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vexation to be had.
If she just felt like it, if she just felt like collaborating with Subaru, then potentially—

Echidna: “I doubt there's any great reason behind why your loved was chosen as the vessel. Her
body's also a half-elf, so maybe there might've been some ease of adaptation there, but I'd say the
biggest reason would be nothing other than ENVY.”

Subaru: “Envy...?”

Echidna: “When you're a witch trying to monopolize your affection, how is it strange to hate
someone who's so enthusiastically getting your attention, and want to destroy them?”

Loving someone insanely meant desiring to be loved by them in equal turn. If that someone directed
their love at another, then the hazard known as LOVE could prompt acts of insanity done to redirect
the someone's focus onto oneself.
So that was why the Witch of Envy keeps materializing, then?

Echidna: “Everything you're puzzling over is likely something only the WITCH OF ENVY would
know.”

Subaru says nothing.

Echidna: “You can mull over it endlessly, but in honest opinion, it's unlikely you'll reach an answer.
Not about that spectacle which cornered you in, and most importantly not about those MAYBE-
THERE-MAYBE-NOT PRESENTS, will you get a true conclusion.”

Subaru: “Th, at is...”

There's really nothing to call it except Subaru's cruel reality.

He wanted to be clearly refuted. “These post-death worlds you saw don't exist.”
If that was no good then he wanted a definite affirmation. “Your conceit has sacrificed many.”

Whichever answer it was, Subaru would have surely kept the response as a precept, as a lynchpin,
as something not to forget—then grit his teeth, spill tears of blood, and even with his soul wailing
its misery, step onward.
—Getting an answer saying that no answer existed was remarkably cruel.

Still without any affirmations or denials, with matters of the world still inconclusive, live!
Without knowing whether he had trampled over what he had trampled over. Without being able to
acknowledge that he has abandoned what he has abandoned. Was being unable to acknowledge his
sins as sins his punishment?
Had Natsuki Subaru committed a sin so accordingly great, that no one could forgive it?

Nobody was capable of casting judgement on Subaru. Couldn't denounce him either. He understood
that.
—But would nobody let even Subaru himself do it?

Echidna: “I think it's harsh. But, I also think all there's possibly to do is rationalize.”

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Overwhelmed and without words is Subaru, when Echidna addresses him.

He lifts his head sluggishly, looking at Echidna with his eyes empty.
Echidna swallows her breath, and with a serious expression,

Echidna: “Speaking in extremes, the second TRIAL is to accept WHAT THERE ONLY IS NOW, and
rationalizing that the PRESENTS other than the PRESENT are entirely unreachable alternate worlds.”

Subaru says nothing.

Echidna: “For you, who has reason more than other challengers to recognize that perhaps these
alternate worlds may truly exist, I'm sure it's difficult. But still, it's time to switch.”

Subaru: “Switch?”

Echidna: “Your choices indeed may have left numerous sacrifices in their wake. I'm sure that
among those you've left behind, there are many which are beyond reclamation. But spending your
life entirely counting those you've left behind, those who are gone, is miserable. It's empty. It's
painful, wouldn't you think?”

Subaru: “If we're just going to be talking off emotion logic, how about we don't. ...It's really
something saying this but do you actually think run-of-the-mill counselling's enough to do
something about this experience?”

Echidna's words are pleasant, comforting ones.

Were they in response to a shallower wound, a less serious crime, to a lower-scale event, perhaps
they may have had some effects.
Potentially he would have felt saved, and been capable of that SWITCH.
But,

Subaru: “That doesn't change that the payback for what I've done is unworkable. It doesn't change
that I thought everything I left behind disappeared, didn't exist, and from that I've been piling
sacrifices is possible.”

Echidna: “...You're correct.”

Subaru: “What do I have to do so I can approve of myself in this situation? Is there something I can
do so that I can forgive me? I pushed aside the deliverance you offered me. I don't want to be saved
by a counterfeit Rem. I'm bringing the real Rem back, eventually. —But.”

Taking a breath, Subaru's face twists into a mess.

Subaru: “—Is the Rem I eventually bring back, truly going to be the same Rem I want to save?”

Echidna: “—”

Subaru: “So long as that question goes unanswered, this mental deadlock's not changing. ...Are you
seriously telling me I can do something about that, ordering me to rationalize it?”

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Echidna: “—”

Subaru: “Rather than counting who I haven't saved, live while counting those I have... that, is
seriously what you're telling me?”

What followed in the statements Echidna wished to tell Subaru was a kind of hope.
Those words would even for Subaru, perhaps bestow hope.
—However, the darkness into which Subaru had declined was not shallow enough for him to
consider them as hope.

Subaru: “With this run-of-the-mill emotional logic, you're seriously... telling me to, fight...”

Echidna: “—I am.”

Subaru: “—”

Echidna: “I, am, telling you, that.”

Dispelling the words of comfort, Subaru cries out from the depths of despair.
Echidna speaks—slowly, piece by piece, looking Subaru straight in the eye.

Echidna: “Rather than counting the many you may not have saved, you should count the many you
have saved. The path you've travelled in getting here, I have been watching.”

Subaru: “You, what're... what could you, about me...”

Echidna: “I have been watching you live doing your utmost, your very best, and arriving to this
moment. And so I can say it. Indeed I can.”

Subaru: “—”

Echidna: “On the path you have walked thus far, not a single thing you have done has been
worthless. Nobody has the right to call your utmost INSUFFICIENT. You've gone throwing out
everything you can do, and ventured here to this point. —That is something to be proud of.”

Echidna's sincere words strike Subaru's empty heart. Something inside his hollow chest resounds.
—But, it isn't enough. Those words would not spur him to stand.
She could say it was something to be proud of, but in reality Subaru had miscarried on many things.
Things he should have been able to do something about. If it were someone other than Subaru
working with the same conditions, they would've done it fine. But since the person in those places
had been Subaru, many had gone without rescue.
That was Subaru's crime. Subaru's wrongdoing. The sin for Subaru to accept, and indemnify.

Subaru: “There is no one who can forgive me.”

Echidna: “I will forgive you. Who knows of this, I will.”

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Subaru: “There is no one who can judge me.”

Echidna: “I will judge you. Me, who knows your sin, I will.”

Subaru: “—There is no one who can validate me.”

Echidna: “If you cannot validate yourself, then allow me to invalidate the you you cannot forgive.”

Subaru: “—”

Echidna: “If you will validate your sin, I will invalidate your sin.”

Every one of Subaru's words, Echidna persistently attempts to dispel.

Why was the witch so insistently denying Subaru's sin?
Why was the witch so repeatedly trying to cast this darkness from Subaru's heart?

Subaru: “Why, are you... trying so hard to do something for me?”

Echidna: “...Making a girl say this kind of thing is just slightly overly mean.”

Echidna, who had not faltered even once until now, for the first time gets vague with her statements.
With her face still tinted slightly red, Echidna coughs.

Echidna: “—Will you form a contract with me, Natsuki Subaru?”

Quiet, but suggestive of strong volition.

Subaru blinks, letting the words sink into his brain, taking all the time necessary to comprehend.

Subaru: “Con, tract...?”

Echidna: “Yes, a contract. A formal contract with the WITCH OF GREED. —Are you interested in
tying one?”

Subaru: “We form this... say we formed this, what happens?”

Echidna: “It's simple. —From now on, whenever you run into an obstacle you can't surmount, I will
ponder on the barricade together with you. Whenever you wish to hear someone's words, I will
endeavour to give you the words you desire. Whenever your sins are close to crushing you, I will
eliminate those crushing sins together with you.”

Spoken all at once, a bashful smile rises on Echidna's face.

Echidna: “Do you want to form this contract?”

Subaru: “...You're dead, and so, aren't you incapable of interfering with reality?”

Echidna: “I've probably transcended the capabilities of the dead. Call it belated and yes it's belated,
but I don't think such a wrong. ...If you'll forgive it, that is.”

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Hand to her chest with her head hung, Echidna's words vibrate Subaru's eardrums. The vibration
follows to his body, a heat steadily warming his blood as it transmits through his whole.
To his numbed fingers, sensation returns.
His arid tongue regains some moisture and mobility, his unblinking eyes filling with something hot
to cast out the dryness.

This offered hand, proposition, proposal, assistance, has him lost on how to answer.

Echidna: “Not meaning to brag, but I'm confident about my information load. I can prepare counter-
approaches for most all problems you'll encounter, and no matter how absurd a situation threatens to
befall you, unlike your peers there is absolutely no necessity to toil in persuading me. And most of
all, I can comprehend your RETURN BY DEATH.”

Subaru: “Are you hitting me with a surprise fast-lipped sales pitch?”

Echidna: “As the one seeking it, I do kinda think it natural to note out the benefits of tying a
contract with me. If this has helped bring some ease into your heart at all, then perhaps you could
call that another benefit.”

Taking advantage of Subaru's words, Echidna turns even them into part of her pitch. Seeing her
acting in a way she never has before, Subaru's cheeks unwittingly loosen into a smile.
Feeling the air in his lungs peacefully exit, Subaru sighs.

With the meadow wind bathing the back of his neck, Subaru leans against the chairback as he looks
up at the sky.
In the artificial sky, he sees the white clouds floating.

Whenever he's stuck, whenever he's lost for answers, whenever he encounters hardship.
—If under this azure sky, he could once again trade words, seeking a solution...

Subaru: “Maybe, it wouldn't be so bad...”

Echidna: “—Which would mean?”

The chair squeaking as she stands up, her hands unwittingly balled into fists, Echidna looks down at
Subaru. With Subaru gazing at her while still leaned against his chairback, Echidna's face changes
colour in embarrassment at what she just did.

Echidna: “Ah, um... right, if you mean you're desperate for it, then I guess that contract's something
we could...”

Subaru: “Way too late for patching this up. Or actually, I'm not the one looking for this, it's you...
no, in this situation, saying that is incredibly crude.”

Echidna is the one proposing it, but the entire thing is to save Subaru's heart.
Said plainly, it's a witch's kindness. That the whole affair won't take shape as Subaru simply
clinging to that kindness is definitely because the witch is acting with consideration for Subaru.

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No matter what he does, no matter who it is, is he always going to wind up getting saved?

With the rocking of the chair-back pitching him forward as he uprights himself, Subaru stands up.
Echidna stands within range to touch, looking up at the now-elevated Subaru, her expression
uneasy.
This witch's minutest actions are cunning, he thinks.
Being that he is she is delivering him, he is unmistakably in no position to say anything.

Subaru: “How do you tie a contract?”

Echidna: “—For tying a formal contract, you and I will be connected with a pass. I'll deal with
attaching in the detailed itinerary... but for now, your palm.”

Echidna raises her right hand, facing her pale palm to Subaru.
Like this, place your palm to mine, is probably what it means.

Seeing the witch standing opposite Subaru and her grin, unable to hide her happiness, Subaru feels a
sort of dumbfoundment as he sighs.

Subaru: “Now, let's hope things're gonna start changing...”

Filled with more than a few expectations for the future, to Echidna's hand does Subaru place his—

BAM.

A shattering noise rips through the air as the white, cup-bearing table beside Subaru explodes.
The impact which broke the table transmits on to the ground, the earth collapsing as it births a
crater, the quakes and rumbling jolting Subaru violently as he squawks in surprise.

???: “—I'm putting a stop to this contract.”

Fist to the ground as she magnificently speaks is the blonde, blue-eyed girl.
—The WITCH OF WRATH glares at the two, in rage.

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CHAPTER 75: THEY

Unwittingly stumbling back at the shock, Subaru's eyes open wide as he sees the blonde girl glaring at him.
Her azure eyes brimming with incredible fury, a witch with crimson colouring her beautiful face—it's
Minerva.

Bringing her sharp gaze off the paralysed Subaru, Minerva redirects to look at Echidna, standing opposite
Subaru and entirely composed.

Minerva: “Repeating myself, but I'm putting a stop to this. I'm not acknowledging this contract.”

Echidna: “...Hrm. This'd best be called a development outside what I anticipated.”

Too intimate for enmity, too bloodthirsty for anger. That emotional gaze concentrates wholeheartedly onto
Echidna as Minerva crosses her arms inside the crater she made, hoisting up her abundant chest, biting her
lip.

Echidna: “A witch's contract—you should be capable of understanding what significance these hold. That
you've regardless interrupted us means... not possibly, you also want to tie a contract with him? Then here I
suppose we'd be having a case of jealousy.”

Minerva: “Can't you at least tell that my anger is not for such a peaceful reason? I'm furious. I'm incensed.
I'm vehement with boiling rage.”

The redness to Minerva's face intensifies as she replies to Echidna. Her peaking emotions turn into a teardrop
at the corner of her eye, giving an innocent, childlike kind of obstinacy to her features.
Her young face is terribly mismatched to her voluptuous body—and her very presence is something Subaru
inevitably must accept, although with a great jumble of surprise.

