Stepping through the open door, Natsuki Subaru stood frozen in shock, his senses overwhelmed by the staleness and sights, and he realized, a moment too late, that he was stepping onto a different floor from where he intended.

— And that delayed recognition produced a fatal lag.

“The Forbidden Library…!?”

He had searched all over the mansion, wandering tirelessly, and here he was now, arriving at a place he had not been able to find. An unwelcome timing, an unexpected chance, and it created a void in Subaru’s heart, taking away the precious seconds before the door behind him creaked shut.

“———!”

As if carried by a gust of wind from outside, Subaru’s body seemed to be sucked into the library. The door too slammed shut with force, creating a draft that tickled the back of his neck.

Hearing the loud noise, he glanced back and confirmed the door had separated the hallway from the room, realizing the significance of the Forbidden Library being opened here and the door being closed behind him—.

“Ah, open it—!!”

Reaching for the doorknob, he suddenly noticed his right arm was no longer functioning properly in the manner he wished and frustratingly extended his left arm instead. His blood-slicked fingers turned the doorknob with a loud clatter, but for some reason, the rotating handle refused to communicate his intention to open the door. It spun uselessly, only serving to heighten Subaru’s impatience with its loud rattling.

“——No matter how much you struggle, it’s pointless, you know.”

From behind him, a voice cut through as he struggled against the door.

Whipping around, he leaned against the door and stared into the cold expression of the girl appearing from deep within the library.

With long cream-colored curls and a luxurious, dazzling dress. A small frame, with an adorable yet slightly annoying face. Everything about her was just as he remembered.

“Beatrice…”

“You look like quite a mess. Try not to move around too much; you’ll dirty up the library floor…”

“Right now! Open the door! Get me outside!!”

Ignoring all her words as she assessed his injuries with a cool demeanor, Subaru yelled back. The command “Do not bleed!” failed to reach his ears as he waved his still bleeding right arm.

“Why, why do you want to see such a pathetic sight!? Why, why now!? Let me go! Hurry! Right now!!”

“……What good would going back do you? What can you possibly achieve by returning with those awful wounds? Betty has no clue at all.”

“Even if it’s useless, I know what the hell I’m doing!! But still!!”

He didn’t want to face Elsa again in that place, yet there he was, intending to enter the room he was meant to. Approaching the slumbering girl, and then—

“If I step into the library and the ‘Door Crossing’ happens… that murderer will take over that room…!”

If that happened, that maniac would surely question the absence of Subaru, but instead of wandering around the mansion looking for him, he would undoubtedly find the girl sleeping there first. And then, how would that murderous demon react to her defenseless sleeping face?—It didn’t need to be said.

“So—!!”

“It’s already too late.”

Shouting out in a desperate attempt to shake off the rising dread, Subaru was suddenly hit with a pained whisper from the girl behind him.

With her eyes downcast, Beatrice shook her head slightly, causing Subaru to freeze for a moment. The meaning of what she said replayed in his mind, halting his thoughts.

—What did this girl just say?

“Too late… what do you mean…?”

“The reason you wanted to go back to that room, it’s just vanished, you know.”

“———”

In response to Subaru’s broken question, Beatrice replied in a calm manner.

His throat constricted, eyes widened to their limit, and Subaru found himself crumbling to his knees. His shoulders drooped, his head hung low, and a terrible ringing echoed in his skull.

Pain, pain, the pain he had forgotten began to resurface, and noise started to erode Subaru’s consciousness. Everything was swept away by that chaos, and he genuinely wished it would all just disappear. He didn’t want to understand. He didn’t want to recognize it. Yet—

“Should I show you the wounds? They look so painful I really can’t look at them.”

Beatrice approached, crouching down, and examined Subaru’s right arm, left side, and wounded shoulder. A soft glow enveloped her hands, and first, it focused on the most damaged right arm. —The sensation of heat returned, like a creeping itch, as the torn muscles started to knit themselves together.

First, the bleeding stopped, and gradually, as the light worked, a membrane began to seal the surface wounds, while cells accelerated the healing process for the damaged areas. However—

“It will take time to return to its original thickness, and more importantly, the fingers you lost will not grow back… The wounds on your waist and right shoulder too.”

“…what are you talking about?”

In a hoarse voice, Subaru’s expressionless voice came out.

Beatrice’s gaze hardened as she focused on the healing process, and while showing him her glowing hands, she said,

“Despite my reluctance, I’m just doing this because I have to. I’m probably the only one who can heal wounds of this magnitude in this mansion. Be grateful, alright?”

“Heal… my wounds…? For what purpose…?”

