“Defeating the White Whale and repelling the Witch Cult’s Archbishop of Sin who targeted the mansion. Forming an alliance with the candidate Crusch and achieving significant feats in both of the aforementioned battles—hmm…”

As he leaned his weight into the bed, Roswaal touched his chin and closed his eyes. What he mentioned were the various situations Subaru had recounted to coordinate while Roswaal was absent.

Consciously suppressing his bad habit of going off on tangents, Subaru delivered an objective description while minimizing bragging or hardship.

Reflecting on his own actions, he mused, “To put it plainly, it’s like doubting the absurd achievements. Since when did Balus switch roles to be the protagonist in an action adventure?”

“That remark hits a bit of a nerve when it comes from you… but I also think my accomplishments are a little questionable. It’s kind of a big deal regardless of whether it’s my self-evaluation or others’ evaluation, right?”

The results might make even Kongming run away barefoot. As Ram quietly proposed with sarcasm, acknowledging the overwhelming nature of those accomplishments made him feel even more fervent.

“What other description could there be besides ‘unexpected results’? I mean, no one could have predicted you would go this far.”

Having finally digested those surprises internally, Roswaal lowered his chin and expressed words of praise. With a serious expression that was quite unusual for him, he looked at Subaru, who was sitting in a chair before the bed, with his mismatched-colored eyes.

“Well then, let me again express my gratitude. —Thank you for protecting my territory and my people. And for your tremendous contribution to Emilia, I cannot help but express my gratitude as her supporter.”

“Y-yeah. When you say it so formally, it makes me feel a bit constricted too. It’s not like I did anything to deserve such praise…”

“It seems you don’t quite grasp the magnitude of Lord Roswaal’s words of thanks.”

Subaru tried to stop Roswaal as he expressed his gratitude, but it was Ram, stepping forward, who interrupted him. With her unwavering, penetrating gaze, she looked down at Subaru.

“To interrupt the words of someone of higher standing and even throw in words of denial towards their gratitude is something that should not be allowed. Moreover, Lord Roswaal holds the position of a frontier lord and is a crucial figure in the Lugnica Kingdom. —Those words of gratitude weigh far more than you think.”

“———-”

“Due to his position, Lord Roswaal cannot easily bow his head or express his gratitude towards those below him. You need to be more mindful of that.”

Ram sharply dismissed Subaru’s naïve thoughts. Upon hearing that, Subaru could not think of a rebuttal and looked down. In response, Roswaal raised a hand gently as if to mediate.

“Ram is being a little overly dramatic. My words don’t hold as much value as you might think.”

“Lord Roswaal…”

At Ram’s worried call, Roswaal nodded, then continued, “However, regardless of the size of my gratitude from my position, the magnitude of what you, Subaru-kun, have achieved is clear to everyone. Not rewarding you suitably could easily lead to disappointment and dissatisfaction directed toward me.”

“……So, what are you going to do about it?”

“A suitable reward. —Do you remember what happened in the Royal Selection hall, Subaru-kun?”

Seeing Subaru choke up, Roswaal’s eyes narrowed slightly.

What crossed Subaru’s mind was that embarrassing and self-deprecating memory, one that still burned him with shame whenever recalled. Everything from the declarations to the reckless remarks was the foolish chatter of a boy ignorant of the significant things and confused about what truly mattered.

Yet still—

“I remember it. There’s no way I’d forget… I think I shouldn’t forget.”

“In that case, I wish to reward your achievements as follows. I aim to make the words spoken to you on that occasion genuine. —Once you safely emerge from here, I will appoint you as a knight.”

Subaru lifted his head. At first, he couldn’t quite grasp the meaning of the words spoken to him, and blinking in confusion, he caught Roswaal nodding.

“There’s no way someone who participated in the hunt for the White Whale alongside a duke, and claimed the achievement of defeating one of the Witch Cult’s Archbishops, can remain nameless. Your name, ‘Knight Natsuki Subaru’, should be spoken throughout the country with respect. —Once that happens, no one will be able to laugh at the words you spoke in that hall.”

It was to help Emilia, and the empty young man before them dared to shout boldly.

That dreamer had been crushed repeatedly by reality, drowning in despair, falling into madness, driven by revenge to scorn everything, and saved by love—now, here he stood.

Every moment of that time was validated by the ‘honor’ Roswaal had just spoken.

—Now, the achievements of Rem, left behind in Subaru, remained only in Subaru and no one else.

“…I gratefully accept it. If it gives that battle meaning.”

“It’s a praiseworthy achievement; I will not allow anyone to belittle it. You have earned the right to stand tall next to Emilia, with your head held high, by your own power.”

“…It wasn’t just my power.”

