and despised him.

“…Is that really so?”

Told that the bond he thought existed was an illusion, Beatrice cut off Subaru’s desire to deny it with an angry voice.

She affirmed that what had been a fake connection and that nothing had stirred in her heart regarding Subaru’s existence, only that everything had been out of a sense of obligation.

“All those times you laughed, got angry, tried to protect me… were all just scripted lies…?”

It couldn’t be true, Subaru’s weak heart still wanted to deny it. At the final moment, the tearful voice of Beatrice just before their separation clouded the truth of her words.

It was too early to come to any conclusion within himself.

“No matter what the book says, I remember that you saved me… That’s a fact that won’t change, and it’s a debt that only I know about.”

Within the loops starting from the mansion, Subaru had been saved by Beatrice numerous times.

He’d repeatedly visited her Forbidden Library to gather his thoughts while time ‘returned from death,’ and when he bore the curse of a beast, she had literally saved his life by wishing to break the curse. In the world of the vanished loop, even when Subaru was forced to flee with Ram and Roswaal after letting Rem die, she came to protect him, going so far as to twist the verbal contract.

That greatest grace still resided only in Subaru’s heart and not in this world.

“At that time… I was happy.”

She saved him from thinking that he had no allies left.

When Subaru considered the two of them, Rem and Ram, as enemies, unable to discern Roswaal’s intentions and even struggling to trust Emilia, only Beatrice had saved him.

That moment, that ephemeral bond had saved Subaru more than words could express, a debt he could never repay.

“I’ll repay this debt. Whether you lent it to me willingly or respected the will of the book, I can’t ascertain… so let me confirm that.”

He couldn’t throw that question at her, now clearly having solidified her rejection of him. Thus, his resolve had no meaning in this world and would have to carry over into the next.

He raised his right hand. Three fingers were missing. His shoulders and waist were taut, his head had been hit hard, and his tongue had been shortened. Each of these was a pain he mustn’t forget.

Rem was behind his closed eyelids. Petra, Frederica floated into view, Beatrice turned away from him, and lastly, Emilia appeared.

The —everything that Subaru had lost, that he hadn’t been able to grasp in this world.

To reclaim it, he had to take action. He would do again what had been obstructed by Beatrice, diving back into the spiral once more.

“—”

Extending his shortened tongue, Subaru steeled himself to bite down again.

Remembering the once-failed act of self-determination, the suffering resurfaced and made him tremble. Weakness arose, and his legs shook. Playing at resolve means nothing in front of the end.

Pushing through the overwhelming negative emotions, he fought against the greatest of them, the fear of death. And praying he could turn back to the time when he could do it all over again, Subaru attempted to close his eyes for the final moment.

“…Where… am I?”

He finally noticed that the place he had arrived at after passing through the ‘Door Crossing’ was completely unfamiliar.

※※　※　※　※　※　※　※　※　※　※　※　※

To Subaru, it didn’t resemble any familiar part of Roswaal’s Mansion.

In a damp stone-paved space, the walls were filthy with climbing vines. Scattered about were rusted metal tools—things that looked like some sort of equipment, giving a sense of discomfort from the visual clutter.

And above all—

“Ugh—!?”

Once he realized it, he couldn’t help but notice the overwhelmingly thick stench.

It was a putrid smell that was different from the scent of rotting organic waste, yet nothing else could truly describe it. The stench made him feel nauseous, and Subaru covered his mouth, forcing the gastric juices from his empty stomach to surface.

Gushing yellowish vomit onto the floor, he scanned the surroundings. The more he looked around, the more it felt like an unknown space, and its otherness stood out more than anything.

The space had dark stone tiles, and its size felt like about two rooms of Roswaal’s guest area—neither particularly spacious nor confined.

In one corner of the room lay scattered desks and strange apparatus, and occupying most of the remaining space was—

“A broken desk and… a crystal…? Crystals and shards of magical ore? Plus this hole…?”

Looking down, debris from a shattered desk and power-less magical ore was littered about, and in front of it was a hole about four meters in diameter, yawning open—a hole so deep that even the lack of light wouldn’t reveal its bottom.

When he glanced up at the wall, there were luminescent mosses glowing with a pale blue light sprouting from it. Such moss, which thrives in forests, seems to absorb mana from the air and glow. Places around the mansion depended on starlight and light moss to avoid complete darkness.

Consciously crawling on the ground while feeling the dampness of his pants and the slime that soiled his palms, he stared intently at the bottom of the hole.

A quiet, chilly wind wafted upward, carrying with it a stench that twisted his nose—no, a stench that might crush it.

