Re:ZERO -Starting Life in Another World-, Vol. 5 Read online

  “As you request.”

  The way Cadmon abandoned his station as if it was nothing, and the way Rem followed up without the slightest hesitation, left Subaru simply uneasy as he slouched.

  “Don’t let amateurs run your shop just like that, geez. And Rem, don’t make promises you can’t keep.”

  “All she has to do is exchange merchandise for coin according to the prices listed. It’s not like I’m getting customers anyway.”

  “So you finally admit it?!”

  Subaru wore a defiant look as Cadmon led him away. Rem waved after them as she headed toward the counter.

  “I have to say, though—young or old, everyone seems super interested in the royal selection. What do you think, Pops?”

  Cadmon scowled bitterly at Subaru’s words and replied.

  “Hmm. Well, there’s a lot of hot air about who’ll become the next ruler, but it’s not as if they can leave the throne empty forever. I wish they’d just hurry up and decide already.”

  “This is only what I’ve been told, but doesn’t the Council of Elders handle running the country? How badly does not having a king affect the people?”

  “Hey, if that’s a joke, it’s in bad taste. Now, some people snub the king as a figurehead when it comes to administration but… The Covenant with the Dragon is made with the royal family generation after generation. We have the Dragon protecting Lugunica to thank for the clashes with Volakia down south not turning into anything besides skirmishes.”

  Gusteko to the north, Lugunica to the east, Kararagi to the west, and Volakia to the south—those were the names of the great nations that ruled this world. Subaru had heard that smaller nations existed, too, but they were treated as client states of the great four.

  Subaru asked another question.

  “Volakia, huh… What, you think if the Dragon’s gone, they’ll invade?”

  “Their imperial motto is, ‘Many troops, strong nation, eat the weak, grow strong.’ They say Lugunica was in the middle of a war with them four hundred years ago right before the Covenant with the Dragon was first made. Some say they’re still sore about the Dragon butting in.”

  “So that’s how the people feel about not having a king, huh…”

  “Even if it wasn’t for that, a country without a ruler’s in as much of a bind as a beast without a head. The last king wasn’t a wise one, but he wasn’t bad, either. That’s what I think, anyway.”

  Cadmon cut through the throng of various races before standing in front of a sign that towered above the already tall man. He blended in with the people looking up at it with the same objective, craning his neck to read the characters that Subaru could not.

  “It’s an announcement that the royal selection has begun, and a summary. The king will be determined three years hence before the Dragonfriend Ceremony, who shall conduct the ceremony thereafter, et cetera. Then it lists the candidates.”

  Cadmon, reading the details in Subaru’s place, relayed things the latter already knew. Subaru’s interest had begun to fade, but the last word, candidates, put a stop to that. Cadmon, watching from the side as Subaru licked his parched lips, nodded appreciatively.

  “The candidates are on your mind, huh? There’re five royal selection candidates in total. The best-known are Duchess Crusch Karsten and the Hoshin company president, a girl named Anastasia.”

  “Is that Duchess Crusch famous?”

  “Well, she’s a duchess. It’d be pretty bad if people living in the capital didn’t know her name. She’s still young, but as duchess and heir to her household, she’s already considered one of the most brilliant women in national history. The tales of her first sortie in the duchy of Karsten, the reason she inherited the title, are common even here in the capital.”

  “First sortie…?”

  “The duke of Karsten at the time—her immediate predecessor—was injured by a horde of nasty monsters that appeared in the duchy of Karsten. So she took over command for him and brought things under control in the blink of an eye, and then everyone knew her name. There’d always been rumors that she was brilliant, but she was so good that her father had his seventeen-year-old daughter take over for him.”

  Listening to someone outside Crusch’s sphere of influence evaluate her made Subaru’s shoulders feel tighter and tighter.

  Not noticing Subaru’s internal turmoil, Cadmon traced the scar on his face with a finger as he went on.

  “And there’s not a merchant around who hasn’t heard about how much progress the Hoshin Company has made these past few years, even for them. That young lady at the helm—Anastasia—she’s even taken down major companies and brought them under hers. Just like that old legend, Hoshin of the Wastes. It’s like she’s a reincarnation of the man.”

  Subaru wondered if the proud way Cadmon spoke of Anastasia was due to his identifying with her as a fellow merchant. Going from a mere trader to a royal candidate was a real Cinderella story.

  On the one hand, there was Crusch, a woman with an inspired demeanor, pursuing her beliefs with an iron will. On the other was Anastasia, the girl with light-purple hair, standing out due to her Kansai accent.

  The details on the sign before them had no discrepancies from what he’d heard in the royal selection conference. The contents were conveyed to the populace with thoroughness and sincerity and no unfairness whatsoever.

  Cadmon resumed.

  “So rumor has it that those two are the leaders for the royal selection. Personally, I think Lady Crusch, in a crucial position in the kingdom, has more weight than a merchant born in another country.”

  “So both are leading the pack, huh.”

  No doubt Cadmon’s words were colored by personal opinion he’d ventured at the end. Even so, it was without doubt that Crusch’s position and family name constituted powerful backing. To the people, unaware of her speech, it was most natural to assume that Crusch would inherit the throne.

  “So Crusch is the favorite, and Anastasia is the runner-up… So who’s the dark horse?”

