1.2.3

After having enacted his revenge back in the alley, Subaru headed toward the deepest part of the slums, and when he arrived at the entrance to the loot cellar, the sun had already moved far across the sky.

"F-finally…finally I've found it. …It sure took me a long time, damn," said Subaru, wiping the sweat from his brow, and slumping down to rest.

He had spent nearly two hours running around before he finally had reached his destination.

"I was just here, so I thought I would be able to find it again without getting lost, but…"

Probably the biggest problem was that Subaru couldn't read any of the signs. Additionally, it wasn't as if he could mention the name "loot cellar" outside of the slums, so he had to rely completely on his memory.

"Last time we came here I was talking with Satella, and my eyes were on her most of the time, so I guess it's no surprise I don't remember the way very well, damn it," said Subaru as he continued to drip with sweat.

However, the greatest sin Subaru had to face was now right in front of him. While he was doing his best to ignore it by talking to himself, his heart wouldn't be fooled. It started to beat louder and louder as his pulse quickened, and Subaru felt his hands grow heavy. His mouth felt dry and his ears were ringing again and again inside his head as though someone was hitting him.

The answers that Subaru sought were inside that loot cellar.

For an instant, Subaru had a flashback as he closed his eyes: the old man's corpse, his own sliced-open abdomen, and the figure of Satella, whom he had dragged into all of this.

"Don't be scared. Don't be scared. Don't be scared. Are you an idiot? …Well, of course I am, but do you think I'm really going to come all this way and then go back empty-handed?"

Of course, it wasn't as though Subaru had any place to return to. Right now, this was the only place that he could cling to.

Finding his determination and facing forward, Subaru realized that his knees were shaking as he tried to walk. He slapped his legs to calm himself down and after a deep breath he finally moved forward.

In the orange light of the early evening, the rough door to the loot cellar looked as though it was wordlessly rejecting him.

"Is there anyone home?"

After pushing away these negative feelings, Subaru knocked on the door and raised his voice.

The dull sound rang out, but there was no answer. With uncomfortable silence as his only answer, Subaru became frightened by that very silence and knocked harder on the door.

"Someone… I know there's someone in there! Come on, answer me! …Please."

Clinging to a fleeting sense of hope, hoping and praying that what was happening right before him was somehow a mistake, he beat harder. Unable to take the force of Subaru's sudden desperation, the door began to creak and its hinges started to bend, and then…

"Cut it out already! What are you doing, trying to break the door down just because you don't know the password?!"

The door was suddenly opened with a great force, and Subaru, who had been leaning up against it, was thrown back.

Subaru was thrown about five meters from the entrance to the cellar, where he rolled a few times and then looked up, completely startled. At the end of Subaru's gaze was a giant, red-faced, bald old man.

The man had ragged clothes that covered his muscular body, and the red light of the setting sun shone on his polished bald head. In other words, it was a giant, very energetic-looking old geezer.

"Who are you, boy?! I've not seen you around here before! How did you know where to find this place? How did you get here? Who told you?!"

With astonishing speed, the old man closed the distance between him and Subaru and lifted Subaru up by the collar.

Feeling his feet leave the ground, Subaru very quickly learned his place. Subaru had thought that in most circumstances he could win in a fight, but these were not ordinary circumstances. As he was held up by this six-or seven-foot-tall old man, Subaru lost all desire to resist.

"My name is Natsuki Subaru, the ever-busy and never-free wandering vagrant... For now at least, would you be so kind as to put me down? Let's talk with both our feet on the ground," Subaru added, giving it his all just to squeeze out that indirect request.