Subaru: “Why're you here?”

Minerva: “What. Are you saying I'm not allowed to be?”

Subaru: “Well no. I'm not, but... I mean, Echidna's right there.”

Says Subaru as he points at Echidna, Minerva puffing out her cheeks in displeasure. She tilts her head as if
not understanding the problem here at all, but Echidna seems to catch on, giving a light clap of her hands as
she nods.

Echidna: “Ah, I see what you're having a problem with. —You must be mystified as to how another witch
has manifested, even though I'm present and standing right here.”

Subaru: “Th-that's it. I mean, every time I've met a witch up to now it's been one-on-one... like it was
guaranteed they were appearing swapping out in your place. Didn't you...”

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Minerva: “She never said we can't be out together, I bet. That kind of mean pointless trick is just how this
nasty witch does things.”

Minerva angrily squares her shoulders as she easily destroys Subaru's objections. Subaru mutters a 'no way'
to himself as he looks at Echidna. But Echidna gives no particular signs of refuting it.

Echidna: “I'd like you to not misunderstand, though. That I didn't call any other witches here is because it's a
big responsibility and a big risk for me. Depending on the circumstances, it's possible another witch will
steal predominance over this place, and even if they don't it takes some considerable effort to recreate
powerful beings such as them.”

Subaru: “And so then... but, no, you...”

Echidna: “I have never told a single lie. That alone, I will assert.” 8

Echidna's sharp statement slices through Subaru's stuttering words.

She's right. Looking back through his memories, Echidna has never made any statement about this present
phenomenon which could be deemable as a lie.
Subaru had just assumed that had been it. So speaking in extremes, Echidna technically had not deceived
Subaru at all, but.

Echidna: “I didn't really want you to know that the other witches could manifest all over the place, and have
them take you from me.”

Subaru: “Wh, aeh?”

Echidna: “You are truly the first guest in a long time for me. I haven't had conversations that thrilled me as
much as ours so commonly whether before or after my death. Are you going to curse me, say that my desire
to hog you is miserable?”

Subaru: “—”

Echidna: “I know I'm repeating this again and again, but I think of you fondly. And so I wanted to avoid it
that, by the others having more allure, or by being a more cooperative witch, your interest would shift away
from me and toward them. —I don't mind if you laugh.”

It's a horrific, hideous desire to monopolize—is how Echidna is explaining the details behind her secrecy.
Listening to Echinda's somewhat-excuse, with her fixation aimed right at him, he wonders: what about me
that warrants this fixation?
The WITCH OF ENVY is the same case. Why was Echidna, too, with Subaru so—

8 With this line in mind, if Echidna has ever told anything construable as an outright lie in these summaries, assume
it's because I bungled the nuance of what she was saying or otherwise didn't catch a double meaning. The same
applies to Lewes and Garfiel.

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Minerva: “You are just getting wheedled in so easily.”

Subaru: “—Dhah!?”

A soft fist bumps the back of Subaru's head just as he goes to consider it.
He puts his hand to his head and turns around, to find Minerva behind him. She takes the hand he's pressing
down on his head with, and with a flowing motion twists his arm to wrest him down to the ground.

Subaru: “A, auh! Wai, this hurts this hurts this hurts... or not?”

Minerva: “When I directly touch something living, no matter what action I take it turns into something
restorative. I could punch with all my strength and it'll close wounds, I could wrestle someone while trying to
wrench their limbs off and it'll cure their chronic diseases, and if I keep someone held in a lock their shoulder
aches will disappear!”

Subaru: “A-and so that's why the aching over my body's... not.”

While his body savours the incredible merit of the Witch of Wrath, Subaru frantically twists his neck to look
at Minerva as she locks him in a hold.
Regardless of the fact that she's twisted him around in a way which should invite pain and jarring to his
bones, he feels no ache but in fact a pleasant warmth spreading through his body, and consequently an
incredible awriness. A mysterious authority which turns all acts preformed on a human body into something
positive, and the witch exercising it. Certainly Subaru's had no negative impression of Minerva up to now,
but...

Subaru: “What the hell're you trying to do here...”

Minerva: “I don't do this, and it looks like you're gonna get happily cajoled into contracting with Echidna.
Your quick decisions and airhead attitude're really making me mad!”

Echidna: “Cajole, makes it sound bad. I'm sure I did explain the benefits of what a contract with me would
be, and devise to put us on even grounds of mutual understanding...”

Minerva: “It's that attitude where you act like you totally followed through with your responsibility to
explain here that's getting me. You did explain all about the benefits. You did... but, when it comes to the
inconvenient stuff the contract'd cause, you didn't say a thing!”

Leaving herself to her rage, Minerva swings her leg down. Where her heel lands is Subaru's behind, and he
gets to experience the incomprehensible phenomenon of feeling a heel driving into his rear, as the force
transmitted through his bottom bores an indentation into the ground.
Feeling some sense that the strike to his ass has improved his bowel functioning, Subaru realises the
significance of what Minerva is saying, and is stunned.

—His conversation with Echidna had not touched on the detriments of the contract at all. And now he

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understands the carelessness of his own self who had not even noticed the fact.

Subaru: “No, but... saying detriments... something, that kind of serious...”

Minerva: “Wouldn't come up, is what you think? You're sure taking contracts lightly. Even though the
contractor is a witch—and the one who of the seven sin witches tied the most contracts, had contact with the
most people, who meddled the most in history, the WITCH OF GREED.”

Echidna: “All those laurels are laurels of my life... though it's true that not every one of them was what you'd
call honourable. It's true that forming a contract with me did not necessarily save absolutely all of them.”

Minerva comes through with that fact Subaru was ignorant to. Echidna follows on from her, entirely
stressing her absence of ill intentions toward Subaru.
Stuck between these two as they assert their stances, the turmoil in Subaru's head peaks.

He didn't know which one to trust.

Ever since Subaru got involved with the Trial in this tomb, his multiple meetings and times spent
deliberating over his worries together with Echidna have led him to consider her a kind of comrade in arms.
And so when Echidna proposed to tie an organized collaboration in the form of this contract, Subaru had
even felt a sense of security.

On the other hand, his time spent interacting and speaking with Minerva, compared to Echidna, is sparse. But
whenever Subaru was in danger she would swoop in with her mighty arms to heal him, and without even
demanding a 'thank you' zoom past like a typhoon, a merciful character.
Minerva had no reason to be deceiving Subaru, and if the matter was actually great enough that she would
purposefully manifest to interject, there is probably more time to be spent mulling the whole thing over.

Or no, actually, rather than deliberating like this, what he should do was ask this question:

Subaru: “Echidna. If we form the contract, you'll need compensation.”

Echidna: “...Yup, you're right. Contracts do need those. Like how I am offering my knowledge in response to
your demand, you need to present compensation in response to my demand.”

Subaru: “Course. Yeah. —So, what're you demanding from me? If I contract you, what is it I need to offer
you?”

For getting Echidna's help when stuck in a hopeless situation, what was it he needed to pay?
Echidna's cheeks loosen into a smile.

Echidna: “It's nothing worth being wary over. What I'm demanding from you isn't anything so complex.
Actually, for how I'm not trying to take anything precious physical or non-physical as compensation, you
could even call this evenhanded.”

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Subaru: “—Say, your, demand.”

Echidna: “It's very simple. —What you feel, what you create, what you know, what you do, what you think,
what you retrospect, what fruits called UNKNOWNS your presence incurs, I want to savour always.”

Says Echidna, her cheeks red and expression that of a young maiden with a crush.
Fruits called UNKNOWNS—Subaru furrows his brows at the poetic phrasing.

Subaru: “Hell's that. You mean, pull out my emotions and memories and recollections, and hand them over?
If so then...”

Echidna: “Didn't I say? It's nothing so risky. I just want to witness the sights you see, the melodies you hear,
the story you weave, all from a special box seat. All I want is to perceive this. I want to be in a position to
know the UNKNOWNS you create. By that and just merely that alone, I can be fulfilled.”

To dispel Subaru's concerns, Echidna plainly defines her demand.

She just wants to watch Subaru walk his path. See the same thing he sees. To know what he feels, what he
knows, the results of his actions.
Thirst for knowledge incarnate, the Witch titled GREED, wanted merely that.

Subaru: “You're, not lying right?”

Echidna: “Lying about contracts'd be absurd. While also for the sake of being myself, I pledge that I will
never do anything to betray those words. I'd stake my life on it.”

Concludes Echidna with her hand to her chest, the joke being 'Though, I'm already dead.'
Subaru senses no lies from her words or behaviour. Or perhaps he just wanted to believe that.

Subaru: “Minerva. This's what Echidna's telling me. And so what I'm doing is...”

???: “I-it's, all... true, but th... that doesn't, mean sh-she's... she's told you, everything.”

Subaru attempts to demand Minerva release him from the hold, when somebody new on the scene addresses
him. This voice was one he had heard just a few quarter-hours ago—and spoken in a diction Subaru felt
absolutely nothing positive for.

Subaru: “Camilla... the WITCH OF LUST!”

Camilla: “Do... d-don't, look at me with... with those scary, eyes. I, I'm not... not even, doing any... thing...
you're, a-awful...”

Subaru: “The nasty eyes're inborn. I'm not making any specially harsh expression or anything.”

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Subaru held grappled to the ground, with Echidna standing opposite him. Minerva behind him means the
three form a straight line, with a pink-haired girl sitting in the meadow a short distance away—Camilla.
She timidly hides her face away from Subaru's gaze, sporadically glancing over. The attitude's annoying as
always, but by consciously averting his attention from her, Subaru manages to avoid CAPTIVATION TO THE
POINT IT'S LIFE THREATENING.

Subaru: “But anyway, what were you talking bout? I'm not gonna complain this late about witches showing
up, but if something's...”

Camilla: “E-Echidna-chan is... hiding, lots and lots... of, things. S-she isn't, lying but... she's hiding, lots... of
things...”

Subaru: “Hiding things?”

Thinking over Camilla's words, Subaru imploringly looks to Echidna. Echidna closes an eye as she looks
over at the suddenly-present Camilla.

Echidna: “Suddenly show up, and here you immediately come with the aspersions. Or more actually, how is
it that he's stirred up your attentions? You're not like Minerva, you shouldn't have any reason to back him.
You're supposed to have disliked him.”

Camilla: “A, r-rea... reason, like... Minerva-chan? No I, do... don't have any... proper, one. But, Echidna-
chan, you... you, tricked... me, didn't you?”

Camilla looks down as she responds to Echidna's accurate statements, speaking in frail and stuttering voice.
However, contrary to her diction, the actual words she is saying carry no weakness or compromise at all.
Camilla putters her fidgety gaze around, setting her glance multiple times on Echidna.

Camilla: “I-I, don't... like him, but, I... I'm not on your... side when you, tricked.... m-me Echidna-chan, ei...
either. People who, t-trick me, hate... me, d-do mean, things to me... I WILL NEVER FORGIVE.”

—That last statement alone is spoken with incredible clarity.

So much that Subaru needs some time before he can recognize that it came from the mouth of this girl beside
him. That was the extent that that single phrase diverted from Camilla's atmosphere up until now.

Camilla: “—”

Wordlessly, but assuredly without ever looking away, Camilla stares at Echidna.
In her eyes there churns a near indescribable whirlpool of emotions—something dark and grudgelike,
entirely unforgiving of any bastard who would aim at her something resembling hostility.
Apex of narcissism—are the words that skim through Subaru's brain.

Echidna: “While it may've been a necessary measure, it seems acting in a way contrary to Camilla's desires
was a mistake. Make an enemy of you, and there's no bigger nuisance out there.”

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Camilla: “E-everyone is, on my... side so, ha-having me... hate you, is, really... awful. Y-you can apol...
apologize, but, I won't.... forgive you.”

Camilla's personality is introverted and timid enough that she cannot even communicate with others
sufficiently—but that has nothing to do with the intensity of her rebellion toward hostility.

Subaru: “What've you all... what have you all been talking about!?”

And, butting in to the witches and their tense situation, Subaru finally speaks up.
Feeling the attention of the three witches focusing on him, Subaru frantically turns his neck as he,

Subaru: “This's enough of you all talking while leaving me out! I'm the one who's choosing here! Say it in a
way I can understand! Echidna, what're you hiding!? You two, what is it you know that's making you try to
stop me!?”

Minerva: “Even saying that you're in a mentally frail position, stopping all thinking and immediately going
to grasp an offered hand is totally naive... and what guided him into doing that was all of your so careful
planning!”

Echidna: “A wound to my respectability. That sounds liable to make him misunderstand things. If we tie the
contract, with my assistance I will lead him to, no matter what, reach the optimum destination that he desires.
To know of the things he sees, sounds he hears, information he learns over this process is my demand. Not a
single one of the things I am saying is fallacious.”

