--The time returns to the scene where Subaru removes his hood and reveals his true identity in front of the Witch Cultists.
Subaru raised his right hand high in the air and snapped his fingers as he spoke with great enthusiasm, and the Witch Cultists, who had been merely watching the situation up until then, all began to move at once.
The one with the conversation mirror and the two standing on either side of Subaru simultaneously reached their hands into their chests and pulled out daggers shaped like crosses――,
"--Your judgement is slow."
With that one word, the Witch Cult's error in judgment was pointed out succinctly, and the Sword Demon descended from between the trees.
A silver flash ran across the area, and the arm of the cultist holding the dagger was severed midway through the upper arm, sending it flying into the air. Blood splattered everywhere, and the blade's flash as it spurted through the darkness drew a path of cruel beauty.
The sound of the arm falling to the ground and the sound of the blood hitting the dead leaves echoed in unison. However, even as the Witch was burning with pain from losing her arm, she immediately decided to retreat without letting out a single groan. Bending her knees, the three turned around and tried to escape in different directions. However,
"I'm sorry, but we already have you under our control."
As they tried to step forward, their feet sank into the ground, and the three men lost their balance and fell to their knees. At that moment, a blade was aimed at each of the men's necks as they tried to get up.
Wilhelm struck first, and Julius turned the ground into mud with his follow-up attack. And then,
"Feri-chan has it all."
Ferris, decorating his face with something like a peace sign and, unusually, unsheathing his dagger, was charmingly directing himself towards Subaru.
That nonchalant attitude aside, Subaru let out a sigh of relief that things were going roughly as expected.
Apart from Subaru, the only ones who had attended were these three, all highly skilled and trustworthy. The rest of the knights were to remain in the village and guide the evacuation. And the mercenaries were assigned to a different job. This was meant to be an insurance policy in case our plan failed, but...
"I'm relieved that it went well. If I made a mistake after trying to look so cool, it would be more embarrassing than anything. Ferris, please stop the bleeding. I'd be in trouble if you died before listening to what I have to say."
"You shouldn't say that with your face all blue, though."
A firm voice and dry lips. It was dark, and he had his hand on his forehead, so his expression was easily seen through. Subaru made a bitter face at Ferris' remark, and closed his eyes once.
A horrific exchange unfolded before my eyes.
It's a whole different story from the monster incidents and the battle with the white whale, but I'm still not used to seeing sword fights between people of human form. The deaths and corpses give me the impression of something from another world.
Feeling dizzy from the lack of reality of the fallen arm, Subaru shook his head lightly to drive away any feelings of weakness. And so, while they came to terms with the situation, Ferris tried to stop the bleeding of the Witch Cultist so that he wouldn't lose too much blood, while Julius and Wilhelm tied them up one by one.
"Even so, you had a good eye for the peddler who had an insider."
Echidna: "The fact that it was a blank letter made it obvious that it had been swapped. According to Ram, the messenger from Crusch's family who brought it immediately turned back and returned to the royal capital after hearing it… but this time, they were short on time and the selection of their collaborators to act as their legs was careless. The world is made to be a little worse than the worst case scenario."
Subaru responded to Ferris's praise with a calm and experienced reply, then took a deep breath as he looked at the prisoner.
A thin, elderly man. And above all, the man holding the conversation mirror and trying to pass on information to Betelgeuse - the man's face looked familiar.
"I remember now. You're definitely someone called Katie, right?"
"--why"
"Well, I wonder why. You can worry about it to your heart's content, okay?"
Hearing his name being called, the man - a merchant named Ketty - asked a single question. Subaru replied playfully, feeling slightly shocked at the fact that a familiar figure was his enemy, but at the same time, he also felt a certain understanding given the events that had unfolded up to that point.
Katie is someone Subaru encountered in the first loop that began in the royal capital.
After the fog covered the Leafous Highway, Subaru was left behind by Rem on the way to a detour, and while running around the village trying to find a way to get around, he met him. He was introduced to Otto through him, and that was how he was able to return to the Mathers territory the first time. However, by that point, it was already too late - the worst memory.