“Ugh… It’s a good thing I didn’t have the courage to look inside… what is that smell?”

If it were the peculiar scent of something alive, it might have hinted at a far worse possibility. However, the foul odor seeping from the hole was different from rotting meat or water and was more akin to the smell of chemical agents.

He experienced the unmistakable pain in the nostrils that came with the strong smell of chemicals. What reached him from the murky depths of the hole was a distinctly non-biological scent.

“…Anything else?”

Mentally and physically giving up on confirming the bottom of the hole, Subaru wiped his nose and resumed breathing through his mouth as he surveyed the room.

The notable things were the desk wreckage and the remnants of the magical stone. The iron desk had been smashed by an enormous impact, and it seemed the magical crystals had been piled on top. When Subaru turned the distorted desk over, he noticed patterns intricately engraved on the top.

“Looks like a… magic circle…?”

Such magic circles are somewhat staple in fantasy worlds, but since coming to this world, he hadn’t encountered one. In this realm, magic usually interacts with the outside world through the biological bodies of living creatures, and save for a few exceptions like magical lamps or magical tools, he hadn’t come across anything like it.

Given that, the discovery of a magic circle certainly felt astonishing, but—

“Does it actually have an effect? And if it does, why would it be here…? I mean, what’s the point of placing a magic circle?”

It could be that it lacked the means to activate magic directly here or carried some function to receive distant magical effects. Alternatively, it might serve as a system to continue some spell without any casters.

“If that’s the case, then it makes sense why uncharged magical stones are lying about.”

It seemed logical to conclude that the magical stones, which had been external energy tanks, ran dry, thus causing the magic circle to lose its power. However, the mystery remained about both the hole’s origin and the destroyed desk. There might still be a possibility that the setup was meant to cause an explosion when the spell was interrupted.

Yet, even so—

“In the end, I still have no answers about where this place is.”

The dark hole whose extent remained unknown. The magic circle and magical stones that seemingly performed some kind of magic. Observing the room suffused with the rotten stench and noticing another desk and tools in the corner—he picked up a rusty piece of metal.

Some sort of pliers or snippers—tools typically used when making plastic models. This object also soaked in the same slime that had dirtied the ground and was crumbling to dust under Subaru’s touch, indicating just how long it had been abandoned.

The desk was in a similar state; aged and decaying, its legs had broken from wear, and it crumbled to scrap metal the moment Subaru lightly set foot on it.

There was no helpful information to be found from this examination. The only intriguing matter was—

“The way they broke and when they broke differs significantly from the desk near the hole…”

Unlike this area, which had grown weak over time and faced collapse, the desks by the hole were clearly warped by some force of destruction. Judging by the appearance of the shattered base, it was clear that the destruction had occurred rather recently—within just a few days.

“A broken room… Who did this, and for what purpose…?”

Voicing the question, Subaru suddenly felt his thoughts turning ridiculous.

What was he supposed to do with this arising question? It didn’t seem to be the kind of thing that could be answered through contemplation, and moreover, Subaru already had enough problems to carry in both arms.

He must avoid putting any more small items into the burden of his already overflowing luggage, lest it hasten the collapse of his sense of stability. Most importantly, his act of diverting his attention like this felt like a futile struggle to delay the impending moment of self-determination, and it was unbearably frustrating.

Yet, even while understanding this nagging feeling of ‘shame,’ the otherness of this room gripped Subaru tightly. He was witnessing something immensely important right now.

“—”

Driven by the unanswerable conviction, Subaru swiveled his head, searching for an exit from the room. Given that he had been thrown in here by the ‘Door Crossing,’ it was impossible he’d be trapped in a room with only one unopenable door.

Sure enough, he found a small, openable door situated at the top of the wall—a kind of ventilation flap, perhaps.

No other entrances appeared in this room. The proper door must have been on the other side of the gaping hole—a place he couldn’t access.

Once he swallowed that fact, Subaru abandoned any reasonable escape routes. Rubbing the mysterious slime and sweat from his palms onto his trousers, he took a deep breath before extending his fingers toward the mentioned flap.

His fingertips barely reached the flap’s opening, which was just about the size of a trash chute. It wasn’t so narrow that a human couldn’t squeeze through, but Subaru wasn’t exactly delicate enough to pass through comfortably.

Struggling with his right hand’s insufficient grip, he creaked the rusty flap open, twisting his body into the narrow passage. It felt like a vent. Worst case, he thought of it as a potential nesting ground for bugs and mice, but surprisingly, it was—while unclean—not entirely filthy; the dust-clad path contained no signs of any living creatures, which was his only relief.