Minerva launches her words at the roaring Subaru with her voice shaking in rage. Echidna's composure
remains entirely in place.
Feeling the coolness laced through Echidna's voice, Subaru also begins feeling something awry. Having
transcended his up-until-now state of near delirium, he very deliberately scrutinizes over Echidna's words.
Over her attitude, and over why the two witches are stopping him.
Was there something off? She wasn't saying anything off. The other two witches had acknowledged she
wasn't lying. Then, where was the problem?

Echidna: “I will repeat it, Natsuki Subaru. Should you choose me, contract with me—I will, without fail,
lead you to the place you desire.”

???: “—'Ultimately', is the disclaimer word guaranteed to come attached to this promise—haa.”

Echidna makes her statement with her hand outstretched to Subaru, when a listless voice speaks.
He looks, to find a monster of magenta hair seated opposite Camilla—on the ground, buried in her long, long
hair, the WITCH OF SLOTH has appeared.
The multiplying in witches doesn't surprise Subaru any more. What Subaru does pick up is,

Subaru: “Ultimately?”

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Sekhmet: “I'm sure Echidna—huu—is guaranteed to fulfil the contract—haa—But, so long as she upholds
entirely the reality that—huu—she did fulfil the contract—haa—she'll likely do whatever during the process
to get there.”

Subaru: “Do, whatev...”

Linking together Sekhmet's words to the previous awriness he felt, one single hypothesis comes to Subaru's
mind. But that hypothesis is one overwhelmingly hard to accept, and as Subaru's face stiffens in shock, he
looks at Echidna and her closed eyes—and speaks.

Subaru: “Echidna, if I contract you... without fail, you will take me to the optimum future, you said.”

Echidna: “Yes, I did say that. And it's true. Without any doubt, I will carry out that contract to the end. With
my knowledge and your attribute, we will assuredly be able to achieve it.”

Right, exactly, that was entirely the way of a completable contract.

Echidna's words present no lie. Should Subaru collaborate with her, they will be capable of unfailingly
saving everything, and arriving to the future. However,

Subaru: “Will your cooperating in getting me to the optimum future—use the optimum path?”

Echidna: “—”

Subaru: “For me to reach my desired destination, will you truly, help me the best you can?”

Echidna: “—”

Subaru: “Why're you saying nothing. Answer me, Echidna—no—WITCH OF GREED!”

Raising his head, Subaru screams his throat hoarse.

While still held against the ground, and still stuck in a lock. But Subaru pays that fact no care as he
wholeheartedly, undividedly, glares at Echidna. Faced with that sharp gaze, Echidna slips a small sigh.

Echidna: “—If it is to reach the optimum future, sacrifices along the way are permissible. Would this not
have been what you resolved, Natsuki Subaru?”

Subaru: “—hk”

Echidna gives neither a directly positive nor negative response to Subaru's question.
But, Subaru senses.

That Echidna's words were assuredly not any that would dispel his doubts.
Far from it, and as if to help him understand her thoughts, she spreads her arms wide.

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Echidna:

“This attribute you have, RETURN BY DEATH, is an incredible authority. In the truest of meanings
you cannot comprehend its utility. Not permitting the ends contrary to your desires, conducting
countless redos, reaching for the future countless times—for a researcher, this is near the ultimate
ideal. I mean, wouldn't it be? The result of any event will fundamentally, once a single result has
been reached, remain put. If you are still midway through the process of reaching a result, you can
make varied hypotheses as to what the result will be. If using this approach, or otherwise if using
these conditions, varied hypotheses and varied investigations are possible. But, if you are to
experiment with the purpose of producing a result, then the results, testable hypotheses, and
investigations will inevitably subsume into a single aggregate. Recreating completely, and I mean
completely identical conditions is impossible. No matter what conditions you arrange, you cannot
recreate the exact same conditions as you previously did. If you tried different methods back then,
what result would you now procure? That question is one us researchers will never attain the answer
for, nothing more than a dream existing in the forward path of what is ideal. For me and my
MEMORIES OF THE WORLD, I indeed have means to KNOW the answer, I certainly do. Do, but I don't
consider using that method, utilizing that method, as anything good. It's that I want TO KNOW, not
TO HAVE KNOWN. The thing creates this terrible contradiction, for me you could call it abominable.
But I'm getting off topic here so returning back to the point... right, we researches have to accept
results as being entirely singular, and for us who possess only one means of observation, your
existence, your authority, is something we desperately crave. You can run DIFFERING
INVESTIGATIONS under IDENTICAL CONDITIONS, you can see SEPARATE RESULTS differing from the
FUNDAMENTAL RESULT. That is the ultimate authority—how could you not want it? With this power
right in front of you, how could you not test everything? Though of course, I have no intention to
force you to do that. It is entirely that, for you achieving your own purposes, you will utilise
RETURN BY DEATH a lot. And I will also devote my best so that we reach the future you desire.
During that process, I would like to get your extensive contribution to sating my curiosity. When
that is all I'm asking I'm sure there's no punishment to be invoked. You will get to witness answers. I
will get to sate my curiosity. Our mutual interests coincide. Since I don't know the answers either,
there of course could be no instance where I purposefully lead you down an incorrect path, and you
consequently meet a gruesome demise. I don't initially know the correct answer when faced with a
problem, and in that sense I am entirely the same as you. In the sense of us puzzling over the same
problems, struggling on, attempting to reach an answer together, I am sure you should call us
unmistakably comrades. I can state that firmly and not with the slightest of embarrassment. I think
very fondly of you, in the sense that you give me more methods for preforming investigation, and
so I pledge that I would never do anything that would be improper consideration of you. But of
course, I'm sure we will naturally encounter problems where even with my assistance, easy
surmountation of the problem will be impossible. While I may be able to assist you as a font of
knowledge, that doesn't mean I can at all interfere with reality. Should we face a physical obstacle
blocking your path, that sort of problem where force is necessary, I will not be able to help you.
Times upon times, potentially even hundreds or thousands of times, your mind and body may be
broken. But even should that hypothetically happen, I would sincerely wish to preform your mental
care. That that desire is without any intermingling from my researcher's interest to not part with
something useful is not something I can assert. But that said, it is entirely truth that I think of you
and your existence fondly, and that I want to aid you. I don't want you to think badly of me. And I
know I'm repeating myself, but I can say with pride that I am a presence useful for achieving your
goals. Yes, just as I am considering in a sense to utilize you for the purpose of sating my greed

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called curiosity, you can likewise utilize me for your goal of REACHING THE OPTIMUM FUTURE. To
be that kind of overly convenient girl you can take advantage of, for me, is entire satisfaction. If
doing so will motivate you, then I will gladly submit my being to you. Although the question of
whether you're interested in this deceased and impoverished body would have to be be another
topic. Oop, saying that might've been a foul against your loves. Your loves—the silver half-elf, and
the blue-haired oni girl. The girls you will save no matter what, who you will stringently protect,
having from your heart pledged to do so and through your actions exhibited that volition. Putting
my thoughts on the state of your heart and the way it harbours such strong emotion for two girls
aside as something I will not state here, I will assert that the height of the walls you must scale will
be beyond imagination. How many unmanagable obstacles do you have lined up before you in
present reality just that you know of? Your resolve to try and surmount these problems by yourself
is honourable, and incredibly tragic. I want to be your aid on this path, with my hopes to be that aid
not being anything fabricated in the least. You should definitely utilize these desires of mine. You
need to take everything you can possibly have, use everything that you can possibly utilize, and by
doing entirely that save the people with which you have bonds. That is the firm conviction you
yourself had pledged, which you have fully understood as being a necessary and painful path. And
so I will question you, I will repeat with you, I will have feelings for you. The path you walk by
throwing away your life is something that ironically only just got certified in the form of the second
TRIAL. With how you could almost mistake that TRIAL as having been there to make you
comprehend what it is this path you have walked, you could perhaps even think the thing necessary.
Of course the reality is it wasn't necessary, and it was the kind of experience which damaged your
mind. But if it's between a state of not knowing and a state of yes knowing, no matter how grievous
a truth it is, I'd consider the latter more valuable. Up until now, and also from now own, you will
need you present your life as compensation for RETURN BY DEATH, and in doing so wrest in the
future. That there are perhaps people who've been sacrificed for this purpose, and that these worlds
in this fashion PERHAPS MIGHT EXIST was something necessary for you to have put in mind.
Someday, you'll cease to feel any emotion when it comes to paying with your life, your human
emotions will wane, you'll cease to be rattled by the DEATHS of those precious to you, you'll
submerge into a life of impassive, indifferent inertia, and even should you reach the optimum
future, you will be reaching it as an impaired version of yourself—for the sake of avoiding this kind
of future, where the only thing that remains is a feeling of vain, it was necessary. No, there is not a
single worthless thing in the world, everything is a necessary route taken, a needed piece to the
puzzle. The TRIAL was necessary for you to comprehend that. If you require a tenable
rationalization and pretext as to why you have hit a standstill, then adopt this stance. And I will
validate that stance of yours. If my words can give you the strength you need to continue forward,
then my words will I give to you. Whether they be comforts, tough motivators, whispers of love,
provokers of loathing, if they will give you assistance then without any hesitation will I exercise
them for you. And although you might detest it, you unconditionally need the assistance of someone
like me on your path forward. If you're to proceed along a road of unavoidable pain and solitude,
you absolutely need someone to walk alongside you without ever taking their eyes from the path.
And if the person we're talking about to fill that role is me, not anyone else, but me, then I can walk
that road alongside you without any problem at all. I will repeat it, I will restate it, I will convey it
countless times until it reaches you. —You must need me. And I absolutely need you. Your presence
is essential. My curiosity simply cannot be fulfilled without you. You are the only being which can
sate me. You, you will surely grant me the quenching of my unquenchable GREED. Your presence is
already indispensable for me as I dwell in this closed world. If you should wish to be somebody's
hope, to execute your power to clear the world open, could my piteous self perhaps not partake in
your leftovers? If you could concentrate any of that great kindness unto me, then I'd hesitate not a

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second to devote to you my being, my knowledge, my soul. I'm begging you. I want you to trust
me. That I hadn't attempted to communicate you my true motives was assuredly no attempt to
deceive you, nor any attempt to hide it from you. It was just a matter of choosing the right time. If
here, at this instant I appealed with a fragment of my true intention, you surely would've left me.
That would be an unbearable loss for me. And of course for you also, in the sense of distancing
yourself from the future you seek, it undoubtedly should be regarded as a definite loss as well.
Someday, being that you have your attribute of RETURN BY DEATH, you will surely reach the future
you seek. But, it's obviously best that the compensation you pay in reaching that future be little. If
it's me, when it's me, a greater sparsity is possible in that compensation. Everything goes so long as
ultimately you reach the desired future—and such kind of inhuman thinking, ignoring the small
goals for the large ones, is what I'd prefer you not mistake this for. Being caught by a temptation,
and so desiring to view the outcome of some certain situation, I may notice something necessary for
reaching the optimum track but not mention it—is the kind of action I absolutely would not do, is
not how great a check I have on my cravings to be able to plainly assert. I will acknowledge that.
But, I will not deceive you. If hypothetically we assume that I do dip my hands into some trust-
betraying deed like that, I would under no circumstances do anything to keep it hidden from you. I
would absolutely reveal it to you. And I would devote everything I have to you to make up for that
damaged trust. No matter what happens, I will assuredly send you off to your desired optimum
future. Absolutely, unconditionally. And so having rationalized this clearly as a necessary measure,
won't you choose me? Once the contract is made, I will follow along exactly exactly as your desires
and demands there state. After that comes the conversation of just how much you can devote
yourself to your wish, your wanted wish, your desired wish. My resolve is just as I stated. Now is to
hear what is your resolve. I want you to prove to me that you, having formed a contract with me and
acquired my collaboration, have the mettle to without fail reach the future. Once you accomplish so
then for the first time, you may boast that you bested the second TRIAL. And from there proceed to
the third TRIAL, overcome it, and complete the liberation of SANCTUARY. When you consider the
calamity to befall your loves and those precious to you, this is indeed exactly a TRIAL you must
surmount. I want you to show me that you have the strength, the resolve to overcome it. And from
there you will plunder me, utilize my knowledge, and procure what lies ahead. What I desire of you,
demand of you, and can offer you in return is there at a full stop. I sincerely, honestly, willed here to
reveal you everything. And so now with everything stated what is it you will decide? —That answer
is what I'd like you to tell me. For the sake of sating a fragment of my curiosity too, of course.”

—Says Echidna, smiling sweetly.

Her snow-white hair sways and her cheeks redden slightly in fervour as she peers up at Subaru,
waiting for his answer.
Her eyelashes tremble with trepidation for his reaction, the fingers anxiously held to her chest
fidgeting about. Her lips make many attempts to say something, but she hesitates, and the action
ends merely with a wettening by her tongue.

Subaru looks up. He meets eyes with Minerva, restraining him.

