10.3.5

The atmosphere of the Sanctuary underwent a great change after sunset.

The settlement had been little more than a lonely, destitute village to begin with. It had only the minimum lighting necessary to ward off the darkness of the night; except for the weak lighting coming from houses, there was no aid for a nighttime stroll save the light of the stars.

That was why a bonfire had been lit in the center of the settlement to illuminate the path toward the tomb, making that night an exception.

"Thanks to that, we were able to hook up safe and sound. Thank goodness for fire! Right, Otto?"

"Look me in the eye once and try saying that one more time! Damn it all!"

There in the Sanctuary, in the clearing illuminated by the bonfire, Otto's face was red with anger as his outraged voice echoed. He stamped the ground with his foot, thrusting a shaking finger at Subaru as he ranted.

"Do you think this is something that can be papered over with a little light conversation?! You completely left me behind at the dragon carriage, unable to move away from it, since morning, you understand?!"

"Having said that, you're the one who told Garfiel you'd stay with the dragon carriage, right? Patlash, my fave dragon, was here, too, so you shouldn't have been lonely… Well, it's a fact that I forgot you, though."

"That fact sinks deeply into my empty stomach!"

Subaru's brazen reply left Otto fuming amid the bonfire light breaching the darkness of night.

After arriving in the Sanctuary, he'd been on the same page when stabling the dragon carriage was left to him, but, having been completely forgotten over the course of furious conversation, had only just reunited with Subaru under his own power.

Incidentally, it was already the dead of night, with supper at the Cathedral long over.

"I can't really call it an awesome-tasting meal, but beggars can't be choosers."

"So I am not only a chooser, but a beggar as well?! I really am holding a grudge over this!"

"My bad, my bad. I'll apologize properly later… Right now, I've gotta focus over here."

When Otto drew close, Subaru nudged his forehead back, giving a pained smile as his gaze shifted elsewhere. When Otto followed suit, he narrowed his eyes, gazing at the girl at the center of the clearing surrounded by faint points of light.

"Lady Emilia and minor spirits, yes? Just how many difficult issues arose while I was unaware?"

"'Difficult issues'… Don't say it like anything and everything's all troublesome stuff we've got on our shoulders."

"Am I wrong to call these issues difficult, then?"

"They're difficult issues. Ultradifficult. On top of that, Emilia has to take 'em on all by herself."

Humphing at the knowing look on Otto's face, Subaru proceeded to walk over to Emilia. With her eyes closed as she received the blessings of the minor spirits, she sensed his presence, lifting her face and pursing her lips.

"Get enough cheers of support from the minor spirits to satisfy you?"

"Mm, it's all right. But I suppose I do want one final push."

"May I?"

"If you want to, Subaru. Please."

"Good luck, don't lose! E M D—!!"

Emilia let out a little laugh at Subaru's enthusiastic cheer, briefly adding "Thank you" before shifting her gaze toward the tomb she was to challenge.

Standing beside her, Subaru licked his lips and looked up at the ruin, which gave off a very different impression compared to during the day.

"It is a tomb, so it's waaaaay creepier at night than daytime. You're all right, Emilia-tan?"

"I'm a little worried, but it's nothing. This is something I have to do."

Clenching a pale fist, Emilia took a deep breath infused with plenty of vigor. At the same time, Subaru began to worry that she looked a little too worked up.

"Hah! Well, she's full of pep. Ya'd better be, not that I'm expectin' anything from ya!"

"Garfiel and Ryuzu."

Turning toward the voice, Subaru saw two short figures walking through the entrance to the clearing—one a young-looking girl, and the other a teenage boy. Though very different people, the pair without doubt represented the Sanctuary.

In addition, Ram came in, following in Garfiel and Ryuzu's footsteps. It seemed they were the only ones who would be watching Emilia undertake the trial.

"It's a little lonely having this be the entire audience."

"The humans of Earlham Village have been forbidden from venturing out at night. There is no proper lighting for them at this hour, after all…"

"Besides, we do not want to kick up an unnecessary ruckus. The elderly are very sensitive at night."

