Natsuki Subaru slowly ascended the stairs, step by step, climbing upward.

With a knife in one hand, hatred in his heart, and madness gleaming in his eyes, he walked onward.

“I’ll kill, kill, I’ll definitely kill…!”

The creaking whispers were the endless words of a curse.

If words have power, the curses expelled would push Subaru into action.

Each time he clearly uttered the word “kill,” it felt like the knife gained even more strength.

“I’ll kill, kill, kill, kill, kill, kill…”

Muttering to himself, his vision occasionally blurred.

He must have been feeling the strain and fatigue from hours of crawling through the desert underground. Sometimes, his head felt unusually heavy, and Subaru shook his head repeatedly.

He couldn’t afford to collapse in such a place.

This location was crawling with dangerous individuals for Subaru. An environment where it was unclear who was an ally and who was an enemy. It was more like a den of foes.

To protect himself, he had to kill.

If he didn’t, they would come to kill him.

“I’ll kill, kill, kill, kill, kill…”

It was not that he wanted to kill but that he had to do so.

If words were to reflect true feelings conditionally on using them correctly, then the word “kill” was likely the wrong choice for Subaru’s lips.

If it truly reflected Subaru’s sentiments, a more suitable word for this situation wouldn’t be “kill.”

—”I don’t want to die” would be more accurate.

So, with resolve, he decided to kill the first opponent who appeared before him.

Natsuki Subaru reached the fourth floor.

And there, he witnessed it.

“—Hah!”

A breath escaped him.

With a high-pitched sound, the knife he held fell to the hard floor. His fingers stiffened, unmoving. He could only weakly shake his head and take a step back.

The overwhelming smell of blood and the chilling traces of intense combat filled the air.

The stone walls and floor were shattered and broken, evidence that some mighty presence had wreaked havoc, and Subaru stood frozen in that space.

Standing still, he took it in.

—Shaula, with her head crushed, lay on the floor in a pitiful state.

※※　※　※　※　※　※　※　※　※　※　※　※

The corpse of Shaula was in such a gruesome state it made one want to cover their eyes.

Her long black hair, once neatly arranged, now lay tangled and spread across the floor. Her hands and feet were thrown out limply, with both arms severed at the elbows and wrists, the ends nowhere to be found.

Her once healthy, white skin was covered in numerous lacerations, and there was a sheer volume of blood splattered everywhere. The blood trails extended beyond this place where she met her end, indicating that the battle had dragged on for a long time, moving from place to place.

And perhaps the final blow that claimed her life—her head injury—a wound too mild to be called a mere injury; it was a deadly hole ravaging her life.

As if a massive hammer had been swung down upon her head.

Crushing it, scattering it, spilling its contents around; no other method could come to mind. Something, an extremely huge impact must have crushed her head.

The crushed and obliterated head of Shaula.

For a brief moment, memories of her closing the distance unhesitatingly and offering an open smile came back to mind—

“—Buh!”

Sitting on his knees, Subaru stared blankly, dumbfounded by the corpse.

And unable to hold back any longer, he violently vomited, heaving the contents of his stomach onto the floor. The mixed gastric juices formed a messy substance, spilling forth with a sour smell.

It splattered onto the corpse of Shaula, further humiliating her after such a horrendous death.

“Ugh! Oeah, gugh, ugh…”

However, crouched down, continuing to vomit, Subaru found no leisure to consider such disgrace to the dead.

He focused solely on the pain in his stomach and the continual urge to vomit, opening his throat as much as possible to expel the rising nausea.

Eventually, when he had emptied the contents of his stomach, Subaru collapsed to the floor, spreading himself out, glaring at the ceiling, covering his face.

—He had witnessed a human death for the first time.

“—”

The confrontation with a corpse was a first for Subaru.

In most cases, the first corpse one encounters in life is likely to be an elderly relative. Yet, Subaru had never experienced such a thing, as both his maternal and paternal grandparents were alive, and he had never attended a funeral.

Besides that, he had never come across any dead bodies.

Therefore, for Subaru, witnessing another’s death for the first time was shocking.

