10.3.4

The instant Subaru stepped into the place called the Cathedral, he felt a change in the air.

It was not a bad change. Surprise registered where, until that moment, a quiet atmosphere without conversation had reigned, followed by a cascade of attention—and the onrush of joy.

"Master Subaru!" "Ohh, thank goodness you are safe!" "Is everyone else all right?!"

The ones welcoming Subaru when he showed himself were the people lodging in the Cathedral—the people of Earlham Village who had evacuated, fleeing from the Witch Cult to the Sanctuary together with Ram.

They looked happy to see Subaru, but their situation was little different from when they had left the village. Subaru was relieved that they had not been treated poorly in the Sanctuary, though.

"I'm the one who told you to take refuge here, after all. I'm glad you're all safe."

"Master Subaru, it is we who are glad you are safe… How is the village, and the others?"

"Yeah, relax about that, okay? We drove off the dangerous folks, and the people evacuating to the royal capital are back in the village. No one's hurt, they're all in great shape."

"Ohh—!"

When Subaru pounded his chest, giving the villagers his metaphorical stamp of approval, all the villagers' faces brightened.

Subaru responded to their reactions with a smile as he finally took a look around the Cathedral. The stonework structure had a high ceiling, and was filled with a solemn, serene air that lived up to the name.

So far as Subaru knew, the atmosphere was probably close to that of the chapel of a church. Because the temple site was fairly large, it was able to comfortably accommodate the fifty-odd residents who had evacuated.

Put frankly, there had to be many inconveniences involved, and they did raise such dissatisfactions with Subaru as they said, "We're worried about the fields and livestock we left behind. Besides, we're separated from our children, too, so…"

"But are the lord's injuries all right? Such terrible wounds, for our sakes…"

Their statements, showing less concern about the disorder in their daily lives than pure concern for the future, hurt Subaru's heart.

Here they were, far from their families, with their own lord bearing wounds. The seeds of their anxieties were inexhaustible. But Subaru's feet had brought him there to bring an end to their situation.

For that reason, among others, Subaru loudly cleared his throat, drawing all eyes of the villagers upon him.

"Err, listen to me, everyone! As you know, the dangerous elements threatening the village have been driven off! The other group that evacuated has returned to the village, and they're waiting for you to return as we speak!"

The moment Subaru reached "waiting for you to return," shadows of anxiety came over the villagers' faces. Naturally, they too knew why they remained in the Sanctuary.

They also knew Roswaal had sustained his wounds with the aim of liberating them.

However—

"Looks like you all know that getting out of here won't be easy. But it's all right! After all, there's a girl right here to undertake the trial to free everyone!"

"Master Subaru…you can't mean?!"

"Whoa, whoa… Nah, it isn't me. If I could, I'd do it in a heartbeat, but…"

Subaru scratched his head with a pained smile at the reaction from the freshly enthused villagers.

His words were no lie. If he could be the challenger, he'd take the trial without a moment's hesitation. But Subaru did not fulfill the conditions to challenge the barrier. Accordingly, the one who would undertake the trial would be—

"I'm sure you all know her—the royal candidate, Emilia. She's facing the trial."

"━━━━━━━━━━━"

Subaru's declaration sent the villagers gasping once more. Nodding back at their reactions, Subaru reached a beckoning hand toward the entrance to the temple—and the girl waiting there for him.

After a moment's hesitation, Emilia slowly revealed herself, silver hair flowing behind her. Her cheeks were stiff from tension as Subaru stood at her side and surveyed the villagers.

Those gazes had rejected her once before. Now, she had the courage to face them without the "identification scrambler" robe. Even so, Emilia bit her lip, bowing her head deeply then and there.

"I—I am sorry to have made you wait. In place of your lord, Roswaal L. Mathers, I shall undertake the trial of this Sanctuary. I may not seem very formidable…but I'm sure I will overcome and liberate everyone from this barrier."

At first, she was timid, with little confidence, but by the end, she was speaking more quickly and fluently.

Emilia's proclamation left the villagers perplexed as they looked at one another's faces. Once before, Emilia had extended her hand to them only to be rebuffed. That rupture had hardly been repaired. All Subaru had done was slam a lid on top of it so that you couldn't see the cracks and punt the can down the road. As far as the villagers were concerned, Emilia was stuck in their stereotypes of half-elves.

