At first, when Subaru placed his order, Old Man Nur’s toothless mouth twisted grotesquely.

From what I’ve heard, Old Man Nur acts as the island’s healer – essentially, he’s playing doctor, but until he arrived here, he had never treated anyone.

He had been here since before the island’s administrator, the governor, took over from Gustav, and in a harsher, deadlier era, he just happened to take on the role of healer.

It all started when he simply placed a dirty cloth over the wound of a sword slave who had lost his arm.

That act increased the number of times he was called upon to provide treatment, and eventually, he was ordered to work as a healer in the healing room instead of standing as a gladiator.

After a long time spent as a healer, he survived many grueling scenarios appropriate for his position.

Thanks to that, he learned to stitch wounds and concoct basic medicines, and he smiled with his yellow teeth, confident that he would be safe as a healer until death.

Seeing Old Man Nur’s face contorted in such a manner made Subaru feel sorry.

But this was something that couldn’t be avoided if he wanted to accomplish what he aimed to do on this island.

Thus, Subaru asked the noble Old Man Nur, who was doing such a marvelous job of saving people:

“—Is it possible for you to prepare a poison that can kill someone instantly just by biting or licking it?”

△▼△▼△▼△

Subaru felt bad for Old Man Nur.

But it was necessary. It would be a huge problem for Subaru to faint in the middle of a fight and end up surviving in a half-baked state — a way to reset was only right.

And once he had that means in hand, Subaru would be invincible.

“Well, having a bit longer legs would help, too,”

he mumbled, a grumble born from encountering moments in battle where he lacked that long stride.

Of course, that step could be forcibly solved by leaping two steps faster at the next opportunity. He would cycle through trial and error to find the best strategy and grasp the future he desired.

So—

“—That’s enough! Congratulations on surviving ‘Spalca!!’ With the authority of my profession, I hereby accept you all as members of Gladiator Island!”

A booming low command praised the end of the fierce battle that unfolded in the gladiatorial arena.

In the center of the arena lay the corpse of a Gladiator Beast, stabbed with two swords, large and small, while lying on its back. Its arms and long tail had been severed, presenting a pitiful sight.

However, its movement of those wings and the attacks from its sharp tail had been truly troublesome.

Those two must be conquered to inflict damage to the main body, so it’s not like Subaru just unnecessarily beat it up.

And—

“Gustav, is that for real?”

Breathing heavily, Subaru looked up at Gustav, who stood in the guest seat.

With his muscular four arms crossed, the governor of the island witnessed the conclusion of ‘Spalca.’ He’d come off as a stiff hardliner, but to think his declaration of the conclusion was exactly the same word-for-word.

It was unlikely that this coincidence happened to line up with Subaru and the others, so Gustav probably had the same cue every time.

That aside—

“I did it… I did it! I survived! I survived!!”

“We’re alive…! Aww, boohoo!”

“Guh, sob….”

“I can’t believe it. Was this the end of the world…?”

“Could it be that we’ve died and ended up on the other side of Odo Laguna…?”

Around the corpse of the Gladiator Beast, five people were joyfully celebrating their victory in their own bewildered ways.

Orson, Hitz, Nadorei, Kuonson, and Koduri. Each one of them was a lizardman, but not a single one belonged to the same kind, and understanding all their personalities and how they coordinated was the formula for their victory.

As with when Vaits fought, if even one was missing, victory would not have been achieved. —Of course, it would have been utterly impossible without Subaru.

“But we won…!”

Subaru declared firmly, pointing his finger at Gustav in the guest seat.

Gustav’s rugged face remained motionless while he squinted his eyes at Subaru’s provocative posture.

Without saying anything, he turned his back and returned to the island, leaving the corpse cleanup and the handling of the surviving sword slaves to his subordinates.

“Schwarz!”

“Yo.”

As Subaru saw off Gustav, someone approached and called out to him. It was Hiaine, dropping down from the audience seats, rushing towards him.

With all his scales bristling, he grabbed Subaru’s shoulder with his large, clawed fingers.

“What were you thinking!? No, wait, how did you even get into ‘Spalca’…?”

“It was a punishment, a punishment.”

“A punishment, you say?”

“Yeah. I asked some of the other sword slaves. According to them, if you go against Gustav or the guards… the management of the island, it starts with a warning, and after that, it’s a punishment. Serious offenders become food for curses.”

After hearing this from multiple sword slaves, he had confirmed it properly.

Everyone seemed to know Gustav’s desire to avoid reducing the number of sword slaves unnecessarily, and the awareness of the imposed rules was common.

Punishment—meaning the forced participation in ‘Spalca’ conducted by the unrelated “Gai.”

“‘Spalca’ is essentially a rite of passage for those newly becoming sword slaves, so once you become a sword slave, you don’t participate. You have your own ‘Gai’ and no real reason to do it.”

