――The time returns to the moment when Natsuki Subaru removes his hood and reveals his identity before the Witch Cultists.

With confidence, Subaru snaps his fingers, and immediately, the Witch Cultists, who had merely been observing the situation until then, spring into action.

One of them, holding a dialogue mirror, and the two who stood on either side of Subaru simultaneously reach into their pockets, retrieving a short dagger shaped like a cross—

“――Your judgment is slow.”

He succinctly pointed out the Witch Cultist’s misjudgment, and from the gaps among the trees, a blade-wielding demon descends.

A silver flash races, the arm of the cultist holding the dagger is severed mid-bicep and flies into the air. Blood splatters, and the glowing blade cutting through the darkness paints a cruel beauty in its wake.

The sound of the severed arm hitting the ground intertwines with the noise of blood gushing forth and hitting the fallen leaves below. Yet despite the excruciating pain of losing an arm, the Witch Cultist does not cry out as he decisively begins his retreat. Bending his knees, he attempts to break away in three different directions. However,

“Sorry, but your feet are already in our hands.”

As the foot that tried to take a step sinks into the ground, the three figures lose their balance and fall to their knees. In that moment, a blade is placed on the neck of each man trying to rise.

Leading the charge was Wilhelm, followed by Julius, who had made the ground muddy.

“And now it’s ‘taking the best parts’ from Felix-chan!”

Winking with a peace sign, Felix, unusually brandishing a dagger, began to charm Subaru.

Regardless of his unserious attitude, Subaru let out a sigh of relief that the situation had progressed mostly as he had expected.

Excluding Subaru, the only ones here with reliable skill and trust were the three present. The rest of the knights remained in the village to evacuate residents, and the mercenary group had been assigned to a different task. This was meant to serve as insurance in case this operation failed; however,

“I’m glad it worked out. After all that posing, failing would have been beyond embarrassing. Felix, please take care of the bleeding. I can’t afford anyone dying before we can ask questions.”

“I don’t think you should be saying that with such a pale face, though?”

With a strained voice and dry lips, Subaru seemed to believe he’d hidden his expression, but Felix saw right through it. Subaru made a pained face at her remark and closed his eyes for just a moment.

What unfolded before him was a gruesome exchange.

It was different from the chaos caused by the demon beast incident or the battle with the White Whale; Subaru still wasn’t fully accustomed to combat between people.

The concept of human death and corpses felt like an impression from another world.

Experiencing a sense of dizziness from the surrealness of the fallen arm, Subaru lightly shook his head to dispel his growing unease. While he worked to gather his thoughts, Felix tended to the Witch Cultists’ wounds to prevent them from bleeding out, while simultaneously, Julius and Wilhelm bound them.

“Even so, you caught on quickly to a mole among the merchants.”

“It was obvious from the blank letter that it had been switched. According to Ram, the messenger from Crusch’s side immediately returned when they heard about it… this time, there was a lack of time which made for a hasty selection of collaborators. The world’s circumstances tend to be worse than your worst expectations.”

Responding to Felix’s praise with calm understanding drawn from experience, Subaru took a deep breath as he examined the captives.

A gaunt man and an elderly male. But more importantly, the man holding the dialogue mirror—he was someone Subaru recognized.

“I remember now. You’re that person, Ketty.”

“――Why?”

“Now, isn’t that a mystery? Why don’t you ponder it like I have?”

The man named Ketty only uttered that one word. With a playful retort, Subaru felt a slight shock mixed with some understanding of the current situation.

Ketty, was someone Subaru had encountered in the first loop stemming from this royal capital.

After the Leafaus Road was shrouded in fog, he met Ketty while running around the village to secure feet after being left behind by Rem. Through him, Subaru got introduced to Otto, and during the first round, they managed to return to the Meisters Territory. However, by that time, it was already too late—his worst memory.

And in the second world—well, that was a lost cause, but in the third world…

Driven by a desire for revenge, he stormed through the road and encountered a group of merchants en route. Once again, he found Ketty and Otto at the forefront, and with the same idea of securing feet for the villagers, Subaru hired Otto’s group and bid farewell to Ketty, who remained behind. Soon after, they encountered the White Whale, leading to the complete destruction of the merchant group.

Looking back, he recognized that despite always positioning himself at a critical juncture, Ketty consistently seemed to avoid calamity.

“This must be because he understood the situation. If I had left this be, the elusive location of the Sanctuary and the evacuation strategy would have been exposed.”