Subaru murmured that under his breath in response to Roswaal’s words. Not quite able to catch what he said, Roswaal raised an eyebrow slightly, while Subaru took a deep breath and closed his eyes for a moment. Then, opening them, he shrugged lightly.

“That was a serious exchange, huh? If I keep collapsing my character like this, it’ll be embarrassing when I snap back to normal. My face is already feeling hot.”

“…I see. What an inappropriate thing for you to do; it has made me tense up as well. It’s not like us to have a serious discussion like that.”

Matching Subaru’s expression, Roswaal relaxed his expression as well, dispersing the earlier atmosphere. Watching the interaction between Subaru and his master, Ram let out a small sigh before adding, “Well then.”

“Now, it’s your turn, Balus. You have questions you want to ask Lord Roswaal, right? That’s why we kept Emilia away from this discussion.”

“Your sharpness really helps to speed things along. …It’s not that I see Emilia as a nuisance, but I felt that with her around, Ros would be too tight-lipped.”

Subaru smirked at Ram’s keen observation. As he did, she turned her gaze to the spot where Emilia had just been standing, confirming the empty space left behind.

“So we have Ryuzu to accompany and inspect the ‘Sanctuary’… I heard that Emilia seemed quite worried when she learned you were staying.”

“I’m glad to be relied upon, but considering things down the line, I can’t just rush in chasing immediate desires. Otto will probably join us along the way, so I don’t have to worry about Emilia being alone… But what if that bastard Otto tries to hit on Emilia? She’s just so ridiculously cute, I’m getting anxious.”

“I think it’s bad to make yourself anxious while talking. Anyway, your thoughts aren’t wrong. —The fact is, I wouldn’t utter anything I don’t want Emilia to hear.”

Subaru was shaken by unnecessary worries. In front of him, Ram shook her head and casually revealed Roswaal’s secret-keeping tendencies. Subaru winked playfully, keeping his inner thoughts to himself.

“You’re intentionally limiting what information gets passed to Emilia, right? …What on earth are you thinking, doing something like that?”

“Choosing which information to convey is necessary, I believe. The importance of Emilia, as a candidate for the Royal Selection, is far greater than mine. Yet, her knowledge and qualifications are still not refined enough to bear the weight of too much too soon. Overloading someone still in the learning process would bring about complications…”

“That’s something you can say only if you’re the one providing her with a supportive environment to learn freely. It makes no sense to keep information that would lead to serious trouble hidden from someone. It wouldn’t be beneficial for you either.”

Subaru quietly pressed Roswaal, who seemed to be aware of this yet responded with a flippant excuse, suppressing his tongue. As Roswaal continued to emphasize his point, he inevitably sunk deeper into silent contemplation.

Roswaal often gazed at Subaru in this manner, with his yellow eye casting a penetrating glance, provoking discomfort in Subaru. Sensing his unease, Roswaal chuckled.

“Well, I expected you’d eventually ask me a question about this. That’s precisely why I was prepared. I’ve been steeling myself for it.”

“Prepared…?”

“I’ll answer your questions directly instead of dodging the point, okay? It’s just that given my state of injury, I didn’t choose to be lazy and allow you to burn your bridges with me.”

He laughed heartily while lightly tapping his thigh on the bed.

As his unexpected amiability momentarily surprised Subaru, he replied with a frown, “…What wind has blown through here?”

“To think there’s less trust between us than I had hoped. That said, it’s understandable, given how things have gone between you and me.”

“I know it’s not wrong to have my guard up, but given the past, it can’t be helped. You have a tendency to keep secrets. …This time, I can trust you, right?”

“Of course.”

With suspicion lingering in his eyes, Subaru heard Roswaal affirm him, as he opened his arms slightly.

“In just these past few days, what you’ve accomplished has proven enough to open the door to my closed heart. You can rest easy. Because of that, I’m willing to accept you as my accomplice—”

“Hold it right there. I’m getting a distinct vibe that I might be taking on a burdensome cross. You really don’t need to open up that much; let’s stick to the basics.”

“Oh no, you’re being cold, even though the excitement is palpable right now.”

“It’s just that if you suddenly offer everything like that, it feels heavy…”

As they bantered back and forth like a couple learning about one another’s affectionate styles, Subaru cleared his throat to refocus his thoughts, leading with, “For now, despite all that accomplice talk aside, I want to ask a question first. —The reason you’re limiting Emilia’s information.”

“———-”

Again, Subaru glared at Roswaal, who squinted his eye.

Roswaal’s selective transmission of information towards Emilia had significant consequences, even including the previous loop.

Had she known the truth about her heritage—being a half-elf, which triggered the Witch Cult—it might have led to more effective countermeasures against the attack on Araham Village and Roswaal’s Mansion by Petelgeuse.