Moreover, the manner of that death was obviously extreme.

Humans could be so cruelly stripped of life.

“I might be next.”

Hiding his face in his arm, Subaru muttered as he sat up.

Wiping off the vomit clinging to his mouth with his sleeve and shaking his head to dispel the ringing in his ears, he slowly stood up, using the wall for support.

Subaru, pushed from behind, was surely reduced to a pulp of flesh at the bottom of the stairs. He felt slightly relieved that he would not witness his own corpse.

If he were to see his own death with his own eyes, he wouldn’t last even a moment longer in sanity.

Understanding that he had died was already an overwhelming shock that shattered him to pieces.

“Anyway…”

Interrupting his thoughts, Subaru forced himself to look away from Shaula’s corpse, focusing instead on the grim truth of her death.

The tower harbored a terrifying internal threat.

And at the same time, he realized that this threat targeted not only Subaru but everyone else inside the tower.

“—”

Though it pained him to think ill of the dead, this was indeed good news for Subaru.

Not knowing who took his life meant he could not find peace unless he eliminated every single suspect. However, with her death, one suspect had been removed from the list of seven.

And at the same time, due to her demise, he could confidently say that whoever took his life had also made enemies beyond just Subaru—or perhaps they were a dangerous individual aiming to eliminate everyone in the tower.

In other words, someone other than Subaru could take out the person who murdered him.

Now all Subaru had to do was kill all the remaining survivors. That would bring him peace.

By killing the one who aimed to kill him and also eliminating those who might attempt to do the same, Subaru would be the only one left, able to revel in tranquility.

“In that case… the troublesome ones are Ram and Echidna. If that guy Julius is dead too, that would be easier…”

The children, Beatrice and Meily, were not hard to deal with.

Emilia, and even Shaula who was now dead, wouldn’t be wary of him, meaning he could easily strike at them.

However, the existence of Ram, who was defiant toward him, and the crafty Echidna was annoying. Even if he aimed to strike them, there was the impression that those two would be the most difficult to take by surprise.

As for Julius, he was a unique case being the only other man besides Subaru. His presence warranted pure wariness. While cheap, the sword he carried posed a problem as well.

Yet, on the flip side, if he managed to snatch that sword away, it would lean towards a one-sided advantage for Subaru since he had practiced swordsmanship.

Then—

“That bastard up there.”

The red-haired man, sitting in the upper levels of the tower, calling himself the examiner—Subaru shook his head immediately, contemplating how to remove him.

Eliminating him seemed impossible. He was an unapproachable being who lived beyond common sense—a transcendent entity.

In Natsuki Subaru’s worldview, defeating such a being was utterly inconceivable.

There were beings he could not kill.

The only solace was that it seemed unlikely that he was the one who had pushed Subaru off. If it were him, he wouldn’t try to kill him in such a trivial manner; there was a sense of negative trust in that.

“—”

Picking up the fallen knife, Subaru stepped over Shaula’s corpse and pressed further inside.

He hesitated for a moment about checking on Shaula’s corpse but dismissed it, reasoning that a woman dressed so sparsely wouldn’t likely possess anything useful. Simultaneously, he felt a pang of guilt for further humiliating a corpse.

She was dead. The dead no longer posed a threat to Subaru.

She simply had bad luck. —Nothing more.

He didn’t feel the need to perform even a modest gesture of respect.

Leaving Shaula behind, Subaru stealthily advanced down the corridor of the fourth floor, retracing the traces of destruction left behind.

The tower was eerily silent, not a sound to be heard, the stillness itself felt oppressive.

The high-pitched ringing continued to gnaw at his brain, and he could hear the sound of blood coursing through his veins. Yet strangely, his heartbeat was slow, the initial excitement fading as if it were a lie.

As he ascended to the fourth floor, the thick hatred still clung to his chest like sludge, refusing to be shaken off.

Even now, he remained resolute in his readiness to commit murder for the sake of survival.

He was prepared to stab and gouge the next person he laid eyes on, to take their life.

And yet—

—Around the corner, he found the body of Echidna, split diagonally in half.

