Volume 4 - CH 73.3

In front of Subaru’s pronouncement, the listener was at a loss for words. Keeping her face downcast, softly, and quietly, she stood up,

[???: B-but that’s, not……what, she, told…… me?]

[Subaru: ah……?]

Slanting her head and swaying her blue-hair, the impostor stuttered out her words.

Hearing this, Subaru let out a voice of doubt――

[Subaru: ――――]

Before his eyes, the girl’s image seemed to blur as Rem’s figure turned vague.

A storm of midnight-television-haze drowned out his vision, and, following the momentary hijacking of the world, there was now another person standing in that same spot.

――Someone he had never seen before.

Her pink hair stretching halfway down her back, her bearing was gentle―― or rather, timid. The girl’s features were attractive, but nothing about it came across as outstandingly beautiful. It was more of an ordinary, commonplace kind of cuteness.

Wearing a white, long-sleeved robe, her hands were hiding inside her sleeves as she held them against her cheeks, watching Subaru nervously.

[Subaru: Who are…… you?]

[Camilla: I-I’m the Witch of Lust…… Camilla… you know? N-nice to meet…… you]

Hearing the girl―― Camilla’s reply, Subaru inadvertently swallowed his breath.

She just called herself the “Witch of Lust”. Which means,

[Subaru: So this strange, inexplicable space…… is inside Echidona’s dream?]

[Camilla: Yes… and no…… I guess. Echidona-chan is, watching, the Trial…… and the Trial itself is, kind of, like, a dream…mm…… yeah]

[Subaru: That’s kind of missing the point, but no, even before that……]

Camilla’s manner of speech was getting on Subaru’s nerves. Naturally, seeing Subaru’s gaze grow harsh, Camilla immediately started shivering and hugging her head.

[Camilla: P-please don’t hi…… hit me……]

[Subaru: I won’t do anything like that. I won’t, but…… what were you trying to do earlier?]

[Camilla: Earlie……r?]

[Subaru: Appearing in front of me, pretending to be Rem! Is that what your power is supposed to be!?]

All the Witches bearing the name of a sin seem to possess some sort of special Authority.

Assuming the Witch of Lust was no exception, she should have an Authority as well. If her transformation earlier was her Authority, then――

[Subaru: Well, I guess compared to what the other Witches can do, transformation is a pretty orthodox ability…]

[Camilla: I-I didn’t, tr-transform…… though? I-I, just, looked, to you, like someone, else…… b-because…… that’s, who, you wanted, to see… that’s all?]

[Subaru: what?]

[Camilla: I, mean…… I, didn’t, even, want to, meet you……. E-Echidona-chan, asked me, to…… and lied, to me, too……]

Camilla’s mutters were exacerbating Subaru’s annoyance.

The way she spoke, the way she shifted her glances, and the way she looked down whenever she sensed his gaze, all irritated him to no end. That whimpering tone, and those sulking complaints, the hell is her problem?

Not only was nothing she tried to say getting through, she didn’t even appear to realize how cherish a thing to Subaru she had just trampled over.

Irritated. Aggravated. He wanted to scream at her just so she’d understand.

[Subaru: You…… do you even know what you just did……?]

[Camilla: Echidona-chan, she…… s-said, I just had to spoil, you…… a little, and it’ll all be, fine…… even, though…… I-I didn’t want to, I told her]

[Subaru: Listen to me……!!]

[Camilla: E-everyone…… is ganging up, on, me, pick, picking on me…… like, this. Echidona-chan is, d-doing it, too. You’re all, so…… so mean]

[Subaru: DON’T YOU UNDERSTAND WHAT LISTEN TO ME MEANS――!!??]

Screaming, Subaru felt all the air being wrenched from his lungs as he expelled that scraping shout. He felt it, but the incinerating rage burning through his body erased that thought from his mind.

Suffocation was nothing compared to this irritation clawing at his chest.

He wanted to jam her snivelling, stuttering, whimpering mouth shut, and blast her with all the rage and agony inside him so she’d understand what she had j――

[????: ――Any more of that, your life would be in danger]

[Subaru: ――――gh!?]

That instant, Subaru heard a voice whispering into his ear, pulling him back to his senses.

The very same moment, the pain of being deprived of oxygen up to the point of asphyxiation struck him, along with the dry soreness of his continually wide-open eyes.

[Subaru: Aa―― a, aah?]

[????: They were drastic measures, but I’m glad to see you back. ――When facing Camilla, the “Faceless Godess” of Lust, people tend to forget to breathe. Ultimately, even their hearts stop beating]

[Subaru: Egha, ghpt…… hha, hhaa]

Spitting out the choking saliva, having fallen to his hands and knees, Subaru’s consciousness was strobing.

But the voice had entered his ears, and its meaning delivered to his brain.

And so, Subaru wiped off his lips with his sleeve as he looked up at the most probable culprit behind this prank, and, baring his teeth,

[Subaru: Just what, what were you plotting―― Echidona]

At the receiving end of Subaru’s hateful gaze, the white-haired Witch softly stroked her hair, and all-so-naturally rested her elbows on the table,

[Echidona: Isn’t it obvious? ――I am a Witch. I’m plotting something nefarious, of course]

She said, smiling.