10.3.2

The house was the most intact structure in the Sanctuary.

The residence formed of stone material was about the same size as an average stand-alone house from Subaru's world. The interior was divided into simple corridors and rooms, feeling like a reasonably comfortable place to live.

Between Roswaal Manor and the Nobles' District in the capital, Subaru had seen extravagant structures, but one of this size felt much closer to home. But ignoring Subaru's impressions—

"Myyy, Lady Emilia and our good Subaru. It feeeels like it has been quite a loooong time since I have seen you."

Roswaal waved to the pair with a fishy smile, something that felt out of place to the extreme.

His eccentric clown makeup, his exaggerated words and gestures, and the very aura of his presence were so unbefitting an ordinary person, it simply felt wrong for him to be inside an ordinary house such as that.

However, now that they were before him, feelings of things being wrong or out of place were trifling affairs.

"First, it is good that you are saaaafe and sound, Lady Emilia. I heard the circumstances from Ram, but it would be difficult to liiiive with myself if anything should have happened to you."

"If you really think so, you could cough up a more proper reaction to… No, more importantly, what the heck happened to you?"

Roswaal expressed relief at Emilia's safety, but Subaru and Emilia were left as perplexed as before.

As for why, Roswaal was a painful sight while greeting the pair, lying in bed and wrapped in bandages stained with blood coming from his own body. His unclothed upper body lacked a single space unwrapped by bandages; he had multiple deep wounds and was in a grave condition. That the makeup on his face was unmarred felt like a sign less of robustness than of a bizarre level of obsession.

But he did not give off the slightest hint of being injured, acting completely normal.

"My myyyy, you ask me that? I, too, am but a man. It truly pains me to be seen in such a shameful state. I suppose you are not so geeentle as to refrain from asking why?"

"As if I could! Truly, Roswaal, what happened? To get hurt this badly… And on top of that, you're…"

His flippant tone about something impossible to gloss over put the genuinely angry Emilia in a bind. Indeed, the wounds were so grave she hesitated to press the point. She wanted to ask, but she didn't want to force the issue.

Roswaal responded to the discord with Emilia by closing one of his differently colored eyes, specifically the blue one.

"I wonder where I should begin the taaale? In regards to my wounds…perhaps I should call them a baaadge of honor, or the unavoidable consequences of my actions."

"Please do not paper over things like that. I am asking a serious question. I want a serious answer from you."

"Hmmm… It would seem Lady Emilia is not in good humor, either. Considering the place, I do not believe that can be…helped."

It felt wrong to Subaru that Emilia was taking an interrogatory tone. When Roswaal, apparently agreeing with him, pointed out that very thing, Emilia exhaled with an air of resignation.

"Since I came here—no, since I came in contact with the barrier, I think—my chest has been astir. I can't calm down. What is this place? Even though it's called the Sanctuary, it doesn't feel like any such thing to me. If anything, it's the opposite…"

"Perhaps you can accept that the tombs of Witches have aaaalways been referred to thus?"

"—!!"

Emilia's breath caught strongly when Roswaal invoked the other name of the Sanctuary.

Hearing the term from a mouth other than Garfiel's lent it greater weight. However, since that only added to the information they needed to ask him about—

"Wait, let's put what we want to ask about in proper order. I feel like we're just gonna be running around in circles at this rate. We need to get to a conclusion."

"Myyyy, a most sound suggestion. It seems that our good Subaru's mental state has changed since last I saw him."

"That story's gonna get seriously long, so I'll brag properly about it later… Ah, one thing, though."

As Roswaal prodded him, trying to make light of the matter, Subaru stared straight at him before continuing.

"I succeeded in forming an alliance with Crusch. Satisfied with the results of leaving me there now?"

"Ahh, I am most saaatisfied. Truly, truly, you have acquired something difficult and long yearned for."

"…That so."

The affirmation felt more sincere than Subaru had expected. While surprised, he accepted it in good grace.

