Volume 4, CHAPTER 116: WITH GRANDMOTHER, WITH MOTHER, WITH SISTER; AS GRANDSON, AS SON, AS BROTHER

Volume 4, CHAPTER 116: WITH GRANDMOTHER, WITH MOTHER, WITH SISTER; AS GRANDSON, AS SON, AS BROTHER

Ram: “Apologies for this when you're motivated, Emilia-sama, but Garf is entering the tomb first.”

That is Ram's first line after finishing her chat and returning to the group with Garfiel. Subaru's eyes widen. Emilia and Otto are also plainly surprised.

Subaru: “Garfiel's doing the TRIAL... seriously?”

Ram: “Most seriously of seriously. Yes, Garf?”

Ram nods and glances up to Garfiel, who stands beside her.

Their height difference is not that great, but regardless Garfiel is slightly taller than Ram. He sticks his fingers in his bangs, matted with dry blood, and averts his gaze so as to not engage in the conversation.

Ram grabs that unengaged ear of his and yanks it.

Ram: “Are you listening, Garf? What nerve you must have, ignoring us.”

Garfiel: “Auahg! Adduhd!? Oi, Ram!? My amazin' ear's barely hangin' onter my head right now! 'S seconds from coming off... 's bleedin'!”

Ram: “It seems that introspection you had after that beatdown from us isn't functioning. I'll mention now that our side still has Emilia-sama left, who hasn't exhausted her stamina in the slightest. You do recognize what will happen if you rebel?”

Emilia: “I-I... wasn't thinking to do anything violent...”

Everyone is drowning in wounds and sitting at the peak of exhaustion—except for Emilia, who had not participated in the fight and remains in top condition.

They had just ended a battle where the whole point was to not get Emilia involved, and still Ram is instantly using her to start making threats. Terrifying backbone.

Garfiel: “Yeah, I get it. We start fightin' again here and my amazin' self ain't gonna win. EARTHSOUL BLESSING's given me a lotter my strength back... but it ain't enough fer a fight.”

Subaru: “That's a relief to hear. I'd seriously rather not get into any more fistfights with you. Thought I was gonna die. You're sitting second or third in this month's rankings.”

Otto: “Natsuki-san, just how many butcheries have you squeaked through? It's scary.”

Subaru recollects on his fistfight with Garfiel and shivers. Otto envisions the grisliness of the scene and shivers.

This ranked in second or third place for his experiences in almost dying—but considering that he has also actually died, perhaps the peril he faced here was not really so hazardous.

Garfiel: “...How'm I th'second or third?”

Subaru: “Well that's where you are. Second or third.” something something We take this outside and more's gonna happen.

Garfiel: “Ha! Yer smooth talk ain't gonna hook me. 'S a DERDERDE LURKS IN THE SHADOWS OF

QUICK RICHES.”

Garfiel snorts away Subaru's challenge, and traces his fingers over his forehead scar.

His sharp gold eyes then gaze at the sight behind Subaru and the others—at the tomb, looming.

Garfiel: “Wheedlin', n' actual force... still can't believe yer used both. Now's t'try seeing things with yer view, n' decide.”

Emilia: “What are you deciding?”

Emilia quietly asks Garfiel.

He looks at her. She looks back at him straight-on.

This might be the first time that they have ever faced each other in earnest.

Emilia is recipient to Garfiel's horrifically violent gaze. But even so, her amethyst eyes do not waver in the least.

Perhaps seeing something in the eyes of the other, both of them smile.

Garfiel clicks his fangs, while Emilia's fingers reach for her chest, before she seems to remember something and stops.

Seeing that, Garfiel reaches for his left shoulder.

Garfiel: “Ngh, hah...!”

The blue crystal jutting from his shoulder comes out with a splorch.

He does begin bleeding, but he forces the flow to stop by tightening his muscles. Emilia's eyes widen at it as he tosses the removed crystal to her.

Emilia: “Ah, oh...”

Garfiel: “Jus'take it. 'S probably right fer you t'be th'one holdin' onter this thing.”

Emilia promptly catches the crystal, looking at it while Garfiel speaks bluntly.

She accepts Garfiel's statements while the brilliance of the crystal in her hands leads her to gulp. The jewel glows dimly, strobing, almost seeming overjoyed that Emilia has caught it.

Subaru crosses his arms as he watches on from aside. Still the same even though he can't speak, he thinks.