※※　※　※　※　※　※　※　※　※　※　※　※

Echidna’s corpse was brutally slashed, a large wound that looked as if it had been cut from the right shoulder to the left side.

“—”

When imagining a large blade, the first thought was of the sword Julius had wielded.

A cheap, mass-produced weapon but surely functional enough to cut through a figure as delicate as Echidna.

The problem was not knowing whether Julius had a reason to strike down Echidna.

From what he had heard, Echidna and Julius were in a master-servant relationship—though rumor had it, their relationship was much more complicated.

Of course, if Julius was a psychopathic killer focused on eliminating everyone in the tower, such details may hold no significance.

“Ugh… ha, ha…”

Leaning against the wall, Subaru lifted his gaze once more after losing to his stomach’s complaints.

Compared to Shaula’s situation, Echidna’s state was somewhat better. Nonetheless, it was a sight that required considerable courage to endure.

While Shaula’s fallen form screamed that she had been discarded after a kill, Echidna’s corpse still bore a certain dignity.

To put it plainly, her corpse was covered in a white cloth, and her eyelids were closed.

“—”

Considering the differences in the methods of killing, there were significant variances in how their deaths were honored.

In this case, contemplating which was more normal could drive one mad.

“Echidna is gone as well…”

With trembling breaths and a voice strained with emotion, Subaru absorbed the reality before him into memory, and he continued deeper into the tower, seeking the survivors whom he should eliminate.

Maybe by then, he would no longer differentiate whether what he sought was life or death, or even what purpose his search served, as everything began to blur in ambiguity.

—At the end of the corridor, he came across Ram, her body blown apart from the torso.

Her body had a massive hole gaping between her chest and waist, barely hanging together in a horrific state. The injury resembled what he had inflicted upon the desert worm earlier.

She likely had been targeted from behind as she dashed through the corridor to somewhere. Biting her lip, the expression of unfulfilled regret lingered on her dying face, laden with a grudge-filled curse.

He vomited.

—In the great hall where they had discussed the morning’s matters and eaten, lay the corpses of Julius and Meily.

The manner of Julius’s death was the most horrific yet. His body bore marks of beating, alongside deep cuts attributed to overwhelming sharpness. A tattered piece of his cloak was carelessly wrapped around the injury where his left arm had been blasted off at the elbow. No clear cause of death was apparent; if all of it contributed, it was likely the loss of excessive blood that led to his demise.

And had he fought so vigorously for the girl who lay behind him?

He vomited.

Leaning against the wall, placing a hand over his stomach, Meily was the only one who had died with a calm expression.

Her small palm lay on her abdomen, stained with bright red blood from a wound that was undoubtedly present. Her cause of death was likely exsanguination. Wounded, she had awaited salvation in this place, losing her life in the process.

Yet, her corpse bore an expression of tranquility that completely defied comprehension.

He vomited.

“—”

Corpses, corpses, corpses, corpses, corpses everywhere.

There were corpses. Only corpses. Corpses lay sprawled all around.

What’s happening? Understanding slipped away.

What is happening? The reality felt giddy.

In an ideal world, everyone but Subaru would be dead, that would be the condition for his peace.

But it was incomprehensible for everyone to be dead without Subaru’s presence.

Heads smashed, bodies hacked apart; the brutal death of Shaula.

Her shoulder severed, crashing down from a terrible blow; Echidna.

Blown apart from behind, leaving regret and curses behind; Ram.

Having battled desperately, leaving traces all over, he ultimately lost his life; Julius.

And just from losing blood from a wound in her abdomen, dying peacefully accepting a gradual death was Meily.

What could have happened for things to turn out this way?

Who could one consider to be the perpetrator that would make this situation comprehensible?

“Emilia and Beatrice…”

He found five corpses, while two suspects remained unfound.

Either of those two, or both colluding, could have incited this situation.

The very two who had cared for Subaru when he had awoken confused without memories; had they performed such an atrocity hidden behind their concern?

Five dead bodies, four covered with white cloth, each belonging to the four apart from Shaula.