After crawling through the tight passage for about three minutes, just as he got used to the movement, he reached the endpoint. Landing in a room connected to the previous one, he quickly glanced around, paying utmost care not to overlook any holes.

“This room feels different from the last one. Instead of that lab, this looks like a waiting room or something.”

The space was simply about half the size of the prior room—likely meant only as a pass-through. Aside from the two doors that led out, there was nothing else interesting about it. In all fairness, it was precisely like a waiting room.

If there had only been magazines and chairs, it would have been the perfect setup…

“Considering the direction I came from, this door should lead towards… yep, as expected.”

Turning the squeaky doorknob and pushing against it opened a hole right before him, collapsing along with the surrounding base. Stifling a small sigh at the dangerous trap, Subaru promptly closed the door, which was clearly of little use to him—there was a foul stench creeping in from that room as well, and he regretted not making that judgment sooner.

Shaking his head lightly to clear it, he turned to the opposite door. If this door led to a place Subaru didn’t know yet…

“…”

Naturally, he couldn’t suppress the cold sweat running down his back after wiping himself off.

He didn’t know what lay beyond this door, but he had to entertain the worst possibilities of what might be waiting for him there.

“If this is… inside the mansion, then…”

While the room was unfamiliar, it wouldn’t be too strange to immediately come face-to-face with Elsa. And if he were to encounter his killer, he had no confidence in being able to maintain his composure.

The intense urge to die as soon as possible transformed into a hatred that made him want to grind his teeth.

Simply imagining the lunatic who had killed Petra, Frederica, and—Rem—stirred such rage within Subaru that it made him feel like his very brain was about to boil.

The conflicting feelings of wishing to find him and hoping he was nowhere to be found swirled within him, as he carved a manic grin onto his face.

“—”

Whether or not he actually existed, that insane emotion wouldn’t betray him.

In the realm beyond that distorted logic, where the world awaited him—

“—Ah!”

Before him was a scenery he had never expected to see.

※※　※　※　※　※　※　※　※　※　※　※　※

In Subaru’s mind, the unrecognizable space he stood in was a question he had already answered for himself.

After all, there were almost no places in Roswaal’s mansion where Subaru hadn’t set foot, so if he had any unknown possibilities left, they had to be behind the door that he had reached towards twice without being able to witness what lay beyond—the ‘evacuation route.’

The first time, he was blocked by the spirit with the gray fur, and the second time he had to retreat due to an encounter with a murderer. Thus, Subaru had never laid eyes on what lay beyond that door.

Because of that, he felt a combination of distrust towards this enigmatic place, yet he had no doubts that it was part of Roswaal’s mansion.

“Where am I…?”

A stupefied, foolish voice slipped out of him, asking the question to no one in particular.

In front of Subaru, beyond the open door stretched not a cold, dark underground corridor—but a natural scene overrun with green, thick trees, and bizarrely enough,

“Ah, morning…?”

He could see the sun rising in the sky through the gaps in the trees. Picking up on the height of the sun and the sensation of the wind, he sensed that it was the early morning breeze, raising further suspicions in his mind.

Subaru had returned to the mansion just before dusk, and considering the time he had spent after that—chatting with Petra and Frederica, followed by Elsa’s assault—Subaru’s injuries had been incurred just before it got dark, and now nearly half a day seemed to have passed since then.

“Did I lose consciousness for that long…?!”

Back when he decisively bit his tongue to self-determine, Subaru had indeed lost consciousness. The time until he had woken again, he had been so consumed with regret over still being alive that he had forgotten how long he had been in the Forbidden Library.

Remembering Beatrice’s claim that the place was “disconnected from the flow of time,” he pondered how credible that was.

“If I end up being overwritten with a save point…!”

It would be an unimaginable disaster.

Before the repeatedly anticipated circumstance turned into reality, Subaru had to end his own life as quickly as possible. However, a sense of anxious urgency waged a mental battle against another emotion that was demanding to be voiced. That feeling shouted out.

—He needed to figure out just where this place was.

What good a question like that did, he didn’t know. Reflecting on everything that had transpired and considering the heinous nature of ‘Return by Death,’ he should be killing himself right now.

Yet, part of Subaru that was painfully rational was understanding his current circumstance and suggesting that he must figure it out.

“Damn it!”

Kicking the ground, he spat on the earth and began stepping toward the forest before him. Weaving through the trees, thoughts of his conversation with Petra returned to mind.

He recalled that the evacuation route led to the mountain behind the mansion, connecting to a mountain cabin, which was their planned escape route during evacuations where they would take the emergency supplies.