That, in turn, would affect Subaru’s actions to prevent such disasters, potentially altering Rem’s fate and many other consequences.

“Answer me, Roswaal. You want Emilia to become king, and you’d be in trouble if we lost her halfway. Why on earth would you hoard information that would disadvantage her? It just doesn’t make sense.”

“To that question, I would say this. —You are absolutely right. Thus, I limit the information I convey to Emilia.”

“…!? What are you talking about? You say that withholding the info that’s a disadvantage to her is necessary for her to win the Royal Selection?”

“That’s right. I think it had value, though.”

Subaru’s thoughts were thrown into disarray by Roswaal’s answer, perplexingly furrowing his brows. After a while, Roswaal continued speaking with the bed creaking beneath him.

“Subaru-kun, what you want to say is this, right? If news of Emilia’s participation in the Royal Selection reached the Witch Cult, they might have set their plans in motion. Indeed, they did launch an attack against my territory. I could have known this was a possibility and prepared some sort of countermeasures for if it did happen.”

“…Well, yeah! That much is obvious when you think about it. Anyone would think so; it’s a completely normal conclusion! Wouldn’t you say? I didn’t realize you’d know that the Witch Cult and half-elves are common knowledge around here; you should’ve been aware of it. So why did you do nothing… no, more importantly, why did you leave the mansion for the ‘Sanctuary’?”

“I was confined to the ‘Sanctuary’, it wasn’t like I consciously chose to stay away from the mansion for days…”

“That excuse will not hold. You were injured and placed under house arrest because you challenged the graveyard to let loose the accumulated dissatisfaction among the villagers! Meaning, the result of me clearing the village of people as a countermeasure against the Witch Cult, and you chose not to return home on your own accord.”

“There’s merit in arguing with someone angry in a logical manner. Truly, this is a good development.”

When Subaru refuted his simple excuse, Roswaal seemed to have anticipated the rebuttal, shrugging his shoulders carelessly. Not pleased by that response, Subaru stepped forward.

“…Ram.”

“Lord Roswaal is injured. He might be able to reduce Balus to ashes with just a finger, but… I cannot allow any acts of violence in front of Ram.”

“Are you okay with this? You were treated like a pawn too. You knew those horrific people were coming to the village and left the battlefield to save your own skin. How could you accept that?”

“Whether I can forgive it or not is irrelevant. I will allow everything Lord Roswaal does. No matter how I’m treated, and how easily cast aside, it’s the same thing.”

“You––!!”

Subaru’s throat closed in with rage over Ram’s unfathomable loyalty.

Yet he refrained from resorting to violence at that moment, perhaps because he rationally judged he couldn’t measure up to either of them in front of him, or perhaps—

“…Rem too, was sacrificed for something so nonsensical.”

“—? I don’t know who you’re talking about, but the name of another person means nothing to Ram. For Ram, Lord Roswaal encompasses everything; everything else is a trivial matter.”

Subaru’s desperate pleas fell on deaf ears for Ram, whose response indicated she had entirely forgotten Rem’s existence.

He already knew that. He knew there was no point in pointing that out to her. And at the same time, a realization struck him.

He always felt he understood Ram’s excessively intense loyalty to Roswaal.

However, that obstinacy now carried a kind of madness that was unlike the Ram he once knew. The cause of that was, no doubt, the totality of Rem’s absence in her mind.

What had happened in their past was a mystery to Subaru. Yet, through the fragments recounted by Rem, it became evident that Ram and Rem had existed in a co-dependent relationship.

The guilt and inferiority felt by the sister—within the fluctuation of those feelings, willing further dependency on her older sister, Rem. That instability had blended discretion along with her hidden feelings, which had manifested when facing Subaru.

Just as Rem’s world was largely made up of Ram, so too was Ram’s world comprised of Rem and Roswaal. As Rem began to resolve her own complexities, welcoming various new elements into her previously constricted world, including Subaru, Ram’s world remained closed off.

The individual who once held a critical spot within that sphere had literally been forgotten, leaving Ram’s world constituted solely by Roswaal.

It was precisely that intense and excessive devotion to Roswaal which stemmed from that cause.

“Ram, you shouldn’t provoke Subaru so much. It’s not like Subaru meant to impose any violence; I think he’s just taken a step too far.”

“I appreciate Lord Roswaal’s kind words, but…”

“Indeed. It’s alright, isn’t it, Subaru? Despite looking upset, you’re not genuinely furious. You wouldn’t just lose control and choose violence; that’s not the way to carry on a discussion.”

“What do you mean by that…?”