"Ya sure wake up bright and early in the mornin', though!"

Ram and the others replied to Subaru's musing in sequence as they lined up before the tomb in good order.

Ram was a proxy for the injured Roswaal; Garfiel and Ryuzu represented the interests of the Sanctuary. Subaru, Emilia's retainer, and the outsider Otto filled out the roster.

Otto was the only one whose presence seemed tentative and not strictly necessary, but setting that aside…

"I'll watch you take up the challenge in place of the people from the village. I'm sure they really wanted to cheer you on."

"Mm, thank you. I'll work hard to fulfill your expectations, those of the villagers…and everyone else watching."

"—?"

It was only when Emilia added the part at the very end that her gaze shifted beyond the clearing. Subaru wondered what her gesture meant, but he had no time to pursue the matter.

Emilia exhaled briefly and turned back toward the tomb, walking toward the stairway at the entrance.

The next moment, there was—

"A light, from the tomb…"

It was Otto who murmured it, but his surprise was shared by everyone present.

The five watched as the surface of the ruin Emilia was to challenge glowed with a faint light, seemingly welcoming the challenger, illuminating the Witch's final resting place with a green, phosphorescent glow that seemed to sink into the darkness.

"This is proof that the tomb recognizes Lady Emilia as being qualified to undertake the trial."

Ryuzu looked up at the phosphorescent light surrounding the tomb, putting into words the reason for the beautiful scene. Subaru and the others were speechless as they stared at it, with only Emilia unhesitant as she climbed the stairs.

Then, when she reached the top of the stairs, she was greeted by the entrance to the deep, dark ruin biding its time.

"—I am off."

Subaru felt like he heard her speak those words in a little voice.

He watched Emilia proceed into the tomb's corridor until he could no longer see her back. The entire ruin remained enveloped in the phosphorescent light; the trial had surely begun.

The ruin had rent Roswaal's body into tatters and had caused Subaru to faint and lose consciousness. When Emilia stepped within, worry welled in Subaru, almost as if someone were grasping his beating heart—

"Do not be concerned, Young Su. The tomb has firmly welcomed Lady Emilia into it. The light you see is proof of that. You need not worry that she will bounce off like Young Ros."

"The image of him bouncing off is bouncing right off of me… Er, sorry. You're just being concerned for me…"

"Ho-ho. I do not get upset when someone apologizes. Perhaps that is why I was too soft in raising Young Gar."

Subaru put on a strained smile, struck by the great contrast between her little-girl appearance and the elderly smiling face she presented. As Ryuzu spoke, she glanced sidelong at Garfiel, watching over the tomb some distance away.

He crossed his arms, audibly clenched his fangs, and kept scraping the ground with the tips of his toes, unable to calm down.

"I was just thinking…"

"Mm? About what?"

"The trial of this tomb—only those of mixed blood affected by the barrier can take it, right? Now that I think about it, Ryuzu, have you or Garfiel done it already?"

"Logically, it is possible to merely undergo the trial. However, we cannot liberate the Sanctuary. This is because of the never-ending pact that binds us residents to this place."

"…Another pact, huh?"

Subaru's distasteful tone and the bitter look on his face made Ryuzu raise an eyebrow.

"Ohh? Young Su, you dislike pacts?"

"I don't have a good impression of them. I have bad memories of trials over the last few weeks, too. The guy I hate most in this whole world talked about them a bunch."

"My, my, what a poor impression indeed. It must cause the spirit-user girl no small amount of trouble."

Spirit mages took all oaths very seriously. Ryuzu's words were proof this was a publicly known fact.

As a matter of fact, pacts and oaths were among the reasons Subaru and Emilia had once split up. It went almost without saying that Subaru had internally concluded it was his own fault. All the same—

"Accepting it and liking it are two different things. I'll keep putting a red line through them in my lexicon going forward."

"Obstinate, aren't you…? Well, a little stubbornness in a young one like you is adorable, too…"

It was really hard to wrap his head around the young one part. At the same time, Subaru saw a whiff of chagrin rising onto the side of Ryuzu's face. Perhaps it was nothing more than her having been robbed of the opportunity to challenge the trial for herself and having to rely on an outsider to lift the barrier. She might have quietly felt powerless on the inside.