The four corpses, except Shaula’s, were carefully laid on the ground, eyelids closed. There lay a sense of respect for the deceased. Only Shaula’s corpse carried none.

At what point had this massacre occurred?

“Blood…”

He thought it was dry.

Stumbling, Subaru began searching the tower for Emilia and Beatrice, contemplating the state of each corpse in mind.

The stench of blood surged back, the grisly images of those dead bodies vividly resurfacing.

It pierced his mind, and his stomach ached with pain as it churned. Yet, it had run dry of contents, unable to produce even a droplet of saliva to expel from the remnants.

Subaru was utterly parched. Similarly, their blood had dried as well.

Even if blood takes longer to dry out than water, considering the volume involved…

Hours, perhaps even more than ten hours, had likely passed since the tragedy took place. Subaru himself had no grasp of how long he had wandered underground in the desert, but sufficient time must have flowed by—though he felt uncertain.

There was chaos, there was confusion.

The restraints of his unsteady consciousness pleaded him to make sense of the current scenario.

He had to attain peace; he needed to find them; to do so, he needed to eliminate the suspects.

If he could kill either of the two that had created this situation, he would be released.

“—”

—He entered the Green Room. A black lizard spotted Subaru and hissed.

It was the first living presence he encountered since returning to this tower.

“Hah. A lizard, huh?”

Seeing the lizard alive, Subaru let out a dry chuckle.

If he had to meet anyone at this time, he had hoped for a human rather than this.

Quickly turning his back, he took to leave the room. A room with only a lizard held no purpose. However—

“Don’t follow me!”

“—”

Behind Subaru, the black lizard, having shrunk its massive body, attempted to follow.

When it stood, the lizard was surprisingly large, almost the size of a horse. It lumbered forward, its sharp claws trailing behind Subaru.

Unable to bear the pressure, Subaru waved his arms and spat to scare it off.

“I don’t have time to play with you! I need to kill those still breathing in this tower! If you’re in my way…!”

Brandishing the knife he held, Subaru scowled at the lizard.

The lizard, whose sharp gaze was fixed upon Subaru, immediately drew its attention back from the knife to Subaru himself.

“Ugh…”

Ignoring the knife, it continued to stare into Subaru’s eyes.

Subaru’s throat trembled under the weight of its unwavering gaze.

It was as though it was unfazed by his murderous intent. That was immensely unsettling, creating an uneasiness that sparked the buried hostility within him—

“—You son of a bitch, don’t mess with me!!”

At that moment, Subaru swung the knife hard, aiming it at the lizard.

The blade pierced the lizard’s pitch-black scales. Initially, it met with slight resistance but easily sliced through, driving deeply into its body with an unsettling sensation.

Remaining still, the lizard had the knife stuck in its left side. The blade had sunk deep into the creature, crimson blood spilling out.

“Now how about that…”

Subaru intended to follow up, but his voice cracked, a breath escaping in a panicked gasp.

He had just performed an action meant to end a life for the first time. The thrill and heavy beating of his heart sparked that reaction, but he couldn’t continue the words for another reason.

“—”

“Ah, ugh…”

The lizard, impaled, didn’t budge even an inch, keeping its gaze locked onto Subaru.

No reaction to the pain, no surprise, nothing. Its sharp eyes remained fixed on Natsuki Subaru’s actions.

Those eyes, devoid of any emotion, seemed to accuse Natsuki Subaru.

“Damn it… damn it, damn it!! What the hell, what the hell is going on?!”

Scratching his head, Subaru couldn’t contain his frustration any longer.

Screaming out, he forgot all about retrieving the knife lodged in the lizard’s body, stepping back.

—No, he lacked the courage to even touch that knife. The lizard’s gaze was terrifying.

“Each one of you, every last one of you… the corpses! The living ones! Even those who are like neither living nor dead! What are you all thinking? What do you want?!”

Despite knowing it was useless to yell, Subaru unleashed the pent-up feelings he had while wandering through the darkness of the underground corridor, grappling with a reality where everything was obscured.