“However, fortunately, it seems we’ve managed to crush the opening. Additionally, this may allow us to gain the upper hand against the Witch Cult, who must be lurking in the woods.”

As Subaru concluded his thoughts, Julius picked up from there and slightly nodded. While it was an expected action, Subaru added,

“But these guys seem pretty tight-lipped, don’t they? If we push too hard, I get the feeling they might just off themselves while shouting ‘Glory to the Witch Cult!’”

“In fact, among the Witch Cult, there exists a custom of not fearing death. Over four hundred years, the unknown depths of their beliefs have been shaped by this. It’s not uncommon for captured groups to commit suicide, leaving the truth unknown.”

Wilhelm affirmed Subaru’s dark imaginings.

Subaru curled his tongue at the template-like fanatical thinking, anxiously wondering if Ketty and the others might explode right here.

But as if to dispel that fear, Felix clapped his hands together.

“Okay, okay, enough of the dark talk. That’s not why Felix-chan came out here!”

“No, but when you showed up so delightfully when I mentioned a mole among the merchants, I was honestly wondering why you came along without any fighting strength.”

“Well, how rude! Felix-chan will dispel such incredibly rude notions of Subaru-kun!”

Felix winked charmingly, causing Subaru to feel quite fatigued, then slowly approached the men. She began to flick her large cat-like eyes around, carefully observing the three. When she focused on the elderly man, she gently placed her right hand on his forehead.

Her dainty fingers gripped tightly without mercy, letting out a soft breath as she said.

“Mix it up—”

“—!?”

Felix’s palm started to glow, and the pale light enveloped the man’s body, centering on his forehead. This was the same scene as when she performed healing, and Subaru had also experienced it many times to fix the abnormalities inside his own gates—but the effects were dramatically different.

“Ah…gah…ugh…!”

At once, the man’s body was wrapped in the blue-white light, but suddenly he began to twitch his hands and feet, his eyes widening as he painfully stuck his tongue out.

His eyes turned bloodshot, and amidst the groans erupting from his mouth, saliva streamed down, dripping onto the ground while he struggled like a fish enduring torment.

“Hey! What the hell are you…”

“I’m just interfering with the water inside his body, making him suffer a bit. Don’t worry; I won’t turn him into a vegetable—well, I won’t with him anyway.”

Suddenly thrust into the role of torturing a captive—one that no one else could understand what was happening, Subaru raised his voice, but Felix remained calm, humming as she continued. Feeling a chill from her demeanor, Wilhelm patted her on the back.

“It might seem a bit harsh, but it’s a necessary measure when dealing with the Witch Cult. Please bear with us, Subaru-dono.”

“I’m not so much of a softy that seeing the enemies get hurt makes my heart ache… but seeing them suffer this much does make me wish for some explanation, at least.”

While keeping an eye on the situation, Subaru grimaced at the torturous treatment toward the still nonchalant man. Seeing Subaru looking dissatisfied, Julius raised a finger, saying,

“To put it simply, Felix is performing water-type magic on him, right? He can interfere with the mana flowing within, effectively exerting a degree of influence over the subject.”

“…What does that mean?”

“Anyone Felix touches becomes a little more obedient—think of them as a cute little kitten, albeit only temporarily.”

Subaru frowned as he probed for clarification, while Felix, satisfied, brushed her knees.

With a glance, she gestured toward the captured Witch Cultists.

“It’s time-sensitive, so I reckon it’ll be easy to communicate now, yeah? Once the effect wears off, it’ll take some time before we can induce it again.”

As she spoke, Felix turned her head slowly, eyeing the remaining two Witch Cultists, deepening her smile.

“And we still have two left, so it’s all good, right?”

“Sometimes, I get the feeling that your S-side peeks through, and it’s pretty off-putting, you know? You’re not serious, right?”

“If I can get some useful information, then it’s fine if I don’t get serious, right?”

Covering her lips with her finger, Felix’s body swayed, laughing off Subaru’s concerns.

Subaru, seeking reassurance from Wilhelm and Julius, found them both shaking their heads.

“It’s not a method to be commended from a humanitarian standpoint, but considering the larger picture, we have no choice but to accept it. Ideally, we would like to take the remaining two back to the royal capital.”

“They are a valuable source of information. The Witch Cult, who have been secretly operating for so long, must be put to good use in order to catch the tip of the iceberg.”

Both men were in agreement with Felix, and Subaru decided that under these circumstances, he couldn’t afford to be picky, thus pushing his internal discontent aside.