Thinking along those lines, he could understand Garfiel's irritation, too. Considering the grasp of his personality Subaru had arrived at in a short time, there was no doubt he was the type who'd rather die than leave his problems for someone else to solve.

"…"

From there, time proceeded to flow. Subaru did nothing and said nothing as he waited for Emilia to return.

There was no visible change in Garfiel. Ryuzu continued to stand beside Subaru in silence. When he shifted his gaze a little, he was surprised to see pleasant-looking conversation passing between Ram and Otto.

To Subaru, who had experienced little pleasant conversation with Ram, this was an alarming development. He was about to think fruitless things, such as I'll have to get him to spill conversation tips for Ram later—but something happened first.

"Ah?"

When the change met the eyes of all others present, they instantly gasped as one.

Reflexively, Subaru blinked and looked back, by which time the source of light over all that time had already been lost. In other words, the almost dazzling phosphorescent glow surrounding the tomb…had been extinguished.

"The light's gone?! Hey, is everything all right?!"

"The light of the tomb should not cease so long as the trial continues…"

"Meaning something went wrong?! Emilia!"

Raising his voice at the sudden disaster, Subaru raced toward the tomb without a first or second thought. Ryuzu reached toward his back, shouting with urgency in her voice.

"W-wait, Young Su! You are not qualified to enter the t—!"

"Aaah? What the hell?!"

Ryuzu's voice trailed off in shock, leaving a bewildered Garfiel to send spittle flying as he picked up where she'd left off. Ram and Otto were just as surprised; even Subaru's breath faintly caught.

The tomb lit up the instant Subaru's foot hit the steps, beginning to radiate a green, phosphorescent light.

"The same as Lady Emilia… Er, Mr. Natsuki!"

"If I can get in, it's the answer to my prayers! Everyone stay outside! I'll call if anything happens!"

"Barusu!!"

Shrugging off the voices trying to stop him, Subaru raced up the stairs and dived into the tomb.

The ruin's air was cold and dry. The corridor in which his steps echoed was enveloped by the same green, phosphorescent light covering the outer walls, giving him a pretty good view of the moss- and vine-covered interior.

The strange sensation accompanying each and every step clawed at his chest. The scene, the location somehow seemed familiar to him, the inside of his head anguished as if being violated by some unknown memory.

"Of course I know this place… I came here before, in the dayt—!!"

Deciding that his memory from that time was the culprit, he impulsively stomped on the thought in his head with a shoe as he dived deeper.

The air deep in the ruin was stagnant, invading his nostrils with a dusty scent. He felt his lungs worsen with each and every breath. He shook his head as he went deeper, deeper, deeper—

"A room?"

When he finally reached the end of the corridor, Subaru beheld a door before his eyes that led into a small room. The grimy stone door was already open, having abandoned its duty of warding off intruders, so Subaru slipped in without resistance.

"…"

He raced into the room, a cramped chamber surrounded by stone walls. Strangely, the vines and moss had not encroached upon it, and it had deteriorated only insofar as the ruin's age would suggest. In back of the not-particularly-large stone room was another closed door that likely led deeper still, and in front of it—

"—Emilia!!"

A silver-haired girl was spread out on the floor, seemingly having sprawled her limbs when she collapsed upon it.

Unable to see her face from the entrance, Subaru desperately ran to her side.

He didn't know what had happened. All he knew was that he had to pick her up and escape from the tomb as soon as poss—

"—First, face your past."

The next instant, Subaru gasped when a voice seemed to whisper right into his ears.

"…"

Strength drained from him, leaving him no time to ponder what the voice might be.

His knees buckled, and Subaru's body went down like a doll, making no move to break his fall. Since he was in midrun, he tumbled onto the floor with limbs sprawled like a snow angel, ending up right next to Emilia by pure chance.

"…"

I've fallen right beside her once before, haven't I? he suddenly thought.

Before he could recall the memory, his first memory of death, Subaru's thoughts were swallowed up by the darkness—