3.6

By the time they arrived at the village, bonfires burned brightly, pushing back the dark of night.

Normally, there was no way anyone would have so many fires lit just to keep it bright at that hour.

Rem, standing beside the out-of-breath Subaru, picked up on the strange atmosphere; her face showed she understood something was wrong.

A young man from the village recognized the pair and hurried over.

"Hey, it's the two from the mansion. What are you doing here at a time like—"

Rem interrupted the youngster's question. "It seems good that we are. Has something happened?"

The young man seemed a little surprised by Rem's manner of speaking, but he immediately replied excitedly.

"Yes. Actually, a bunch of village kids are missing. We knew they were out playing before it got dark, but…well, that's why a whole bunch of people are looking."

Since the youngster in front of them wasn't being specific, Subaru cut in before Rem could ask further.

"The missing kids, that's Luca, Petra, Mildo, and them?"

"Y-yes, them… Do you have any idea where they went?"

When the young man answered affirmatively, Subaru clicked his tongue and kicked the ground. His gaze shifted outside the village—toward the wall that separated it from the forest.

"Who else is looking for the kids besides you?"

"All the young men in the village, plus Muraosa."

"The kids are in the forest. You'll never find them by looking around the village like this."

Subaru's declaration brought a change in the young man's face. He seemed like he wanted to ask Subaru more, but Subaru patted his shoulder and ran toward the trees.

"I'm going into the forest. Tell everyone that's where the kids are!"

Subaru made a beeline toward the woods, paying no heed to the questioning voice behind him.

Rem hurried to keep up with Subaru, giving him a look wrapped in doubt about how certain he seemed.

"How do you know such a…?"

"I can tell. No, I know. If what the brats said was right, they should be this way."

A tall wooden fence surrounded the village. The pair climbed over a section bordering the forest and cut among the trees as they headed deeper in.

Subaru had just been going by his memory of what he'd heard, but Rem, walking beside him, suddenly lifted her face.

"—The barrier has been…severed."

Rem's surprised voice made Subaru grit his teeth, because he had been right.

Rem pointed to a crystal embedded in a large tree right before their eyes. Judging from how it wasn't glowing, it must have been placed there to power a barrier blocking off the spaces between the trees.

Subaru remembered several times when people had pointed to the forest and spoken of the barrier. He couldn't recall exactly when, but Ram had told him point-blank not to go into the mountains.

"What does the barrier being cut mean here?"

"It means that demon beasts can cross the boundary. This forest is their habitat, you see."

"Demon beasts…? Huh? So, um, what are they, anyway?"

Subaru's question made Rem's eyes waver as she delivered a textbook reply.

"They are beasts imbued with dark power, the enemy of intelligent life. It is said that the witch created them."

"More of the witch, even here, geez…"

Subaru grimaced at the piece of vocabulary that stuck out, but Rem's explanation made him certain: He knew who the "shaman" was, and that this was just a prelude to an attack on the village.

Before Rem's eyes, Subaru stepped into the gap between the trees she had called a barrier and headed deeper into the woods.

"—! Subaru, what are you—?!"

Rem, surprised, raised her voice to stop him.

"The kids are in there. I have to save them."

"Do you have hard proof of that? Master Roswaal's permission is required before crossing the ba—"

"The scar on my hand is proof!"

He raised his left hand so that Rem could see the animal bite mark on the back of it.

It was the scar left by the bite he'd gotten in the village that afternoon when the kids had surrounded him and he'd touched the puppy.

Beatrice had pointed to that scar and said that the being that made it was the culprit behind the curse on Subaru. Meaning—

"The kids had a cute puppy with them. It looked like a dog, but what if it wasn't a dog? What if it was a demon beast that curses whoever it bites?"

That puppy had bitten Subaru not once, not twice, but three times. If he hadn't been bitten this time around, he had no doubt Rem would've been bitten instead.

Human hands hadn't cast the curse; it was more like a natural disaster.

Just like rats were the medium through which the Black Plague spread, demon beasts were the vector by which the curse was propagated.

The kids had followed the demon beast into the forest. There was no telling whether or not they were safe within.

"This gets worse the more time passes. We don't know if the kids are already cursed, but for now we've got to bring them all back to the mansion and purify them."