“I’ll kill anyone who tries to kill me! Everyone who relies on me, I’ll shove away! Don’t get the wrong idea! Don’t get full of yourself! Suddenly getting so familiar… this is insane!”

“—”

“I don’t know a damn thing about you guys! I don’t have to know what you’re thinking! Everyone forces their own problems onto me…! If you’re all tied up in your own business! I’m tied up in my own issues too!”

Screaming and shouting, Subaru found himself kneeling in the midst of tears.

Before him, the lizard stood silently, observing Subaru as he heaved and gasped. Unable to meet its gaze, Subaru crouched down, pressing his forehead against the floor.

“Just leave me alone… abandon me and let me sit here all alone…”

His tearful voice squeezed out to echo hollowly in the quiet corridor.

How much time had passed since then. Ten seconds? Several tens of seconds? Perhaps several minutes? Immobilized on the floor, Subaru suddenly noticed.

A faint, truly faint vibration began to creep towards him through the floor.

“Ah.”

“—!!!”

In that moment, Subaru lifted his head, seeing the blackened maw of the lizard open wide before him.

The lizard’s sharp fangs loomed as it approached Subaru. Ultimately, would he be crushed and die? He stared at it in a daze, as if it were happening to someone else—

“Ugh—?!”

The lizard’s massive jaws clamped down on Subaru’s left shoulder, pulling him away with alarming haste.

His body was lifted off the ground, dragged forcefully. As the sharp fangs embedded in his shoulder, a cry of pain escaped his lips against his will.

“Ah! H-hay!”

He was trying to kill it. He could have been killed.

Yet, feeling the teeth latched onto his shoulder, the fear ignited by the pain easily overwhelmed his earlier resolve. Would he be eaten, consumed, chewed up, and end up dead?

Being devoured by a livi ng creature would be one of the worst fates imaginable.

That premonition made every muscle in Subaru’s body freeze with terror just as—

“—”

The corridor he had just been in exploded upward, a massive cloud of black mist engulfing it.

It unleashed a thunderous roar and violently scattered debris, rampaging through the corridor’s flooring, walls, and ceilings, then turning its attention toward Subaru and the fleeing lizard.

—What appeared to Subaru as a black, shadowy arm.

His mind recalled the figure of the woman who had tormented him on the stairs.

The shadowy woman veiled in black had mercilessly tormented Subaru’s heart, sowing terror within him. The shadows she wore eerily resembled the shadows erupting before him.

Those shadows rampaged through the corridor at will, chasing after Subaru and the fleeing lizard.

“You…!!”

The lizard remained silent as it held onto Subaru, racing through the corridor at breakneck speed.

Faced in the opposite direction, Subaru couldn’t see what the lizard was fleeing toward. Instead, he could clearly observe the oncoming chaos of the shadows, freezing his blood.

To be engulfed by that shadow might be a fate more horrifying than death itself.

Instinctively realizing this, Subaru pressed the lizard’s fangs deeper into his shoulder. The overwhelming pain quaked through his throat, but if he lost his grip, it would surely be over.

At that moment, his aversion to the lizard meant nothing—it was merely a fruitless obsession.

“—!!!”

Suddenly, a crash reverberated in front, blocking the path as the shadows lunged at him.

In a split second, the lizard deftly maneuvered, turning sharply away just before being consumed by shadows, racing down a side path as a powerful wave of darkness surged in pursuit.

However, as they continued to flee, they burst into—

“—Huh! The spiral staircase…!”

Opening into the colossal spiral staircase connecting the fourth and fifth floors, Subaru was left speechless.

Naturally, it meant witnessing the fact that from high up on the fourth floor, he could see far down into the depths of the fifth—reminding him of the sight where he had experienced his own fall.

Below, the staircase leading up from the fifth was consumed by the black shadows, sinking below.

In other words, the entire tower, its lower half, was being enveloped and drawn into the overwhelming shadow.

“There’s no escaping down… and behind me…”

The tower below had already succumbed to the shadows, while from the corridor they escaped, a dark tide was advancing.

It was all over, a fully cornered scenario.