"…"

Emilia kept her head lowered as she awaited the villagers' response. Her lips were tightly pursed, and on her face, Subaru saw resolve, and a hint of fear, about the prospect of rejection.

But a figure walked closer to Emilia—the old woman who was both the head of Earlham Village and someone who had often touched Subaru's butt. Sensing her presence, Emilia lifted her head; the old woman nodded and spoke.

"A few days ago, you lowered your head to us, and we rejected your assistance. In spite of this, you reach your hand out to us once more. Why? For the sake of the royal selection?"

"…"

"To maintain the support of the populace, you lower your head and say that you shall save us. That is natural. I have no complaint about this, if that is indeed the case. But what we find frightening…is that we do not understand the reason why."

"You don't understand the reason why…?" Emilia asked, eyes shaking in bewilderment at the old woman.

"We rejected you because you are a half-elf. We do not understand the reason why you, a half-elf, would do this again despite that. That is what we wish to know."

"And that you are not a Witch beyond our ability to comprehend."

Emilia was surprised. She was being compared to a Witch to her face, and yet, she'd been asked to deny she was one. It was probably something she was experiencing for the first time. No doubt Emilia had been always tormented by discrimination that permitted no rebuttal, the conclusion simply forced upon her.

"…"

For an instant, Emilia shifted her eyes toward Subaru, who was standing by her side. Her gaze clung to him, apparently in search of an answer. Subaru tucked in his chin, nudging her forward without a word.

It was Emilia's own words they were seeking. Borrowed words would be meaningless.

"I…have no confidence that I can give an eloquent reply to your question. Right now, I do not have any reeeally convincing words to make you all accept what I say."

Reluctantly, and with Subaru's affirming nod pressing her onward, Emilia began to speak. With her own clumsy words, she sought to explain why she wanted to do this.

"It's just… It may have been a short time, but I spent the last several days with the family members who aren't here with you. So I thought all over again…families need to be together."

Emilia touched her own chest as if looking for something, stroking the dim crystal hanging from her neck. Inside it was surely sleeping family of her own, family she could not speak with at the moment for reasons unclear.

However, believing that her feelings about family were not different from theirs, Emilia surveyed everyone's face.

"I want to return you to your families. That is…not a promise I made in that village, but it is something I swore to myself. That is what I want to fulfill. That's all."

"…"

"I haven't really thought much about…maintaining your support and so on. But, if possible, I'd like everyone to…no, err, rather, I want to…get along with all of you."

At the very, very end, Emilia's words weakened, and the pace of her speech slowed. Once she had spoken her piece, she and the villagers were mutually silent. The silence continued for seconds, perhaps tens of seconds…

"Lady Emilia."

"…Y-yes?"

"We know this is very selfish of us to say—however, please take good care of us."

For a moment, Emilia looked like her thought process had ground to a halt, unable to digest the meaning of those words. But when she saw the old woman's head bowing before her, she finally grasped their meaning.

"Ah…I—I may be a greenhorn, but please bear with me!"

"No one says greenhorn anymore."

Subaru gave a pained smile, instantly tossing his own quip on top of the obsolete language sailing out. Emilia had no time to deal with it, for she was busy dealing with other villagers' follow-up comments, engaging in scattered conversation.

Satisfied at the turn of events, Subaru distanced himself from the throng and headed to the entrance of the Cathedral. And there stood—

"Lady Emilia seems to have…changed somewhat. Did you put her up to this, Barusu?"

"This is something she came up with on her own. You shouldn't go crediting someone's determination to someone else, you know."

"…I suppose not. Ram is at fault this time."

Ram apologized for the somewhat cold impression she gave from the entrance concerning the exchanges taking place at that moment. The apology, rare coming from her, surprised Subaru, which made Ram narrow her pink eyes.

"What? Even Ram apologizes when she feels she has done wrong. It simply does not happen very often."

"From time to time, I'm seriously envious of that brimming-with-confidence attitude you have."

"It is not a matter of confidence whatsoever. It is natural providence that Ram is correct so often."

The way Ram crossed her arms in self-affirmation grander than mere overconfidence ever could be made Subaru's shoulders sink.