"Hold on. You cannot simply decide that on your… In the first place, the situation is too suspicious."

"Huh?"

Rem pointed toward the village, which happened to be toward the mansion as well.

"To have such a problem occur while Master Roswaal is absent… Are you certain this is not a diversion for an attack on the mansion?"

"So what would you do? Abandon the kids in trouble right this minute, go back to the mansion, and batten down the hatches? I mean, yeah, we can do that, if you're all right with everyone in the village being dead by morning."

Even as he said it, Subaru was well aware of how cruelly he'd put it.

Rem was just trying to do her job and minimize the risks to the people at the mansion. It was natural for her to think that way, and he had no intention of blaming Rem for it. But there came a time when you had to make a choice, no matter how much you tried to push it away.

And Subaru knew only too well that the greatest regret came from choosing not to choose at all.

"Rem, let's go. We've got to do something."

"Why are you that determined to…? Subaru, what connection do you have to the vill—"

Perhaps it was her still being unsure about his judgment, but it was the first time Subaru had heard Rem murmur in a feminine fashion.

Here was Rem, prim and proper through thick and thin, uttering such soft complaints.

If he was being honest, Subaru would've said he was scared to go forward. His legs were trembling from fatigue, but from another reason as well. Who could have blamed him if he'd displayed the face of a coward he was desperately keeping concealed?

But Subaru slapped his own cheeks to make his heart forget its slide toward weakness and escape.

"—Petra wants to be a clothing maker in the capital when she grows up."

"…Ah?"

"Luca wants to follow in the footsteps of his dad, the top woodcarver in the village. Mildo wants to make a wreath from flowers from all the flower beds and give it to his mom as a present…"

"—"

Subaru recalled each face one by one in the back of his mind as he continued, counting with his fingers.

"Meyna's all happy because a little brother or sister will be born anytime now, and those brothers Dyne and Cain are both working hard to get Petra's hand in marriage…"

He let out a small laugh. Then he shook his head to Rem, who stood in silence.

"I know their faces, their names, and what they want to do in life. I'm not some stranger anymore."

Subaru hated kids.

They were noisy, rowdy, and they talked trash with no respect for their elders. They thought nothing of discourtesy or disrespect, were brash and unreserved—it was like looking at himself in the mirror.

"But, Rem, I promised them I'd do aerobics with them again tomorrow morning."

Subaru had thought the same things during the loop on the first day after his summoning.

It'd be easier just to let things go. But he ran forward because he couldn't.

He looked at Rem. She was conflicted. She hesitated.

Looking weak, powerless, about to break out in tears—that was Subaru's job.

Seeing her looking weaker than he, Subaru resented himself for hardening his resolve. He loathed that he was a small and petty-enough person to use others to protect himself, even though he was the incurable scaredy-cat.

If his own cowardice could be used as a tool, he'd use that, too.

"I keep my promises and expect others to keep theirs—I'll do aerobics with those brats again, you'll see. That's why I'm heading in."

—He had no idea courage was such a terrifying thing.

Subaru was so focused on keeping his hands from shaking that he didn't even notice the tremor in his voice. From behind, Rem watched all this, then silently closed her eyes. Then…

"Then it cannot…be helped."

"Rem?"

Subaru lifted his face as Rem's tongue abruptly loosened.

It was practically the first time since he'd met her that she'd displayed clear emotion on her face.

"After all, I have been assigned to watch over you, Subaru. I cannot accomplish that duty if I let you go by yourself, can I?"

Rem sounded like she was teasing Subaru, leaving him in shock before he finally shook his head.

"Yeah, I suppose not. Keep a good eye on me to make sure I don't do anything suspicious."

"Yes, I will. So, let us be off?"

Seeing Rem standing beside him, Subaru felt like it was the first time they had truly stood side by side.

He had an urge to thank Rem, but before he could find the words, he noticed it. As Rem walked beside him, she had at some point taken an iron ball in her hand. Attached to a handle via a long chain, the metal looked much too heavy for the ease with which she carried it.

"Er, ah, Rem, that's…"

"For self-defense."

"Er, but that's…"

"For self-defense."

Subaru and Rem traded words along those lines as they walked into the woods without any path to follow.

He desperately tried to re-harden his resolve and revive the courage he'd wrung out of himself at such great pains.