And the second world - if there was nothing that could be done, then what about the third world?
Driven by a desire for revenge, he cuts through the road and encounters a group of traveling merchants along the way. As expected, he and Otto are the ones in charge of them. Subaru hires Otto and the others to provide transportation for the villagers, with the same idea as this time, and bids farewell to Otto, who remains behind, saying that he is heading to the royal capital. After that, he encounters the White Whale, and the group of traveling merchants is wiped out.
Looking back now, even though he was right there at the critical moment of our actions, he continued to avoid danger as if he had been deliberately avoiding it.
"That's because he knew about the situation. If we leave it like this, the location of the sanctuary with its unknown destination, and our split-up evacuation plan will become public knowledge."
"But fortunately, we were able to thwart their attack. In addition, this will allow us to get the initiative against the Witch Cult that is supposedly hiding in the forest."
As Subaru gathered his thoughts, Julius took over and slightly tilted his chin. Subaru agreed, and although it was an act of expectation,
"But don't these guys seem like they're really tight-lipped? If I try to force them to talk, I get the feeling they'll say something like, 'Glory to the Witch Cult!' and commit suicide."
"In fact, the Witch Cult has a deep-rooted custom of not fearing death. This is one of the reasons why their true nature has remained unknown for the past 400 years. A captured group almost all committed suicide at the same time, and the truth remains unknown... it is not uncommon."
Wilhelm confirmed Subaru's gloomy imagination.
Subaru stuck out his tongue and said, "Ugh," at the stereotypical fanatic thinking, and became anxious that Katie and the others might commit suicide right then and there.
However, as if to brush off Subaru's concerns, Ferris clapped his hands loudly,
"Yes, yes, this isn't a gloomy story. That's why Feli-chan has come out to the front lines like this."
"Well, when I told you I had an idea who the traitor was, you came along enthusiastically. To be honest, I was wondering what you were doing there since you have no fighting power."
"Well, that's rude. Let's help you dispel those outrageous thoughts of Subaru-kun."
Ferris winked sweetly at Subaru, then slowly walked over to the men. Then, rolling his large cat-like eyes, he carefully observed the three of them. Then, he set his sights on an elderly man among them and touched his forehead with his right palm.
Her firm, delicate fingers gripped the man's forehead mercilessly, and he sighed softly. And then,
"Stir in—"
"--!!"
Ferris's palm glowed faintly, and a pale blue glow enveloped the man's entire body, centering on his forehead. It was the same scene he saw when he administered healing, and it was the same healing Subaru had received countless times to repair the abnormality in the Gate inside his body - but the effect was dramatically different.
"Ahh... gahh... naive."
Just as it seemed his entire body was enveloped in a pale light, the man's limbs suddenly began to twitch, his eyes opened wide, and his tongue stuck out in a painful manner.
His eyes instantly turned bloodshot, and drool trickled from the corners of his mouth as he cried out in agony. Dripping onto the ground, the man continued to gasp like a fish from the endless torture.
"Oi! What on earth are you doing..."
"I'm just interfering with the water in your body a little, making you go through some painful experiences. Don't worry, I won't turn you into a wreck, so it's okay. --I will make you into a doll, though."
Subaru raised his voice at the sudden act of abusing the prisoners, which was done in a way that was impossible to understand from the outside, but Ferris himself continued on, humming with a cool expression on his face. Subaru felt a chill run down his spine, but Wilhelm tapped him on the shoulder from behind,
"It may seem a little violent, but it is a necessary measure when facing the Witch Cult. I ask that you, Subaru-dono, bear with it."
"I'm not so soft-hearted that I'd say it pains me to see my enemies being hurt, but... seeing them being tormented like this, I really want an explanation."
Subaru, watching the situation from the sidelines, expressed his dissatisfaction at the torture-like treatment he received from the man, who hadn't changed at all. Then, as Subaru stood there looking dissatisfied, Julius held up a finger and said, "To put it simply,"
"Ferris used water magic on them under the pretext of healing, right? He seems to be able to interfere with the mana that flows through it and take away a certain amount of its influence."