Having locked gazes with Subaru, Minerva gives a small sigh as she finally releases Subaru's arm.
His shoulder escapes from the restraints, freed, as Subaru rolls his arms and stands up.
Just as Minerva said, the aching in his shoulders is gone. In fact, he even senses keenly that his
somewhat taut hips and other places have been purged of their fatigue. The authority of the WITCH
OF WRATH truly was healing to be feared.

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Subaru: “—”

Rotating all of his body about, Subaru confirms his bodily sensation as he puts his thoughts in order.
About what he had only just heard, no hiding anything at all, Echidna's truest of true intentions.

Subaru: “Echidna.”

Echidna: “Yes?”

Subaru: “You're... going to use me?”

He is going to be used. That was the term Echidna had repeated, again and again, throughout what
she just said. Hearing that, Echidna nods without hesitation.

Echidna: “I am. And you can use me too. The contract would be something of a precaution, to
ensure neither of us stray from that principle. If you're going to criticise me for attempting to use
anything I could to keep you, I will resignedly accept it.”

Subaru: “I didn't consider anything, 's actually not the case. I at least understand that, said in
extremes, this's just what you get with pro-con interest-sake relationships. That you'd help me 100%
off your goodwill... though I hoped for it, I was at least prepared to the accept the reality that you
wouldn't. But.”

Standing before Echidna, Subaru buries his face in his hands, facing upwards.

Subaru: “It just, wasn't there...”

Echidna: “It, being?”

Subaru: “Every single one of your actions up to now, looks faded to me. Everything of your friendly
interactions with me, which started me trusting that maybe you weren't a bad guy after all... all of it,
is faded.”

Everything from their first meeting to this very moment thuds to a collapse, crumbling.
Their first tea party, the scene during the Trial, interrupted by reality, when he countless times he
clung to her wisdom, her words. When he thought he could not regret forming a contract with her.
—Everything from that time heartlessly laughs its ridicule at the foolishness of Natsuki Subaru.

Subaru: “Was this your intention all along?”

Echidna: “I don't really understand what you have a problem with. If it means that ultimately you'll
reach the optimum, you'll rationalize the path you used to get there—didn't you decide this? You
yourself validated that thought, and I'm sure I pushed you along saying that was okay...”

Subaru: “And for me to rationalize like that... not that I have but, you're saying that inducing me to
go along that trend... was entirely according to your plan, then?”

Echidna: “I'd prefer you not misunderstand. That conclusion is entirely one that you had produced

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yourself. All I did was give your conclusion just a tiny, slight prodding. That you're desiring for the
responsibility behind your own words and conclusion to lie in someone else is indeed not
impressive. Not impressive, and I'm not so simple as to bear it for you.”

Protests Echidna, her expression pouting and sulky. The childishness she's expressing here, or more
rather how out-of-place it is, makes the awriness Subaru has been feeling compound further.
What to call it—a misfit in degree of emotion.

The way Echidna expresses emotion is not incorrect. She's indignant when she is doubted, she
smiles when there's something to be happy about, grief slips through in her face in response to sad
things. That is all correct, and not mistaken.
But still, this awriness, and the distrust it produces. The solution—

Subaru: “All your behaviour feels synthetic, it is superficial.”

Echidna: “—”

Subaru: “When you're joyed, even when you're angry, the way you express emotion is childish and
shallow. I mean right now, far from being enraged all you did was pout. Broad-minded, or whatever
isn't the problem here. That behaviour... all your behaviour's been weird. I just thought you were
brash and easily accepted, easy to get along with, but...”

Echidna: “—”

Subaru: “You're actually not. You—You are someone who can't understand others' emotions.”

Recollect back on all of Echidna's behaviour thus far, and everything tones in sepia.
Every attitude of hers that he had found appealing was a boon of her shallow emotional expression
—wind up perceiving it as such, and all of their interactions fade of colour.

And although showered in these unsparing words, Echidna's expression remains unchanged from
that previous pout. As if she knew no way to express any greater discomfort.

Subaru: “You're allowed to be angry here.”

Echidna: “...I see. So here I should raise my voice, and shower you with curses. Understood, that
was useful. Supposing another chance comes, let's see I do that.”

Echidna's expression vanishes.

Expressionless—something Subaru had never seen of the Echidna he knew, the first-time-seen
visage of the WITCH OF GREED.

Echidna: “Want to sit? I'd like us to iron out the details about the contract.”

Subaru: “...In this situation, do you think I'll still readily consider a contract with you?”

Echidna: “No way, you're rejecting me over a little disagreement in opinion? What on earth is the
meaning in doing that? Having your emotions temporarily overwhelm you, and so failing to take the

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correct choice can't be called wise. I recommend looking at reality, and electing for rational
thought.”9

At Echidna's words dead of emotion, Subaru closes his eyes and holds his breath.
What Echidna's saying is correct. Subaru is the one losing his temper—would be irrefutable if said.
It made logical sense. She was not lying.
All Echidna did was hide her true intentions from Subaru. All she did was keep silent on mentioning
the benefits she acquired from the course of Subaru's ventures.
Should they tie the contract, most likely, Subaru would reach the correct path. Echidna's lack of
frugality in providing this cooperation would also be unmistakable truth.

Subaru: “There's one thing I wanted you ask you when I next saw you.”

Echidna: “—Hrm, now what could it be?”

Subaru: “Once I hear this question's answer, I'll know if I can choose.”

Echidna waits to hear Subaru's question.

This was a question Subaru was bringing up as a touchstone. A question to which Subaru yet saw
not a single scrap of the answer for, which Echidna certainly had some relation to.

Subaru: “—You know about Beatrice, Echidna.”

Echidna: “...Yes, I do. Since I was deeply involved over the process of her creation. Did something
happen with her?”

Echidna replies without ill will. Her answer lacks any hidden implication, and comes loaded with
questions.
Subaru closes his eyes, envisions the young pigtailed girl.

The last Subaru had seen of her, she had been stabbed from behind, disappearing.
Her long, long time spent in isolation and the darkness it had spawned—his collision with this just
prior her disappearance had remained constant and heavy in his heart.
Pushing Subaru aside, protecting him from the blades, the expression on her face in that final instant
—that was still burned inescapably into his memory. And so,

Subaru: “Beatrice has, because of the contract, always been waiting for THEY. Are you who tied that
contract? Are you who bound her to the mansion?”

Echidna: “I don't remember specifying a location, but... the one who arranged for her to guard the
Forbidden Archive and wait until their coming was indeed me.”

Subaru: “Then, who is THEY? What can I do to free her?”

Through her 400 years of solitude, Beatrice had constantly been waiting for SOMEONE.
Not even Beatrice herself knew who that SOMEONE was. Neither did Subaru have any clue.
But if he asked for the answer from Echidna herself, who had arranged this appointment with that

9 Echidna's pronoun reverts from 'boku' to her usual 'watashi'.

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SOMEONE—

Echidna: “Now, I really wonder who?”

Subaru: “—Wh, ah?”

Echidna: “No, I'm not even joking or anything, I truly, sincerely wonder. Who do you think the
THEY Beatrice is waiting for is?”

Asks Echidna, as if she has been presented with a question she does not know the answer to.
Stunned, Subaru shakes his head.

Subaru: “Even you don't know who it is Beatrice is waiting for?”

Echidna: “Nope, I don't. I do not know who the THEY Beatrice is waiting for is.”

Subaru: “Wh, y? But, you're the one who told Beatrice to wait in the Forbidden Archive, aren't you?
If you don't know... no way.”

Echidna, who instructed Beatrice to wait in the Forbidden Archive, was someone separate from who
imposed the time limit that she wait until THEY's visit.
If so, the one who would know the solution would again be somewhere else—

Echidna: “Wrong, you're mistaken.”

Subaru: “—”

Echidna: “The one who instructed Beatrice to wait for THEY was me. There's no mistake in that.
Where you are mistaken is in a more fundamental area.”

Subaru: “Fundamental?”

Echidna: “Now just why in the world did I tie that contract with Beatrice? That is where you're
misunderstanding. I had Beatrice guard over the Forbidden Archive so that she could give its
contents over to THEY, would be what you're thinking, right?”

Subaru doesn't see what she's getting at.

It's just a natural thought. Giving instructions to hand something over to someone.

But, at Subaru and his entirely ordinary thoughts, Echidna shakes her head.

Echidna: “That wasn't my instruction to Beatrice. I tied her to contract, making her wait for THEY...
while waiting for the result of just who she would choose as THEY.”

Subaru: “—”

—.

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——.

——————.

————————————what?

Echidna: “You see, she was created for a specific purpose. But necessity came up for her to stay
alive in a fashion differing from her original objective... and for that sake she was distanced from
here, where she then needed to be given a goal. It's in the sense of giving that hollow, empty girl a
purpose for living, but yes it's necessary. And so I tied a contract with her.”

Subaru: “—Th, at.”

Echidna: “Preservation of the Forbidden Archive, and its complete transference to the eventually-
coming THEY. There's no limitations. Although, that's because they're conditions with no correct
solution. She stays alive just as planned, and I can look into the solutions for other research. Don't
you find it very logical?”

Subaru: “—”

Echidna: “Naturally, going four hundred years without choosing anyone is yet another result. As is
her not easily choosing THEY from any of those she met through her days. Potentially even her
deliberating over whether to violate the contract, and desiring her own DEATH, is yet another result.”

Subaru: “What, do you think of that?”

Echidna: “—? I think it's wonderful.”

Says Echidna, tilting her head, as if she had just been asked a question with an incredibly obvious
answer.
Echidna's answer, her attitude, and the expression of the girl arisen in Subaru's mind, lead him to the
solution.

Got it. Decided. Clearly understood.

—His miscomprehension about just who, here, he was dealing with, is rectified.

Subaru: “Echidna... you are a witch.”

Echidna: “—”

Subaru: “An indecipherable, unfathomable aberration.”

Echidna: “—”

He communicates it. The answer, he had in his heart.

He pulls back his arm, and as to who he would reach out to, this time he truly decided.

Subaru: “I... I can't take your hand. I've already decided whose hand it is I'm taking.”

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Echidna: “—”

Subaru: “Done without malice, done without ill will, there is a girl whose four hundred years your
binding words pilfered. —Decided. I am taking that girl's hand. I can't go with you.”

He announces their farewell.

He shakes away the hand of the one he had once thought to walk alongside him.

Subaru raises his head. Looks forward.

Beneath his eyelids, the final expression from that girl arises.

—Face twisted in fear of disappearing and dying, near crying, but nevertheless with relief in her
eyes that Subaru had been protected.

To take the hand of the girl who mourned for his DEATH is what Subaru decides.

Echidna: “—”

Echidna's eyes narrow.

A look of cogitation flashes through her eyes, her intent being to fling some sort of words at
Subaru's decision.

But, before she can, the change occurs.

Minerva: “—She's here.”

Camilla: “Oh, no, I... I've... got noth... nothing to do, with this... any more.”

Sekhmet: “At a troublesome spot, a troublesome person, is here to cause some trouble—haa.”

The three witches all give their respective reactions.

And, overwhelming pressure from behind him.
Echidna's eyes, seeing what is behind Subaru, lightly snap open. Following her surprise, Subaru
turns around, and sees it.

???: “—”

With pitch-black darkness cloaking everything from the neck up, there stood the WITCH OF ENVY.

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CHAPTER 76: ≠SATELLA

—This was the first time Subaru had ever met face-to-face with the WITCH herself.

Witch of Envy—it was a name he had heard countless times, and the threat she presented was
something he had confronted himself during the dusky loop in SANCTUARY.
His defiance of the rules she had imposed on him had earned him more than one or two experiences
of heart-crushing pain. To harbour a positive impression of this witch, who had overtaken Emilia's
body and destroyed SANCTUARY, was indeed difficult.
And especially so after his last conversation with Echidna, which had unwittingly spawned in him an
aversion to the very word WITCH. But,

Subaru: “Yeah... the other witches don't compare.”

Faced with the pressure exerted by the witch standing before him, Subaru mutters in hoarse voice.

She's a thin woman.

Her arms dangle loosely as she stands without vigour, apparently looking at Subaru. An ebon dress
—sewn from shadows arising underfoot—garbs her, its flesh pulsating almost as if in rhythm with
her heartbeat.
From wrists forward of the long sleeves of her dress Subaru sees her strangely pale fingers, and
manages to estimate that the WITCH OF ENVY, like the other witches, possesses a countenance of
more than according beauty.

But, to confirm that, the most vital piece of information is missing.

Subaru: “Seen it a bunch of times now, but... what's the deal with this?”

A sable shadow cloaks everything from the witch's neck up, making visual confirmation impossible.
Unlike the ebon dress robing her body, this shadow wavers like mist, concealing the WITCH OF
ENVY's visage from Subaru.

Subaru's question is somewhat taken aback. But the witch gives no reaction.
A sense of peaking, impatient panic burns at Subaru's chest as sweat arises on his brow—when he
glances over the area, spying the other four witches in silence.

