Volume 4, 124: LISTEN UP, STUPID

Volume 4, Chapter 124: LISTEN UP, STUPID

—Howmany times has he come to this room to see her?

The first time they met, Subaru easily foiled the girl's illusory looping hallway and entered the Forbidden Archive.

Their first impressions of each other were mutually horrid.

Beatrice preformed a mana drain one someone still midway through convalescence, and promptly downed Subaru. Afterwards she had to put up with his endless revenge-inspired meddling.

They would insult each other every time they met, but despite that got along ridiculously well, and Subaru found himself stopping by the supposedly-veiled Forbidden Archive.

Subaru and Beatrice had had many yelling matches, spit flying everywhere, over these almost-two- months that Subaru has been in the mansion, just one immature exchange after another.

Those exchanges changed after the Royal Selection properly began and Subaru returned from the Capital.

Beatrice was rejecting him. With knowledge gained in SANCTUARY, where she was absent, Subaru learned her history and fate, and accordingly understood some reasons for her stubbornness.

Then he prattled as if he knew anything, trying to understand her solitude—and Beatrice, long bereft of tears after these four hundred years, wailed her laments.

There was nothing he could've said to the exhausted girl after that. Immediate circumstances led Beatrice to lose her life, and Subaru saw that final expression on her face as she protected him.

That expression seared itself into his memory. Running off his emotions, Subaru returned here. —So that this time, no matter what it took, he'd get her out of this place.

Beatrice: “Taking me out of here...?”

Is Beatrice's bewildered response to Subaru's grand opening statement. She hugs the gospel tighter, drawing her knees to her chest as she sits atop the stepladder.

Beatrice: “Unwanted meddling, I suppose. Nobody asked for you to do that, in fact.”

Subaru: “This isn't about anyone asking or not asking me. I'm taking you out of here. Decisively.”

Beatrice: “Just scram and have that foolish girl comfort you on her lap, I suppose.”

Subaru: “You little... this's war! You say something like that and it's war!”

Beatrice brings up a topic back from when Subaru was overloaded in this mansion, and he strains his voice to distract from his internal shame.

Beatrice snorts at him and glances away.

Subaru: “Anyway, this isn't the time to be mucking around like this. We have basically no room to postpone anything. Have you grasped what's going on outside?”

Beatrice: “...I do know that some uninvited guests have come to the mansion, in fact. After the big and little maid did something or other, two preposterous people started going on a rampage, I suppose.”

Subaru: “Though, one of those preposterous people's a helper who I brought along. I don't think he'll lose, martially speaking, but unfortunately I get this feeling the difference in their resolve'll determine the win. And so I can't accommodate too much of your solemnity here.”

Beatrice: “Then you're evacuating the mansion's residents while your assistant buys time ...is your scheme, in fact. Are you trusting in your ally or aren't you with this sloppy strategy, I suppose?”

Subaru: “The strategy's like this 'cause I know he's way too kind.”

The restorative effects of Garfiel's EARTHSOUL BLESSING mean that his current condition is 80~90% of his maximum. When adding on his lack of hesitation for battle, he's quite a considerable fighting force. But Subaru doubts that he has sufficient resolve to kill his opponent, which will keep him from putting in his all, which is a bit of a minus.

Meanwhile Elsa is in perfect condition. Subaru judges her strange, unexplainable combat strength as a good match for Garfiel at his best. Her tendency to enjoy herself during her battles is something of a minus for her combat-wise, but she has that inexplicable immorality. Elsa's statements give no suggestion that killing her indefinite times will make her stay dead either. Subaru's tentative estimations dictate that Elsa has the slight advantage.

Subaru: “But if the strategy's working, Frederica should collect Rem while Garfiel's suppressing Elsa. Petra met up with Otto, so now there's only one essential evacuee left before we can save everybody.”

Beatrice: “Essential evacuees... you mean to say that Betty is the last, in fact.”

Subaru: “Yeah, I do.”

Subaru had instructed Petra go meet up with Otto, who has guided the villagers in Arlam to safety, and retreat after helping with a few gambits in the mansion.

Subaru has spent time reaching the Archive, and she should have finished her departure by now.