Clearing his throat, he faced off with the Witch Cultist whose expression had already fallen into a stupor.

“First off, let’s find out what we can. How many Witch Cultists participated in this raid? How many groups are hiding in the woods?”

“――――”

“Hey, it was supposed to be a straightforward question, why are you going silent on me?”

Receiving no verbal response, Subaru turned to Felix with suspicion. She shrugged, rolling her eyes.

“No matter how you slice it, they can’t answer what they don’t know. His silence means he doesn’t know the answer at all. So let’s move on to the next question.”

“Fine, what about the person in charge… the Archbishop of Sin? Give me a name and description, what they can do.”

“The Archbishop’s… name is Petelgeuse… He’s a gaunt man with green hair and a bony face…”

Mumbling, the man obediently answered Subaru’s question. Hearing that, Subaru thought, “Ah, so the faithful also see him as sickly skinny,” and felt oddly satisfied, continuing with further inquiries. However,

“What abilities can he use?”

“――――”

“The number of minions hiding in the woods.”

“――――”

“His birthday, blood type, and preferred body part of a girl?”

“――――”

“Come on, don’t give me that silent treatment!”

Growing aggravated by the lack of verbals, it finally seemed that Subaru’s patience had run out.

Though they had said they couldn’t talk about what they didn’t know, it was incredibly taxing to interrogate someone with multiple unknowns among their ranks. Subaru even wondered if he might have more information than they did.

Scratching his head as he pondered what to do, Felix, who had previously stepped back, patted Subaru’s shoulder.

“Well, it can’t be helped, can it, Subaru-kun?”

“I know, but Felix, these guys are just too clueless…”

“What do you mean by ‘ejem,’ anyway? Where did that come from?”

“Related to cat ears… oh, wait! They lost their cat ears!”

Thinking Felix had turned his words into nonsense, he exhaled heavily. It was Felix’s turn to take the reins of interrogation, and feeling insecure about his role, Subaru began to step aside.

“Um… this is—”

And he picked up an item that had dropped to the ground—a dialogue mirror that had been dropped by Ketty. Dusting off the grass and dirt, he looked at it carefully, and it was remarkably similar to a collapsible hand mirror he knew. Compact, that was the correct word to use.

“If only I recited a magical incantation, I could transform or something… no, but this is indeed a magical item… Abra Cadabra Amen Somen!”

While mumbling somewhat haphazardly, Subaru began flipping the compact open and closed. The mirror inside reflected his long-unseen sullen face, and upon closer inspection, he noticed it was a rather unpleasant sight, dirt, sweat, and blood smeared all over. He couldn’t show this to Emilia.

Just when he had that notion and was comforting himself, the mirror abruptly began to change. Suddenly, its edges shone bright and began to heat up.

“Oh, o-oh? Did I touch something weird?”

In a panic, Subaru fiddled with the dialogue mirror in his hands, but the light only grew stronger, showing no sign of weakening. Becoming increasingly certain he had broken it, he recalled the conversation with that bald old man about “magical devices being traded at a high price,” and broke into a cold sweat.

Noticing Subaru’s plight, Julius stepped closer, asking,

“Subaru, what are you…?”

“I’m not doing anything! I just whispered the magic words and didn’t do anything special! But this is turning weird…!”

“Could it be that you broke the activation spell?”

With Subaru stuttering his excuses, Julius approached him, seemingly astonished at first, then focused on the dialogue mirror resting in Subaru’s palm, which looked like something unbelievable.

“Dialogue mirrors are among the most common magical tools, but connecting with another requires a particular procedure. Especially the activation spell—only certain aspects can be freely manipulated, and other than asking those in the know, there are limited means to glean information…”

“Huh, wait—so what does that mean?”

“It means you’ve nearly accomplished much of what Felix was trying to learn. If you’ve undone the activation spell, you can deduce the locations of connected dialogue mirrors.”

Surprised, Subaru allowed Julius to take the dialogue mirror from his hands. As Julius gathered his mana at his fingertips, he began manipulating the mirror as if working on a smartphone or tablet, a loosened description that made Subaru feel quite behind the times as he had only ever encountered flip phones before.

Yet that seemingly complex manipulation was concluded in mere seconds.

“――Well done, Subaru. Right now, I’ve found the location of other dialogue mirrors connected to this one.”

“Awesome… so it’s kind of GPS functionality, right? So we can find it from here?”

“I don’t know what ‘GPS’ is, but I certainly located the dialogue mirror. There are two locations it connects to; one is in the woods, and another is a little distant.”