“The wounds are life-threatening if left alone. It doesn’t concern me whether you live or die, but I can’t have you dying here.”

Closing one eye, Beatrice replied curtly, perhaps having dismissed Subaru’s words as nonsense while continuing to heal him. However,

“———”

“Ah.”

Feeling the healing waves fill the wounds, Subaru suddenly shrugged off her attention, causing Beatrice to let out a small gasp.

He rolled sideways, straining his trembling knees, distancing himself from the girl and glaring back at her with a fierce expression.

Taking a harsh breath, the protruding stakes stabbed into his back fell to the floor with a high-pitched sound. The noise of escaping trapped water echoed, and blood began to flood from his wounds.

The river of blood flowed from his thighs to the floor beneath his knees. Staring in shock at this scene, Beatrice bared her teeth in concern.

“I don’t need any healing…! Whether I live or die is irrelevant… why did you even bother to help me?!”

“That’s… because you’re just so pathetic that I can’t stand to look at you…”

“Why… why me!? If you thought to save me like this, then why didn’t you help Petra… or Frederica!? If you had this power, you could have run away without a fight…!”

Had the “Door Crossing” been employed, it could have likely confused even that relentless stalker, Elsa. If applied, it was an ability that specialized in escape. The situations where Petra missed her escape, Frederica went to delay, and Rem, bedridden and unable to move—

“We could have saved them…! I’m the foolish one, I’m the weak one… you could have reached the place I couldn’t… yet, why…!?”

“There is no reason for Beatrice to assist the three you speak of. I have no knowledge of them. It’s not something I concern myself with.”

“If that’s the case… there’s no reason for you to help me either!?”

Shaking her head in refusal, Beatrice denied Subaru’s pleas. Overlapping denials from him made him slam his healing right arm against the floor.

“Why the hell did you help me!? Why did you save me!? Was it just a whim? If that’s the case, why am I the only one!? What’s different about me compared to the other three? Rem has always been a good girl, Frederica had her own aspirations… Petra was still so young… They had reasons to live… value more than I do!”

“Value? Reason? Why should Beatrice respect your self-satisfied justifications? That kind of arrogance is truly unbecoming for a Human!”

“Then what are your inconsistent actions supposed to mean!? You never showed your face while I searched everywhere, yet now you decide to show up only when things get dangerous…! If you don’t see any value in them, then you should have just hidden away again in this place!”

Why had she chosen this moment to appear when everything was too late?

She could have completely concealed her existence, making it impossible for Subaru to sense her, yet if Elsa caught on to the unusual circumstances surrounding Subaru, it could expose Beatrice’s presence.

What future awaited even her at the hands of that murderer’s blade? Why take the risk, inviting in a half-dead version of himself?

Why—when he had given up on living and wished for death—had she thought to save him?

“No matter how fickle it might be… if you have any intention left to help me, leave me, just kill me right now…!”

“What are you saying…?”

“I mean it! Kill me! Before everything gets overwritten, before everything here solidifies and slips through my fingers! Kill me! Kill me! Kill me!!”

Spitting blood and clawing at the floor with the leftover left hand while the right lay lost, Subaru screamed out his desperate plea.

Before the meaning of his life was entirely wiped away, simply existing like this made it all too late to reverse.

He screamed for someone to end his useless, absolutely incapable, powerless form.

However, Beatrice wouldn’t accept that soul-piercing scream, nor that plea.

She shook her head, her expression filled with confusion and disgust.

“I don’t understand. I just don’t comprehend what you, a Human, are trying to convey. Why would you say such things when you have life right now?”

“Saving a life isn’t the only way to save! Living is a burden for me right now! I shouldn’t be here, shouldn’t exist… if you can’t save me…!”

Without relying on anyone else, he needed to end this miserable time with his own hands—.

Seeing Subaru’s resolve, Beatrice made a small sound. With that sound echoing in his ears, he unhesitatingly extended his tongue.

“———!”

He bit down hard on it, taking the plunge into self-destruction.

Excruciating pain. It was a different kind, one completely separate from the pain in his right arm or the wounds on his waist and shoulder. No matter how many times he experienced it, he could never build a resistance to pain. Every injury, every sensation, was distinct, new, painful, tormenting—there was no getting used to it. Pain always acted as pain, equal to all.

Blood filled his mouth, and Subaru rolled his eyes back as he collapsed on the floor.

As he fell, the world spun wildly, his limbs trembled, and the convulsions began. A choking feeling; his severed tongue blocked his throat and caused him to struggle for breath.

“Wh-what are you doing!”