Subaru: “And so I'm getting you out of here. If you don't wanna run while holding my hand, then I'll piggyback you or cradle you or do whatever to you, so just behave and come over here and...”

Beatrice: “Don't make me repeat myself, I suppose. I don't need your help, in fact.”

Subaru steps closer and offers Beatrice his hand, but she speaks low to reject him. He comes to a stop in front of her as she turns her head in indication of the room.

Beatrice: “Hear me, I suppose? An isolated space, of power worthy of Betty, separated from the cloisters of time. This is Beatrice's Forbidden Archive, in fact. Regardless of whatever threatens the outside, that threat will never reach Betty's Archive. Your fears are needless, in fact.”

Subaru: “Nope, they're needed. Your Archive's randomness does mean it's strongly advantageous when it comes to fleeing, true... but, it has a fatal flaw. And the enemy knows what it is.”

Beatrice: “A fatal, flaw?”

Beatrice furrows her brows, indeed unable to let the comment pass. But Subaru just responds to her harsh gaze with a nod, and gestures to the door behind him.

Subaru: “Your power which randomly connects to some door in the mansion is strong. But... it only works on the mansion's CLOSED DOORS. So if you leave the mansion's doors open, you're certain to reach the Archive eventually, since you'll be losing doors until only the Archive's is left.”

Beatrice: “—hk”

Subaru: “It's such a stupid thing. I bet you didn't notice it either. I was wondering why I hadn't realised it until practically I witnessed it myself.”

Subaru remembers when Elsa, having noticed the loophole in GATE CROSSING, found the Archive. If Garfiel wasn't around to impede her, Elsa would unmistakably come here while using that exact same method. And likely take Beatrice's life.

Subaru: “Though of course, it's not like I'm underestimating you, or saying that her showing up here means you're going down easy. It's just that her strangeness is some of the extremest I've ever experienced. If we can do this without facing her, there's nothing better.”

If they can defeat Elsa then he would like to do that, but it's not an essential requirement for clearing this loop series. If Roswaal is the one hiring her, then so long as Subaru crosses the time limit for the issues in SANCTUARY, Roswaal should stop having any reason to keep hiring Elsa. The whole insignia affair in the Capital proves that this would make Elsa withdraw.

Either way, right now they need to survive through the attack on the mansion and—

Subaru: “Beatrice. This place isn't safe. If you're not here, she won't disturb the library. So just for now...”

Beatrice: “Why does that woman know how to break Betty's GATE CROSSING, I suppose?”

Subaru: “—”

Subaru spits out the suitable bargaining chips to convince Beatrice to leave.

But Beatrice, perhaps listening to Subaru's statements or perhaps not, whispers a whisper differing from what Subaru's looking for.

Subaru shuts his mouth. Beatrice remains upon the stepladder.

Beatrice: “It's inconceivable that she would abruptly conceive of how to break Betty's GATE

CROSSING on her first encounter with it, in fact. Whoever taught her those methods knows me, I suppose.”

Subaru: “Beatrice. This isn't the time for that conversa—”

Beatrice: “—It's Roswaal, in fact.”

Subaru can't divert her.

Her swift thinking makes Subaru swallow his breath.

Seeing his reaction, Beatrice understands everything. Roswaal hired Elsa, and his goal is to kill Beatrice. Which means—

Beatrice: “It is written in Roswaal's gospel that I be killed, I suppose.”

Giving no heed to either Subaru's affirmations or denials, Beatrice sighs.

It's unlikely that the relief Subaru perceives in that sigh is just his imagination. Unable to overlook the comment, Subaru puts pressure on Beatrice.

Subaru: “Want to tell me what that sigh was? And why the hell you look like you're agreeing!?”

Beatrice: “It's what it looks like, I'm agreeing, in fact. If Roswaal's gospel has ordered him to do this, then that means my fate is decided, I suppose.”

Subaru: “Fuck is that... Roswaal's book is Roswaal's book, and your book is your book! Your book really says to go get killed by Roswaal, does it!?”

Jabbing out his finger, Subaru glares at the gospel in Beatrice's arms.

If nothing has changed from the previous loops, then for four hundred years, that book has written just blank white paper.

