[[]]
Just then, as if the play had ended, the screen slowly dimmed until it disappeared...
"Take a good look at the possibilities of other worlds."
!
"It's that voice again!"
Otto said loudly.
When many people arrived, they heard the sentence "Look directly at your arrogance and witness his pain" in their minds, but they never heard it again.
When the voice sounded again, everyone was surprised.
And this time it was different from the last time. Although most people heard the sentence "Look directly at your arrogance and witness his pain" before coming here, there were still a few people who didn't, such as Beatrice. But this time everyone heard it.
Then, the screen lit up again...
Elsa looked at the screen.
[[]]
"—I will...I will definitely save you!"
It was still Subaru's voice, but it felt different.
[[]]
"Heh... feels very persistent."
Otto couldn't help but say.
[[]]
"Safely back...?"
In the picture, Subaru came to the fruit stand again, talking to himself like this.
[[]]
"What's going on?"
Rem murmured, her brow furrowing in confusion.
"Shouldn't Subaru-kun be at the mansion by now?"
Everything on the screen contradicted her expectations. Subaru had saved Emilia - only to end up injured. In her memories, and in the recollections of Emilia, the two Rems, Beatrice, and the others, the next scene should have been the mansion. Subaru, honored as Emilia's savior, receives treatment and enters Roswaal's service.
That was how it was supposed to happen.
"Perhaps that sentence holds a clue... I suppose."
mused, her small arms crossed as she tapped a finger against her chin. The ancient spirit's usual haughty expression softened slightly in thought, though she'd never admit to being genuinely curious.
"'Take a good look at the possibilities of other worlds'..."
Emilia repeated softly, voicing the cryptic phrase that had echoed in all their minds moments ago.
"Ah, look!"
Garfiel's voice cut through the tension as he pointed urgently at the screen. Beatrice huffed at the interruption.
[[]]
Subaru lowered his head, picked up a twig from the ground, wrote the character "正" (zhèng, meaning "correct") on the ground, and then erased it with his foot.
"Ah—this summoning to another world is much more uncomfortable than I imagined... Let's go."
[[]]
"This feeling..."
Elsa's heart was pounding, her eyes dazed:
"Ah—it's you."
And Wilhelm said:
"Hmm... it feels similar to that time, but not quite... the aura has changed."
As he said this, he recalled his evaluation of Subaru's eyes:
Those were the eyes that people who had wandered on the line between life and death many times would show. It was once... no, those eyes belonged to someone who had stepped into the realm of death several times and then returned.
[[]]
Subaru continued to clench the branch and walked towards that familiar alley.
[[]]
"Can't Barusu take another route? He obviously can't beat them."
Ram complains about Natsuki Subaru's repetitive and meaningless behavior.
Yes, if they weren't holding knives and he had the element of surprise, Subaru should have been able to defeat them, but against them with knives, Subaru wasn't so sure. There was no need to gamble his life here, and there was no need to meet Emilia in this way. Why did he have to do this?
"No, that's not right."
Wilhelm, Reinhard, and others saw the anomaly.
[[]]
"Hey, what's with that dumb look on your face?"
"Looks like he doesn't understand the situation yet. Let's tell him."
In the picture, Subaru had a gloomy face, lowered his head, stared at them with his eyes, and walked towards them step by step, as if very heavily.
Then, the scene in front of them shocked everyone outside the screen.
Subaru used the not-so-sharp branch in his hand to insert it extremely accurately into the strong man Gaston, and Gaston fell down.
While the other two were stunned, Subaru grabbed the hair of the knife-wielding Tongue-Cut Rachins and threw him out, slamming him hard against the wall.
Just like that, another one fell.
"Eek!"
The small Camberley looked at the two who were beyond saving, still thinking about whether to run or save them.
"Foolish..."
Subaru said softly, then grabbed Hambali's neck and pressed him against the wall.
Ignoring Camberley's struggles, Subaru just kept strangling his neck.
"Including this time—do you know how many times I've met you?"
"Uh... ooh..."
"Eighty-eight times. Practice makes perfect. Ridiculous, isn't it?"
Then, Subaru threw away Camberley's body. Just in case, he stomped on the heads of the three men continuously.
Was this skill the same as the weak Natsuki Subaru they knew?
[[]]
"What... is this, I suppose!?"