Emilia: “Thank you, Garfiel.”

Garfiel: “My view is I just chucked away somethin' annoyin' fer me s'all. No reason fer yer t'thank me.”

Garfiel looks up at the sky with no particular intention.

Tangerine hues creep across the panoramic, soon to welcome night. Before long, the TRIAL will be ready to start.

Garfiel: “—I'm gonna be checking. Whether I'm who's wrong, or you're who's wrong.”

Garfiel's shoulders slice the wind as he turns around.

His path leads him toward the tomb—the nightmarish place which had carved abhorrent memories into him in childhood.

After all this time, what will he see there now?

Subaru: “Hey, Garfiel.”

A call from behind stops the supposedly-determined Garfiel.

He clicks his tongue and glances behind him, to find that Subaru is who halted him, his hand raised.

Garfiel: “What?”

Subaru: “I mean, not trying to rain on your parade or anything. But seeing as there's still an ounce of time before the TRIAL starts...”

While entirely raining on Garfiel's parade, Subaru scratches his head.

It looks like he's having difficulty saying something. Garfiel clicks his fangs to urge Subaru on. Subaru sighs.

Subaru: “Please at least get dressed. You're in only a loincloth that's ready to fall off any second, there's a line for tawdry here and you've crossed it.”

Barbarian style with the breeze tickling his privates.

A vein pulses on Garfiel head. Ram gives an astonished sigh.

Ram: “What a tawdry episode.”

※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※

—After getting dressed and entering the tomb, Garfiel senses that meets the TRIAL's conditions.

The air hangs damp within the stone structure. A chilly breeze blows past, carrying the scent of dust, making Garfiel grimace. His nose is far too effective, and the stench from the enclosed chamber is an assault to his senses.

Garfiel: “Don't wanna be stayin' 'round here too long.”

His mutter echoes down the corridor. Nothing replies.

He feels firm ground beneath his feet, firm ground beneath his feet, as he intrudes deeper and deeper into the tomb.

Garfiel recognizes that his pulse has accelerated without his notice.

He challenges the TRIAL, and he will see the consequence. He was ready for that. But still he cannot be calm, because the memory for Garfiel is one which evokes intense and irremovable dread.

Experiencing it again will make something change, his heart insists.

What on earth about Garfiel would change from witnessing that debacle again? He had never even forgotten it for an instant in the first place.

The vivid memory has burned into his brain far too vividly.

What would seeing it again do except reinforce that memory further?

Garfiel: “...P'thetic. I'm here b'cause that's what I wanna check.”

Garfiel mocks himself as he lines up screeds of tenable logic, insistent to flee.

It's a girlishness where he can agree with Ram's scolding and derision of him. He had never wanted to know or realise that he was such a coward of a man.

—But if he is the kind of man who submits to frailty and girlishness, what is going to do?

Garfiel: “—”

His feet stop atop the stone-paved path. He focuses his attention on the ground below him. A warm wave of power courses up from his soles, the gift of the earth to Garfiel and his

EARTHSOUL BLESSING.

His may have been wounded, brutalized, and exhausted, but merely contacting the ground is enough to restore Garfiel's body, his strength compounding.

Nevermind how he was in the instants after being beaten. Now that he's had a short rest, he's at 40% of his top capacity. He should be capable of destroying the tomb if he wanted to.

And Subaru and Ram and the others would not be able to stop Garfiel's destruction. It would utterly eliminate the point of their strenuous efforts spent defeating Garfiel. He could eliminate the point, right now.

Were they so stupid that they hadn't considered that?

Garfiel: “Fuckin' shitheads.”

Of course they had.ilia was probably ignorant to the concept of 'doubting people', and Otto was probably missing a few important screws, but nevermind them. Calculating Subaru and that Ram would surely not overlook the possibility.

They're thinking that even if Garfiel regains his strength, he will not destroy the tomb.

Did they think him too cowardly to, or did they just trust him?

Garfiel cannot tell which it is.

Would this solution come after he defeats the TRIAL too?

Garfiel: “...Stupid.”

With that, Garfiel resumes walking.

Thinking about complicated stuff is not his speciality. His poorness at using his head remains the same both in his daily life and during battle. He regardless frantically works his brain because someone long ago told him to.

Ram: < Think more while you're fighting, Garf. It'd make me happy if you did. >

Garfiel: “—eh,”

He remembers who told him to think while living.