Now he had the unreasonable choice of becoming engulfed in shadows or dying by some other means.

“—”

For a moment, the thought of self-destruction crossed his mind.

Perhaps it would be better to choose death than to be consumed by those shadows. Moreover, it could be that something might remain for him even in death.

“Ah, hi…”

The moment he firmly contemplated self-harm, Subaru’s whole body began to tremble uncontrollably.

What if he chose death, and that was the end? He vaguely considered that he could potentially relive the results of his actions.

But was there any guarantee that was true?

Or could he assert that it wasn’t merely a prophetic dream? Until now, he had endured painful prophetic dreams, and if this was the last one, it would signify the end.

Why, in the first place, must he die?

He hadn’t done anything wrong. Why should it be his life that paid the price during such a chaotic time?

“I don’t want… to die!!”

Unashamedly, Subaru screamed, tears streaming down.

No one was there to hear him, just the dead and the missing.

Thus, the sound of his despair reached only the black lizard.

“—!!!”

The lizard, still holding Subaru in its jaws, roared deep in its throat.

Immediately after, it gained tremendous speed, launching itself into the air to escape the surging tide of shadows chasing from behind.

“—”

Of course, no matter how fast the leap, it would eventually lose momentum and succumb to gravity, falling straight into the shadows below.

And yet, the lizard would open a way through this life-or-death situation with an astonishing change.

“—!!!”

With a powerful thrust from its two expert legs, the lizard dug into the tower’s wall. Certainly, clinging to the wall would not spare it from falling eventually…if that wall were vertical.

Bellowing loudly, the lizard raced along the surface of the wall.

By becoming enveloped by the shadows, the enormous tower tilted slightly. The wall, nearly vertical and sloped, the lizard forced its way up, charging through.

“No way…!”

Subaru, whirling around, was unable to comprehend what was unfolding.

He could clearly tell that this black lizard was expending all its strength, pushing ahead to survive.

“You—”

In an instant, the place where the lizard had launched from was consumed by the rushing shadows. Upon realizing the prey was trying to scurry up the wall, the shadows exploded towards that very spot.

In that moment, the lizard pivoted, narrowly avoiding the onrushing darkness. A fierce shockwave erupted, leaving a gaping hole in the tower’s wall.

“—!!!”

Without hesitating, the lizard slipped through the jagged opening.

Jostled violently from side to side, Subaru’s inner ear was thrown off balance, leaving him unable to grasp the reality around him. Yet amid the chaos, it was clear that the lizard’s brutal movement sought to ensure Subaru wouldn’t be caught in the shadows or harmed by them.

They passed through the hole; immediately, a wind laden with sand welcomed them, blackening Subaru’s vision.

He was outside. Had he really escaped the tower? Still, the lizard pressed on up the tilted wall, desperately trying to flee from the shadows—

“Gah, huh!?”

Suddenly, the lizard’s slender neck was buckled, and in the next moment, fierce winds assaulted him.

To his dismay, the lizard’s fangs withdrew from his shoulder, tearing flesh in the process, leaving him seeing white stars. Yet, he was met immediately with a hard surface.

He tumbled, rolling, and was flung aside, gasping for breath. He opened his eyes.

The flickering darkness before him revealed glimpses of the black night sky.

“Ah, what…?”

Unfathomable sights unfolded before Subaru, jarring him from safety as he quickly sat upright.

Looking around, he realized it was a space made of the same material as the tower yet was undeniably external—a balcony attached to the outer wall of the tower.

Having slipped through the hole, the lizard had climbed up the wall, tossing Subaru into this space—

“Lizard…!”

With terror surging within him, he rushed toward the direction he’d tumbled from, peering down.

Then, he saw the fate awaiting the lizard that had thrown him to safety.

—The lizard fell, engulfed by the even darker black shadows, disappearing.

Seized by irrational anger, Subaru drove his knife into himself, disregarding his own pain and fear as he launched the lizard into that balcony.

The shadows awaited, promising a fate more terrifying than death.

“What’s happening?!”

Subaru couldn’t make sense of anything.