Beatrice's expression turns gloomy and she opens to a page of the gospel. She spreads the book open and presents it so that Subaru can see it—showing a book of only empty pages.

Beatrice: “Nothing is written, in fact. Identical as ever, only blank pages, I suppose.”

Subaru: “Then there's no reason for you to get killed like Roswaal's book says! It's same as ever, you're who decides what you do!”

Beatrice: “...The same as ever, I'm the one deciding?”

Subaru: “Yes! Nothing being written means you must've faced choices during all this time. Small things to big things, you're the one who decided every path you took! So there's no reason for you to dance along to someone else's choices this time, eith—”

Beatrice: “What in my life have I ever decided?”

The doleful question crushes Subaru's momentum.

Beatrice tilts her head as she gazes at Subaru, her eyes melancholy. She flips through the blank pages

Beatrice: “All the time Betty spent in Roswaal's mansion, protecting the Archive that Mother entrusted to her, endlessly, endlessly... when during that did I ever have time belonging to myself? When did Betty, having lived empty centuries without writ, ever leave her footsteps anywhere in the world? What did Beatrice ever do, and who is she?”

Subaru: “Bea, trice...”

Beatrice: “Betty's life, Betty's four hundred years, are as blank as this gospel, in fact. A void, in fact. What I chose by myself, what I gained by myself, what can attest of myself... all non-existent.”

Beatrice claps the gospel shut and sets it on her lap. She strokes its nameless cover as she quietly speaks,

Beatrice: “I'm identical to an empty book. Losing me here simply means losing a blank, letterless text. Never anything to anybody, merely a book shoved in a bookcase—it'd be laudable for it to be gone, in fact.”

Subaru: “What if there's people who don't want that blank book gone?”

Beatrice feels to be verging on abandoning her four centuries and her future. Subaru manages to get words out in an attempt to connect to her heart.

Subaru has not yet found his reply to Beatrice's tearful scream from back then.

But even so, should he fail to speak here, she will give up on herself.

Subaru: “You called it nothing, a void. But there assuredly is a book wedged inside that bookcase. There are people who know that book exists. And maybe there's people who'll want to pick up that book someday, you think they'd stand the thing going off and destroying itself?”

Beatrice: “The book has neither name nor author, I suppose. Supposing for argument that this benevolent someone exists, opening that book and seeing the inside would only disappoint them, in fact. The blank book doesn't want to watch the disappointment unfurl across that person's face either, I suppose.”

Subaru: “Then! Then what is that book doing in that place!”

Beatrice: “—”

Beatrice gazes emotionlessly at Subaru.

It feels like a retort, saying this whole dialogue lacks any apparent meaning. Subaru raises his head regardless, continuously reaching out to Beatrice's distant heart.

Subaru: “If someone who picks it up's just going to be disappointed... then for what sake is that book there? Wasn't the book made because it had meaning?”

Beatrice: “...The book's author crafted that book for the sake of a person, in fact. The book is made to appear empty to everyone except for that SOMEONE, I suppose. If we assume there's to be meaning, then the very instant the book reaches the SOMEONE comprises the meaning of that book's creation.”

Subaru: “And so then—”

Beatrice: “The book mustn't be disposed of until it reaches the SOMEONE, you're saying, I suppose.”

Subaru swallows his breath.

He notices an instant before can voice it what a cruel breed of hope he is arguing for. Beatrice sees Subaru's expression, and a horribly pained smile arises on her face.

Beatrice: “Exactly. If Betty truly were just a book... then she'd be happy to wait for that day, in fact.”

Beatrice would have waited there for that day when the SOMEONE's fingers flipped through her pages.

If she were a book.

Even so, he feels no hesitation about making Beatrice violate her contract.

And his reasoning for it is exactly what he just told her.

If anyone demands that Beatrice keep the promise and die, Subaru's flipping the guy the bird and telling him this: He will make her violate the contract, and make sure Beatrice lives.

It's not even something to think twice about.

Beatrice: “Th-that is unrelenting, incorrigibly insidious of you, in fact...”

Subaru: “I know it's unrelenting, and I am sorry for saying it. But it's important so I'm not surrendering this.”