Which was why he had so earnestly, with such asinine sincerity, remained to fixated to the idea.

The exact person who had told Garfiel to think while fighting had wound up informing him that he was better at fighting when not thinking. Crossing the line for absurdity.

Garfiel: “This's damn bullshit, oi... huh?”

A smile wells up inside him.

Just when he attempts to stifle the smile dead, Garfiel spots the corridor's end.

A rectangular space welcomes him. The TRIAL room.

Pale ghostly lights phase the chamber in from darkness. Garfiel steps inside, his stress somewhat calmed, and he looks at the stone door at the back of the room.

This door will open after the three TRIALS are cleared. Though since he has never seen it open before, he does not know if that is the truth. Nothing gives any indication of what is inside, either.

If he remains here standing still and waiting, the TRIAL should start.

Garfiel: “—Eh?”

Garfiel crosses his arms, bored as he glances around the chamber, when his brows rise. Into Garfiel's nocturnal vision there slinks an oddness about the room.

He strains his eyes in attempt to confirm exactly what it is, and—

< —First face your past. >

A voice.

Instantaneously, his vision wavers, his consciousness blurring.

The past, was here.

※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※

???: “I didn't think at all that you'd be coming here again. —It makes me feel very happy.”

Once his consciousness reaches sobriety, Garfiel realises that he is standing in a forest.

He turns his head, to see the sight of a familiar woods—but compared to the scenery that Garfiel knows, these woodlands are somewhat YOUNGER. It's only a few years of difference, but being that it's a place he interacts with daily, Garfiel can easily notice the discrepancy.

This is the past.

And he is in a dream, challenging the TRIAL.

After smoothly accepting these facts, Garfiel checks to see how he is.

His limbs are there. Everything from his neck up, eyes and nose and ears and etcetra exist without issue. He opens his mouth and bites down hard, for his fangs to click like unsheathed blades.

He's fine, no problems. Actually it feels like the injuries he sustained before entering the tomb have been healed.

???: “Your injuries from reality aren't carrying over because this place only hauls in your mind. If you suffered a wound serious enough to influence your mind, then it wouldn't heal even in the dream. This one's already been verified, so for example if someone who was missing an arm in reality was invited to this world, their missing arm wouldn't heal and...”

Garfiel: “Shut it with yer long-winded blabberin'. Can't yer tell 'm ignorin' yer?”

???: “Indeed I can. But even so I just have to speak with you. I'd sorta like it if you could respect these feelings of delight I have for our prolonged reunion.”

Wanna try it? Says the doll-like smile of the girl standing opposite Garfiel.

From top to bottom a black funeral dress-esque vestment garbs her, her hair and skin pure white. Her smile was alluring enough to enchant any man, but facing her was enough to tell that it was utterly empty.

This visage was another thing which had not changed an inch from what he remembered.

Garfiel: “My amazin' self's grown up, but you ain't changed a bit.”

Girl: “Because I am very unfortunately deceased. Dead, with only my soul stuck in the world. No matter how the time passes, I can't walk the same trail as the living. This is a pretty sentimental topic, isn't it? It's not really like you.”

Garfiel: “'Like me', now there's words only people who know me real well got any business sayin'. Our meetin' happened ages ago n' we only did it once. Ain't that we talked 'bout anythin' important either.”

Girl: “Perhaps that's exactly how I look to you. But I have to wonder if that'd have any bearing on whether the time I've spent looking at you has been equivalently equal.”

Garfiel: “—Tch.”

He knows that he can't outfox her in conversation.

While withstanding the urge to click his tongue, Garfiel glares at the witch standing there with not a speck of ill will on her face—Echidna.

Perhaps acting as an inspector for the TRIAL, Echidna had accompanied Garfiel like this the last time he saw the past, as well. Not out of any human concern for him as the TRIAL brutalized his heart, but to make sure that he did not miss a single one the events unfolding, out of a gross kind of curiosity.

Losing will to speak with her any further, Garfiel looks at the forest.

If this production which was the past has already started, then the arrival of the actors is only a matter of time.

Garfiel has not the slightest intention to delight this witch who mere conversation can delight.

Echidna: “So cold.”

Echidna accepts even this attitude of Garfiel as something pleasant as she stands beside him and strokes her white hair.

During this juncture, where he's watching her from aside, the change happens.