As he lifted his gaze from the dialogue mirror, Julius looked towards the forest, and following his gaze, Subaru felt his own direction sense had not failed him. The direction Julius was looking at was the mountains connected to a place he had visited before.

To the west of the village—where the Urgalm horde had gathered.

After Roswaal had cleaned up the magical beasts, the threat level from hostile creatures should have decreased. Also, recalling that this was the very land from which Subaru had once “leapt” off, he had quite a connection there.

“So, the Witch Cult is lurking there? …That’s someone I don’t recognize.”

Subaru predicted that Petelgeuse’s fingertips—based on their name, he assumed they were the hands of a madman lying in wait across ten locations.

Having already identified approximately eight locations through his two loops, he considered the newly revealed location that had been hiding alongside the three merchant cultists as what would now be the last site.

“There are two sites identifiable by the dialogue mirror. Can we assume there are no other locations?”

“Even if they tend to circulate in the market, dialogue mirrors are still rare magical tools. The refining method is known, but considering the financial and temporal cost, it’s not necessarily worthwhile.”

Subaru raised an eyebrow at Julius’s shrug as the latter seemed to share a different opinion.

Subaru, by no means having taken a keen interest in military matters or warfare information in his original world, nonetheless understood the importance of rapid and accurate information transmission.

Given the ease with which they dismissed the significance of this technology, one could almost guess how much potential it could hold.

“Anyway, I’ll postpone my thoughts on the proliferation of mobile phones. If that’s the case, it’s fine. If communication relies heavily on dialogue mirrors and we know two owners—”

“—One of them will likely be with Petelgeuse.”

It’s only natural for the leader of a group to have a dialogue mirror. If one of the spies embedded in the opposing group held one, the other must be something like

“Backup or a trump card… either way, I’ve got their tail now.”

Clenching his fists, Subaru bit his lip to stifle the excitement of this change in circumstances.

Then, directing his foot towards Felix, who was still in the midst of interrogating, along with Wilhelm, who continued to keep watch,

“You guys, by some lucky chance, the dialogue mirror seems to be functional. So we can connect the remaining…”

“――!”

Subaru, stepping forward with his hand up in the air, immediately noticed the change in demeanor among the previously compliant captives when they caught sight of the light emitting from the dialogue mirror in his hand.

The faces of the two who Felix had not enchanted turned wicked as they jumped towards him, still bound.

“――Oh!”

With a jolt as they lunged toward his throat, Ketty, who had been restrained, bared his teeth and lunged to bite. Yet, just before impact—

“Excuse me—”

A slash flew, and Ketty’s long body was entirely severed, falling to the ground.

Splattering guts and blood everywhere, Ketty let out a roar like a beast, convulsing on the ground and thus, meeting his end with a fierce visage displayed.

In stark contrast to Ketty, the other cultist, in a position to leap towards Subaru, crumpled forward, falling to the ground, trembling hands and feet, his eyes wild and bloodshot.

His skin, visible even in the dark, was stained red, and under internal pressure, veins bulged forth and grotesque green patterns emerged all over his body.

“…Hey, hey.”

Subaru muttered, and before he realized it, he was collapsing to the ground. Just then, Julius lent him a hand to help him up. It took some time to regain his footing as his legs felt like jelly.

“The intensity of the fight was so high, I mismanaged just a bit. I apologize.”

Withdrawing his bloodied sword into its sheath, Wilhelm apologized for having slain Ketty. Then he knelt down, examining the twitching form of the other cultist.

“This one too, has ceased to breathe… Felix, you’ve done something terrible.”

“Well, it was sudden! If Subaru-kun got bit, then Cru-chan would be angry with me… What’s the matter?”

Felix stuck out her tongue at Wilhelm, who confirmed the other man’s death, while Subaru was locked in a gaze of horror upon observing the disease-like state of the deceased.

A death marked with such agony that it became impossible to see what he originally looked like. More than anything—

“Even though I didn’t touch them… did you do this?”

“Yep! Just a little application of water magic. —Healing mana is nice and gentle, but an excess can turn toxic. It’s dangerous if the water inside the body gets too lively, right?”

Without a trace of guilt, Felix’s cat ears twitched adorably as Subaru was unable to conceal his apprehension.

The method of death—was so severe that even Wilhelm, who had just executed Ketty, grimaced at the sight. To see Felix casually admitting doing the same, without an ounce of remorse, left an eerie feeling in Subaru’s chest.

