Volume 4 - CH 71.2

In front of the corpse’s shattered skull, a young girl was kneeling.

Having fallen from such heights, no human flesh could survive the impact without shattering. His black hair, along with the contents of his scalp, were splattered over the ground, blooming into a crimson flower of death.

{――――}

The sensation of his consciousness being switched wasn’t surprising anymore.

He had expected this the moment his awareness was forcibly cut.

But what he did not expect was the sight he would be presented with when his consciousness awoke――

[???: Spewing nonsense until the very end…… when nothing… can……]

Fallen to his death, Subaru’s body was sprawled out over the ground. Standing beside him, spitting this out, was a girl with peach-colored hair――Ram.

Her usually impeccable grooming had been flustered, and visible rips and tears riddled the ends of her maid’s uniform. On her face, which she had always consciously kept expressionless, was some unbearably complex and enraged emotion.

Rather than regret for Subaru’s death―― it was closer to fury at this outcome.

Ram violently scratched her head, and turned around.

[Ram: So, was this all according to your designs, Beatrice-sama? You stood in my path just so he could……]

[Beatrice: ――――]

Just as she was setting off her accusation, Ram’s face stiffened as she stopped mid-sentence.

For reflected in her light-pink irises, was Beatrice, kneeling beside Subaru’s corpse. Unworried about dirtying her dress, the girl just sat there on the ground―― while Ram’s gaze wavered, seeing her like this.

[Ram: Beatrice-sama……]

[Beatrice: ――why]

She softly murmured.

Paying no mind to Ram’s existence, Beatrice single-mindedly kept her eyes on the dead Subaru.

Tears were trailing from the corners of her blue eyes, even Subaru could see it.

――Beatrice was crying.

The fact plunged a knife of guilt into Subaru’s heart.

Feeling the depths of his non-existent eyes heat up from the heart-gouging pain, he wanted to run up to that small, little girl, and say something, anything to her.

Yet he lacked the legs, arms, and mouth to do so.

[Beatrice: You… aren’t, that person…… I know that… at least…… but……]

Her face devoid of expression, Beatrice whispered as if in a daze while the teardrops continued to fall.

Before that heart-rending figure, Ram gave up trying to say anything further. She exhaled a sigh, and turned her scornful eyes towards Subaru’s corpse, and its neck, bent upwards at an outrageous angle,

[Ram: What nonsense… Love us―― you’re truly beyond saving]

※　※　※　※　※　※　※　※　※　※　※　※　※

{Witness, a present that was not to be}

※　※　※　※　※　※　※　※　※　※　※　※　※

As if the very air was being frozen, a white, misty cold presided over the world.

The frozen forest broke apart at every gust of wind, and, unable to maintain their existence in this mana-starved environment, all was returning to dust.

The trees, the streets, the creatures, and the world all fell to white, crystalline particles in the sweeping gale, as the White End slowly consumed the earth.

{――――}

This time, Subaru was witnessing the ending of the world.

Mirroring the white void that was his consciousness, the world awaited its cold and merciful end.

Except,

[???: ――So, you’ve come]

The sombre voice, quaking the atmosphere as it bellowed, was one of agreement.

Immediately, followed the deafening boom of earthshaking tremor as the impact of the behemoth’s fall reshaped the landscape. Trees snapped and toppled, shattering upon each other like icicles as the the forest was wiped into flat, barren land.

The one that flattened the frozen forest was an enormous, four-legged, almost feline creature coated in grey fur.

Half of the beast’s overflowing teeth were broken, while white mists escaped the gaps between its sword-like fangs. Collapsed onto its side, its radiant, golden irises turned to look at something in front of it.

And, with trembling, almost convulsing motions,

[Beast: A shame…… I knew this would happen, and yet I couldn’t change a thing]

[???: ――I’ve more or less grasped what had transpired. Indeed, it is regrettable]

The beast spoke, not to lament its defeat, but simply in knowing acceptance of the truth. And, it was a strikingly clear and elegant voice that replied.

In a world that was ending, that voice did not suffer the slightest loss of vitality or strength. Standing tall and straight, with red hair fluttering in the ivory wind, was a blue-eyed youth.

[Youth: Emilia-sama and Subaru are no longer in this world, I take it?]