"With this, Lady Emilia shall undertake the trial. She has received voices of support from the villagers…just as Master Roswaal wished."

"Hey, stop saying it like that. Emilia doesn't calculate things like that, you know."

"And you intend to shoulder the burden of the dirty work yourself, Barusu? How heroic."

Ram's slender lips eased up a little as she bantered with Subaru in sarcastic fashion. But Subaru didn't feel genuine scorn for him from either her eyes or the tenor of her voice. Perhaps what he sensed was distress.

He couldn't say That's not like her. Ram's kindness just happened to be difficult to see on the surface.

"So you're worried about Emilia, too, huh? I'm a little surprised."

"…Ram is the epitome of kindness and benevolence. Besides, if Lady Emilia can perform as Master Roswaal hopes, there will be meaning to his body's having been whittled down like that. Of course I am concerned."

"Roswaal went pretty far, putting his own body on the line…"

Ram's morose statement put a pained face on Subaru as he let those words trickle out. As to what Roswaal's true intentions regarding the Sanctuary were, Subaru could only sigh.

Roswaal, lacking the proper qualifications, had undertaken the trial only to be rejected by the enchantment, suffering grave wounds that left him at death's door. Such a reckless challenge could only have calculations bordering on madness behind it, things no normal person could even conceive of.

Passing the trial was unavoidable if the barrier of the Sanctuary was to be lifted—and, faced with this fact, Roswaal had taken the initiative, sustaining wounds as a result. That even Roswaal, in an attempt to fulfill his duties as lord, was unable to succeed in the trial had established to all his people the difficulty of the matter.

He had acted without hesitation before his people, wounding his name, reputation, and even body in the process—

"And here comes Emilia out of the blue, galloping in to undertake the trial and liberate the Sanctuary…"

"The residents of this Sanctuary and the refugees held captive… Either way, they shall have a great deal for which to thank Lady Emilia. It would be good if they thought of her being a half-elf as a trifling matter…"

"People's hearts don't dance in your palm that much… Besides, Emilia doesn't weigh things like that. You and I both need to have that fact sink in."

Subaru watched from a distance as the villagers interacted with Emilia at the center of the Cathedral with hard, smiling faces.

He understood Roswaal's thinking. This was a necessary challenge if she was to make it to the end of the royal selection ahead. He could appreciate the true intent behind Roswaal's telling Emilia this place would, at some point, be necessary to her.

But he could not raise both hands high in approval. This was Subaru's stubbornness at work.

"Incidentally, Barusu…there really is nothing wrong with your body?"

"Ah, yeah, no problem. I wasn't lying when I said as much when I talked about the teleport. Even though Roswaal got all beat up like that, I only fainted… Dunno what to say."

"I suppose you should be grateful to have such a puny Gate."

"It's the truth, so I can't argue, but geez…!"

Raising his voice at the very blunt remark, Subaru gave his hips a big twist on the spot before continuing.

"Um, I was surprised that the ruin I teleported to was the place for the trial. Plus, there's the thing about bad stuff happening to unqualified people trying to get in… Totally a trap that kills on first sight."

"You saw from Master Roswaal's wounds, right? Even someone blessed with only an average Gate should receive a rather stiff punishment. There is no telling what would have happened to Lady Emilia if she'd entered unawares, either."

"…You think Frederica planned it like that?" Subaru lowered his voice and aired the suspicion he'd been harboring for a while.

Ram sank into thought for a brief moment, then closed one eye as she said, "I wonder. The circumstantial evidence suggests Frederica planned something. In point of fact, Lady Emilia only avoided such a fate by a hairbreadth, escaping by Barusu's noble…relatively noble sacrifice."

"Hey, don't correct that. Well, I don't mind you correcting the 'sacrifice' part because I got through it fine, but if I had sacrificed myself, call it noble even if it's a lie!"

"I shall take it under advisement. In regards to Frederica, there is something I ought to tell you, Barusu."

Following that preamble, Ram confirmed the state of the area around her with a sharp gaze. It was as if she wanted to be careful that no one overheard their conversation— No, it was not "as if" at all.

Ram approached a half-step closer to Subaru, her voice a whisper as she spoke.

"Not everyone living in the Sanctuary supports being liberated from it."

