6.6.2

The exchange with Rem along Main Street had made Subaru decide to restart in a true sense.

This was his sincere answer to Rem, who'd told Subaru she believed in him even after he'd bared everything inside his heart. Thanks to that, he gained a clear awareness of what he had to do.

"There's way too many walls I have to climb over to get there, huh…?"

The sheer number of the obstacles standing in their way didn't change the fact that they were one move away from checkmate.

Subaru scratched his head as if he was trying to put his thoughts in order.

"But I've still gotta do something. Will you help me, Rem?"

"Yes. If that is what you desire, Subaru…"

Rem readily nodded.

Even after Subaru opened up to her, the same trust hovered in Rem's eyes as before. They lit two fires inside Subaru: courage and a sense of duty.

Subaru no longer held any thought of hiding from Rem his own humiliation and panic at having his hands tied. After all, he'd half bawled his eyes out while venting every complex he had. Rem, too, had revealed truths that had raged within her; in a true sense, Subaru and Rem were now friends for life.

And because Subaru had set his heart on something, his head remained remarkably clear.

"First, let's double-check the time we have left. If we head back now, that'll be just under an hour…and then…"

As previously established, the time limit until the Witch Cult caused upheaval in the Mathers domain was five days—or rather, to be precise, they had a grace period of only four and a half days. He also needed to consider the sealing of the highway during that time. In reality, he had only two days to prepare.

"And those two days are full of unavoidable problems to deal with."

The number and nature of the barred gates they had to bust through put previous sets of loops to shame. Clearing any of them alone was hopeless. A fist large enough to smash through the lot of them was required.

The first problem was, naturally, the Witch Cult. If they didn't stop the fanatics under Petelgeuse's command, there was no way to save anyone at the mansion, let alone the residents of the village.

The second was, though the killer and means had been varied, Rem's certain death.

Even if Rem went with Subaru, fate would invariably lead her to her death. The first time, she'd died far from where he could see. And he had been despondent when she was lost to him before his very eyes the second and third times. It was no exaggeration that the shock was what had driven Subaru down the path of giving up entirely.

The third problem was that Emilia's death would trigger an indiscriminate rampage by Puck, the Great Spirit.

Thinking back, Subaru deemed the possibility that Puck had been the cause of his death on all three loops to be very high. When he considered his icy demises from the first time around through the third, he was almost certain of it.

All those walls were formidable, but all three had to be grappled with, or else the future world Subaru Natsuki wanted to live in would be lost. That would mean betraying the image of the hero who Rem believed in.

"—Whole bunch of 'em."

Subaru murmured under his breath, underlining the depth of the problem.

Rem, watching Subaru as he sank into thought, made no reply to his murmur, nor had Subaru been looking for one. Subaru knew that she was simply waiting for the words that had to follow.

She was waiting for the best judgment of how she might contribute greatest to the hero she loved the most. That was the present Rem's reason for existing and her ultimate means of expressing her love.

With Rem silently watching him, Subaru used his limited time to search his memories for any clue, any way to break out of the trap of limited time.

—His head tied itself into knots. His mind was on fire. Neither his flesh, nor his abilities, could live up to those current ideals.

—Think. Remember.

To not let his death that third time be in vain, to not let the will of the girl he'd let die that third time be lost in vain, Subaru's mind assembled everything that had happened during that third, finished world into one heavy pile.

The people he'd met. The conversations he'd had. Partings. Encounters. Anger, madness, sadness, despair, recovery.

And—

"There's a…possibility?"

Suddenly, something little more than a single option rose up in the back of his mind. Each of the threads was weak, so fragile that tying them together threatened to make them collectively snap. They seemed far too unreliable to rest his hopes upon.

—But he was all in. It was worth a shot.

"Rem. We need to talk. I have a few things I wanna ask you."

"Yes?"

Subaru sought Rem's cooperation in drafting the plan that he'd only just thought of in his head.

"Now that Emilia's participating in the royal selection, it looks like the Witch Cult is gonna move. If they go after Emilia, there'll no doubt be harm to the mansion and the village. I wanna stop that."

"The Witch Cult…"

A grave look came over Rem's eyes the instant she heard the words. But as Rem nodded at Subaru's words, her self-control held those emotions in check.

"Master Roswaal also has concerns that the Witch Cult might make a move. Though I do not know the details, I believe that he has studied the matter and drawn up countermeasures."

"But that's not gonna be enough."

In fact, Subaru didn't really know what countermeasures he'd taken against the Witch Cult. He didn't know if they hadn't been executed or if they had just proven ineffective. Either way, whatever preexisting preparations Roswaal had set weren't up to the task, and he knew that hell would come to pass without fail.

Now that Subaru knew that future, he had to secure the power to protect the lives at the mansion and the village without relying on Roswaal.

"I'm pretty sure the Witch Cult is gonna come in a quick, decisive battle. Rem, what does the mansion have to fight with?"

"…This is a difficult thing to tell you, but the possibility Master Roswaal is absent from the mansion is quite high. He had planned to visit an important associate within his domain upon his return from the royal capital."

Based on Rem's prevaricating reply, the situation was the same as last time. Roswaal wasn't there. The only people at the mansion at present were Emilia, Ram, and Beatrice. Only three people, and one of them was Beatrice. He was deeply suspicious that the uncooperative girl would willingly engage the Witch Cult in battle.

That made Subaru recall the exchange between Beatrice and him the last time around, if only a brief one. He remembered that he'd asked Beatrice to kill him. He remembered Beatrice's face, turning eyes toward him like that of a child whose hopes had been betrayed—

"Right now…I've gotta set that aside."

Subaru somehow brushed off the girl's tearful gaze and faced Rem once more.

"So that leaves two people to fight. Even if you and I go back there, we'd just be two drops against a bucket."

"As the majority of the main residence's fighting strength rests with Master Roswaal's personal abilities, I cannot deny it. If Frederica was still with us, it might be a different story, but…"

Rem lowered her gaze as she ruefully invoked the name of a former coworker at the mansion. Subaru patted her shoulder in consolation as he mentally filled the gaps in his own understanding.

There was no point speaking any further of the mansion's available combat strength. Therefore, the next issue was the main one.

"Rem."

Subaru sat up straight and stared at Rem. Then, as Rem, detecting that the atmosphere had changed, lifted her face and looked at him, he said, "Please tell me what Roswaal ordered you to stay in the royal capital to do."

"—"

Subaru thought her expression was dubious, or perhaps surprised that he had gone for an unguarded opening.

However, Rem's reaction thoroughly defied Subaru's expectations.

"—Yes. As you wish, Subaru."

Rem nodded to Subaru as a small smile came over her, as if she was happy from the bottom of her heart. A single tear rolled down from the corner of her eye.