Garfiel: “—”

Faced with a scene he supposedly knew was coming, Garfiel swallows his breath.

The edge of the forest—also said, the dividing line for the barrier which delineates SANCTUARY's inside and outside.

Looking down at him as he kneels is his sister, still young. She is looking at him. A supposedly blind past, incapable of interaction, is interacting with him.

Frederica: “Our Mother left SANCTUARY for the sake of our family. Does that dissatisfy you?”

Garfiel: “Don't, fuck with me! So fuckin' what that we were loved! D-don't, shove u-undue memories onto me. I...!”

Frederica: “How much easier it was to be unloved.”

Says young Frederica, somewhat mocking toward Garfiel.

Their height difference is literally that of a child and an adult. But Frederica pays not the slightest care to his height, talking from straight-on and with an expression suggesting that he is such a handful of a little brother.

Frederica: “Allowance to believe that your love is unreciprocated gives you capability to justify yourself.”

Garfiel: “No!”

Frederica: “You love her, and she loves you... should you have discovered this, you would no longer be capable of justifying your neglect to soar outside, your remaining holed in SANCTUARY.”

Garfiel: “No! No, no! And when yer don't even fuckin' know anythin'... what do you think happened t'mom!”

Frederica: “—Surely I would know.”

Garfiel leaves himself to his anger as he roars, when a shock hits him like a slap to the face. Frederica's expression vanishes. She looks at Garfiel, seeming to endure some emotion.

—What did she just say?

Frederica: “Surely I would know. Even should we suppose that after Mother left SANCTUARY she perhaps faced instantaneous misfortune... surely that information would have reached me.”

Garfiel: “N'so... so what!?”

Frederica: “And surely you understand that this information could not have reached you. You are no longer a juvenile, Garf.”

Frederica knew what happened to their mother.

And even Garfiel understands why she had been unable to tell young Garfiel that.

Who on earth could inform a young boy that his mother had met a cruel demise?

If he had not peeped on the TRIAL in this tomb, Garfiel never would have known. That he did know was because he had trampled over many considerations and kindnesses which had been trying not to let him find out.

Frederica: “In truth, you did remember that Mother loved you.”

Garfiel: “...”

Frederica: “You yourself wounded the spot where Mother had kissed you, where she had last touched you, in an attempt to pretend that it had not happened.”

His fingers touch his forehead scar.

This wound had not existed on his brow when he was young.

He sustained this injury immediately after he challenged the TRIAL. In a state of pandemonium, Garfiel bashed his head open on the walls, on the floor, harming himself so greatly that he suffered a permanent wound.

This scar was his injury from back then. And the truth behind this scar was, surely, what Frederica had just said.

Frederica: “It's ending now.”

Frederica whispers.

Before he can realise it, the world has already lost almost all of its shape.

The forest is gone, as are his departing mother and Lewes. Not even the onlooker witch is anywhere in sight, the world remaining with only the siblings Frederica and Garfiel.

Frederica: “Even should you use wounds to conceal it, you cannot erase your past. Nor can you erase the fact that you were loved.”

Garfiel: “What'm I... meant to do?”

Garfiel feebly asks Frederica.

Garfiel: “If mom's end isn't changing, then that means th'outside's still scary for me. Going out there, and Nanna and everyone else having to go out there, scares me.”

Frederica: “You must ask this small elder sister of yours before you can figure any answer?”

Garfiel: “I know it's p'thetic! But yer th'only one I can ask. C'mon, tell me... Sis, why did you...”

Frederica: “What is it that you wish to do, Garf?”

Interrupting him, Frederica tilts her head.

Garfiel's sentence jams. What he wants to do? That's not what they're talking about. It's what should he do, what does he need to do. That's what he's asking.

Frederica: “What is it that you wish to do, Garf?”

Looking somewhat exasperated, Frederica repeats the question.

Garfiel swallows his breath.

Garfiel: “I want t'do, what people're looking for.”

Frederica: “What which people are looking for?”

Garfiel: “I wanna do what... what the people who need me are looking for from me.”

Frederica: “Why is it that you feel this way?”

Garfiel: “Because... they're what made me remember.”

Remember what? Frederica doesn't ask.

But, those eyes, the same gold as his, do ask the question.

Garfiel: “—That my mother loved me.”

—The world of the dream shatters to dust, the past vanishing into the beyond.