[Beast: Lia is sleeping, eternally. A world without that child has no reason to exist. And I, having failed to protect that child, am just as guilty as that man――]

[Youth: So for that reason, you would destroy the world?]

[Beast: I knew that I would be obstructed. But doing so was my oath]

Unsheathed from its dragon-talon scabbard, the glinting steel was pointed at the beast’s snout―― at Puck, in his true form, while, wielding it, the Sword-Saint Reinhard quietly shook his head.

Harbored within his saffire eyes, was a deep, and compassionate sorrow.

[Reinhard: I understand your regret. And I feel the same. But that does not mean you may ruthlessly vent that regret upon this land. Your actions, and your oath would bring chaos to this world. ――And I shall never permit it]

[Puck: Because that would be unjust?]

[Reinhard: Yes, because that would be unjust. ――I am the exemplar of Justice. The sword to rectify error. And thus, I shall slay you here. Great Spirit-sama]

Despite their overwhelming disparity in mass, which side the balance of power favored was too plain to see.

Even Puck, in his true form, failing to marr Reinhard’s unfazed expression, was on his dying breaths. By simply drawing a silver arc with the point of his outstretched sword, Reinhard’s blade would carve the spirit’s existence in two.

Expelling an outward surge of his Swordmanship-Aura, Reinhard was loudly proclaiming this fact.

[Puck: ――kh]

The sound led Reinhard to furrow his brows.

Even Subaru’s disembodied consciousness felt something akin to confusion in his scant emotions.

Brief and intermittent, it was difficult to make out what that sound may be.

Difficult, simply because it was so hard to believe that it was precisely what it sounded like.

[Puck: Kh, kheheh……haha, hhahaha!]

[Reinhard: ――What’s so funny?]

With his throat trembling, and on the verge of death, Puck’s face twisted as he burst into laughter.

Even with his life and death in another’s hands, and having had his actions impeded, Puck was laughing. Unable to fathom his meaning, Reinhard asked this question.

But Puck only seemed to find his reaction even more hilarious.

[Puck: What’s so funny? It’s funny, of course it’s funny. Reinhard, you…… no, what would this upstart possibly know?]

[Reinhard: …………]

[Puck: I remember now. How it was meant to be. It took me long enough to understand it. And, having understood, when I saw how you still don’t know, it’s so funny I couldn’t help myself]

There was something different about the tone and volume of that statement that was completely unlike Puck.

For Subaru, who had plenty of memories of seeing Puck in his cat-form, this was the first time he had heard such malice in his words.

This was different from his loathing towards Subaru and Petelgeuse after Emilia was killed. At that time, Puck was still Puck.

[Reinhard: ……I will make sure that there are no more casualties. If you want someone to hate, then hate me]

[Puck: I don’t hate you, Reinhard. You are a hero. And a hero has a hero’s role to fill. I don’t resent or fault you for following your creed]

[Reinhard: ――――]

[Puck: You are a hero, Reinhard. ――A hero is all you will ever be]

At the end of the end, he uttered the most spiteful remark of them all.

With the fall of the last syllable, Reinhard lifted his sword over his head, and in a single flash of his Swordsmanship―― from the glint of his blade’s edge an intense heat shot out.

Cleaving through the air, piercing the atmosphere and shattering the earth, the maelstrom of up-swept mana severed everything along the line of the swung-out blade―― and, as the light settled, the world parted before Subaru’s disembodied eyes.

[Reinhard: ――――]

At the close of the torrential sword-slash, the world that was covered in the white, encompassing cold was born anew.

The parted world was mended, as the spiral of mana faded into a ring, returning to the atmosphere. From the shattered earth, flowers budded and bloomed. The pierced-through air was imbued with warmth, as sunlight peered from the severed sky.

The Sword-Saint’s strike simultaneously brought about the world’s end as well as its rebirth.

――While the colossal beast that was rent by that strike vanished without a trace.

Indisputably present only moments ago, the enormous body was gone, and no indication of its destruction remained.

{――――}

With a shrill ring, Reinhard returned his Knight’s Sword to its scabbard.

The wind caressing the bangs of his red hair, Reinhard squinted his eyes as he looked up to the sky while spilling an all but inaudible sigh.

[Reinhard: ――Felt-sama will surely be saddened]

He whispered, closing his eyes.