Subaru: “—”

Seeing the changes in their expressions, Subaru feels a surprise.

Going by Subaru's knowledge, the relationship between them and the WITCH OF ENVY is the one of
murder victim and assailant. Meeting their own killer. Subaru did have an idea of what mental
burden that would bring.
But, all of the witches' expression differ from Subaru's predictions.

One is a gentle smile, one is gaze of commiserating pity, one is an indifference suggesting absolute
lack of concern, and the last one is—

Echidna: “So you cut through my boundary and managed to get in. Brazenly trespassing even into

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my dream castle... always the egotist, aren't you.”

Only one person, the Witch of Greed Echidna, glares with hostility in their eyes.
Seeing loathing, or something close to it, coming from no other but Echidna surprises Subaru. He
had only just voice their final parting, thinking that she lacked such emotions. Seeing her blatantly
exhibiting emotion, Subaru begins doubting and wondering if perhaps he was wrong.

But time to realistically flag that as a problem has passed.

Right now, the problem is how to deal with this motionless witch in front of him.

Subaru: “Why is she even here in the fir...”

Minerva: “I'm sure she's mad 'cause you went gossiping on and on saying stuff you shouldn't.
Blabbermouth men like that are ones I don't think very highly of. I kinda get her indignation.”

Subaru: “Tell me that but I don't get it. Or actually, you're taking her side? From you and the other
witches' perspective she's meant to be your foe.”

Minerva: “My foe, is such a stupid-sounding thing to hear. ...I'm going to be checking now if what
you're saying's valid.”

Narrowing her eyes, Minerva's blonde hair sways as she moves to action.
She cuts into the Witch of Envy's line of sight, interrupting her wholehearted staring at Subaru.
Minerva pushes out her voluptuous chest as she boldly faces the witch. And,

Minerva: “Can you hear this? It's me, Minerva. The WITCH OF WRATH Minerva. If you remember
me, and can hear my voice, say something.”

Subaru: “—! No, wait! Far as my knowledge goes conversation doesn't work on her! If you do
anything else which'd provoke her...”

Sekhmet: “Try to keep quiet—haa.”

Subaru can only perceive Minerva's speech as reckless. But it is words from Sekhmet, still existing
as a hairball on the ground, which stop him.
Subaru glances back at her. She stirs, the magenta hairball shifting in size.

Sekhmet: “The time we've spent together with that is—huu—multitudes greater than what your short
interactions have been—haa. Your trepidation is natural, but—huu—try leaving this one to Minerva
—haa. Thoughtless actions are... indeed what she does sometimes—huu—but this time I suppose
she's probably not acting without thinking—haa.”

Minerva: “I can hear you, Sekhmet! If you don't want me to mess up the talk and for all of us to get
swallowed, don't say things that'll make me mad! I am teeming with furious ire!”

Sekhmet: “When talking about you—huu—who'll use someone breathing in your vicinity as a
reason to anger—haa—that's quite a pickle—huu.”

Even while getting hit with this ruthless opinion, Minerva averts her attention from the threat before

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her not at all.

That little back-and-forth should have spurred some kind of action from the WITCH OF ENVY. But
she stands there doing nothing as she merely stares through the WITCH OF WRATH, and at Subaru.

Indeed, you could perhaps say there is a definitive departure from the split-second practical reactions
the Witch has given up until now.
But all that meant was that she hadn't immediately taken hostile action. Whether or not a
conversation would come to be still seemed another matter.

Sekhmet was leaving the entirety of the dialogue up to Minerva. Then, the other two—

Camilla: “We... well, I think... t-think, it's fine if... Minerva-chan's going to, to try... her best to, do it.
But if s-she... umm... mm, she gets Minerva-chan... I-I'll kill, her.”

Echidna: “That's a dependable-sounding statement, but I'm sure I've told you countless times that
your affinity with that thing is abhorrent. If there's anyone here who can resist it, it's only Sekhmet.
—You do understand?”

Echidna endeavours to keep her voice calm as she chides the stuttering-but-belligerent Camilla. The
white-haired witch glances at Sekhmet, who trembles as if replying at all is a nuisance.

Sekhmet: “It won't be possible for me to continuously seal its movements.” You should know that
power-wise it's not suited to that.

Echidna: “Indeed I know. And so you just have to pulverise its limbs and throttle its neck. If you
physically seal its movements and choke it, I can have it expunged from this space.”

Echidna projects enough fierce hostility to make Camilla's statements look cute. And although she
says it with an aloofness, the utter disgust seeping into her words makes what what she's saying
sound like nothing joking.

With this livewire conversation going on in the background, Minerva continues to face the WITCH OF
ENVY. In fact, as if trying to keep the WITCH OF ENVY from hearing the other witches' back-and-
forth, she takes a step closer.

Minerva: “—”

Subaru swallows his breath as he watches Minerva's advance.

All Subaru can consider Minerva's actions is reckless—but he can't even tell for what purpose the
WITCH OF ENVY materialized here in the first place.
If this accords with the previous cases, then the reason for her showing up would be because Subaru
violated the taboo. But the abuses the witch has done so far in response to the violated taboo have
entirely been materializing arms to squeeze Subaru's heart, and materializing in physical reality to
swallow everything in shadow.

Friendly interactions were an of course not, but the WITCH OF ENVY hasn't even really expressed
what her intentions are. Her goals yet remain completely unapparent.
The question of how the Witch will respond to Minerva is thus an absolute unknown to Subaru.

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—If Minerva is swallowed by shadows, the other three will move instantly.

If the hopes Echidna's put on Sehkmet are sound, then the WITCH OF SLOTH will use her authority to
pulverise the WITCH OF ENVY, and Echidna can expel the weakened WITCH OF ENVY.
But, if that's the case—

Why weren't they immediately doing it now?

Subaru: “—”

Call things strange, and this situation where Minerva's been tasked with first contact with the WITCH
OF ENVY in itself is already strange.
Camilla's ready to attack if anything happens, Sehkmet doesn't want proactive hostility, and even
enmity-laden Echidna is taking no preparations for pre-emptive attack that would run counter to
Minerva's desires.
Just what on earth were they all—

Echidna: “You look like you can't comprehend us witches' intentions and are being tossed around
and toyed with.”

Subaru: “...”

Echidna: “Although, believing that you could easily see through to our... oop, I mean our thoughts
would be a discredit to the name of witch. On that you can't take us so cheaply.” 10

Subaru: “Stop it with the fake bokukko. —All I'm thinking is if you seriously want to distance the
WITCH OF ENVY, here where she's defenseless's your best chance.”

Echidna: “I see. So that's how you perceive this situation. Goodness... well, right. Personally, I'm all
for full agreement with your stance. What I'd really like to do about now is bash that thing with
every authority I could have, annihilating it without leaving a speck of dust behind, but...”

Cutting off there, Echidna narrows her eyes.

This attitude isn't like her—that said, as if he really knew her at all—but, sensing a kind of shame
which is rather not like her, Subaru waits for her to speak.
After a short silence, Echidna does.

Echidna: “Doing everything I can to eradicate that thing, and then having the other witches turn on
me is cart before horse. Nevermind Minerva, if we're talking a bet which'll make enemies of
Sekhmet and Typhon, there's little worth gambling.”

Subaru: “I'm not getting it. Why would trying to eradicate the WITCH OF ENVY make you enemies?
She's your foe, that's something everyone's agreeing...”

Camilla: “You're, wr... wrong.”

Camilla, who had kept silent up until now, is the one to butt in on Subaru's question. She goes

10 Echidna switches her pronoun from watashi (first our) to boku (second our) for the rest of the chapter.

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without looking at Subaru as he startles, instead watching Minerva's confrontation with the WITCH
OF ENVY.

Camilla: “That ENVY is... is, e-everyone's foe, is... is right, but, t-that... thing and her, are... d-
different, cases... mm?”

Subaru: “...I don't understand what you're saying. What're all of you...”

Sekhmet: “So long as we don't know which one that thing standing there is—huu—more than us
being unwilling to act, to do so'd be unreasonable—haa.”

Subaru: “Which one?”

Sekhmet gives a reply. But even that only throws Subaru into further disarray. What on earth were
they all talking about? —When, the solution arrives from a different angle.

Taking another step, Minerva further closes distance on the WITCH OF ENVY.
She spreads her arms wide, showing a posture of non-resistance, and says to the WITCH OF ENVY:

Minerva: “—Are you the WITCH OF ENVY? Or are you Satella? Which?”

※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※

Subaru senses he has just heard something that flips everything he has known on its head.

What Minerva just said hugely differs from the truth Subaru knows. But that Minerva's statement is
no random bluster or empty joke is validated by the wordlessness of the other witches, who had
lived in their same generation.
For the first time, the WITCH OF ENVY's shoulders tremble. The black mist concealing her head
squirms. It seems she has turned her body to face Minerva.
—This is the very first moment that the Witch becomes conscious of Minerva.

Subaru: “—”

What did that statement mean? Is not a question Subaru is given any opening to ask. And more
importantly, the taut and overwhelming tension swiftly parches his throat dry.
And with the witches affirming it, that only makes the utter contradiction of his beliefs worse.

—WITCH OF ENVY Satella. The character so called this—may in fact be someone else.

No. That was thinking way too far off too little data.
How many times had he had terrible experiences because he made decisions based off of only
superficial information, and kept stubborn with them? Even if he is constantly considering the
possibility, he must not get irrevocably attached to the idea.
And more importantly, he best not divert his attention from the scene in front of him for even a
second.

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Minerva: “If you're not suddenly attacking at the first question... then it means there's still a chance.”

Says Minerva, as she closes further distance.

The distance remaining between the WITCH OF WRATH and the Witch is five steps.

Minerva: “Though if you were the WITCH OF ENVY, it wouldn't be weird for you to instantly strike
with BEGRUDGE the moment I stood in his path, so I wasn't really worried about that.”

Four steps.

Minerva: “But then it would've been fine for you to say something right at the start. I know it's hard
to have this face-to-face with our relationship. There's no way anyone could forget what my last
expression when you swallowed me was.”

Three steps.

Minerva: “Though, I think it's way better that it's me than the other five. Nevermind Typhon, outside
of her, I was... your closest friend, is what I thought.”

Two steps. Head bowed.

Minerva: “Is, what I thought... and because I did, it's...!”

Crouches down. Two steps away, Minerva leans forward, puts her strength in her back leg.
And,

Minerva: “Do you understand how being ignored feels, when it's been so long—!?”

The ground explodes as the single rush obliterates the two steps of distance.
Minerva charges forward with dust clouds in her wake, twisting her body for a full-force punch
pistoned back from the shoulder. Her fist drills through the air, breaking the sound barrier, booming
toward the Witch's head. The attack zooms for her shadow-cloaked visage and—

Minerva: “—See, knew it.”

Minerva's fist miraculously stops just before contacting the Witch's face.
That's not to say that the Witch's shadows stretched out, and entangled her arm. Minerva, of her own
volition, stopped her arm before it would reach.
Still with her fist brandished in the Witch's face, Minerva leans back upright with her blonde hair
swaying.

Minerva: “See, look. She knew there wasn't any need to dodge my punch, that's Satella, not the
WITCH OF ENVY. Echidna, your caution's pointless.”

Echidna: “...I wonder. I will honestly praise your pluck in staking your own body in an attempt to
confirm this, but these stories are disparate. If it's simply discerned that your presence is no great
threat, obviously it wouldn't act. And so, Sekhmet.”

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Sekhmet: “Trying any reason possible to get me to act—huu. You're the same way in being terrible
at determining when to quit, Echidna—haa. Accept it, that's Satella—huu.”

Sekhmet sighs at the stumped Echidna.

Continuing unchanged as a ball of hair, the witches' ultimate weapon shows no signs of acting.
Close enough for their hands to touch and facing the Witch—facing Satella, Minerva turns back to
Subaru.

With her azure eyes staring at him, and still unable to really accept the reality that she was standing
directly beside a huge threat, all Subaru can do is dumbly stand there.
Minerva snorts at him, her expression dissatisfied.

Minerva: “What're you spacing out about. Come on, get over here.”

Subaru: “Get over here... you can say that, but...”

Minerva: “What, you're not a man at all. I've proven that it's all okay, so shouldn’t you come
striding over as well? No? Then all this table-setting I've done still isn't enough? If you're saying
you won't cross the stone bridge even if someone taps it for you, how're you ever gonna lose your
caution enough to cross it!”

Subaru: “Stop getting yourself heated up! It's not that I'm not going there 'cause I'm freaking out!
I'm not going there because I don't know why I should!”

Yelling back at an indignant Minerva in the same tone of voice, Subaru objects to this situation of
being left in the lurch.
Pointing at Satella, who is no longer an immediate threat, Subaru looks over the witches as they
relax from combat posture.

