8.2.4

In the immediate aftermath, the Witch Cult hunting proceeded without a hitch.

Naturally, when the expeditionary force redeployed, their first stop was where the fingers had already been located.

Watched by lookouts from the expeditionary force, the fingers they'd encountered just before taking down Petelgeuse were in a field camp within a grove of trees, a frontline base with excellent sight lines in every direction.

But—

"Heya. It's me. Everyone in a good mood?"

"—"

In lackadaisical fashion, Subaru exposed himself, drawing attention from all the Witch Cultists present. They did not regard him with enmity, but rather with indecipherable solidarity that only ran one way.

If Subaru had known nothing of their wicked deeds and acknowledged them as mere enemy combatants, he might have felt pangs of guilt. But Subaru knew the results of the Witch Cultists' vile endeavors, and that their wickedness rendered them unworthy of sympathy.

"Sorry to trick you, but…no, that's a lie. I'm not sorry at all."

Pricked by their upturned eyes, Subaru tossed such words to the Witch Cultists standing in place. They mulled the declaration over, but it was already too late for them to realize that Subaru was hostile.

—A number of silver flashes crossed the battlefield, and the Witch Cultists, reacting too late, tumbled one after another.

"This was more effective than I…"

"Gah-ha-ha-ha! What the heck?! That's the Witch Cult, and look at 'em! Hey, bro, this might turn into one helluva big achievement for ya!"

The conquest of the camp was finished in a matter of seconds. Julius's eyes went wide at the Witch Cultists, cut down with little resistance, while Ricardo, carrying his great hatchet, grinned in high spirits.

By rights, a camp built in a grove like that was to be abandoned at the first sign of an attack. The terrain, open on all sides, made it easy to scatter and escape; worst case, some might slip through and reach other camps, alerting them to the enemy's presence. Such measures had ended before they had a chance to begin.

It was all the result of being taken in by Subaru Natsuki, Cult Killer.

"Having said that, even I didn't think it'd work this well."

The overwhelming results scared Subaru himself more than anyone.

It was a perfect victory: the expeditionary force had suffered no casualties, and none of the enemies had been allowed to escape. If anyone there had doubted Subaru was the driving force behind their success, they doubted no longer.

However, sowing confusion immediately after contact with the enemy was the limit of what Subaru could do. If he had to put what that meant into words—

"—Ah, darn it! This one's done for! And this one! What's with these people?!"

It was Ferris, his tail standing on end, letting up an angry shout as he bound the Witch Cultists. Several black-robed figures rested tumbled at his feet, never to move again.

"They took their own lives?"

Slipping past the indignant Ferris, Wilhelm stripped the hood from one of the fallen figures in black, revealing the face of an ordinary-looking and very dead middle-aged man. Blood had flowed from his eyes, nose, and ears as he expired; if anything stood out, it was his neutral, expressionless look in death.

"The tongue is intact. No sign of using a blade on himself."

"They probably all have magic crystals embedded in their bodies, the sort that kill you by sending poison through your system when activated. Antitoxins won't work if the magical elements aren't deciphered prior to death, so they took the time to plant different rituals for each one…the sophistication disgusts me!"

Ferris, mortified, vented as he checked the abdomen of the man-turned-corpse and found a faintly colored magic crystal. Seven Witch Cultists had killed themselves, but Subaru had no doubt that all ten of the cultists at the camp had such crystals embedded in them.

"Maybe it's not just them, and these things are stuck in all of the other fingers, too…? So they killed themselves with poison even Ferris can't stop."

"Unforgivable. This is…blasphemy against life. What do they think life is…?!"

As Subaru's voice trembled with shock, Ferris used the back of his hand to roughly wipe away the tears brought on by fierce emotion, transferring blood to his pale cheek in the process. However, viewed from the side, his righteous anger at those who would toy with life itself was covered with both ghastliness and exquisite beauty.

It was no doubt because, as a healer, Ferris knew the uncertainties and miracles of life and death more than anyone; he stared at his battlefield, one separate from sword and spell, with a different kind of resolve.

"—"

Standing astride that righteous fury, Subaru couldn't take his eyes off the Witch Cultist corpses lined up in a row. Anyone could see that Subaru lacked the composure to look at them and say, Here are the fruits of my labors, victory without losing a single drop of blood.

With the hooded robes stripped from the lined-up Witch Cultist corpses, their faces, hidden in life, were exposed. But the faces that emerged were all those of ordinary men and women. It was hard to believe they'd idolized the Witch Cultist way of life.

"Sir Subaru, it may be best not to pay them so much heed."

Wilhelm stood in the way of Subaru's gaze, shaking his head.

"You are not accustomed to this, and there is no need to force yourself to be. If you feel responsibility or guilt, these too are unnecessary."

"You mean because of the kind of enemy we're facing?"

"That is correct."

The firm, unhesitant reply to Subaru was Wilhelm's idea of consideration. Subaru tried to give a pained smile at the harsh show of concern, but he failed. He could only sigh at himself.