“—”

Gazing from the balcony at the lower half of the tower consumed by shadows, a white bird suddenly appeared, perching at the edge next to Subaru.

With an emotionless gaze, the white bird looked at Subaru—the large creature deeply unsettled him.

Dead suspects, invisible suspects, a lizard risking its life to save him, and now this mysterious white bird—the tower slowly succumbed to the darkness, piece by piece.

“—”

As he felt the end drawing near, Subaru sat down, drained.

He understood the lizard’s desperate act to save him. Still, such thoughts were futile—he only managed to briefly extend a time near death.

“—”

As Subaru slumped down, he suddenly looked up.

Behind him lingered an unexpected presence—one not a bird, lizard, or shadow.

A living presence stood there.

“…Who the hell are you?”

Without the strength to turn around, Subaru called out weakly.

In response, he heard the faint sound of a throat clearing, followed by laughter from someone behind him. It was a voice he had never heard.

“—Now, try to guess, hero.”

In an instant, a gust of wind struck, forcefully lifting Subaru’s perspective and spinning it around.

He felt strangely weightless, like being freed to soar in the air—and then, he realized.

Someone had come from behind and, without warning, decapitated Natsuki Subaru.

※※　※　※　※　※　※　※　※　※　※　※　※

“—Subaru! Hey, Subaru, are you okay?”

The disconnection of his severed head and the switch of consciousness was but a fleeting moment.

Awakening atop a soft bed of vines, Subaru was greeted not by the never-seen-before human, but by the familiar voice he had been searching for with all his might—a silver bell sound and its owner.

“Emilia…”

“Ah, Subaru, I’m so glad. You’ve finally woken up. I was really worried about you!”

Opening his eyelids just a crack, Subaru caught sight of the relieved expression on the girl—Emilia. She sighed in relief at the sight of Subaru regaining consciousness, a smile illuminating her lips.

“—”

As he looked at Emilia, he couldn’t help but notice how dazzling her delicate neck appeared.

In a dry state of mind, Subaru reached out gently with both hands towards Emilia’s slender neck. It easily fit within his grasp.

“Subaru? What are you doing?”

Emilia, bewildered, widened her eyes at Subaru gripping her neck.

While surprised at his action, she didn’t resist. If he chose to exert all his strength, that neck would surely snap like a twig.

Even with her life in his hands, Emilia remained oddly serene—

“Looks like Subaru is a little groggy. After worrying Betty and the others, acting so sluggish is quite a surprise.”

“—!”

Suddenly, a voice from right beside him pulled Subaru’s attention away from Emilia’s neck.

Glancing over, he made eye contact with Beatrice, who stood expressionlessly with her arms crossed beside the bed. Blushing over Betty’s words, Emilia replied, “Well, it’s perfectly fine if he’s just groggy. I was really worried about what would happen…”

“Can’t you keep your unneeded words to yourself!”

With a red face, Beatrice stormed at Emilia, who had let it slip about Subaru’s condition. But neither of the two understood the impulses that had seized Subaru a moment ago. Moreover, they were clearly unaware of the perilous nature of the situation.

Their attitudes toward Subaru reflected this lack of understanding—

“—So, this place is…”

Once again, Subaru, the ‘Natsuki Subaru’ who had lost his memories, recognized that he had returned right to the moment he was summoned to this parallel world.

And at the same time—

“—!! You…!”

At that moment, a faint hissing and breath caught Subaru’s attention and he hurriedly turned, taking in the sight before him.

In the corner of the Green Room, the black behemoth loomed quietly, standing there nonchalantly—it was the lizard that had desperately run around for Subaru until just before being swallowed by the shadows.

“…I feel a bit uneasy. Finders keepers, right? It should have been Betty and Emilia to find you, not me.”

“Fufu, don’t pout. Isn’t it nice? Subaru and Patrasche are great friends now.”

From behind, Subaru could hear the conversation between Emilia and Beatrice.

However, he couldn’t react to the exchange, instead embracing the large body of the lizard before him, thankful for its existence in that moment.

—The only being who had not harmed Subaru back there.

 

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