Subaru's stance was decided from the very beginning. From the very beginning, the whole issue depended on Beatrice's feelings.

Beatrice cannot hide her panic and confusion at Subaru's disparagement of contracts. And of course she can't. Contracts are that important a thing for spirits.

Having witnessed the relationship between a spirit and a spiritualist, Subaru knows they are firm, weighty, utterly unshakable things.

He knows, and he's saying it:

You are more important than it.

Beatrice: “I-if, you... were THEY...”

Subaru's response to contracts is overwhelmingly overwhelming. Frailty creeps onto Beatrice's expression, which borders on breakdown.

Her lips speak of the insubstantial someone that Beatrice has waited for over these four centuries.

The fictional entity that Echidna cruelly invented so that she could know WHO BEATRICE WOULD

CHOOSE.

Beatrice wants to be saved.

The way that Subaru's words shake her heart and bring her to tears proves it better than anything.

Beatrice: “Will...”

Beatrice's teary eyes focus on Subaru.

Her lips tremble, and, practically clinging,

Beatrice: “...you be Betty's THEY?”

This question could be the full stop on what has gone on for four centuries.

And might be exactly what Echidna ordered her, making it what the witch wants to hear.

Who would Beatrice determine as being this insubstantial THEY?

The witch used her daughter to satisfy her own curiosity, letting her spend four hundred years in solitude.

The payoff for all that time rested in that question.

Beatrice swallows her breath. Subaru looks her in the eye, and declares:

Subaru: “Are you stupid? —Of course I wouldn't be this weird mysterious THEY of yours.”

※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※

After the ferocious shockwave gusts through the Archive, Beatrice takes the books thrown about by the wind and returns them to their bookcases.

While they did fall to the floor, none of the books look to have separated from their bindings, fortunately.

Beatrice reflects remorsefully on her use of force while inside the Archive, relieved that only very minor damages occurred.

They are her comrades, who passed four hundred years of solitude alongside her.

Beatrice had not been lying about her wish to be a book. She had fantasized many times about being like these texts, something which could wait for such a long time without it rocking her heart at all. She now thought it hope born from a stupid idea.

Beatrice: “Conceivably, it is laughable, I suppose.”

This is the wretchedness into which she has been cornered.

She mocks herself for it. But inside her small chest, self-deprication falls subordinate to wrath.

Beatrice: “That guy... that guy... truly, what is wrong with him, I suppose!”

Just thinking about him aggravates her, brings her close to stomping the ground.

She'd like to vent these pent-up emotions on something, but everything in this place which her Mother instructed her to protect is precious.

Unable to find anything to take her tantrum out on, all Beatrice can do is wait for her bloated emotions to wither.

She returns the final book to its shelf and sighs as she smooths out her appearance. Then she seats herself back on the stepladder, reaches to cradle the black tome—and stops.

A blank book. Just throw the thing away! He had said so easily, so many times.

Then at the vital moment, he rejected the option which would have allowed Beatrice to discard the thing. Absolutely, entirely, so incomprehensible it infuriates her.

Beatrice: “I'm exhausted, in fact...”

But her fury will not last forever.

Beatrice stops puffing out her cheeks, takes that book she had hesitated to hold, and puts it to her heart.

Ultimately, to the end of the end, leaning on this thing is the only way to protect her mind.

Just as Roswaal's gospel has writ, Beatrice's end will arrive soon.

What emotion should she feel as she waits for it to come?

It's finally ending. Wouldn't that be a good enough sentiment?

It's the one she's supposed to be feeling, but now that it's actually happening, she's lost.

—You are stupid. For some reason those words remain, sitting heavily in her heart.

※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※

Blown away by the shockwave, Subaru tumbles down the corridor until he slams back-first into a wall. His side strikes directly against a column, leading him to shriek and writhe.

Subaru: “Ghhah! Hhgahghh... I-impossible! Halfway through the conversation, and that idiot just...!”

The door in front of him slams shut. Subaru reaches out for the door, his expression hateful, but naturally the sight he sees after cracking the thing open is not the Forbidden Archive—merely a guest room.

GATE CROSSING has activated, and Subaru has been expelled from the Archive.