Subaru: “And actually, what does the WITCH OF ENVY and Satella being separate even mean! You're
talking about it like it's obvious, but this's already diverged well from what my understanding was!”

Echidna: “Wholly. If you forcibly introduce a witch factor into a being with no affinity, you do get
these afflictions. The witch personality that spawns from the factor's influence, and the original self
conflict... is perhaps what to call it. Though, my view is they're the same being, so I can't really see
the point in differentiating them like the others do.”

Subaru: “Split, personalities!? Then, what? The one who swallowed all you and did the wrongs to
get her lasting in history was one personality, and the other personality's harmless, is what you're...”

Echidna: “Now that's wrong.”

Subaru attempts to deal with it alongside his surprise at this information, but Echidna stops him.
She shakes her head, and amending Subaru's theory,

Echidna: “The consuming of half the world, and the consuming of us six witches of sin, was
entirely by SATELLA's actions, not the WITCH OF ENVY.”

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Subaru: “Wh—!? No, but that doesn't make any sense! If the one who swallowed you was Satella,
and that's Satella standing over there... this...”

Sekhmet: “It does fit. And so—haa—we won't forgive the WITCH OF ENVY—huu—but we have no
grudge against Satella—haa. That's all it is—huu.

Camilla: “I-I, do... don't like, S-Satella-chan... ei... either, but I... guess she's, bet... better than, the
Witch... so...”

Sekhmet and Camilla give their agreement in a way which only makes Subaru's questions multiply.
The witches appear to have general consensus, but Subaru can't understand it. The person who
destroyed them has two personalities, and they forgive the personality which destroyed them, but
not the one who didn't—what did it mean?

Echidna: “I've always been advocating that the distinction's pointless, but... agree to disagree. I can't
ignore that opinion and eradicate the thing. My frail mental-bodied self wouldn't stand any chance if
the others hoist the petard on me after I eradicated it. Even I, when in a state of being only a soul,
won't return if blast to pieces.”

Subaru: “B... ut, wouldn't that be seriously risky for the other five too? You're the one entrusted with
the other five's souls. If you disappear, the other witches'll...”

Echidna: “They comprehend and affirm their own DEATHS. And so they have no especial attachment
to prolonged existence as only a soul. —If it's between yielding and surviving, and being destroyed
sacrificing themselves for their ideals, they'd infinitely favour the latter. It's because they think this
way that they're witches.”

Sekhmet and Camilla speak up for no denials of that.

Resolute—is not quite a word that fits with how resigned an opinion it is, but regardless the
harshness of the witches' lifestyles leaves Subaru without words.
If I could be like this, I wish that I were like this, and such kind of aspiration was something
everyone did.
But to die and nonetheless stick through with one's principles after death was not a stance
everybody could confidently claim.

Subaru: “And Minerva...”

Probably the same.

She was the one who, by the hands of the WITCH OF ENVY, had likely been destroyed before anyone
else. But nevertheless Minerva trusted the Witch, who had done absolutely nothing all along her
getting to within arm's reach, which consequently proved that trust.

Subaru didn't know the relationships between these witches.

If they had bonds enough to trust enough other, then why did the WITCH OF ENVY destroy the other
six witches? And why did the witches forgive it?
Echidna's thoughts on it were the ones Subaru could still understand.
But, even so—

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Subaru: “I get that this's what you're like. And fully comprehend... ing it's hard but, I can understand
it. But, I still haven't heard what it is she's come here for.”

Witches: “—”

Subaru: “I get that she isn't going to unconditionally indiscriminately attack. That one I'll fully
comprehend. ...But that doesn't mean she's safe. If the one I've been seeing all up until now was the
WITCH OF ENVY, then what is it Satella wants to do with me? The WITCH OF ENVY to me is
someone who is entirely a pest. You can tell me abruptly that my view's wrong, but understanding
it's beyond me.”

And if you put the witches' statements all together, the person here is unquestionably Satella, who
consumed the others. Then even assuming that the one who swallowed SANCTUARY was the WITCH
OF ENVY, it would suggest that Satella is entirely capable of comparable things.
Who could blame him for feeling danger, being wary, and keeping away?

Subaru: “What she wants to do, and why she came here. So long as I don't know that...!”

Minerva: “If that's what you want to know, then just come over here.”

Just as Subaru goes to raise his voice, Minerva interrupts.

She puts her hand on her hip, and makes no attempt to hide her irritation as she scowls at Subaru.

Minerva: “You've had enough with the wordy excuses and drawing defences. I'm here standing
right next to her, and nothing's happened. And also, the reason she came here's to see you. If you're
saying you're such a loser you can't even get close to her, then we can do that's left is file this away
as us making an entire misestimation.”

Subaru: “Like you have fucking anything to misestimate! Don't just make your speculation about
me! Stop pushing your crap on me! What the hell would you all know about me!?”

Having someone push their image of him onto him, and then acting exactly in line with that image
was a no thank you.
Once, when Subaru yelled this exactly same thing, there came a voice who answered him. He
remembers what they said. And back then, those words had been his support.
—If he wasn't going to betray his past self, saved by those words, then...

Subaru: “Just, fuck... you're thinking stupid here, me...”

Nothing rational, making decisions entirely off his emotional momentum.

He'd done no reflection on the terrible experiences that doing that exact thing had given him. He
would pay greater vigilance to the slightest of changes, suppress his emotions, and cooly act not off
his mental impulses but according to definite truth—he would preserve an unshakable heart of iron.

Was meant to be his precept.

Minerva: “You're being slow.”

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Subaru: “How scary it is to approach someone you've wrangled almost to your death with is... shit,
actually you do know that. It's hard.”

Minerva: “It's not that we don't have our thoughts on this either. Sekhmet and Camilla are just way
more mature, unlike me. I've got a reason to back her.”

Subaru clicks his tongue as he walks over, Minerva giving a shrug. She presents him no time to ask
about her reason or whatever, instead handing the scene over to Subaru.
The WITCH OF WRATH moves aside, and what results is Subaru facing the Witch—facing Satella—
at extreme close range.

Subaru: “—”

Subaru unwittingly gulps, the strangeness of the creature before him catching him lost for words.
He was supposed to have recognized this as he viewed her from afar, and as he saw her in his
approach here, but regardless he cannot dispel her emitted pressure and the visual sense of awriness.
The dress of shadows clinging to her form traces out her curves and body with horrific sensuality,
and the invisibility of everything from the neck up conversely creates an inverse kind of
lusciousness.
Those impressions drown utterly away thanks to the dissonance of her entirely uncognizable head.

Subaru: “—”

Looking at her from up close, Subaru realises that the thing obstructing his cognizance is nothing
physical.
What looks like a shadow covering her face is not actually because a shadow falling over that area
is blocking it from view.
That he can't see her face originates from a more mental, more primordial reason.
No physical obstacle is keeping her face from view. It is something instinctive, NOT ALLOWING HIM
TO SEE IT.

Echidna: “Everyone wishes to avert their eyes from their most repulsive, spurious delusions.”

Subaru: “...”

Echidna: “If you can't see that face, it's due to a problem of your own heart.”

Useful advice comes flying in from behind to back up Subaru's deduction.

Managing to withstand his urge to click his tongue, Subaru ignores Echidna—or more rather, he
remains without any leeway to devote her any attention as he continues facing Satella.

Satella still has yet to make any kind of action.

The only thing Satella has done is appear here. The people around her kicked up a fuss by
themselves, getting frantic in an attempt to protect against escalation in damages resultant from her
actions.
That by simply being present she fostered so much fear in itself displayed the vivid truth of her
hazardousness. That would probably be no exaggeration.
And, the instant Subaru grows impatient with the lack of motion, it happens.

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Subaru: “—hk”

Satella: “—”

Seeing the two arms presented out to him, Subaru's throat freezes.
For not a single second, not even a single blink had Subaru shifted his attention away from Satella.
He wouldn't know what could happen after any instant—was the tension, which the movement of
these nigh out-of-nowhere arms easily toys with.
His surprise is not for a failure to see the movement. Subaru had very clearly seen Satella's arms
move. What surprises him is his own consciousness, which had regardless watched silently over the
motion until it reached its end.

Subaru: “What, really... are you? What do you want with me?”

He had not been able to take any useful action in response to her presented hands. More or less
unconsciously understanding what meaning that held, Subaru promptly comes up with words.
To end this without accepting the truth, to end this without facing her, strangled out his mouth.

Subaru: “If you're the one giving me the power to redo... why, is that...”

He doesn't understand what Satella's intentions are.

And he doesn't understand his body, which although facing Satella, standing within range to touch
her, unconsciously screaming again and again that she is dangerous, won't listen to him.

—The reaction of his body, which is unconsciously attempting to feel RELIEVED when faced with
Satella.

Satella: “——u,”

Subaru: “—Ah?”

Unable to accept his body as it goes defying his will, Subaru is slow to react to the sound hitting his
eardrums. This time was unmistakably a correct reaction which had come with no intentions
attached.

Swallowing his breath, Subaru waits for her to continue.

With her yet-invisible face still faced toward Subaru as he holds his breath, waiting for her, the time
slowly, slowly passes on—and Satella speaks.

Satella: “—ou.”

Subaru: “—”

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 Satella:
“Always you. Always only you, am I in love with.”
 ARC 4: ETERNAL CONTRACT PHASE 3

CHAPTER 77: A LONELY...

What to call the shock that slammed Subaru's entirety the second he heard that confession of love?

A lightningbolt jolt courses down from his crown to his toenails.

His open-pored flesh tingles with goosebumps, the blood running through his veins seething to an
eager boil. His thumping heartbeat flushes him from the neck up in crimson. Slipping a ragged
breath, Subaru retreats a step.

He cannot keep standing here.

He keeps standing here, and his breathing will reach her. His fingertips will reach her.
If he fails to open distance between her in this juncture where his reason is still holding back his
instinct, all breaks are off.
And should that happen, Subaru will drown to LOVE.

Subaru: “Stop...”

Satella: “I am in love with you.”

Subaru: “Please stop...”

Satella: “You—only you—will I always, always be in love with.”

Subaru: “I told you to fucking stop!”

Shaking his head, swinging his arm, Subaru pulls his attention away from her hot, entangling gaze.
Of course, Satella's expression is invisible to Subaru. Just what kind of fire her gaze held as she
stares at Subaru is nothing he can figure.
But nevertheless, the feverish pounding in his chest shows absolutely no signs of stopping.

By consciously holding everything restrained, frantically speaking out, thrusting her with a rejection
ragged enough to near make him spit blood, Subaru manages to preserve his fundamental self.
Literally, if he does not endeavour in an effort to maintain his consciousness like this, he is
convinced that the fundamental core of his being will distort. And that was an overwhelmingly
terrifying image.

Blatantly rejecting her, displaying such open disgust, and stricken with this truth is Subaru, who
Satella faces by standing exactly stock-still as before.
Her invisible face, a veil of darkness enveloping her expression. He can't discern it. Shouldn't be
able to comprehend it, but he inadvertently understands that his words have just hurt Satella, and
probably she cast her gaze down. His heart thinks its desire to gently stroke her hair, speak words to
ease her pained face, whisper loves to her and make her smile.

And although he denies it this much, his heart continues to urge that he LOVE Satella.

Subaru: “Y... what are you!? What did you put in me!? Something like with RETURN BY DEATH, you
put something in me to manipulate my heart!?”

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Subaru flings his distrust for his heart, failing to abide his will, at Satella.
His heart, which was abruptly now showing reactions wholly beyond his understanding. If this
witch and her supernatural powers were interfering with his powerful emotions, that was
overwhelmingly horrifying.

Twisting people's hearts to suit her will—that was a deed abhorrent, less than human.

The first resplendent hope vested on Natsuki Subaru in this world was his LOVE'S AWAKENING for
Emilia.
Subaru had been lost and blind without any guideline or landmark. His indebtedness to Emilia as
she offered him her hand out of his predicament, and the memory of the grace to his near-wholly
abraded heart, had even now lost none of their lustre as they yet proceeded to illume her.
During his time sucked into repeating loops of death, struggling solo as he surmounted various
adversities, the ones he held dear and desired to protect had multiplied. With the accumulation of
words he had shared with these people, these bonds, these feelings, the multitude of what Subaru
harboured compounded.
He could no longer say that his feelings for Emilia were his only motivator, even as a lie.
But nevertheless, Natsuki Subaru's first light had been Emilia. And Satella was coercing on Subaru
a LOVE'S AWAKENING on equal par to what he felt for Emilia.

Neverminding the lack of words shared between them, no warmth of mutual touch, no time spent
passed together, no bond built, the utter lack of anything between them in their relationship, Satella
was attempting to extort only FEELINGS OF LOVE.

What to call this if not horrendous?

Subaru: “You, and Echidna... you're both nuts! This... this place's just full of incomprehensible
bastards! I'm sick of it!”