This wasn’t a fatal wound. A sharp and dull ache pierced his mind intermittently, and the rolling tremors of his limbs brought blood tears streaming down his cheeks. His half-torn tongue caught at the edge of his lip, a testament to Subaru’s insufficient resolve towards self-destruction.

In this different world, this was Subaru’s third time opting for self-destruction.

The first was during the mansion loop, intending to reclaim what was irretrievably lost through that resolution of self-destruction.

The second was when he ended the loop that began in the Royal Capital only to find out he had neglected Rem’s existence. He stabbed his throat with a knife, yet nothing changed.

And now, the third time—knowing there were no guarantees he could go back, but continuing to live through this was impossible for Subaru. It was too heavy. It felt impossible. But even so, he would have to cling to a shred of possibility to retrieve what had been lost—

“…Hey. Don’t leave me behind…”

A trembling voice called out to Subaru from somewhere in the receding world.

That voice grew increasingly distant, fading away until it vanished—.

※※　※　※　※　※　※　※　※　※　※　※　※

When Subaru opened his eyes, the first thing that assaulted his nostrils was the smell of dust.

“U…?”

Awaiting awareness, he shook his head while keeping his eyelids shut, slowly starting to grasp the situation.

He was lying on the floor. The cool touch of the ground enveloped his body, and he instinctively thought the restart point was within the graveyard.

He sat up and opened his eyes to the dim surroundings. It was a struggle to focus right after awakening, his vision blurred with tears making it difficult to decipher.

However, it seemed he had managed to “Return by Death” once more, which brought a sense of relief. If the place he returned to was the graveyard, then the restart point hadn’t changed.

In the trial room of the graveyard, the timeline was right after Subaru had overcome the “Trial.” Emilia should be lying nearby, and thus it was meant to begin by waking her up.

“My head hurts…”

Rubbing his temples, Subaru pondered to organize the situation.

There were countless things he needed to think about, yet through the previous loop, they multiplied again. How to proceed was a mystery; nothing straightforward to solve came to mind. The light he had spotted felt like simply a moth’s lamp leading into a new trap.

He felt like he had tried to leap over one pitfall only to plunge into another.

“With a bonus of a sword mountain to boot…”

It wasn’t inaccurate as an analogy in the sense of being fatal.

“The Sanctuary” and “Trials.” His relationship with Garfiel. The assault on the mansion. The mystery why there was no longer any time to spare, and the vengeful spirit against Elsa—developing a method to save Rem and the others.

Problems popped up like corn kernels overheating in a fryer, but being afforded the opportunity to ponder how to address them was something he should be grateful for.

In a situation where there was an inkling he might meet his end now, breaking through that made Subaru feel how much hope lay before him—.

“I’ll have to put on a bright face and interact with Emilia without knowing what’s going on, huh—”

While saying that, Subaru noticed his previously blurred vision starting to clear. He scrunched up his nose at the sour smell; first, he needed to find Emilia.

As he contemplated this, he raised his right hand to his forehead like a visor and finally realized.

—The fact that he was missing three fingers on his right hand.

“What—!? Ah!?”

Finding an impossible injury, a scar that shouldn’t exist, Subaru’s throat uttered a gasp of disbelief. And like a slap to the face, the reality that he had been viewing a world far too convenient for him struck him.

Cold ground, dry stone walls. A stale odor hovering in the space of the graveyard he had sought after. Yet what lay before him in actuality was a corner of the library filled with shelves of books and a unique scent coming from aged parchment.

“The Forbidden Library… why am I still here…?”

A mystery presented itself where he thought he had said farewell to this place. Assuming the worst, Subaru first checked his own body.

The worst possibility—was the world’s repetition stuck since the moment he stepped into the Forbidden Library.

His face unable to hide his dread, he gazed at his right arm. The three missing fingers and the right arm was thinner, having lost a third of its size compared to his left. Yet the wounds on that arm had already closed, a wrinkly bulge and discoloration indicated that healing was in progress.

No notable external injuries on his waist and right shoulder remained either, only a tense feeling of taut skin and ongoing discomfort.

At the very least, it wasn’t as if those injuries were fresh when he stepped foot into this library. That left him with only one possible conclusion through process of elimination.

“—So you’ve finally woken up, huh?”

That was, for Subaru who became conscious of the fact, the most unwanted voice to hear at that moment.

In a composed tone, almost as if weary of the world, yet unable to fully conceal her interest, the voice came full of a longing for connection.

While sitting on the floor, Subaru turned around.

There she was, the silver-haired girl he’d hoped to see one last time—the fantasy he wished for, standing before him was shattered by a girl in a dress perched on a wooden ladder.

Looking just as she had before he lost consciousness, Beatrice held a book while gazing down at Subaru.