More so, if Felix’s own words were true,

“You…”

“Hm?”

“…No, it’s nothing. The other guy, he’s alright, right?”

With a subtle shake of her head, Subaru decided not to press further, resigning himself to the unknown in light of Felix’s actions.

The question he swallowed concerned this—

“Can you do the same thing to me?”

Referring to Felix’s ability to cause a reaction in the water within one’s body. If this were to be considered healing—notably, Subaru had previously received healing mana from Felix, qualifying him under her previous remark.

And he couldn’t help but recall the overwhelming pain from the last assault, where

Every drop of his blood seemed to boil, a violent heat surging through him.

Should Felix have been the one responsible for his demise, it would have meant that death mirrored that of the man before him—

“So we’re capturing those left alive and questioning them… that’s the plan, right?”

“Currently, Felix’s influence remains effective. Should be no issues there. But Subaru-dono, about the dialogue mirror usability…”

With a pale expression, Subaru diverted his gaze from Felix, and Wilhelm addressed him. Casually stepping to hide the corpse and Felix from Subaru’s sight, he continued,

“Since we’ve pinpointed the location, a surprise attack should be carried out. If we wait too long without any message, our advantage could be compromised. We’d need to act before that occurs.”

“…That sounds right. Yeah, we should do it. But—”

Nodding along with Wilhelm’s suggestion, Subaru began to gather his thoughts.

Petelgeuse. The eight locations he already had from experience. A newly revealed last spot. The dialogue mirror. The fleeing Emilia and the villagers. Battle. Possession. Spirit techniques.

“——Felix.”

“What is it, meow?”

“If you can manipulate that person, then we could have them use the dialogue mirror to talk things through, right?”

Opening his eyes wide as his thoughts raced, Subaru posed the question to Felix. He blinked in surprise before breaking into an exuberant smile.

“Of course! With the dialogue mirror, effectively feeding false information is easy peasy. Want to try?”

“Sure, let’s do it. Just make sure it’s not something too elaborate. We don’t want them to raise suspicions and come unraveled. Just go with ‘status quo, continue waiting’ or something.”

As long as they didn’t realize anything had gone awry, Subaru believed from experience that the cultists would likely remain passive at least until midnight.

If the fact that they were fleeing in a dragon carriage remained undiscovered, it wouldn’t be too difficult to keep Emilia and the villagers safe.

“Please ascertain the method of their scheduled communication and ensure that the information we have is relayed to both connected locations.”

“I’ll be careful, as there might be code words, so I’ll keep that in mind. Hehe, Subaru-kun might have just shown another side to himself. Felix-chan is so happy!”

As Subaru issued his orders, Felix happily turned to face the man, ready to conduct the interrogation and intelligence-gathering as she started humming a tune. Watching her with a pained expression, Subaru called to Wilhelm and Julius.

“Guys, I need you both to accept roles as we head into the final phase, okay?”

Acting to the best of their abilities to await destiny—if he was to attain victory, everything that could be done must be done.

Destiny never once smiled upon Subaru for acting without effort.

※※　※　※　※　※　※　※　※　※　※　※　※

――After wiping out the Witch Cult hiding among the merchants, the internal threat had been eliminated for the time being.

“Good luck to you—”

As Emilia said this while boarding the dragon carriage, the gaze she cast toward Subaru and the others remaining in the village mixed gratitude and concern, deeply embedding itself in his heart.

Donning the robe of recognition hindrance without revealing his identity to her, Subaru struggled to put his feelings into words. Truthfully, he wanted to come clean about everything right away, to clasp hands with her.

“Ah, but all I can do now is hold back that desire. The memory of holding her hand without getting scolded keeps me going, after all, so I won’t cry.”

With a light-hearted quip to himself, he waved farewell as the dragon carriage began to run.

A few knights mounted on earth dragons guarded the carriage while it evacuated. They took care to blend in, splitting into two parties halfway through.

One was headed toward the Sanctuary with Ram, while the other, led by Crusch, was bound for the royal capital. Having taken ample precautions, their safety was likely far more secure than Subaru’s.

The children who had asked to ride alongside Emilia clutched her hand tightly as they boarded the dragon carriage. Subaru felt warmth in his heart from the delighted nostalgia on Emilia’s face.

While boarding, he noted the glint of competitive zeal in Petra’s eyes seated beside Emilia, but assumed it would have no significant impact. After all, Petra was attentive to Subaru’s words.