"—! What do you mean by that?"

"There is also the matter of the elf being hidden from Miss Ryuzu and Garf, as well as Frederica's actions…but Miss Ryuzu is only the titular leader, guiding the militants like Garf. Among the residents, there are also those who do not desire liberation from the Sanctuary and who choose to remain sheltered within the barrier."

"Sheltered inside the barrier… What's up with that?"

Subaru, knitting his brows at Ram's warning, indicated incomprehension toward the behind-the-scenes maneuvering. If all was according to Garfiel's explanation, everyone living in the Sanctuary was of mixed blood. Naturally, that meant they were affected by the barrier and unable to leave…so long as the barrier existed, at least.

"They're fine with this. To those who wish to stay, the current state, with minimal interaction with the outside, is ideal. And thus, to break this state is…highly troublesome to them."

"You think Frederica's working with folks like that?"

"It is possible. At present, it is mere supposition based on the available information."

With Ram's subtext sounding like Do not even suggest I am being emotional, Subaru backed off and dropped the subject. However, the words left Subaru twisting his lips, his internal nervousness undiminished.

Reflexively, his hand touched the white handkerchief tied around his own neck.

"And that is? A rather old-fashioned protective charm, yes?"

"Petra… Ah, a cute girl in the village. She gave this to me before I left. She was hired as a new maid to help Frederica out at the mansion… That's why I'm worried."

If Frederica was operating from a position of malice, it was quite possible she'd take Petra hostage. He'd never forgive himself if something happened to the girl who'd offered her cooperation in such good faith.

Even more than that, Rem was back at the mansion. He'd spoken exhaustively to Frederica about just how important the girl was, both to him and to the other people at the mansion.

But Ram exhaled and said, "Ah, that," in reply to Subaru's misgivings, then continued. "Rest at ease. Frederica would never do ill to a new worker at the mansion. She has surely not fallen into heresy such as that. You need not be concerned for the girl."

"…Do you trust Frederica, or do you not trust Frederica? Which is it…?"

"I know not what she schemes. But that Frederica is indeed Frederica, I do not doubt."

Having asserted the point with such force, Ram averted her gaze from Subaru's face. She folded her slender arms and motioned with her chin—indicating Emilia at the center of the Cathedral.

"Be careful, Barusu. The most certain means for those opposed to liberating the Sanctuary to achieve their aims is to cause Lady Emilia harm. We do not know who our enemies are. Remain ever vigilant."

"So this is secret from Ryuzu and Garfiel, too, huh…? Those two being opposed to liberation is too far-fetched, I suppose?"

"Even if those two are not involved, someone related to them might be. It is best that as few people know as possible…even if one of them has very loose lips, yes?"

Subaru couldn't even manage a groan as she drove the implication in like a nail, making it painfully clear just whom she meant.

Either way, now that he was in the Sanctuary, Ram's warning was exceptionally important. In particular, he'd never have known there was an antiliberation faction if she hadn't told him.

"Man, that girl really did look just like Ryuzu…"

Ryuzu herself might disagree, but he couldn't imagine they were unrelated. There was a mountain of things he wanted to ask her about, not least of which was her own lineage.

However, this was not the time to question her about his various misgivings.

"Master Roswaal made time for you this evening. Be satisfied with that."

"After seeing those wounds I'm not gonna complain… I still feel like suspecting that was part of his scheme, though."

"That is even more farfetched. Garf came to see how Master Roswaal was doing… Does he look like the kind of man who would cooperate with Master Roswaal's plans?"

"You're pretty harsh with the guy who's fallen for you!"

"Even though he knows it is hopeless."

That last comment was the harshest of all, enough to make Subaru sympathize with the absent Garfiel.

"This evening, huh?"

Once his sympathy ran its course, he murmured to himself about the time pledged to them for conversation.

Unlike during the day, when they had been able to ask little about the circumstances surrounding the Sanctuary, Roswaal had set time aside so that they could speak about those matters.

However, the time promised to them would come after Emilia undertook the trial.

"It would seem the sun is finally setting."

Ram murmured as she turned her head outside the temple, looking up as the sky of the setting sun was repainted in the colors of the night.

Night was coming.

A night when people would be tested by the trial so as to set the Sanctuary free.