"...What does that mean, exactly?"
"If someone touches Feli-chan and has a low resistance, they will turn into a submissive kitten."
Subaru asked, furrowing his brows, to which Ferris replied with a satisfied look on his face. He responded to Subaru's suspicious gaze with a light-hearted gesture, and pointed to the witch cultist he had been referring to earlier, "Well, it's fine,"
"There's a time limit, but do you think you can talk to Sonyari now? Once the effect wears off, you have to wait a while before you can try again."
As he spoke, Ferris slowly turned his head and, seeing the two remaining Witch cultists, he deepened his sweet smile and said,
"There are still two of us here so it's totally fine."
「Sometimes I feel like I can catch a glimpse of your sadistic side and it puts me off. …You're not serious, are you?」
"If you can get it out of your head, you don't have to take it seriously."
Ferris put his finger to his lips and shook his body, laughing away Subaru's concerns.
Seeing that attitude, Subaru looked at Wilhelm and Julius as if asking for their opinions, but they both shook their heads and,
"It's not a commendable method from a humanitarian perspective, but we have no choice but to consider it a minor issue before a bigger problem. As for the remaining two, I would like to take them to the royal capital as is if possible."
"It's a valuable source of information. The Witch Cult has been operating in the shadows for a long time. We must put it to good use in order to get a hold of them."
The two of them agreed with Ferris, and Subaru, knowing that this was not a situation in which he could be picky about the means, turned a blind eye to his inner dissatisfaction.
Then he cleared his throat and faced the witch cultist who had just raped him.
"For now, let's ask what we want to know. How many Witch Cultists are participating in this attack? How many groups are they split into, and are they hiding out in the forest?"
"――――"
"Hey, I was told to answer honestly, but you just remained silent."
There was a silent response to my question, and when I looked at Ferris in disbelief, he shook his delicate shoulders from side to side, stuck out his tongue,
"No matter how much you say it, you can't answer things you don't know. You don't know that silence is the answer. Switch gears, next, next."
"I'm not satisfied. So, let's talk about the person who leads you all, Pete... the Archbishop of Sin. Tell me your name, appearance, and what you can do."
"The Bishop's name is Petelgeuse. He is a thin man with green hair and a bony face."
The man quietly answers Subaru's questions honestly. Hearing his answers, Subaru strangely comes to the realization that "Ah, so the followers must think I'm sickly and thin," and continues asking more questions. However,
"What abilities can you use?"
"――――"
"The number of fingertips trained in the forest"
"――――"
"Birthday, blood type, and favorite girl's body part"
"――――"
"I'm at my wit's end!"
Subaru was disgusted by the number of silent replies and his gauge quickly went over the top.
Although he had prefaced his remarks by saying that he couldn't speak of things he didn't know, interrogating someone with so much undisclosed information about his family was a tough task. It was even possible that Subaru had more information than them.
As Subaru scratched his head, wondering what to do, Ferris, who had supposedly stepped back as if unable to bear the sight, tapped him on the shoulder,
"There's no other way, Subaru-kun."
"Even if you say that, Feliemon, these people are too ignorant..."
"What's Emon? Where did you come from?"
"The resemblance comes from the cat ears... Oh, he lost his cat ears!"
Ferris, sighing and judging Subaru's response to be nonsense, switched roles with Subaru as the interrogator. Subaru, feeling down after being told that he was not up to the task, surrendered the situation,
"Hmm... so, this is..."
He picked up the object at his feet - an unused conversation mirror that had fallen from Katie's hand. Brushing off the grass and dirt, he looked closely and saw that it bore a striking resemblance to the folding hand mirrors Subaru knew. Compact was perhaps the closest word to describe it.
"It's a mysterious item that allows you to transform or do other things by muttering a magic spell... No, is it really a mysterious item? Abracadabra amen somen."
Subaru opened and closed the compact in his hands while muttering to himself. In the mirror inside, he saw his own sour face, which he hadn't seen in a long time, and upon closer inspection, he could see that dirt, sweat, and blood had mixed together and made his face a terrible color. He couldn't show it to Emilia.