He'd expected as much for a while, but Roswaal really had left Subaru in the royal capital with the expectation that he'd fight hard. Roswaal's having used that to his own advantage wasn't amusing to Subaru.

The fact that his countermeasures against the Witch Cult had been conspicuously inadequate amused him even less.

Setting aside that dissatisfaction for the moment, Subaru ordered the more immediate questions in his mind before starting.

"First, the people of Earlham Village. Ram said they were safe and sound, but is that really true?"

"Please rest at ease. The state of my body may make that diiiifficult to believe, but I aaaam a lord, after all. I negotiated earnestly upon their behalf and had the cathedral opened to give them shelter."

"Cathedral, huh? I'll ask for more details about that later. Next…"

"Tell us what you meant by 'Witch's Tomb' earlier."

As Subaru moved ahead, Emilia intervened, choosing the next topic for herself.

It was one of the issues on Subaru's list, so he had no objection. But Subaru didn't think the hard voice and the way she asked felt very Emilia-like.

Roswaal responded to the tense Emilia's question with a wry smile and closed one eye.

"It means exactly what it says. This is the final resting place of the Witch named Echidna, once known as the Witch of Greed—and to me, these grounds are holy."

"The Witch Echidna…"

The tone with which Roswaal replied to the question, and put the name to his lips, made Subaru's breath catch.

His reply was quiet and gentle, yet filled with sharpness that clawed at the mind. There was no echo of his normal clownish demeanor; what filled his voice was emotion that pounded hard into Subaru's chest.

The instant Roswaal invoked Echidna's name, his expression looked softer for what might have been the very first time.

"…"

Seeing the side of his face, Ram, attending at his bedside, gently lowered her eyes. Subaru did not notice her reaction; rather, he touched a hand to his own chest.

For some reason, the name Echidna—a name he shouldn't have known—strangely churned within him.

"Subaru, are you all right? Is something wrong?"

"Nah, I'm fine… More importantly, we know this is the place a Witch died. But, Roswaal, why are you safekeeping a place with a history like that? Do you have some kind of connection with this Witch?"

"The reason is simple. This land has been under the care of the Mathers family, passed down from generation to generation. It began under the lord of this house at the time…the Roswaal from which I inherit this name. In other words, it is from this Roswaal in history that this Sanctuary has been passed down."

When Subaru broached the issue of his relationship to the Witch, Roswaal followed suit, filling in the blanks. The explanation left Emilia touching her own lips, knitting her refined eyebrows.

"'In history'… Then the Mathers family has been involved with the Witch of Greed since long…"

"—Echidna."

"Eh?"

Emilia's eyes opened wide when the name alone was abruptly slipped in. Roswaal trained his eyes toward Emilia. "Echidna," he repeated, making certain she heard him.

"Pleaaaase, employ her name when referring to her. Calling her the Witch of Greed implies all sorts of nefaaarious things, does it not? And it is somewhat looooong."

"Errr, I understand. Then can I take this to mean…this is Echidna's final resting place, and the Mathers family has taken care of it because it was involved with her for a reeeally long time?"

"Yes, that is correct. Having said that, 'taken care of it' is somewhat exaggerated. Echidna's barrier means that outsiders cannot pass through the Lost Woods without the proper formalities. On top of that, the barrier has a special effect on those whose blood fulfills a particular condition. You have experienced this as well, Lady Emilia?"

"It's true, I lost consciousness when I came into contact with the barrier. But, according to Garfiel, the barrier only causes trouble when half-bloods like me come into contact with it. It didn't do anything to Subaru, right?"

"Er, actually, I can't really say it did nothing to me…"

"Eh? What do you mean by that?"

When Subaru scratched his cheek and murmured, Emilia lifted her face in surprise.

She didn't know that once the barrier had knocked her out, Subaru had been teleported while she slept. Along the way, Subaru hadn't found a good time to bring it up, but also, he had hesitated greatly to do so.