“It’s quite simple. Until now, if you’d gotten angry, you likely would have blown up at some point during the conversation, ruining the discussion entirely. But now you’re able to suppress that anger while continuing the dialogue… it shows that you’ve matured.”

Roswaal sent a casual round of applause at Subaru, who felt his anger boiling inside. But if he were to lash out now, it would play right into Roswaal’s hands, so he took a deep breath to manage his frustration.

—That realization only confirmed the truth in what Roswaal had said. So, suppressing his irritation became a struggle.

“Well, this bickering isn’t particularly productive. Since you’ve shown signs of growth, it’s only right for me to display some adult competence as well.”

“…So do it. In any case, I want a clear answer to my previous question. No dodging: why did you conceal the Witch Cult from Emilia? Why did you leave the mansion, knowing they’d strike when you’re the maximum combatant?”

“Both of those questions can be answered with a single response. —I took those actions to avoid confronting the Witch Cult.”

“Huh—?”

Responding calmly, Roswaal’s logic took longer to unfold in Subaru’s mind.

He had to process and internalize what was said before the meaning seeped in.

“It doesn’t make sense. If you avoid confronting the Witch Cult—why? This isn’t some phobia based on disgust for them or something, right?! Weren’t you capable of taking them down easily? The damages would have—”

“Indeed, if I were present, the damage from this incident would surely have diminished. And I believe I have a clear understanding of my capabilities, recognizing that I am among the strongest individuals in this country. I would assert that I could have swiftly repelled their attack.”

“Then why would you—?!”

“That’s the thing.”

Subaru pointed an accusing finger at Roswaal, stopping him mid-sentence, who then directed his finger toward the ceiling.

“If I were to succeed, the merits would siphon away from Emilia and you. If I make a name for myself here, it achieves nothing.”

“————”

Subaru genuinely couldn’t wrap his mind around what he was told.

He hoped Roswaal might follow up with a joke or a retort, anxiously waiting for his next words.

Yet, pondering his silence, Roswaal tilted his head.

“You’re not going to deny it? It’s a calamity that is about to happen. So, why wouldn’t you use it to your advantage?”

“Y-you… Do you realize what you’re saying…?”

“—? I don’t understand what you’re complaining about. Is it about the casualties stemming from the Araham village experience or the lives of those mercenaries and Crusch’s private army who assisted in fighting off the Witch Cult? Are you talking about that kind of loss?”

Reading Subaru’s trembling thoughts, Roswaal stated casually, as if it were an obvious conclusion.

That answer sent a chill down Subaru’s spine.

When he had last conversed with Pack, they’d discussed how Pack felt about Rem being unconscious; that incident had ignited Subaru’s fury.

That encounter had made him acutely aware of the vast gulf that lay between his sense and Pack’s. In other words, the anger he felt then was rooted in a fundamental recognition of the other’s existence.

But Roswaal didn’t share that understanding. He recognized the origin of Subaru’s anger as well as what he sought to express—yet could still lay down such a cold, stark judgment.

And yet that was—

“It’s just hindsight. I get what you’re trying to say. Who leads the Witch Cult attack and who claims the accolades heavily impacts the Royal Selection process. …If you got involved, things wouldn’t turn out like you hoped. But—!”

Gritting his teeth, Subaru waved his arms wildly.

“How many people lost their lives because you weren’t there and didn’t communicate anything?! No, I get it; sure, there wasn’t huge damage. But that doesn’t mean it was zero! People died! Not just us, but the Witch Cult goons too—”

“Even if I were there, there’s no way the treatment of the Witch Cult would change. I would reduce each and every one to ashes. I’d be scorned for the costs to those who allied with us, yet the resentment towards those who opposed us would be unjustified.”

“—Ugh! Even then, there had to be a softer way… no, that’s not it! It’s not about being softer! It’s about the bigger picture! Of course, things ended up well for me, with minimal damage—the foes dead. Emilia’s safe, and the villagers got away unscathed. …But all this turned out on sheer luck! If it went as it should—”

If things had proceeded as they should have, both the villagers and the household could have met their demands, including Emilia.

“They would be dead! …If you were there, none of that would have happened. …You knew all along, yet you abandoned them. It’s you who repeatedly killed them…”

“Don’t misunderstand. The attackers were the Witch Cult, not me. And the Witch Cult’s attack was thwarted by your actions; thus, what you call victims never existed. —It’s nothing but them repeating delusions.”

“—Is that so?”

At Roswaal’s cold statement, Subaru lowered his shoulder and replied in a low voice.

“Delusions”—with that categorized, Subaru’s accusations couldn’t be countered. Since he couldn’t confront Roswaal about the ‘Return by Death’ mechanic, he had no way to criticize him for “events that didn’t occur.”

 

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