An unconscious sigh escaped him. Right before his eyes, she shut the book loudly and gradually stepped down from the ladder.

“Because you did something so foolish, I really have had a hard time. I healed your arm injuries, your shoulder, your waist, and even your tongue; everything should be fine now.”

“……………”

“Ain’t got no words to express your gratitude for being kept alive? Anyway, I hope you won’t do something so foolish next time…”

“You… do you even understand what you’ve done?”

“Huh…?”

While stringing together words as if holding a grudge, Beatrice approached the silent Subaru, and as she drew closer, Subaru launched a sudden outburst.

“———!”

Leaping to his feet, he grabbed the ornate fabric of her dress with his outstretched left arm. Her startled “Ah” escaped her lips as she was pulled forward, Subaru thrust his face right up against hers.

“Who asked you to save me—who the hell told you to do that!!”

“———Ah.”

“Do you even know what you’re doing!? Because of you, everything’s a disaster! Everything that should’ve been resolved, is a complete mess all because of you! Why couldn’t you just leave me to die!? Surviving now, what does that even mean… What do you gain from yet another chance, huh!?”

Subaru ought to have gained the right to redo his actions by risking his life.

But that had been blocked by the girl before him, and now remained unattainable. What remained in Subaru’s hands was nothing but an inexplicable sense of loss and an unending anger directed towards Beatrice.

“Just whimsically saving me and healing my wounds… is that enough for you? Do you want me to be grateful? Yes, thank you! Thanks to you, I survived! But outside of my life, I’ve lost everything! Just saved a life, while everything else fell apart!”

“That… Beatrice… was only… only…”

“What’s this supposed to mean now? If you’re so grateful, then explain it to me in a more heartfelt way, okay!? You usually act so nonchalant with that smug face, looking down on me like it’s second nature. You’re so good at it, right? You love mocking us mere humans—ah!”

Filled with hatred, distorting his face into a grotesque grin, Subaru launched an unrelenting barrage of insults at Beatrice. Attempting to fill the void of dissatisfaction and disappointment within him, he acted despicably. Yet that outburst came to an abrupt stop.

“——Gah.”

“Ah…”

He witnessed large tears spilling from Beatrice’s eyes.

In an instant, blood that had rushed to his head drained away. What he had uttered, filled with malice, bloomed into fear.

His loosened grip released Beatrice, and she stumbled back to meet the bookshelf behind her, collapsing to her knees in the process.

A surge of nausea arose. He couldn’t bear the reflection of his own words.

Ugly. Twisted. What else was it but an outlet for his own rage? From Beatrice’s perspective, who knew nothing about the “Return by Death,” she had simply healed Subaru, nearly on the verge of death. Instead of being scolded as a savior, she had no reason to be insulted.

Logically, he understood that. Yet his emotions refused to acknowledge it. While torn between the two extremes of feelings raging inside him, he finally raised his face towards the fallen Beatrice.

“I… I’m sorry! I wasn’t trying to say that… It’s not your fault…!”

If anyone was to blame, it would unequivocally be Subaru himself.

He was aware of what might occur, yet he had naively stepped into the den of the tiger and stepped right on its tail. To push that burden onto others just to avoid being blamed himself was unabashed arrogance.

His feelings fueled by emotion compelled him to lash out at her lack of information. He felt an unshakable resentment at how she had only appeared just at that moment.

But that didn’t justify him accusing her so openly.

“Thank you for healing my wounds, but… I have to move away from you soon…”

He needed to vanish from her sight, choosing self-destruction in another place.

He had no reason to continue living in this world. He had lost far too much. To live in a world where he had lost what he shouldn’t have lost, Subaru couldn’t endure.

Thus, with few words, he expressed his gratitude to Beatrice and began to wander his gaze away from the Forbidden Library—

“—————”

He caught sight of a black-covered book lying beside the collapsed Beatrice.

A plain cover. Sturdy build. Roughly the size of a dictionary, with a look that suggested trouble in transporting it. All characteristics drew Subaru’s attention without exception.

Why was that here, now, in this place?

“But… the ‘Gospel’ was in the dragon carriage… back at the library there…?”

The Gospel of the Witch Cult held by Petelgeuse had been recovered as loot; it was in Subaru’s possession now. However, it didn’t mean he had treated it like a book to be shelved, but had kept it under heavy caution, primal instincts telling him to keep it closely monitored.

Shaking his head at the incomprehensible situation, he reached out for the fallen Gospel, wanting to examine its contents to deny this unease. But—

“——No!”

Before his hand could grasp it, the Gospel was snatched away from the side.