Just as I was consoling myself with this conclusion, something suddenly changed in the hand mirror. The edge of the mirror suddenly began to glow and heat up.
"Uh, oh...oh? Hmm, did you touch something strange?"
Frantically, I fiddled with the conversation mirror in my hand, but the light only got stronger and stronger, with no sign of weakening. I began to suspect that I had broken it, and at the same time, I remembered the conversation I had with the bald old man, who had told me that magic tools were traded at very high prices, and broke out into a cold sweat.
Julius noticed Subaru's state as he faced a financial crisis while wrestling alone,
"Subaru, what on earth are you doing…"
"I-I didn't do anything! I was just messing around a bit, nothing special! But this, it feels a bit weird..."
"You mean you unlocked the activation formula?"
Julius was slightly surprised by Subaru's rambling excuses, and then ran over to him. He then looked at the dialogue mirror on Subaru's palm, and with an expression of disbelief on his face,
"Conversation mirrors are one of the most common magical devices, but in order to connect one to another, you need to follow a certain procedure. In particular, the activation formula is something that the connected mirror can freely use, so there are limited ways to retrieve it other than by asking someone who knows it…"
"Uh, what, what do you mean?"
"Now, you've almost accomplished what Ferris wanted you to find out. If you can deactivate the dialogue mirror's activation spell and identify the connected dialogue mirror."
Taking the conversation mirror from the confused Subaru's hand, Julius begins to operate the mirror while gathering mana in his fingertips. At first glance, it looked like he was operating a smartphone or a pad, but Subaru, who only had a flip phone, could only wait obediently.
However, the seemingly complicated operation only took about 10 seconds to complete.
"--Good work, Subaru. I've now found the location of the other dialogue mirrors that are connected to this one."
"Wow... so you're saying it has GPS functionality? Can you find it from here?"
"I don't know what GPS is, but I've found the location of the conversation mirror. There are two places the conversation mirror can reach… One is in the forest, but the other one is a bit far away."
He looked up from the dialogue mirror, following Julius's lead and casting his gaze across the forest. Though it was obscured by the greenery of the trees, if Subaru's sense of direction was correct, he knew Julius was looking in the direction of the mountain range, a place he'd been to before.
The west side of the village - the forest where the Ulgarm herd was, that was none other than that place.
After Roswaal's extermination of the demonic beasts, the presence of dangerous creatures had likely decreased. Subaru had once "jumped" himself off the steep cliffs, so the connection to this place was not shallow.
"So there's a Witch Cult there? ...I don't know that person."
Subaru guessed that the fingertips of Betelgeuse, based on the nickname, were probably the minions of a madman hiding in ten different places. The hiding places of those fingertips had already been split into roughly eight places after two loops.
And if we determine that the three people hiding among the peddler are from an unknown location, then the location that has just been discovered is the last one.
"There are two places that can be seen with the dialogue mirror. Can we assume that there are no dialogue mirrors in other places?"
"No matter how common it is on the market, the conversation mirror is still a rare magical tool. I know how to refine it, but when you consider the money, time and effort it takes, it's hard to say it's worth it."
Subaru, tucking his chin in as Julius shrugged, had a different opinion from the others.
Subaru wasn't particularly interested in military or war-related information in his former world, but he still knew the importance of speed and accuracy in transmitting information.
Can they not imagine how much potential this technology, which they dismiss as "not worth it," has?
"Well, let's put off thinking about the widespread use of mobile phones for now, but as long as that's a certainty, that's fine. If detailed information transmission relies on a conversation mirror, and it's owned by two people..."
--He determines that one of the places is probably Betelgeuse's.
It is natural for the head of a group, the head of the chain of command, to have a dialogue mirror. And if there is one for a spy hiding in a hostile group, and another place,
"A backstop or a hidden card... Either way, I've got you, tail."
Subaru clenched his fists and bit his lip in anticipation of the change in the situation.
And then, he headed off to share the information with Ferris, who was still being interrogated, and Wilhelm, who was keeping watch.