"It's not that I sympathize with them, or that I'm beating myself up with guilt. Even I get why I can't be doing either of those things."

Subaru had no right to lament the Witch Cultists' deaths. He wouldn't even if he did, but it was he who had asked the expeditionary force to annihilate them. Even Subaru wasn't that stupid.

But looking at their corpses, Subaru was uncomfortable with the thought that he'd become accustomed to death.

"Not that I'll ever be used to my own death…"

Subaru had already experienced over ten deaths, but he wasn't used to death at all. The sense of loss from his death was always raw, and his fear of it would likely never diminish.

In spite of this, Subaru's heart was becoming numb to the deaths of others, and this fact frightened him.

"Seeing their corpses lined up like that makes 'em look like dolls to me… That scared me."

"Certainly, they might resemble dolls, doing whatever they are told."

However, Subaru had not accurately conveyed his sentiment to Wilhelm. This time, Subaru managed a strained smile at the Sword Devil's agreeing with that part.

As was exceedingly natural, their view of life's worth differed. Subaru, seized by modern Japanese notions of life and death, accepted death differently from Wilhelm, a man who'd seen countless lives ended on the field of battle.

Accordingly, the chasm between their perspectives could not be filled. But Subaru didn't think it needed to be.

"These Witch Cultists…"

When Wilhelm knit his brows at Subaru's strained smile, Subaru continued without switching topics. Aside from matters of death, gazing at their corpses brought a different issue to mind.

"I wonder why they wanted to do all this stuff. The Witch is this weird being hated the world over, so why do they adore her so much…?"

"—"

His murmur deepened the creases of Wilhelm's brow. Stern looks came over the faces of people around them who'd managed to overhear their conversation. But it was a young boy who broke the silence.

"—Perhaps they yearn for destruction?"

It was TB who spoke, his own cane in hand. He did not raise his kitty face, giving his monocle a slight nudge as he said, "The Witch Cult is infamous the world over, but as you can see, there is no shortage of new converts… Though, I believe such thoughts to be a luxury."

"Luxury?"

"I believe it is a choice to make time for such thoughts when we could be taking action to destroy them. It is not as if they deserve such thoughts."

Keeping his head bowed till the last, TB fell into silence. The sight of his adorable kitten face rejected further pursuit of the matter. Perhaps he was reminiscing about painful memories from his past.

"Hmm? What? Mister, something happen?"

Though, the fact that Mimi, who ought to have shared his circumstances, did not react to her younger brother's words meant that even she couldn't guess what he meant.

But TB had a point.

"Despair at everything and yearning for destruction…huh. I can't say there's no part of me that understands, but…"

Surely anyone pressed by despairing circumstances would have a yearning for destruction, a desire to lash out and wreck anything and everything around them. That inclination was especially strong in Subaru, so he could understand that part.

"—You don't need to understand people like them one tiny bit. Don't make me say it over and over."

Listening to Subaru's comment, Ferris turned stern eyes toward him. Having finished examining the Witch Cultist corpses, he glared at Subaru with a look full of exhaustion and anger.

"You can't give Witch Cultists the benefit of even a single hair of your fur, or else you'll be sucked into the darkness, too… You're particularly vulnerable, Subawu, so be careful."

"I get it already, you don't need to keep pounding it into me. So enough with the suspicious gazes, please… It just bothered me a little."

Responding to Ferris's sharp glare, Subaru raised both hands, excusing himself as he looked at the corpses once more.

Now that the Witch Cultists' faces were exposed, they seemed to truly be male and female, young and old alike. He couldn't even guess at what had spurred them to join the Witch Cult. Considering the creepiness of that fact, dismissing them as incomprehensible monsters might be the wisest choice.

It was just that Subaru, the trigger for their deaths, felt that dismissing them as incomprehensible monsters was…running from it, somehow.

"Subawu?"

"Nothin'. Did any of the Witch Cultists have useful info on them?"

"Nothing whatsoever. They were walking around with nothing but weapons on them, not even a Gospel, like they never intended to return home alive from the start. So stupid."

They'd reaped neither info nor a sense of success. From the smoldering anger and hostility in Ferris's comment, it'd really gotten under his skin. So Subaru would let him handle raging toward them for the time being.

"Well, I'd better stay calm. Time to get moving and hit a different camp, I guess."

Subaru did a few squats on the spot, switching mental gears to carrying out decoy duty on a larger scale. Unlike dealing with Petelgeuse and the finger at set camps, luring out the Witch Cultists lurking in the forest would be Witch Cult hunting's main event.

Subaru began forging ahead into the forest, searching for a new fishing spot.

"You just watch, you miscalculating bastard. Don't underestimate the power of my posse…!"

"Real roundabout way of talkin'. I can't tell if yer worked up for this or not…"

Hearing the declaration, a fervent appeal to the power of others, left Ricardo beside himself as he grinned.

But despite Subaru's fainthearted statement, their advance continued apace.