Moreover, the ‘Gai’ arranged for ‘Spalca’ is decided randomly from the members that entered Gladiator Island at the same time. In other words, you can’t choose your compatibility or preferences.

You have to clear the path of the Gladiator Beast with partners whose skills, likes, and identities are unknown to you—it’s a grueling ordeal.

There’s no merit in doing it, yet the risk of dying is incredibly high.

All the sword slaves all agree that ‘Spalca’ is the toughest battle on Gladiator Island.

“Well, right now it seems like everyone thinks that the worst battle is the one forced to occur with that Sessy.”

“—I see. I now understand the reason you were mixed in ‘Spalca,’ but…”

“But what?”

“Why… why did you even receive a punishment!? After that discussion we just had, to be thrown into ‘Spalca’ right away is odd! It’s almost as if….”

There, Hiaine hesitated, sensing an atmosphere of hesitation.

Subaru shrugged slightly, understanding what Hiaine wanted to say.

“Almost like you were trying to help Orson and the others?”

“—Gh!”

“You’re not wrong. If I weren’t there, everyone would have died.”

In reality, the battle had been a terrible mess even with Subaru present.

Uniting with them, who weren’t suited for combat more than Hiaine, would mean starting from becoming part of their group of lizardmen.

That was quite helpful in recalling the memory of seeing the Chaos Frame.

“We were all aiming for the Chaos Frame, weren’t we?”

“Huh…?”

“We should talk about these things properly. Since we finally got to reunite.”

As he said this, Subaru placed his hand over the hand Hiaine had on his shoulder.

With his slit pupils wide, Hiaine stared intently at Subaru’s dark eyes. Subaru returned the gaze and nodded toward the five behind him.

The five, basking in the joy of survival, gradually began to regain their awareness of their surroundings, and one of them, Koduri, noticed Hiaine’s presence.

Then—

“Hiaine! It’s Hiaine! You’re alive… alive!”

Koduri’s voice rang out with a beaming face, and the other four looked at Hiaine. They each expressed joy at Hiaine’s presence, responding positively.

Seeing that, Hiaine’s face twisted into a goofy smile.

“This is a chance I took with my life, you know. Savor it, brother.”

With a smack on his slouched back, Subaru sent Hiaine off toward the others.

Though hesitating several times, Hiaine took tentative steps forward—

“Schwarz!”

“Yeah?”

“…Thanks, man.”

With just that said, Hiaine walked over to the five waiting for him.

There was no hostility or malice from Orson and the others toward Hiaine. After all, Subaru already knew the reason they had been captured and brought to Gladiator Island.

If they could communicate properly, there was no reason for them to be at odds.

“…Schwarz-sama?”

“Waah!”

As Subaru watched Hiaine reunite with his comrades, a voice startled him from behind.

Startled, Subaru nearly choked, saying,

“Whoa, that was close…! Don’t scare me like that!”

“That is my line! What on earth were you suddenly… trying to die or something!?”

“I don’t want to die!?”

Tanza, the young girl, reprimanded Subaru with fiery intensity.

Subaru found himself overwhelmed by the fierce protest of the young girl but shook his head sideways. Yet, Tanza’s expression showed she clearly wasn’t convinced by his excuses.

“The sudden participation in ‘Spalca’ — I was greatly surprised. And to take it upon yourself to confront Governor Gustav, it feels as if you’re courting death.”

“Look, that’s a misunderstanding. I don’t think anyone understands the value of life better than I do. Isn’t that precisely why I helped Hiaine’s team?”

“You’re talking about your life… While the results were fortunate, there were countless dangerous situations that looked perilous from my perspective. This was nothing short of a miracle.”

“A miracle, huh…”

As Tanza chastised Subaru’s reckless behavior with a realistic perspective, Subaru fell silent, contemplating.

True to her words, numerous moments were frankly tense to watch. Understandably, Tanza felt it was a miracle. -But that was not the case.

“Miracles are what you receive from God, but this is something I seized myself.”

Thus, this was no miracle at all.

It was proof that Natsuki Subaru stomped on a shitty fate.

“…So, was this reckless endeavor of yours merely to assist Hiaine-sama’s comrades? Or perhaps, a payback for the words exchanged with Segmunt-sama?”

“No, it’s true I was angry at Sessy, but if I were risking my life on that, I’d be a disaster myself… Helping Hiaine’s comrades was also part of a proper purpose.”

“――――”

“You’re looking at me with such suspicious eyes!”

The drop in convincingness of Subaru’s explanation was quite significant.

With Tanza giving him the look of someone who had just seen a crime in progress, Subaru slumped his shoulders and weakly muttered, “It’s the truth…”

Tanza let out a small sigh.

“Then, what is the goal of Schwarz-sama?”