"You two, you were lucky that the dialogue mirror worked. Now the rest..."
"--!"
Subaru walks towards him, hands raised defenselessly. The moment the prisoner sees the conversation mirror emitting light in his hand, his demeanor, which had been quiet up until then, changes drastically.
The two others who Ferris hadn't cast the spell on turned menacing and, still tied up, leapt towards me.
"--oh"
Subaru froze in surprise, and Katie, who was still tied up, bared her fangs and tried to bite down on his throat. However, just before she could reach it,
"Sorry--"
A slash ran through him, splitting his tall torso in half and causing it to fall.
With her internal organs and blood spilling everywhere, Katie roared like an animal and, with the lower half of her body gone, fell to the ground convulsing - and then she died, a ferocious look on her face.
And unlike Katie, who was hit by Wilhelm's slash, the other person,
"Bubububuaaabaaabababa--"
Still in a position to pounce on me, it collapsed forward to the ground, its limbs trembling, its tongue out as if it had a hoarse throat, and its eyes bloodshot.
His skin was dyed red enough to be seen even in the dark, his blood vessels expanded as they could no longer withstand the pressure from within, and dense green patterns appeared all over his body.
"...hey hey"
Muttering, Subaru suddenly realized he had slumped over the spot. Julius came up from behind and lent him his shoulder to help him to his feet. However, his legs were quite hesitant, and it took him quite a while to stand up.
"I was so eager to fight that I lost my control. I apologize."
Wilhelm wiped the blood off his sword and put it back into its sheath, apologizing for slashing Katie. Then, he crouched down and examined the other body, which was twitching.
"I too am no longer breathing. Ferris, what a terrible thing you have done."
"Well, I was so impatient, so it can't be helped. I don't want Subaru-kun's neck to be bitten and Crusch-sama to get angry at me. …What happened?"
Ferris sticks out his tongue at Wilhelm, who has identified the body. Subaru pays no attention to their exchange, instead staring at the body of the dead man, whose whole body looks like it has been covered in blisters.
His expression was full of agony, and it was impossible to tell his original appearance at a glance. It was an extremely disgraceful way for someone to die, and above all else――
"I didn't even touch it... did you do this?"
"That's right. It's just a little application of water magic. Even the gentle mana that heals wounds can become poisonous if you pour too much of it. It's also a problem if the water inside your body becomes too energetic, isn't it?"
Subaru couldn't hide his fear as Ferris twitched his cat ears unashamedly.
The way the man died―― Even Wilhelm, who had only just cut down a man, had a bitter expression on his face. Subaru couldn't help but feel something eerie about the way he had managed it and yet showed no remorse whatsoever.
Above all, if we follow what I have just said,
"You are..."
"Hmm?"
"...No, it's nothing. The other one is okay, right?"
Shaking his head slightly, Subaru gave up on pursuing the matter any further, knowing it would be an unnecessary disaster.
The question I swallowed was this.
--You can kill me in the same way, can't you?
The magic Ferris spoke of that caused the water inside the body to go out of control. If that magic was for healing - if we were to limit it to those who had received healing mana from Ferris' hands, then Subaru certainly fit that criteria.
He then remembers the overwhelming pain and death that befell Subaru during the previous attack.
A violent heat that makes the blood boil throughout the body and even the brain boil.
If Ferris had done that, then his death would have been exactly the same as that of the man before him――
"The plan is to take those who survive to the royal capital for questioning... right?"
"Ferris's suggestions are still in effect on us, so there shouldn't be any problems. So, Subaru-sama, I heard you were able to use the dialogue mirror."
Subaru turned pale and looked away from Ferris, to which Wilhelm responded. He casually stood up to hide the corpse and Ferris from view,
"If their position has been revealed, let's launch a surprise attack. If they become suspicious of our not contacting us on time, we will lose our advantage. Before that happens."
"...That's right, yeah. I'll do that. I'll do that."
Nodding at Wilhelm's suggestion, Subaru sorted things out in his head.