Yells Subaru without hiding his repulsion for the faceless witch before him, and the white-haired
witch behind him.
Satella who compelled feelings of love contrary to his inner will, and Echidna who would entangle
strangers with her unempathizable curiosity. Both were aberrations beyond Subaru's
comprehension.

Echidna: “It does sting to be equated to that thing. Even should you treat us under the single
category of 'witch', my view has that thing as a vulgar creature a witch's inferior. Incomprehensible,
is a judgement where you're not wrong, though.”

Subaru: “Just be quiet. I haven't forgotten your insidiousness in pretending to be friendly. ...Enough.
There's no point being here. Let me out. I don't wanna be involved with you people any more!”

Responding unkindly to Echidna's words, Subaru grabs his head as he pleads to be released from
the castle in a dream.
He didn't want to be around Satella and Echidna for even another second. He already had
innumerable things he needed to do, and now was not the time to be compounding that count.
Being not omniscient, Subaru had a limit on what he could deal with. He already had obstacles
surpassing his limit obstructing his way, so why was it that even more problems had to come one-

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after-another adding themselves on, too?

Subaru: “I'm not taking your help. I'll do something about all the problems outside by myself. —
And what was ever wrong with that idea! That's what I should've been doing from the start...”

Minerva: “And? So it's back to dying over and over, making heaps of people cry while spouting
excuses how THIS IS INFORMATION GATHERING, NOTHING TO DO ABOUT IT. Wow. Amazing.”

Says Minerva, snorting at Subaru as he speaks his definite farewell. Subaru shoots her a glare.
Minerva's nonplussed expression begins reddening.

Minerva: “What. Trying to make me repeat?”

Subaru: “Like it has anything to do with you. The pain, the anguish, the hurt, the wear from
RETURN BY DEATH is all my problem. You've got nowhere to complain about it.”

Minerva: “Saying you're ready for hurt and pain and anguish sure lets you be at ease. No matter
what the people watching you spitting blood with your flesh shredded and bones broken think, you
can always use the excuse that you're the one suffering most.”

Subaru: “What!?”

Minerva: “If you bear the most obvious, showy and visible wounds, you can end everything without
those wounded by the aftermath of your behaviour being able to say anything. After all, you're the
one suffering most. You're the one hurting most. You're the one in the most pain. ...That the others
around you would shut up their snivelling's just natural.”

Perhaps with rage building up over her speech, Minerva's intonation gets stronger as she proceeds.
Subaru bares his teeth. Spoken to with such spite, Subaru being Subaru cannot possibly go without
objecting.

Subaru: “You! You're saying that I'm drunk on overblown tragedies so that I can shut everyone else
up, huh!? That this stalemate I'm in is just part of the act!?”

Minerva: “No, that's not where I'm going. But the logic of I JUST NEED TO BE HURT MORE THAN
ANYONE ELSE is coward's logic. I don't think a lot of Echidna's maliciousness, and I couldn't even
hope to understand how roundabout Satella is, but... to me, compared to a witch the way you're
twisted is heaps more sickening.”

Subaru: “—”

Minerva: “Above all else, with my lifestyle of beating everything wounded into health, your
lifestyle isn't so much an antithesis as a nemesis. —She isn't exactly being repaid.”

Jabbing her fist out at Subaru, Minerva finishes her statement with even her nose's breathing
ragged. Following that she appends her last statement in a whisper, her azure eyes aimed at Satella.
Ever since Subaru showered curses on her, Satella has simply remained there standing still in
silence. She gives no affirmations or denials, showing no stance at all about this little exchange.

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Subaru sees Minerva's eyes narrow, somewhat sadly.

Subaru couldn't give a crap about their emotionalities right now.

Subaru: “Sickening... unrepaid...?”

Catching the last words of Minerva's statements, Subaru faces down as his shoulders start to
tremble. The tremble escalates, and when he raises his head, he is smiling.
It was all entirely too fucking asinine, he couldn't go without laughing.

Subaru: “The fuck is that. Say sickening or anything, I've gotten to be choosing the methods I am
because why? I've gotten to be thinking in this so-dubbed twisted mentality because why? My
methods and mindset—when you consider what I have this's just the innate consequence—that's
what it goddamn is.”

Satella: “—”

Subaru: “You! Are! Who did this to me!”

Screams Subaru, throwing his rage at Satella, as she attempts with silence to escape from her
responsibility.
Having received RETURN BY DEATH, used this attribute to overcome obstacles, then confronted
many and varied troubles, Subaru had managed to run as far as here.
Every time the oft-experienced despair known as DEATH etched itself into his soul, he transformed
that misery into the power to step forward, and with that he had dashed to here.

—It was Natsuki Subaru's injury-fraught experiences that had allowed Subaru to reach these
thoughts.

Subaru: “The pain and the suffering! All of it, all only on me! Finish it all with me, and how is that
not grand! I grit my teeth, stifle my ire and my woe and my all and my every, and no matter how
terribly I die, the despair doesn't get to touch anybody else! Beginning to end all the hurts only on
me, and what is wrong with that! How is anything to fault with that!”

By repeating RETURN BY DEATH, following the end of much trial and error, Subaru is capable of
finding the truly optimum path. It is exactly as Echidna said. He wouldn't follow along with
Echidna's curiosity-driven temptations, but he was okay to continually attempt to same thing solo.
Unlike Echidna who was attempting to take a roundabout course, Subaru was devoting his absolute
all to directly uncovering the optimum route. His retry attempts would be overwhelmingly fewer
than if he were cooperating with Echidna. Naturally he did expect for the retry count to be
outrageous. But even so there was merit in trying.

Provided where injury-laden Subaru's outstretched arm reached was a future where no one was hurt.

Subaru: “Mentioned 'incomprehensible, sick of it' before, didn't I. Well sorry, that was my bad there.
Those feelings aren't a lie even for an instant, but there's still something I am thankful to you for.
Totally forgot. Forgot it, and isn't ingratitude just another thing I'm great at.”

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Satella: “—”

Subaru: “There's exactly one thing I am thankful to you for. Huge appreciation for letting me
RETURN BY DEATH. That's all I'm thanking you for. I wouldn'ta protected even a single important
thing without it. And from now on I'm gonna be depending on it too. And so for this one single
thing alone you are getting my thanks.”

He was already prepared for the continuous trial and error.

The option to flee from this fate was long ago abolished.

Has been ever since he took her hand and proposed to run, to be rejected.
There is no option to flee. He can only keep fighting. That is what he pledged. That was what she
expected of him. Believed in him. That Subaru would keep fighting, without running.
Subaru is a man who always gets back up. And if he was not, he could not continue being Rem's
hero.

Subaru: “So here's my thanks for this power you gave me. By your esteem, even an utterly meritless
prick like me can in these hopeless situations...”

Satella: “—Don't.”

Subaru: “Hopeless, situations...”

Subaru showers her with the fire stored up in his heart, spewing it all out—when Satella breaks her
silence with a murmur.
Hearing that one fragment, Subaru's words dull of their momentum. His face stiffens, and that
murmur he just heard, he desires to hear again.
What did she just say? It almost sounds like there was something she didn't want to hear.

Subaru swallows his breath as Satella lets the time pass, and again, speaks.

Satella: “—Please don't cry. Please don't hurt. Please don't suffer. Please don't, look sad.”

Whispers Satella to Subaru.

Her statement rocks his heart violently. With rage, with surprise, with a jumbling of every single
unidentifiable emotion he had.

Subaru: “Y, ou... that...”

The maelstrom of emotion is much too big, and he has not a clue what to say.
His intense feelings block his throat as he flaps his mouth open and closed, looking at Satella in
shock.

Satella proceeds in her jolting of the shaken Subaru.

Satella: “So, now you love.”

Subaru: “Ul, timately comes back to that, then. ...You're just all about twisting my emotions to get

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me to eventually love you. What your saying's...”

Satella: “—No.”

Satella interrupts Subaru's unsteady words with a shake of her head.

Her expression remains invisible. But by his skin Subaru can perceive just how Satella is looking at
him from behind the curtain of dark.
—Satella, right now, she was

Satella: “—Now you love yourself, more.”

Surely, gazing at Subaru with mercy.

※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※

It requires Subaru quite a bit a time for the meaning of those words to sink into his brain.
What dominates Subaru's heart the instant the meaning does permeate is a formless, shake-
provoking wave of emotion.

Subaru: “Fuck... are you, saying.”

Satella: “...Please don't hurt. Be more dear to yourself.”

Subaru: “And when you're the one who gave me RETURN BY DEATH. And when the power you gave
me's what's given me this method of advancing.”

Satella: “—I love you. So please, love yourself as well, protect yourself.”

Subaru: “If my piteousness leads you to steal this method from me! What the fuck will be left for
me!!”

In rejection of Satella's unending whispers of love, Subaru shouts at he puts his hand to his chest.

Subaru: “You have to know too, don't you!? I am completely powerless! No wits, no skill, I have no
special powers at all! The only thing my inconsequential self has is the RETURN BY DEATH which
you gave me! My life is the only possible payment I have to offer!”

Satella: “Please don't sorrow.”

Subaru: “I've already sussed that it'll be painful, that I'll meet fates like death. And I'm fine with
that, I am fine with that! If the only one who has to hurt in this is me, then I am fine with that!”

Satella: “Please don't suffer.”

Subaru: “If I get damaged more than anybody else, I experience more than anybody else, go around
to protect everyone, then it's all settled with nobody except me going through anything painful!

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There's nothing more I want!”

Satella: “Please don't cry.”

Subaru: “It sure doesn't fucking matter what happens to me! Like it would bother anybody what
happens to some ass like me! However torn up I get, so long as everybody can reach the future
safely, then...hk”

After all, if Subaru failed to continue being wounded at the front lines—

Subaru: “If we can welcome the future, without losing anyone, then...hk”

—He might irreparably lose somebody again.

Subaru: “...Rem is, gone.”

Satella: “—”

Subaru: “If I were smarter, had more ability, spent myself more liberally, placed myself at risk in the
lead... we would've avoided it.”

The dolour and despair from back then remained binding Subaru always.
And so Subaru had elected, without relying on anyone, to continue being wounded fighting solo.
Doing so was the most correct course, is what he had believed.

Subaru: “I have to believe... I have to believe there's some way I can do something...”

Believe that RETURN BY DEATH is a means that will solve everything.

Believe that if he could just use it well, he could end this without losing anything.
Believing this ethic, instructing himself of that, and so being wounded were all necessary. If he did
not convince himself this was true, how could he possibly confront that despair again?

Subaru: “I! Don't want to lose anyone like how I lost Rem any more—!”

Grabbing his head, Subaru shrieks in rejection of every audible sound.

Before he knows it, he's squatted to the ground. Forgetting even to distance himself from Satella as
he retreats into his shell, Subaru curls up as he denies her sweet whisperings.
Poison. She was poison. Everything of Satella's existence was a will-melting poison for Subaru.

Subaru's heart, supposedly having pledged to stay strong, fractures.

Inside the cracks there slips a cold despair, bringing back the memories of that day's dolour to
pulverise Subaru's heart.

Sekhmet: “What a child.”

Mutters a voice.

Seeing Subaru screaming and crying, obstinately sticking to his self-made beliefs, shaking his head

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like 'I don't wanna, I don't wanna', one of the silent witches mutters.

Sekhmet: “Crying, bawling, throwing a tantrum, taking everything upon himself... it's exactly like
what...”

Subaru: “—”

Sekhmet: “—A lonely child would do.”

Is how Sekhmet appraises Subaru, in sympathetic and pitying voice.

The silent witches make no action to refute Sekhmet's mutters.

The WITCH OF SLOTH had made an incredibly apt judgement.

For Subaru's visage presently was that of a small, weak, pitiable child.

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CHAPTER 78: THESE SOUNDS TO SHED TEARS

Sekhmet: “Curling up, being stubborn... like a child. It's painful to see, and I can't bear to watch it—
haa.”

Hearing Sekhmet's words as she appraises him as a child, withdrawn small inside his shell, Subaru
thinks: You might be exactly correct.
Getting obstinate, believing he was right, paying no mind to what others said in his stubbornness—
but even said, his methods were indeed the ones with least causalities, and reliable.
Imposing on repeats of the world to attain countless opportunities, Subaru could infinitely fight so
long as he kept paying his life in exchange. Over the process Subaru's heart would assuredly
weather again and again, come to the border of completely abrading.
But—for those times where he was brittle, near broken to pieces, Subaru already had been given the
words to right and inspire him.

???: <—You're my hero, Subaru-kun.>

There. That was all Subaru needed.

If following his soul's erosion he had those words and everybody's presence, then he could desire
nothing more.
Just what was so wrong with that?

???: “—Baru's crying?”

A young voice rings through the silence of the scene. The witches swallow their breath.
A small little hand pats the head of the curled-up Subaru. Glancing up, Subaru sees through his tear-
blurred vision the dimly-reflected sight of a tan-skinned girl.
Subaru's frail gaze has landed on the WITCH OF PRIDE.