“That is…”

Refocusing after Tanza’s question, Subaru looked back to where Hiaine and his five comrades were talking. He could hear Hiaine’s voice slightly quivering.

So—

“Let’s talk after we wait a little longer.”

“…Schwarz-sama?”

“What suspicious eyes you have!”

Feeling exasperated by his own lack of trustworthiness, Subaru secretly stuck his finger in his mouth. He reassured himself of the position of the package nestled between his molars.

“――――”

What lay there was the last resort that Subaru had asked Old Man Nur to concoct.

He couldn’t afford to ruin this desperate chance he had grasped due to a careless mistake. He had to be cautious and avoid dying due to a common error.

Thinking that, Subaru pushed the package labeled ‘medicine’ behind his molars.

△▼△▼△▼△

“From what Orson and the others said, it seems the Chaos Frame has been devastated.”

“――――”

Hiaine’s report came with a bitter expression, lowering Tanza’s rounded eyebrows.

Even if one harbored the worst fears, the shock of being told it was true wouldn’t fade. It’s the same as knowing you’ll fall but still feeling pain when you do.

After ‘Spalca’ ended, Orson and the others, who had survived and were welcomed as sword slaves, were currently being guided by the guards to the island’s facilities and common rooms.

Even though they were comrades, Hiaine couldn’t join them as he belonged to a different “Gai” and instead showed his face here with Subaru and the others from the same “Gai.”

And thus, he brought the information that Subaru had longed to know.

“What you wanted was this kind of outside information, right? You wouldn’t get news from the outside while on this island.”

“It’s half and half. No, let’s say it’s 70-30. The 70 goes to Hiaine and Orson.”

“Keep talking, you creepy kid!”

That was mostly genuine, yet Hiaine turned his face away with that tone.

Hiaine seemed to have organized his feelings a tad and was truly glad that Subaru was thinking about the purpose he had for joining ‘Spalca.’

Moreover, Hiaine’s expression looked somewhat brighter, likely because he had heard the crucial talk from Orson and the others.

That was—

“…Those idiot friends tried to rescue me from the slave merchant and got caught. They just cannot be saved.”

“God and fate are both heartless. That’s why I helped. …Let’s make it ‘we’ that helped?”

“Hah, how are we gonna do that? The only one who participated in ‘Spalca’ is you.”

“Maybe it’ll be like Hiaine begging while crying boogers asking, ‘Please help me, Schwartz-sama!’”

“Say that while sleeping!”

As the outstretched hand grabbed his head, Subaru was shaken up and down. Letting go of Subaru after dizzying him, Hiaine noticed Tanza’s demeanor.

Upon hearing the news of the Chaos Frame, Tanza had her head down, and Hiaine called out to her, “Hey, shorty.”

“Are you feeling down about the Chaos Frame? What happened…?”

“…Chaos Frame is my hometown. Even on the brink of collapse, it was still in the city.”

“Oh, I see… I understand. That’s just…”

Hiaine felt bewildered by Tanza’s unexpected response, her eyes swimming. While his personality made him weak to accidents, he soon amplified his voice, saying, “But anyway!”

“Sure, the city has apparently crumbled, but that doesn’t mean all the people living there were wiped out.”

The story circulating was that the residents had gathered together somewhere else… oh, it’s rather infamous.

“Ingenious, is it…?”

“No idea how much we can believe this, to be honest.”

With that preface, Hiaine hesitated to say the next part. However, Tanza and Subaru’s interest had already moved on ahead.

Sensing that, Hiaine took a big sigh before continuing.

“Apparently, there’s been a huge rebellion going on outside. Word has it that the Chaos Frame people have joined in on that rebellion. Well, it’s always said that the top of the Magic City revolts often, so it’s likely that the city got blown away as a result of that dumb move… Huh?”

“—Lady Yorna is not foolish.”

“I-I’m sorry! I don’t know the reason, but I am sorry!”

As Hiaine hurriedly explained, he shrank back under Tanza’s sharp gaze, his voice cracking.

Once again, Hiaine was incurring unnecessary resentment for showing false bravado, but amid it all, Subaru spotted several comforting points in the current conversation.

Of course, this assumption relied on trusting all the information Hiaine relayed from Orson and the others.

“Even if the Chaos Frame is in bad shape, at least Lady Yorna and the townspeople are alright. If the rebellion is the topic of conversation, then Abel and the others should be safe as well.”

The fight to retake the Imperial Capital wouldn’t advance without Abel.

In other words, Abel was not gone. Subaru hoped that Medium, Talitta, and Al were safe as well. —And that Yorna was safe with Lui.

“…Time is of the essence, indeed.”

Understanding even fragmented outside circumstances intensified the urge to get outside.

Of course, he was worried about everyone in the Chaos Frame, but he was also concerned about Yorna and those from Gwararu who would likely converge with Abel— especially Rem.