Petelgeuse. Eight hiding places whose locations were already known from experience. The final one newly discovered. The dialogue mirror. Emilia and the others fleeing. Battle. Possession. Spiritual magic.
"--Ferris."
"Nyah?"
"If you can control that person, can you make them speak using the conversation mirror?"
Subaru, whose thoughts had been accelerating, opened his eyes and asked Ferris the question. He blinked once upon hearing the question, then relaxed his lips in delight,
"You can do that? Using a conversation mirror to intentionally send false information to the person you're connected to is a piece of cake. Shall I do it?"
"Yeah, let's do it. But don't make him say anything serious. It'll be troublesome if we expose ourselves and get suspicious. At best, there won't be any change in the situation. We can just continue waiting or something like that."
Experience has confirmed that as long as they don't notice any abnormality on our side, they will continue to keep a watchful eye until at least midnight.
As long as they didn't discover that they were fleeing on a dragon carriage, it wouldn't be difficult to keep Emilia and the villagers out of danger.
"Please find out the method for regular contact and pass on the current information to the two connected places."
"There might be some kind of code or something, so I'll be careful about that too. Fufu, it looks like Subaru-kun has grown a bit, Feli-chan is happy."
Nodding at Subaru's instructions, Ferris took the talking mirror and, for some reason, turned to face the man in high spirits. Then, watching the man's back as he carried out his interrogation and intelligence gathering while humming, Subaru called out to Wilhelm and Julius,
"I'd like to ask the two of you to accept your roles as we enter the final phase, is that okay?"
Do your best and leave the rest to fate - you must take every possible step to achieve victory.
There had never been a time when destiny had smiled upon Subaru without him doing anything.
※※ ※※ ※※ ※※ ※※ ※※ ※※ ※
--The witch cult hiding among the traveling merchants had been wiped out, and with the internal troubles eliminated, their immediate worries had disappeared.
"Good luck--"
Emilia said this and got into her dragon carriage, and the look she gave Subaru and the others who had stayed behind in the village was one of gratitude and concern. It stayed with her in her mind.
It is hard to put into words the pain Subaru feels for not having revealed his true identity to her while wearing the recognition-blocking robe. If he is being honest, he wishes he could tell her the truth right now and join hands with her.
"Well, I can only think about it now, but I can bear it. I still have the memory of holding your hand and not getting angry, so I won't cry or anything."
He makes some light-hearted joke to cover himself up, and together with the knights, he sees off the dragon carriage as it starts to move off.
Several knights were escorting the dragon carriage, straddling the earth dragons and guarding it as they evacuated. To avoid drawing attention as much as possible, they decided to split into two groups midway through.
They were split into two groups, Ram's group heading to the Sanctuary and Emilia's group heading to the Royal Capital. Roswaal would be there to greet them at the Sanctuary side, and Crusch at the Royal Capital side. They had been carefully insured, so in some ways their safety was far superior to Subaru's.
The children who had begged to ride with Emilia also held her hand tightly as they climbed into the carriage. Their reaction reminded Subaru of the genuinely happy Emilia, and his heart was filled with warmth.
As they boarded the dragon carriage, Subaru noticed that Petra's eyes, who was sitting next to Emilia, were burning with some sort of rivalry, which bothered him a little, but he decided that it probably wouldn't have any major impact on the situation. Petra in particular was a girl who listened carefully to what Subaru said.
Subaru: "I let my happy emotions wash over me, and took advantage of the situation to let Emilia-tan escape. …I've really become a bastard who toys with people's feelings. It's a big difference from when the neighborhood rumors were that I couldn't read other people's minds or the mood."
Furthermore, the children were asked to "not mention Subaru's name" and "not let Emilia outside" while in the dragon carriage.
Subaru had determined that the reason she had returned to the battlefield last time was not only the former but also the latter.
If there had been someone aboard Emilia's dragon carriage at that time, someone to stop her from doing what she had done――perhaps things wouldn't have turned out like that.
If there was someone who truly cared about her and was willing to stop her, surely her kind nature would not be able to ignore it.
Subaru had deliberately created the situation this time by giving the children roles and not letting Emilia know of his existence.