※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※

Subaru sees Garfiel's expression as one of having undergone exorcism.

Subaru had spent approximately an hour fidgeting outside the tomb with his arms crossed, waiting. The group been anxious, never looking or speaking to each other, as they simply waited in silence for whatever would happen.

Subaru: “So what're all our plans if reneges on his promise and destroys the tomb?”

...Is a joke that Subaru told in an attempt to ease the mood, only for Otto to say something incredibly inconsiderate to the situation and eat a dropkick from Ram, but generally speaking it was all very quiet.

Lewes: “...Lil' Gar.”

Lewes has reconvened with them, her expression anxious and hands linked as she restlessly looks at the tomb.

This present Lewes should be Theta, but regardless of which Lewes it is, they would all care about Garfiel dearly.

There's the whole affair where they ganged up in a group of 5 to beat up Garfiel, and also that whole affair where Garfiel had a complete change of heart and entered the tomb. Both of these events must have given Lewes more than a little shock to the heart.

Emilia looks at the tomb in suspense as she stands beside Subaru.

While naturally she must be curious about Garfiel's attempt too, once Garfiel exits the tomb, it's her turn to go inside.

The argument inside the tomb, and the fight between Subaru and Garfiel afterwards.

Subaru cannot tell what kind of change those events have had to her mental state. But her anxious expression is deeply steeped in concern for Garfiel, with not an ounce of reluctance toward her own TRIAL. This is ideally not a bad omen.

Otto: “—Ah!”

Subaru thinks his thoughts, when suddenly Otto points at the tomb and speaks.

He's saying something situation-dumb again, thinks Subaru as he grimaces, Ram clicking her knuckles. But this time it rather seems their conclusions are hasty ones.

Lewes: “Lil' Gar!”

Lewes stands up and dashes for the tomb.

Following her gaze, Subaru realises that a silhouette has appeared at the tomb's entrance.

Short blond hair, scar on brow. A sharp gaze, canines bladelike and pearly.

With a small frame and slouched posture, but emitting a dreadful and imposing aura.

Garfiel Tinzel.

Otto: “See, it's exactly what I said it'd—hyeek!”

Recipient to a jab from Ram's knee, Otto goes tumbling across the grass.

But without anyone raising the topic of Otto's suffering, they instead run over to Garfiel. Subaru bounds up the stone stairway to reach him. Lewes has already arrived and stands before Garfiel, hemming and hawing over what to say.

Lewes: “L-Lil' Gar. Erm, I...”

Garfiel: “Don't go making a face which don't look like yer. 'M sorry fer worryin' you.”

Lewes: “Lil' Gar.”

With that blunt statement, Garfiel puts his hand on small Lewes's head.

Patting his grandmother's head—is incredibly indecent, but given their heights, it's natural for these two. And seeing as Lewes isn't complaining about it, to point it out would be the epitome of tasteless.

Ram: “How did it go, Garf?”

Ram clears the stairs following Lewes and Subaru, and calls out to Garfiel.

It was Ram who gave Garfiel the direct impetus to challenge the TRIAL. Aware of the background circumstances, a rare-in-Subaru's-presence shade of worry peeks through in her expression. Garfiel hums in thought.

Garfiel: “Can't yer see with yer eyes th'results? Gotta say I expected somethin' more.”

Subaru: “For some reason that sounded like a middle schooler bragging about shoplifting, but if this's what you're saying... you did it?”

Garfiel: “—Lined off an era for myself, m'thinkin'.”

Garfiel gives a deep sigh out his nose.

Everyone comprehends him instantly, but it's a different sentiment which rises to fore.

Garfiel has overcome the TRIAL, and reached a conclusion about his past.

This means a step has been taken toward SANCTUARY's liberation, and proves that the TRIAL is not unreasonable or impossible.

Subaru: “Alright then. You keep riding off that momentum and go for the other TRIALS too, and...”

Garfiel: “Piss off. Only TRIAL my amazin' self's takin's this one. It ain't my thing t'be doin' th'others. Yeah?”

Emilia: “Yes, you're right. The rest of this is my job. Can't have it be taken away.”

Garfiel glares at Emilia, who accepts the gaze from straight on.

Garfiel: “Witch's got her usual asshole thing goin' on. Make sure t'watch out.”

Emilia: “Huh? You're giving me advice? Thank you. I'll remember it well.”