There stood Beatrice, her garments fluttering, breathing heavily, cradling the Gospel in both arms as she distanced herself from Subaru. Putting distance between them, she sighed, looking down at the Gospel as if relieved, tracing her fingers over the cover.

That gesture, that seemingly tender touch of something dear, stirred an unprecedented sense of unease within Subaru.

“Why do you care for that so much? Why do you treat it so preciously?”

“……….”

“That’s the book held by the Witch Cult, isn’t it? Right? No, that can’t be! It looks remarkably similar, but it can’t possibly be! You moved that aside just so I won’t mistake their book for this one, right? Right? I mean, I tend to jump to conclusions too quickly and can be dramatic…!”

“…………”

“N-no, please deny it for me!”

Despite Subaru rambling in a frightened haste, Beatrice held her silence. In the end, his words became a desperate plea.

Eventually, she released a faint exhale, presenting the book visibly before Subaru.

“It’s just as you imagine… This is the Gospel. The same as what the Witch Cult carries, a guide to salvation. A foundation for living. Only one truth, I suppose.”

“W-why do you have something like that? Where can you buy one? It’s too lucky of an item to grant guidance in life. To find a game manual in real life, what a way to unbalance the gameplay… hey!”

“…Beatrice isn’t obligated to answer your question, you know.”

As Subaru quivered while throwing a question, Beatrice turned a few pages of the book and spoke coldly. Below the girl focused on the tome, Subaru felt a strange tingling sense in his tongue as he asked,

“If that book says not to, you really won’t do anything, huh?”

“The book doesn’t provide answers for that either.”

“Then who healed my wounds? Who provided refuge for me in the Forbidden Library…?”

“It doesn’t mention that either.”

“What about now, talking to me like this? Helping me when I was about to die…?”

“—I don’t know.”

Without lifting her gaze from the book, Beatrice replied emptily.

Her doll-like demeanor, void of emotion, made Subaru feel an overwhelming dread, as if he might forget how to breathe in that dizzying moment.

“Does that mean none of this can happen unless the book shows it?”

“…Is it so? Maybe so. Everything happens according to the Gospel’s guiding— that is Beatrice’s meaning of existence, and she exists solely for that purpose.”

“So you helped me… just because the book said to!? Even when I was almost killed in the Forest of Magical Beasts!? Even trying to aid my mentally fatigued self!? All those ridiculous back-and-forths, muddying around like fools… all of that was in your control, and you had no intentions of it at all— is that what you’re saying?!”

“Thus… that’s what I said!!”

Subaru’s desperate words were interrupted by an angry retort from Beatrice, her face flushed with the heat of fury. Stepping forward, she pointed at him.

“Everything Beatrice has done, seen, and said thus far has been recorded here. You, someone like you, could never move Beatrice’s heart! To remain so arrogant, when you talk down to Beatrice, it must be a mistake, Human.”

“———”

“Beatrice will fulfill the purpose of her existence as designated. The life, the time, everything dedicated to that end, how can it be denied… by someone like you…!?”

“Bea…”

Beatrice’s feelings erupted like a dam bursting, and Subaru instinctively opened his mouth to respond, but suddenly was met with a feeling of suffocating pressure from the front.

Feeling as though blown back, Subaru realized he couldn’t resist his body being pushed toward the open door— as it stood, he was about to be ejected outside.

“Stop… Beatrice!”

“Everything for Mother! The connection with Mother is all of Beatrice! I know nothing about you… I don’t know…”

“———”

“I don’t know you. I dislike you. I hate you. —I hate you very much!”

Shaking her head, she concealed her tear-stained face, and the girl’s cry sent Subaru’s body spinning away from the doorway.

The door swung open. The dimension pushed Subaru away from the library. His right hand grasped the edge of the doorway. However, with three fingers missing, he could barely support his weight with just his index finger; only seconds remained before it was too late.

Raising his face, Subaru tried to shout out to the weeping girl—

“Beatrice—!”

“…Mother.”

Her fragile voice drowned out Subaru’s words, never reaching her.

He was blown away. Drowned out. The fabric of space distorted, hurling Subaru’s body from where he belonged to a place where he simply shouldn’t have been.

“———”

With a loud bang, the door slammed shut, and the wind whipping about ceased, leaving silence to fall upon the library.

Left behind was a solitary girl. She trembled, hidden behind her sobs, as she pitter-pattered to the back of the room—seating herself on the ladder in her usual position. Curling her knees up, with trembling hands she opened the Gospel. And then—

“Why… for Beatrice, there’s… nothing…?”

Before the blank pages that held nothing, only her weeping echoed, resonating within the quiet room for eternity.