It was an act that might be deeply despised if she were to later learn the full story.
Even if you know the future through Return by Death, it is not permissible to use that to deceive someone's mind, much less manipulate them to suit your own convenience.
"I'll definitely keep this a secret for the rest of my life..."
Although I don't have a good enough personality to say that it's okay if I don't get found out, I'm not the kind of masochist who would willingly reveal things myself. I've decided to take this to my grave.
And to that Subaru,
"Looks like the villagers and the half-demon girl have already left."
Speaking roughly, the beastman, Ricardo, approached with his huge body swaying and shouldering a large axe. Subaru grimaced at the sight of him, slightly covered in blood, and let out a small sigh.
"Don't call my lovely Emilia-tan half demon, half dog."
"Oh, being called a half-dog is even more humiliating than I thought it would be! I've learned a lot from this! A masterpiece, a masterpiece!"
Subaru could only chuckle bitterly at the sarcasm. Then, his expression suddenly went blank, he raised his eyes and looked towards the forest.
"So how did the surprise attack go?"
"He knows where they are and doesn't take any precautions. That's not what a paid mercenary would do. He's done well."
Ricardo opened the beast's mouth dramatically and laughed belligerently while showing off his fangs.
As if to prove his words, a succession of mercenary groups mounted on Ligers leapt out of the forest, racing around the deserted village as if to prove that they were still going strong.
"Yahhaha, we're all dead!"
"We managed to capture the prisoners. Don't say such nasty things, Sis."
Judging from the brother and sister taking the initiative to run around and having an endearing yet frightening conversation, the results seemed to be excellent.
Even though we knew the chances of winning were high, it was still a time of anxiety for those who sent them out.
Subaru breathed a sigh of relief when he saw them safe and sound.
"Ah, by the way, there's a bit of a problem."
However, Ricardo lowered his voice to Subaru, bent his tall back and leaned in. Sensing something ominous in his attitude, Subaru frowned.
"Wh, what is it? I have a bad feeling about this, so please make it as exciting as possible."
"Is that so? Well then, I'll say it without hesitation!!"
Subaru was trying to hide his fear, but Ricardo took it seriously and responded in a ridiculously loud voice. The volume of the sound was so loud it felt like it would burst his eardrums, and the ringing in his skull made Subaru grimacing. Around him, Mimi, riding her Liger, ran around shouting, "Yeehaw! It's a festival!"
"Shut up! That's not what I meant! We went to the trouble of quietly evacuating everyone, and now what if they find out what we're doing?!"
"Big Bro! Big Bro! Your voice is already loud enough!"
Subaru yelled back at him, causing Ricardo to burst out in laughter.
Unable to comprehend the difference in his attitude from before, Subaru shook his head and said, "That's enough."
"Just tell me. If some problem has occurred, I need to hear about it before carrying out the operation, otherwise we won't be able to make any corrections. Right now we need to eliminate even one uncertain factor…"
"No, there won't be any problems with the operation, I think. However, although it's a shame that we managed to capture the Witch Cultist… there's a separate issue."
"Another way...?"
Not understanding what Ricardo was saying, Subaru tilted his head to the side, expressing his doubts. Ricardo nodded in response to Subaru's attitude, and as if it was easier to show than to tell, he raised his arm,
"Hey, can you bring that guy back?"
The subordinate who received the order nodded and ran off, bringing back a liger.
On its back was a human tied up with rope, and as Subaru watched it gradually approach, his expression changed from doubt to anxiety to certainty,
"We raided the witch cult's lair and he was in the back. It seems this guy was unlucky and got caught by them."
As Ricardo scratched his head as he spoke, the gagged person groaned. It looked like he was complaining about the unfair treatment he was receiving, and also like he was begging for his life. Once Subaru got over his initial shock at the rather pathetic sight, he
"Bwah."
Unable to contain himself, he bursts out laughing.
He pointed his finger and laughed at the person who was tied up and unable to move.
"I thought you weren't here, but you were caught, Otto!"
he shouted the name of the last character who had been unlucky enough to not appear on scene until now.