Subaru: “I pissed her off so much she threw me out... fuck, messed up with my word choice!”

What he was trying to say wasn't incorrect, but there was contradiction between how he was telling it and showing it.

Resulting in Subaru being thrown out of the Archive, and distanced from success.

Subaru: “Anyway, can't stay here. Have to find Beako through another door and...!”

???: “N-Natsuki-san?”

Subaru turns around, thinking to conquer the doors via utterly random selection, when a voice addresses him. The familiarity of it, and the fact it's calling him lead him Subaru to stumble and for his eyes to shoot open.

His gaze lands on Otto, peeking out from a neighbouring room, when he's supposed to be somewhere else. And peeking out from under Otto is Petra, also peering at Subaru.

Subaru: “Y-you guys? Why're you still in the mansion? I thought I told you that just one wing's fine and to run away after opening the doors?”

Otto: “Unfortunately, the situation outside has changed rather dramatically...”

Otto shakes his head, his face pale as Subaru approaches

It's inconceivable that Otto would be joking in this situation. Otto has aborted his escape, and there must be something happening which warrants that.

Subaru: “What happened? Short version please.”

Otto: “Witchbeasts did. Hordes of witchbeasts are encircling the mansion, and we cannot move.”

Subaru: “Witchbeasts!?”

Subaru's eyes shoot open wide at the unexpected word and he looks to Petra for confirmation. She nods several times in response.

Petra: “Erm, there's lots of witchbeasts which aren't the dogs... like snakes with two heads, or like possums, lots of them.”

Subaru: “Do these guys live in the nearby forest?”

Petra: “They do, but.... the barrier should be keeping them out.”

Subaru: “This barrier again...”

During the previous witchbeast debacle, they confirmed that the barrier between Arlam Village and the woods surrounding the mansion had been repaired. Afterwards they put top priority on looking out for weaknesses in the barrier, so it's inconceivable that a mistake could've happened after such a short timeframe.

And most importantly, the beasts are surrounding the mansion for some reason.

Subaru: “It's like with those mutts, some weird volition is operating on them...? What about Arlam's people? Are they okay?”

Otto: “I couldn't locate any witchbeasts when I instructed them to evacuate, and since they've used the carriages from the Duchess to flee, they should be safe. Patrasche-chan is guiding them too.”

Subaru: “Okay. That's a relief.”

It's more trustworthy that the clever dragon be tasked with escorting them than some random guy. While praying for Patrasche to pull it off, Subaru grits his teeth. The situation is unfolding down a track unknown to him yet again.

This witchbeast attack has never happened before.

Naturally, considering the timing, it has to be related to Elsa's attack.

Subaru: “What about Frederica and Rem?”

Petra: “We haven't run into Big Sis Frederica or Rem-san... Erm, I-I don't really think they can break through them and get away.”

Subaru: “Which means they're also still in the mansion. We'll be thankful the beasts're still staying outside, but how much can Garfiel do?”

Subaru strokes Petra's head, praising her strong heart for remaining composed during this extreme situation. If it were Subaru when he was her age, it wouldn't be weird for him to piss himself crying. But circumstances prohibit them from staying here.

Subaru: “Where are we right now? Which wing of the mansion?”

Otto: “The eastern. Garfiel should still be battling in the western wing, so I'd suggest avoiding that area to circumvent damages...”

Subaru: “And so the possible escape routes are...”

Of course Subaru needs to collect Beatrice, but it's also indispensable that Otto and Petra escape. Subaru descends into thought, thinking to scrutinize his mental map of the mansion for any possible escape routes. However, a voice drowns out Subaru's contemplations:

???: “—Oh my? You were all gathered here, waiting for me?”

A petrifying feeling, like a blade stroked against the back of their necks, leads all of them to freeze rigid.

Subaru promptly pulls Petra's arm and hugs her close as he timidly glances behind him.

Further down the hallway, lit with bars of moonlight, out peal someone's approaching footsteps. Their shape soon enters recognizably into the light,

Subaru: “What the hell is Garfiel doing!?”

???: “I'll unveil pretty guts from all three of you—”

Kicking off the floor before the shrieking Subaru, the Guthunter's black shadow darts as she bounds near.