“With emotions of happiness sweeping over me, I’ll help Emilia escape. …I’ve become quite the scoundrel, to toy with people’s feelings like this. It’s a far cry from the rumors of me being unable to read the room back home.”

He had also instructed the children to ensure they wouldn’t mention Subaru’s name and to keep Emilia inside the carriage.

Before that, Subaru deduced that Emilia returning to the battlefield had been due in part to those reasons.

If, at that time, someone had boarded her carriage, halting her actions, perhaps things wouldn’t have turned out that way.

If someone had truly cared enough to stop her out of genuine affection, she wouldn’t have been able to ignore it.

Subaru intentionally devised this situation by assigning roles to the children while ensuring his presence remained a secret from Emilia.

Later, when she came to understand the entirety of this scenario, it was likely that she would regard him with a strong disdain.

Even with knowledge of the future gained through returning from death, taking advantage of that to deceive someone’s heart, especially to manipulate it for his convenience, was inexcusable. Thus,

“I’ll absolutely keep this secret for my whole life…”

“To be undetected is safe,” is not quite the kind of person to say this to himself, but by no means would he willingly betray such a secret. He resolved inwardly that this would go to his grave.

Just then, Subaru was greeted by the rough voice of the beastman Ricardo, who approached, bearing a giant blade on his shoulders.

“Seems the villagers and that half-demon girl are already gone.”

With a slight grimace at the sight of the blood splattered on him, Subaru let out a light sigh.

“Don’t call my cute Emilia half-demon, you half-dog.”

“Whoa, being called half-dog is more humiliating than I expected! This has been a learning experience for me! What a masterpiece!”

There was a laugh so hearty it drowned Subaru’s sarcasm. Suddenly shifting his expression, Subaru raised his gaze toward the woods, asking,

“So, how did it go? The ambush?”

“Not only did we know their location, but they neglected their precautions. To flub up after getting paid is truly disgraceful. We executed it well.”

Showing his fanged grin, Ricardo laughed fiercely.

As if to affirm his words, mercenaries began appearing in droves, riding out from the woods on their Ligars to ensure the villagers’ safety.

“Yah-hah, slaughter them all!”

“We safely captured the prisoners! Don’t slander us, will you, sister?”

Seeing the siblings enthusiastically running around, engaged in a dark conversation, it was clear that things had ended quite positively.

While Subaru was aware of the high odds, he still felt immense concern as someone on the sending side.

Seeing their unharmed forms, Subaru breathed a sigh of relief.

“Ah, but it seems we have a bit of a problem here.”

However, lowering his voice, Ricardo creaked down, coming close with a burdened posture. Feeling uneasy, Subaru wrinkled his brow.

“W-What is it? I have a bad feeling, so keep the mood upbeat, okay?”

“Oh, is that so? Well then, I won’t hold back when I say this!!”

Ricardo took Subaru’s apprehension as an invitation to speak loudly. Echoing volume nearly ruptured Subaru’s eardrums, eliciting a cringe.

Mimi, riding along with the Ligars nearby, shouted, “Yah-hah! It’s festival time!”

“Shut up already! That’s not what I meant! We finally managed to evacuate everyone quietly, and what if our movements get discovered?!”

“Big brother! Big brother! Your voice is already way too loud!”

Subaru snapped back as Ricardo laughed uproariously.

Riddled with confusion from the jarring contrast from his previous demeanor, Subaru simply shook his head, exclaiming,

“Just get to the point. If there’s something problematic, we need to know how to amend it before we proceed with the operation. We need to eliminate as many uncertainties as possible right now…”

“Not that there are any issues with the operation, probably. However, we have a separate problem.”

“A separate…?”

Subaru expressed doubt over what Ricardo was saying, causing him to nod. Pointing with an arm raised, he declared,

“Bring over that fellow from earlier.”

A subordinate nodded and dashed off, finally returning with a Ligars in tow.

On its back was a person bound tightly, and as it drew near, Subaru went through a whirlwind of doubt, unease, and certainty.

“After surprising the Witch Cult’s lair, he was lurking in the back. Looks like this poor guy was unlucky enough to get captured by them.”

As Ricardo scratched his head, the bound figure gagged, groaning. Whether it was complaints about mistreatment or pleas for mercy, it was a rather unfortunate sight, making Subaru’s initial shock surface.

“Bwah!”

Unable to hold it in, he burst into laughter.

Pointing at the bound figure, he exclaimed, “I thought you were MIA! Otto!”

Calling out the name of the last character to finally make his appearance after all this turmoil.

 

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