It's Garfiel's breed of encouragement, and sardonicism. Emilia accepts his encouragement while beautifully ignoring the sardonicism.

Garfiel looks utterly thrown. Seeing that expression makes Subaru's cheeks relax into a smile—and this time, Garfiel's gaze lands in Subaru.

Subaru's brows shoot up as Garfiel scratches his cheek.

Garfiel: “Uh, I need to, right... yeah.”

Subaru: “What's up? Skittishness's out of character for you. You're an archetype which just kills those hesitant or broody patterns, we'll do tribal play instead.”

Garfiel: “I ain't got any idea what th'damn hell yer sayin', but I can tell yer makin' fun of me, oi. Yer gettin' yer teeth beat in... aeh, er, no nevermind.”

He swings up his arm, only to lower it without doing anything.

Garfiel's suspicious, or really not-exactly-getting-to-the-point behaviour makes Subaru tilt his head. When a smile arises on Ram's face, as if she understands everything.

Ram: “Garf.”

With that, she pokes Garfiel in the hip.

Garfiel sighs, shaking his head resignedly.

Garfiel: “It's probably 'cause of you that I passed the TRIAL. Thank you.”

Subaru: “...Did you just thank me?”

Garfiel: “I ain't sayin' it again. But, I got t'remember somethin' I wanted t'remember. So goin' in there was... beneficial. Fuck!”

Perhaps with his embarrassment peaking over his time spent talking, Garfiel's face reddens in agitation as he jabs his finger at the wide-eyed Subaru.

Garfiel: “Listen! My amazin' self did lose, n' my TRIAL did change. But! Yer ain't gonna see me accept every word'v everythin' yer said as correct n' raise th'white flag n' surrender! Yer talked fuckin' big, sayin' yer'll change this SANCTUARY! F'that change hurts or pains th'folks inside, yer not gonna be gettin' any mercy!”

Subaru: “U-uhh... r-right, as reasonable...”

Garfiel speaks overwhelmingly menacingly, Subaru overawed but nevertheless managing to get words out.

Subaru could give Garfiel no absolute assurances. But he could promise that he would be doing his best to make things good. That much was definite—and just as he goes to say so,

Garfiel: “So I'm gonner be watchin' yer from right up close t'see whether yer wind up just bein' some all-talk bastard'r not. —You better pull it off, CAPTAIN!”

Subaru: “—”

Garfiel vigorously slaps Subaru's shoulders, gaze fixed on him, and makes that incredible statement. His unexpected form of address and his attitude stun Subaru so much that he's slow to react.

During that delay, Garfiel immediately passes by Subaru and descends to the bottom of the stairway with Lewes. Almost as if he's scared that someone will see his face.

Emilia: “Garfiel, your face is sooo red.”

Perhaps catching a glimpse of his face before he can pass by, Emilia speaks while trying to hold back a smile.

Which means that no Subaru's ears were not tricking him.

Subaru: “Captain... I'm not the one heading this group, that's Emilia.”

Emilia: “But it was your group which beat Garfiel, Subaru. He accepted what came out of a man-to- man conflict, which means his Captain is you. Isn't it great, Captain?”

Emilia smiles without any ill will, Subaru lost on how to respond.

Ram jabs the troubled Subaru in the side.

Ram: “Accept it.”

She shrugs.

Ram: “He isn't sure what he should be doing when he gets emotional either. Let him do what he wants.”

Subaru: “But still. I am utterly weak to it, but it's...”

Ram: “Leaving aside strength in a fight, you're the older party, Barusu, so at least give him that much leniency. Garf is a child despite how he appears. Doesn't it feel as if you've got a younger brother now?”

Subaru: “No hold on.”

Ram: “What?”

Subaru: “Can you go over that?”

Ram: “Over what?”

Subaru: “Garfiel's younger than me?”

Ram: “Ah,”

Ram gives a comprehending nod.

Ram: “You didn't know? Garf is younger than you, Barusu.”

Subaru: “How young.”

Ram: “I believe he's fourteen this year.”

Subaru: “Fourteen!? Fourteen... you're a chuuni!?”

The entirely unanticipated news makes Subaru's voice crack in surprise.

Suddenly he can agree with being called CAPTAIN, and with Garfiel's overly childish stubbornness. Subaru: “A middle schooler in the peak of his rebellious age... right there's a nightmare to tame...” Mutters Subaru, his voice even more exhausted than after their fistfight.