Beatrice's voice carried an unusual edge as she gripped her own sleeves tightly. The usually composed spirit found herself unsettled by the scene before them.
The group's shock wasn't directed at Subaru's efficiency in dispatching the three attackers - that much was expected after countless loops.
What made their blood run cold was the calculated cruelty in his actions. While no one could fault him for retaliating against those who had killed him repeatedly, this merciless approach contrasted sharply with the Subaru they knew.
Their Subaru would have subdued them non-lethally, or at minimum, granted a quick death.
"Why would Subaru...?"
Emilia's voice trembled slightly, her fingers unconsciously rising to clutch at her chest.
This familiar yet unfamiliar feeling made their hair stand on end.
Only two spectators seemed pleased with this development. Elsa's lips curled into her characteristic bloodthirsty smile, while Meili watched with detached amusement.
The implications of Subaru's "eighty-eight times" remark hung heavily in the air.
"My, my~, it seems we're observing yet another branching possibility~. Much like dear Natsuki Rem's case, or our lovely Elsa's~."
Roswaal drawled, his mismatched eyes glinting with intrigue as he fanned himself lazily.
"In this possible world... Subaru has died here at least... eighty-seven times..."
Yes, this was only at least eighty-seven times because not every time he returned from death would he see them, and Subaru would also try to take other routes.
[[]]
After leaving the alley, Subaru once again saw Felt stealing the insignia and running away quickly, with Emilia chasing after her.
Subaru watched their figures disappear into the distance and said:
"Wait for me, Satella. I will definitely save you."
[[]]
"Ahhh~,"
Anastasia sighed, her fingers idly twisting the fur trim of her scarf, a wry smile playing on her lips.
"Natsuki-kun here doesn't even know Emilia's real name after dyin' at least eighty-seven times. Now that's just plain pitiful, ain't it?"
Her Kansai-ben accent thickened slightly with amusement, though her sharp merchant's eyes held a glint of something more calculating beneath the playful tone.
"Hm…"
Reinhard rested a hand on his chin, his usually composed expression turning thoughtful.
"It's possible that in this world's branching path, Subaru never encountered me at all. If our meeting was a key factor in—"
He stopped abruptly, realizing he might be overanalyzing. The Sword Saint's tendency to approach everything with earnest diligence shone through, even in speculation.
[[]]
This time, Subaru chose to use a human wave tactic.
"Great! Great! But, it would be nice if you could let me have fun for a while longer!"
[[]]
"Ah, it's exactly the same as what Elsa told me!"
Meili pointed at the screen with her finger and said in surprise.
[[]]
In the picture, Natsuki Subaru, as a kind-hearted civilian, told the guards that he knew the whereabouts of the Bowel Hunter.
Now, a group of guards were all rushing towards Elsa.
But as the picture showed, this was useless. Elsa was extremely excited and went on a rampage like she had opened a Musou game.
"This... won't work either..."
Subaru observed all of this from the rooftop.
"Ah, I didn't expect the difference in strength between ordinary guards and Elsa to be so great."
Perhaps Subaru was expecting the guards who guarded the royal capital to be able to fight Elsa to a stalemate, and even if they couldn't, they could suppress her with a human wave tactic.
But with Elsa's strength, this was not possible.
"It's probably a waste of time to keep watching."
Subaru planned to leave.
[[]]
Julius's grip tightened around his knight's crest, his usually composed features twisting in quiet anguish as he watched the projection.
"Subaru... has grown numb to death itself."
He murmured, the words tasting like ash.
"At this point, he must be planning to... End his own life to restart again."
The unspoken horror lingered - that his friend now treated his mortality with such chilling pragmatism. The knight's gloves creaked from his clenched fist, powerless to intervene in this possible timeline.
"Ah~..."
Elsa's breathy sigh cut through the tension like a knife through flesh.
Her crimson eyes dilated with perverse fascination, fixated on a flickering figure in the corner of the screen - a certain fiery-haired knight reflected in the blood-smeared glass. Her tongue darted across her lips.
[[]]
"It's over."
Reinhard appeared.
That shining figure, even if Subaru didn't recognize him, was attracted to him.
Finally, as everyone outside the screen expected, the Bowel Hunter was completely defeated by the Sword Saint.
Subaru stared blankly at this scene...
Then, he cried.