If he trusted that verbal account, the current locale was indeed that mountain cabin, and he was running through the mountains behind the mansion where he had stepped foot several times before. However,

“Is this really the cabin? Where’s the emergency bag? More importantly… what kind of rescue measures would be kept at a place looking like it’s been left untouched for so long?!”

What he had seen before were merely eerie rooms and a myriad of ominous clues. With only a scant few points that matched Petra’s description. Above all, if Frederica and Rem had regularly checked up on it, that would not explain the disarray that now appeared.

Dashing through the forest, he found himself questioning the lack of a slope. Shouldn’t the cabin be on a mountain rather than on flat terrain with no incline for hundreds of meters around? Losing sight of where he currently stood, he began to fume at the possibility that he simply wasn’t seeing things correctly.

The boiling agitation and distrust reached an unexpected peak before it shattered.

As the trees opened up, suddenly his vision cleared, and Subaru came to a rolling stop. The rough ground beneath him bore marks of passage, and, more importantly, while from afar, the houses lined up ahead clearly represented a community of people.

Fixating on that, Subaru’s mind was truly captured by the shock of realization.

Because this scenery was—

“Isn’t this… ‘The Sanctuary’?!”

Half a day earlier, he had parted from here, estimating it would take at least an entire day to return.

Overcome by fear, he raised his right hand. Fingers were missing. He was missing them. ‘Return by Death’ had not activated. Yet here he was, standing in a place where he shouldn’t be.

“Why… here? Was it the ‘Door Crossing’…?”

That was the only explanation.

Subaru was sent by Beatrice’s hand from the Forbidden Library of the mansion directly to a corner of ‘The Sanctuary’ by way of the ‘Door Crossing.’ But the unsettling question remained—how could that have happened?

“Does distance not matter…? I mean, sure, I was once teleported from the mansion to the village’s stables…”

That instance fell within a range that could still be deemed acceptable distance. However, considering the distance between here and the mansion, this seemingly long-range travel was distinctly beyond the bounds of reason.

Once he swallowed the implications of witnessing such extraordinarily supernatural power, Subaru scratched his head, forcing his thoughts to settle.

“In any case! If I’m here in ‘The Sanctuary’… then… Roswaal!!”

He would rush back to that clown and squeeze out every last bit of his scheming.

Roswaal had treated Beatrice adequately within the mansion. That witch’s magical expertise must surely entail knowledge of her true identity and even the reason she possessed the Gospel.

If he was toying with Subaru while holding all awareness, that was fine; he would punch his nose, even if he was burned or sliced, and latch onto his throat until everything spilled out.

“—!”

In that very moment, Subaru forgot the limitations of his self-determination and took off, igniting his thoughts with burning rage, speeding toward the edge of the village. He darted straight for the building where Roswaal resided.

His body, now a vessel of wrath, dashed with a reckless charge through ‘The Sanctuary,’ shrugging off fatigue and pain as if they were nonexistent, carrying him straight to his destination.

With a forceful kick, he smashed the door open and charged inside, baring his fangs.

“Roswaal! Show yourself! There are a mountain of questions I have to ask you!”

Bursting in with a fierceness that could provoke an admonishment from the maids surrounding him, Subaru spat out a rough declaration as soon as he stepped through. There was no response within the room, and with heavy footsteps, Subaru approached the bedroom, roughly opening the final door.

“You won’t deny me anything; lie and truth shall not escape. Spill everything you’ve been hiding…”

But just as he was about to continue, his words were cut off.

That torrent of accumulated grievances he had brought came to a humbling halt with the revelation that the one he aimed to direct them at wasn’t present anywhere in the room.

The absence of his target ignited even more furious anger, and Subaru kicked the bed dramatically in frustration, compounding the pain in his toes with further wrath as he burst out of the building.

If Roswaal was around, he’d likely be at Ryuzu’s place—or perhaps with Emilia, or paying a visit to either Ryuzu or Garfiel. Either way, it was audacious for Roswaal to spring into action just after Subaru had left. It planted a seed of doubt in his mind; was Roswaal perhaps faking an injury?

The spiral of negativity spun endlessly once he began to suspect. Cloaked in those thoughts and with an intent gaze, Subaru stared out into ‘The Sanctuary’ and—again, he gained an understanding far too late.

“…Huh?”

The hour was early morning, and as far as Subaru knew, it was when the inhabitants of ‘The Sanctuary’ began preparing breakfast and laundry in their usual schedules. With the evacuation of refugees, the need for communal cooking had dissipated, yet the need for each home to prepare their meals remained.

Despite that, there were no traces of those daily activities occurring. No, there was something worse:

“Not just Roswaal… where is everyone? Where did they go?”

