5.5

—One more hit and I'm done.

 Funnily enough, Subaru had managed to reach the same conclusion as the

onlookers watching his absurdity. But he no longer cared about what anyone

saw. Inside Subaru, there was no one but him and Julius.

 He wouldn't get up after the next blow. Even if Subaru's sword miraculously

made contact, Subaru would be unable to continue.

 Why challenge him, then? If the end result would be the same either way,

why even try?

 He couldn't see the answer. He had lost his original reason for starting the

fight, filled purely with hatred for Julius standing nonchalantly in his swollen

field of vision. And so he decided he'd put everything he had into one final

blow, aiming to break the bridge of Julius's nose.

 "—"

 His lungs ached simply from breathing. Exhaling made his mouth hurt that

much more.

 Pushing the agony away with his threadbare consciousness, Subaru collected

his remaining strength and waited for his chance—hoping Julius would let his

guard down for even a moment. He couldn't let this opportunity slip away.

 —Painpainpainpainpainpainpainpainpainpainpainpainpainpainpainpainpainpainp

 "—!"

 Julius's gaze seemed to drift for an instant. In his tattered state, Subaru took

his shot.

 He heard nothing. He left everything behind, lifting his sword up with all his

spirit.

 Julius, having taken his attention ever so slightly off Subaru, hadn't reacted

yet. Something had attracted his attention, but every cell of Subaru's brain was

devoted to thinking about that single blow.

 "—!"

 He thought he heard something—something in that world without sound,

where only he and his target existed.

 "—ru!"

 He heard a voice. Someone's voice. Someone's voice in his ears.

 His mind was being pulled away. But everything was forgotten, drowned out

by his furor.

 That moment, his eyes trained on the single thing that gave his existence any

meaning.

 "—baru!"

 The voice became clearer. It began to hold meaning.

 If he heard it clearly, there would be no going back.

 That was why Subaru brushed everything away, to escape from the

overwhelming fear that pursued him still, right on his heels. With every ounce

of his being—he shouted.

 "—Subaru!!"

 "—SHAMAAAAK!!"

 Betraying the clear-as-a-bell voice in his ears, Subaru chanted the incantation

at the top of his lungs.

 A black cloud erupted, dying the reddish-brown soil of the parade square

black, blotting out everything.

 A realm of oblivion unfolded. Within it, Subaru rushed forward, shouting in his

guttural voice. In this space where reason held no sway, his brain commanded

his arms to swing down. The dark cloud swallowed the limbs stretching in front

of him, ignoring all else to do as they were commanded, so that the tip of

"something" might reach—

 "So this is your secret weapon, then?"

 Clear as day, Subaru heard the voice in a world that should be soundless.

 The black cloud brightened—And from within the source of light, a wooden

sword cut through the air, mercilessly slamming Subaru's body down to the

ground.

 The voice flitting his way from above sounded surprised rather than hurt.

 "I did not expect that you would use Dark-type magic. I admit you caught me

by surprise."

 Subaru, lying on the ground with his limbs splayed, gazed up at the sky in a

daze as he faced reality head on.

 "However, your training is deficient. Such low-level magic can only work on

someone of lower ability than you, or perhaps an unintelligent beast. Such a

plan would not work against a single Knight of the Royal Guard." The voice

seemed to carry pity. Pity that crushed Subaru's heart and told him to give up

on everything.

 He had thought he could change his situation. He thought that even he could

accomplish something.

 "You are irredeemably powerless. You have no place by her side."

 Those words, at least, he wished to refute—words that denied that his life

held any meaning. Subaru moved his neck to glare at the man, trying to get him

to at least take that part back…

 " "

 …but instead, he caught a glimpse of the silver-haired girl with violet eyes.

 She was leaning over a terrace on a floor midway up the royal palace wall that

overlooked the parade square. Behind her were girls he recognized, each one

coldly surveying the results.

 The thoughts behind her blanched face no longer mattered.

 Subaru no longer cared what anyone at all thought of him.

 Or rather, that would have been true if the person standing there hadn't been

the absolutely last person in the entire world he wanted to see him in this state.

 " "

 Inside him, Subaru heard a sound like a thread snapping.

 That was the last thing he knew before his consciousness began fading far, far

away.

Illustration 9

 With his mind, distinct until that point, cut loose, the world quickly lost its

color. This time, Subaru's mind truly left anything and everything behind as it

plunged to the bottom of the abyss.

 "—Subaru."

 He thought he heard a murmur he should have been unable to. Then, it

vanished along with the rest.