After all, he couldn't discuss it without discussing its connection to Frederica's crystal.

If Frederica had conveyed that Garfiel was a dangerous person, entrusted Emilia with the crystal, and on top of that, plotted to have that crystal teleport her, he wondered what objective Frederica had in doing so.

"Subaru, if something happened, tell me. We decided we'd discuss important things, didn't we?"

"We did, but this is…"

"Subaru."

The earnest gaze and the plea of her voice made Subaru's shoulders sink in resignation. From there, he took the blue crystal out of his pocket and explained the circumstances to all present.

He explained that the crystal had reacted to the barrier, teleporting Subaru alone to a different location in the Sanctuary. There he'd met a girl, been led to the ruin, and lost consciousness while inside. Later, he'd been caught by Garfiel and brought along, bringing them back to the present.

"Frederica handed over this crystal before we left the mansion. There's no question it reacted to the barrier and made the teleport happen. Emilia was the one carrying the crystal to begin with, so…"

"Barusu, what you are trying to say is that Lady Emilia must have been the target?"

As Subaru spoke of the circumstances, Ram summarized the last part in his stead. Her assertion made Subaru draw in his chin. The image of the young girl he'd met in the forest came back to him.

The girl had been emotionless, doll-like. She had done Subaru no harm, leading him to the ruin and running away—and he had to wonder, had that been intended for Emilia instead?

"If that is true, it was Lady Emilia who would have been teleported by the crystal during the time the barrier had robbed her of consciousness. If so, it is most fortuuuitous it was Subaru who was sent in her place."

"And then I hooked back up safe and sound. Body doesn't have…anything special wrong with it."

Subaru rotated a wrist, smiling at Emilia as he asserted his robustness of health. But, as he smiled at Emilia, she lowered her head and gingerly posed a question to Roswaal.

"Frederica said the crystal was necessary to pass through the barrier, and why she was giving it to me… Was that true?"

"…Unfortunately, the proper formalities for passing through the barrier do not involve an object. I suppose that is proof Frederica was up to some kind of scheeeeme."

Roswaal's reply made Emilia's words catch in her throat as her listless shoulders sank. Of course they did. The talk just then had established Frederica's infidelity as a virtual certainty.

"Frederica's worked for you a long time, right? Over ten years is what I heard."

"…Yes, that girl was still veeeery young when I first employed her. She is a very capable girl, and not once has she acted in defiiiiance of my will…"

When Subaru posed a question in Emilia's stead, Roswaal shook his head in apparent dismay. Then he glanced meaningfully toward the edge of his vision, whereupon Ram accepted his gaze with a solemn nod.

"And so Frederica's scheme has ended in tears… That just now was a joke."

"Was it really a joke? It sounded pretty serious to me…"

"It was. But the punishment will not be—now we know that Frederica is deeply related to the present circumstance here in the Sanctuary."

To Ram, Frederica was a coworker of particularly long standing. Knowing her coworker had been unfaithful, she nonetheless spoke calmly, her face betraying no unrest concerning that fact.

"What do you mean by the circumstances in the Sanctuary? What is happening here right now?"

"Lady Emilia, did you not think it strange? That Ram and I, and the villagers fleeing to the Sanctuary, remained in this place rather than return to the mansion?" he asked.

"Eh? That's… I thought it must be because of your wounds, Roswaal," she answered.

In point of fact, Roswaal, lying on the bed, bore wounds that were quite deep. Even if he was to return to the mansion for treatment, he couldn't be moved without having recovered to at least some minimal degree.

But Roswaal shook his head, seemingly telling her that was not the reason.

And then—

"Currently, all present fiiiiind ourselves imprisoned in the Sanctuary… Ram, the villagers, and myself… Ah, now that you have entered, that includes the two of you as well."

"Huh?"

Subaru and Emilia were both dumbstruck at the casual yet explosive statement.