No matter where he looked, not a single soul was to be found.

Aside from the moment he had crossed through the forest back to ‘The Sanctuary,’ he couldn’t recall a single instance of passing anyone or seeing any familiar, friendly faces.

Even considering the sparse population of ‘The Sanctuary,’ running through the very heart of the village and not encountering a single individual was astronomically improbable.

“That shouldn’t be…”

Shaking his head, Subaru knocked on the nearest nearby house. After confirming there was no reply, he opened the door and peered inside—empty.

He remembered that two beast-eared sisters had lived in this home.

Then, drawing from all of his memories, Subaru moved from one house to the next and peered inside, each time met with the crushing disappointment of finding nobody within.

No one was present; the presence of humanity had completely faded from ‘The Sanctuary.’

“Someone! Is anyone there?! Where has everyone gone!?”

The gnawing sense of dread piled higher and higher.

This sense of urgency, coupled with that indefinable feeling of loss, was nothing new to him.

It was the memory of that horrific reunion in Araham Village, where he returned late with no preparations during the clash with the Witch Cult—stacked bodies, the agonized faces of those who had met their fate. Familiar faces, now devoid of color, also include Petra, who lay crumpled, never to move again.

“—Ah!”

Fear clawed up Subaru’s spine, forcing him to sprint forward, driven by an outpouring of anxiety. With a scream-like voice escaping him, he dashed toward a single location.

The edge of the village, a particularly splendid building. It represented one of the few signs of respect for the chief governing this ‘Sanctuary,’ and now it served as a bed for a single girl.

“—Emilia!!”

Bursting in, calling out the name of his beloved girl, Subaru scanned the room.

The silver-haired girl turned toward him, sleepily blinking before displaying a surprised expression, and then she smiled warmly, a smile to cut through the heart—

“—”

But the spot where she should have been, was still empty.

Rushing toward the bed, he extended his fingers to touch the rumbled sheets. The warmth was absent, and it had already been quite some time since someone who had been sleeping here had left.

Just confirming that, Subaru bolted out of the house, aiming instead for the last stronghold—the place that might hold answers to all this senselessness, the place that might enlighten him.

“Ha… ha…!”

His breath came in gasps. Tasting the metallic tang of blood at the back of his throat, Subaru dashed toward the deeper parts of ‘The Sanctuary,’ racing toward the grave of the Witch of Greed, Echidna.

Along the way, he thought he would encounter Garfiel, who should have been sitting down—but he met no hindrance before reaching the grave.

Was it a relief or a stroke of luck that he had not faced resistance or that seeing familiar forms would have been better?

“No… I can’t show my face after failing to save just one sister.”

Even as he felt a surge of relief at finding no one, the unbearable urgency to find answers screamed within him.

Shaking off all sentiment, Subaru diverted his path toward the grave, beyond the hour when the ‘Trial’ would begin. There might still be some action or a response from the witch. Holding onto that hope, he moved, searching for the figure of the witch that might answer his questions—

“—Cough.”

The instant he stepped out, a feeling washed over him, as if something had passed right through him.

Looking down slowly, he saw a fist-sized, round hole gaping in his abdomen.

“Wh—…?”

Reaching out, he touched the opening. Suddenly, copious blood gushed from the opening with a sound. He hurriedly pressed his palm against it, but the hole punctured through him, emerging from his back side as well. He couldn’t stop either end, and his already blood-drained body could not maintain its stance, sinking downward.

—Pain, none. Uncomprehending. What had happened?

Death. He was dying. It dawned on him that death he understood was right before him.

Why, how, did it come to this? Elsa? Had she followed him all the way here? How far of a distance was there between the mansion and ‘The Sanctuary’? Beatrice couldn’t have, could she? The Gospel. Why? Rem? Who did this? Dying. Scared. What is? Who? Emilia. Witch. Witch. Witch—

“—Ah!”

His vision began to blur. The end was drawing near.

The anticipated death came in an unexpected form. In facing this, Subaru felt no relief at finally reaching the feared end. A hollow dread consumed him entirely.

Even with the resolve he thought he had committed to death, if it came by unanticipated means, this was the outcome. The heart fell into disarray, the base instincts erasing him, refusing to let go of life itself as his soul detached from the world—yet still, the looming ‘death’ slowly encroached upon Subaru,

“—I’m so… weak.”

Crushed beneath the weight of his own powerlessness, Subaru’s heartbeat ceased.

The longed-for death, received in an unwelcome shape reeked of pain and fear, while the ugly visage of passing went unseen and unknown by anyone.

“—!”

With a crunching sound, it was consumed.

 

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