If they found out he had shrunk down a bit, they’d surely give him a good scolding again.

“—I really wished to show Rem that I could take responsibility.”

Personally, Subaru thought he felt pretty clear-headed and in good shape now, but he couldn’t deny that he lacked the physical presence to be convincing. Tanza’s persistent suspicious gaze likely had something to do with him being smaller, after all.

Be that as it may—

“Alright, I understand. Thanks, Hiaine, that was a huge help.”

“The help is on our side… Ah, never mind, it’s fine.”

After expressing his gratitude, Hiaine fumbled through his response. Subaru chuckled lightly at that, considering helping Tanza when suddenly—

“—Schwarz, the governor calls for you.”

Outside the common room, a guard in a black uniform called out. Hiaine’s expression stiffened at that, while Tanza’s eyes widened.

She looked at the guard.

“Governor Gustav wants Schwarz-sama? Why…?”

“I have no idea. No need to discuss it. Comply quietly. Otherwise…”

“It’s fine! No need to be confrontational; I’m going to follow. …By the way, does following mean punishment?”

“――――”

“Just kidding, just kidding.”

Subaru winked with one eye in jest, and the aged guard twitched his lips.

It was clear that he harbored a strong dislike for Subaru. It’s to be expected. This guard had been present when Subaru had spoken with Gustav before ‘Spalca.’

He had witnessed the moment Subaru became a target of punishment by choosing to participate in ‘Spalca.’ From his perspective, Subaru must come off as an unpredictable kid who voluntarily threw himself into such a chaotic scenario.

“Well then, I’ll be off. Tanza, you wait quietly like a good child.”

“…I hope Schwarz-sama refrains from mischief.”

“Ugh, I can’t argue with that.”

That flattened tone from Tanza deepened Subaru’s rueful smile. He followed the guard, who silently urged him to hurry, out of the room.

Then, just as Subaru’s back disappeared, Hiaine called out.

“Hey, Schwarz…”

“Hmm? What’s up?”

“Uh, well… b-be careful out there, okay? If someone like you gets injured, it’s trouble for us.”

Taken aback by the roundabout way of expressing concern, Subaru made a blank expression. Then it was quickly replaced with a grin as he nodded back at Hiaine.

“Okay, got it. I’ll see you later.”

Waving his hand, Subaru temporarily separated from Tanza and Hiaine. Following the guard’s back ahead, he mused,

“Was Gustav mad?”

“…The governor is not one to get emotional. Unlike me.”

With his offhanded comment being taken as a warning, Subaru shrank back.

△▼△▼△▼△

—And so, after Subaru had been led away by the guards, the two remained behind.

“Hey, what did that Schwarz kid pull off…?”

“Just now, he was taken away by the guard, but did he do something other than ‘Spalca’?”

Tanza and Hiaine found themselves in the room left behind as Vaits and Idra showed their faces. They had also watched Subaru’s ‘Spalca’ from the audience seats.

Naturally, they had countless questions they wanted to ask Subaru for pulling something so reckless.

However, given that they weren’t as pressed as Hiaine, they didn’t get hotheaded enough to leap from the audience seats.

“Tanza, do you know what’s going on?”

“…It’s complex. I have a sense of knowing yet not knowing. It seems Schwarz-sama has his own secrets from me.”

“A mysterious kid… he has some skills, though…”

Hiaine heard Tanza’s words, and with a glance at each other, Vaits and Idra sighed in complaint.

As they listened to the conversation among the three, Hiaine remained silent. Though a lizardman’s face made it hard to tell his color, it was clear from his restless eyes that he was troubled.

Consequently, the three collectively called out, “Hiaine,” “Hiaine-sama.”

“What’s with that face…?”

“Well, um… you all realize that Schwarz tricked us into joining ‘Spalca,’ right?”

“Given that scene, it’s likely everyone feels that way.”

Responding to Hiaine’s stuttered words, Idra nodded, while Tanza and Vaits agreed with him.

It was likely a common understanding among all the sword slaves who watched the battle in the arena, and without Subaru’s efforts, the success of today’s ‘Spalca’ would have been impossible.

“I have no clue what he was thinking to do that, but…”

“—I don’t get that either. But I wonder…”

“—? But what?”

“While I can’t know for sure why he did that, I might know why he was able to pull it off…”

The idea that they might understand why Subaru not only participated in ‘Spalca’ but also survived sparked interest among the other three.

That curiosity was not just Hiaine’s alone; for Vaits and Idra, it was more than just external matters.

Hence, they fixed strong, curious gazes on him, making Hiaine gulp.

Then—

“This is something I overheard from those who just arrived from outside… It seems there’s been talk of an imperial offspring wandering somewhere outside. And that so-called…”

“――――”

“—They say it’s a kid with black hair and black eyes.”

 

---