Typhon: “He's crying lots—poor sad boy. ...Who made him cry?”

Typhon gets up from bending over as she glowers at the other witches as they wordlessly stand
there.
Her eyes host a fierce gleam as she looks over the other witches in sequence, her eyebrows raising
as she lastly notices Satella's presence.

Typhon: “Tella? Tella's here? Why? Been lots of time.”

Typhon gives a wave as she calls to Satella, but the belligerent light in her eyes remains vivid. The
first one to address this Typhon is Sekhmet, who gives a languid sigh as she uprights herself.

Sekhmet: “Typhon... Haa—He's having a retreat right now, so—huu—don't prod the boy—haa.
Come over here—huu.”

Typhon: “Mom—did you do bad to Baru? Mom—are you a baddie?”

Sekhmet: “Your mom—haa—doesn't have the energy to be a bad person—huu. I've got no impulse
to make either you or me do any work, you see—haa.”

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Typhon gives a small nod, but shows no signs of distancing from Subaru as she was told. This time
it's Minerva she looks at.

Typhon: “Nerva? Did you bully Ba... nah.”

Minerva: “How come you're not asking me. It's totally not right. It's not like I'm always all about
healing people, every so often I leave myself to the seething emotions of violence in my heart and...
maybe, I... sometimes could hurt... hurt people, or something too.”

Echidna: “It's pretty hard to imagine that someone who pales just by envisioning it could commit an
act of violence.”

Echidna shrugs as she teases Minerva and her rather implausible reply. Minerva glares sharply at
Echinda, Typhon's gaze following the same path to likewise land on her. Typhon's young face twists
into a frown.

Typhon: “Chidna. Chidna—did you do something bad again? Chidna—you're the baddie?”

Echidna: “Now what could it mean that it sounds more like a conclusion when it's asked to me. I'm
thinking I'd like to ask her foster parent about that one in rigorous detail but, your thoughts?”

Sekhmet: “It's what you always do—haa.”

Sekhmet exhaustedly puts her hand to her forehead. Typhon remains unseparated from Subaru's
side, vigilantly looking to find 'the baddie who made Subaru cry'.
Narrowing her eyes at the young witch's pep, Echidna mutters.

Echidna: “That aside.”

Echidna: “With Typhon also showing up here, we've almost got a full assemblage. If Daphne
showed up as well, it'd be a memory of four hundred years ago...”

???: “Did some-bod-y, just call for me?”

As if in response to Echidna's wonder, a black coffin abruptly appears in the meadow.

Fully bound by restraints inside the coffin with blindfolds over her eyes, this is the WITCH OF
GLUTTONY Daphne.
She gives a small sniff, and having figured out everyone present by her sense of smell,

Daphne: “Ne-ver-mind Su-ba-ruun, Tella-Tella's here too? How amazing is this. Seven witches of
deadly sin all together, and then even a sage candidate...”11

Echidna: “Daphne. —He's not there yet.”

Daphne: “...Ahh, well, that's, apologies. But a-ny-way... sniff, sniff. I smell some-thing sal-ty, is
someone crying? Is it Ner-Ner?”

11 Unclear if sage candidate should be 'a' or 'the'.

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Daphne's failure to consider what's going on and floaty-toaty speech casually whack the tension of
the scene.
This scene of the seven witches all together, including Satella, was not a sight that occurred so often
even four hundred years ago.
The seven witches who once thrust the world into chaos—now in this livewire situation, powers
liable to reshape the world itself were assembled together here.

The WITCH OF PRIDE—looking to cast judgement on the one who had made a small boy cry.
The WITCH OF WRATH—clenching her fists, looking for her close friend's feelings to bear fruit.
The WITCH OF SLOTH—paying heed to everyone's movements, languidly prepared to instantly
attack if anything should happen.
The WITCH OF LUST—preserving her uninvolved demeanour, ready to protect only herself should
matters escalate into a split-second situation.
The WITCH OF GLUTTONY—already unconcerned about any changes in the situation, puzzling over
whose fingers would be best to munch.
The WITCH OF GREED—although displeased with the presence of one witch, her eyes sparkle with
curiosity for whatever could possibly happen next.

And not the WITCH OF ENVY, but Satella—

Satella: “I am in love with you. —Because you gave me light. Because you took me by the hand,
and taught me the world outside. Because through nights where in solitude I shivered, you kept by
my side with your hands around mine. Because, then being alone, by your kiss you told me I wasn't.
There are so many things you've given to me. ...And so, I love you. Because you—you gave me
everything.”

Subaru: “—”

Subaru has not a single memory of any involvement in any part of Satella's whisperings.
He isn't part of it, doesn’t know any of it. He has never met Satella, never spoken with her, never
overlaid his warmth with hers. Everything she is talking about is the fruits of her delusion. This
woman insane with sentiment had lined up empty daydreams where she simply watched a fantasy
of Subaru.
Is what this should be, but NATSUKI SUBARU does know this.

Subaru: “Why're this... inside me, what is this? I don't want to feel this. Don't tether me with, non-
existent memories... I... I damn... I goddamn...”

Hate you, is all he has to say.

All he has to do is stab the one giving him their feelings with the announcement that he held not a
single speck of fondness for her. Then would be spectating just what expression the one
egotistically trying to distort his emotions would make. Bet the pain to her heart would have her
face twisting magnificently.

—How are you capable of doing that to her?

Typhon: “Baru?”

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Sekhmet: “Oh, kid...”

Camilla: “H-He's...”

Minerva: “You...”

Daphne: “Subaruun?”

Echidna: “—Ah, that is yet another possible choice. Natsuki Subaru.”

The witches call to Subaru in their various ways, Echidna giving a small nod at this outcome.

Subaru: “—ghh, bhg”

—Still squatted curled up on the ground, Subaru bites to sever his tongue.

The witches had cornered him in, and he had no idea of what was anything anymore.
In these conditions where his heart feels near to twisting, what remains for Subaru if even his
volition is no longer free to act at will?
If his stubbornness had simply been negated, then even that would still be okay.

If interacting with Satella makes him accepting even of being negated...

The thought terrified Subaru.

—When happens, when you lose your life in a dream?

Subaru's body should still be inside SANCTUARY’s tomb.

What had been called here was Subaru's mental body, or perhaps said soul. If his mental body dies
here, would that cause feedback on his physical body? Would his soul die?
He didn't care. If it was a death to reset, he was ready for it.

He would not take the witches' help, he would scour himself down greater than he ever had before,
cut away everything superfluous, and if he remained simply and wholeheartedly enthusiastic, the
path would surely open. —He did this, and he'd...

Minerva: “That, idiot!”

The instant she notices Subaru's attempt at suicide, Minerva rolls up her sleeves and dashes, running
to slam her healing fists into him. But, cutting in to stand between she and him is Typhon.
The young witch stretches her little limbs out wide, blocking Minerva.

Typhon: “Baru chose it himself! Nerva—no interrupting!”

Minerva: “Wounding or suicide or murder or injury are nothing I'll allow before me! Mental
anguish is goddamn nothing I care about! I couldn't give less of a crap about invisible wounds! And
instead! Visible wounds alone I absolutely won't overlook!”

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The ground caves in beneath her single step, Minerva's fist drilling through the wind as it closes in
on Typhon's face.
The plummeting fist carries enough force to rupture a mountain, but the moment before it strikes a
living creature that destructive energy converts to healing energy. However, the impact of the
shockwave and blow itself do normally affect the target of the punch.

The boom resounds, the strike from Minerva's outstretched arm sending Typhon soaring.
The undeveloped girl shunts away easily as a leaf, dancing high through the meadow's false sky. It's
a scene devoid of mercy—but Typhon is not the only one suffering damage.

Minerva: “—!”

From the shoulder down, Minerva's right arm shatters like ice crystals.
This was the result of having touched the judgement of the WITCH OF PRIDE, and her deed having
been determined as evil.
Minerva looks to the sky, pained at the lost of her aim, opening her mouth wide to shriek—

Minerva: “A scratch!!”

—or not.
The WITCH OF WRATH, highly attuned to the pain of others, infinitely disregarded her own pain.
This was exactly playing ignorant to Natsuki Subaru's lifestyle, and disregarding herself for later.

Minerva: “Anyway, now I—!”

The obstacle gone, Minerva wrenches back her left arm as she bounds for Subaru. From above him
her mighty arm aims to smash Subaru and—

Sekhmet: “I'll be getting in your way next—haa.”

Her blonde hair swaying to the motion, it takes a single instant for Minerva to slam into the ground.
Her body pressed down to the earth as she creates a human-shaped crater in the meadow, Minerva
raises her furious-red face as she screams at the seated Sekhmet.

Minerva: “Stop getting in the way! Sekhmet!”

Sekhmet: “That I won't be doing—huu. Sentimentally speaking, I'm on the kid's side—haa. And to
add to that, I'm also on Typhon's side—huu. I have no reason not to get in the way—haa.”

Minerva frustratedly bites her lip at Sekhmet's battle declaration as she looks to the other witches.
But, Daphne and Camilla are neutral to this fight unfolding, while Echidna is an onlooker surveying
what results the spat will each. And Satella—

Satella: “Ahh... auhh...”

Crumbled to her knees as she sees Subaru spewing great loads of sanguine out his mouth, her voice
trembles.
With the overflowing blood and his severed tongue blocking his throat, Subaru undergoes the

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feeling of drowning as he catches Satella in a corner of his consciousness.

Crying, wasn't she.

She looked immeasurably shaken, witnessing Subaru's DEATH.

Satella: “Why haven't you realised...? That of everything you wish to protect, of course you should
be included.”

Why was it she thought this way about Subaru?

In her delusions, just how much of a support was Subaru for her heart?

Satella: “As it does to those struggling in the dead-end of fate, of course it would visit you too. But
just because you alone have possibility of overturning it... you're someone who should be saved too,
so why?”

She's entirely wrong.

Subaru was a hopeless fuck, unable to succeed even in the things he thought himself capable,
unable to save those he wished to save, entirely a half-measures never-there prick, and he would
never escape from that.

Had he not pledged? To escape from that, and to stop doing things halfway?
Had he not decided? To pretend to he was any better?

—His weak self, and his self desiring not to be weak, fight inside him.

Nobody may witness Natsuki Subaru's weakness now.

The strong, dignified, resolute lifestyle of a hero was what Subaru needed to live.
There was a girl who desired such of him. Subaru had placed a curse on that girl, and responsibility
was on him to repay that girl his curse had bound. —No. Responsibility was nothing in the picture.
Just, if she was believing in him, then he wanted to be as someone who would gain that belief.
Because that girl told Subaru she loved him, Subaru wished to be someone who would continually
gain her 'love you's.

Yes. That was it.

That was it.

If hypothetically saying for assumption that there were somebody who would mourn Subaru's
DEATH, it'd be her.
Choosing DEATH was a betrayal of the girl who had believed in him. Of course, Subaru had no
intentions to end merely with DEATH. He was prepared to use even DEATH as a stepping stone to
abolish the reason behind the DEATH, and regain everything.
But, what happened to the people the DEATH-electing Subaru had left behind?

He mustn't think of it.

He mustn't know of it. Those thoughts were dangerous thoughts.
It was fine. Natsuki Subaru, as he was, was fine.

He mustn't think that somebody out there was mourning him.

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He wasn't anybody worth such a thing. Subaru's life was a consumable item. Use it, use it, use it up,
and ultimately reach the end—that was the single-merit consumable it ought to be.

Utilize dying practically and with effect. Absolutely do not face his own DEATH.
Rationalize. He is fine to think nothing. For salvaging what he wished to salvage, determine to
throw away what must be thrown away. Everyone does it. Subaru, too, ought to.

He saves those precious to him, those who ought to be saved, then this was all fine.
If he could only do that, then Subaru—

Satella: “What on earth was it you saw, in the second TRIAL...?”

Trial. —Trial. Trial, TRIAL. TrialTrialTrial, TRIALTrialTrialTrial, Trial—?

Shock and insufficient oxygen dull his thinking incredibly.

His vision blurs and blurs in a world flickering red, a storm like television noise running through his
head, as he dimly thinks that the end ought to get on with it.

The end was coming slowly.

What number was he on for times meeting DEATH? Counting was a nuisance, but that was okay.

Eventually, he would have to repeat and repeat his deaths until counting it was sickening.
He doubted he could keep living maintaining a mentality which would bother tallying his deaths.

Heart of iron.
Entirely unshakable, a heart of iron, in hand—

Slowly and slowly, Subaru's consciousness departs.

And, fades,

※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※

???: <I'm expecting things from you, son.>

A sound.
From beyond the noise, amongst the din, a horrifically clear sound.

???: <—Come home safe.>

Again.
A different sound, but again. Bringing about the same thing to his chest, a sound.

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