  After Subaru’s comment, Cadmon read the names of the three remaining candidates, crossing his arms with a conflicted look on his face.

  “It’s hard to talk about dark horses. Putting those two aside, the three others are basically unknown. I’ve lived in the capital for a long time and even I don’t know them. This Priscilla seems to have a noble’s name, but I don’t even see family names for the other two. Given how the president of the Hoshin Company became one, I really have to wonder how they’re picking these candidates.”

  On that point, Subaru imagined he’d be in perfect agreement if he didn’t personally know the details. You had the current heiress of a hereditary duchy, the young president of a foreign trading company, an unknown bearing a family name of noble pedigree, and two remaining candidates with no family name and uncertain origins. Withholding information about the basics of how they’d been selected was unfair to the general populace. Even Subaru, who knew that the crests with the Dragon motifs had been used to select the candidates, had no idea what the Dragon’s motives were in choosing the girls.

  But just when Subaru was about to burst into laughter at all the idle speculation, Cadmon narrowed his eyes, twisted his lips in disgust, and spat his opinion.

  “But I’m hopping mad they included a half-elf. I can’t help it. It lists some basics about each royal candidate, but this Emilia… Apparently they made a half-demon a candidate. I tell you, it’s stupid any way you slice it.”

  “Half-demon…huh?”

  “It’s what we call people who look like witch accomplices. What the hell are the high and mighty thinking…?”

  Cadmon glared up at the tall sign that was a full two heads above him, his eyes filled with disgust. Subaru couldn’t immediately react.

  “…”

  He had a not-insignificant amount of goodwill toward the scarred shopkeeper. This was the first man he’d spoken to in this other world, and when reunited with him later, he’d grown to view t
he man as someone he could trust. In contrast to his stern appearance, his personality and character were amiable, and he was full of love for his wife and child. At the very least, Subaru didn’t doubt that he was a benevolent person.

  The boy couldn’t help but be surprised to hear such a man speak such slander about another as if it were a matter of course. Besides, to Subaru, it couldn’t be casually dismissed. And so, his lips blurted out a denial.

  “…It doesn’t mean everyone who looks like that is involved with the Witch, does it?”

  “Hah?”

  Under Cadmon’s curious gaze, Subaru’s emotions got the better of him as he pushed on.

  “D-don’t go judging her just because she’s a half-elf. That ‘Emilia’ girl, she’s incre… She might be doing this for the sake of the country. She might be a good, incredible girl for all you know.”

  “Hold on. I don’t know why you’re trying so hard, but stop covering for a half-demon. If someone else overhears, they ain’t gonna understand.”

  “Yeah, I suppose so. And you wouldn’t want the pretty girl doing on-the-job training to see a grown man making a scary face, talking trash about someone he doesn’t even know.”

  Subaru’s large helping of invective mixed with sarcasm made Cadmon put a hand to his forehead.

  “I get it, give me a break. I said too much. I apologize, okay?”

  “…Tch.”

  Though it was an apology he was pushed into, Cadmon’s mature reaction made Subaru back down.

  Yet as Subaru relented, Cadmon carried on.

  “You’re free to think what you like. But it’s not possible for a half-elf to become king.”

  “You’re still…! Why not? Because of the Witch of Jealousy? What, because the Witch was a half-elf, that means all half-elves are dangerous?!”

  “—That’s right.”

  To Subaru, worked up again as their argument resumed, Cadmon’s voice had a shockingly cold ring to it.

  “There you go again…!”

  Subaru was about to make a rebuttal when his voice caught in his throat, because he saw the look of fear in Cadmon’s eyes.

  “The Witch is scary. That goes without saying. It’s a feeling everyone shares. I don’t know how you grew up not knowing this, but at the very least, the vast majority of people avoid half-demons for the same reason.”

  “…”

  “Look. They say the Witch…the Witch of Jealousy…is a monster completely off the charts. Four hundred years ago, her shadow swallowed up half the continent. Famed heroes and dragons succumbed one after another before that. If it wasn’t for the Holy Dragon’s power, the Sage’s knowledge, and the Sword Saint of the day, the world would’ve been destroyed for sure.”

  Subaru had never heard this before, and he was unable to avert his eyes from Cadmon’s deadly serious expression as he heard the details he couldn’t dismiss.

  “But in spite of all that the Witch of Jealousy has done, we know next to nothing about her. What we do know is that she’s a half-elf with silver hair. That, and the fact she can’t be reasoned with, can’t understand how others think, and she seems to rampage around out of a hatred for everything in the whole world.”

  The wave of surging emotion behind Cadmon’s trembling pupils conveyed the raw emotions of every person living in the world in a way dry sentences alone never could.

  Like the picture book Subaru had seen, the story of the Witch was passed down orally and through the printed word. Depending on the storyteller, the means and the amount of repetition varied, but the final result was always the same: absolute terror that the people born in that world would never shake, as if it were a nail driven through their very hearts.

  “The Witch is a symbol of terror. Everyone’s afraid of things they don’t understand. So people want to use the few details they do know to keep as far away from them as possible.”

  “…And that justifies discriminating against half-elves?”

  “At the very least, a lot of half-demons having twisted personalities is the literal truth. I will admit that I don’t know if it’s just their natures or if it’s the circumstances that make them like that.”

  Cadmon was grimacing as if chewing on a bitter insect, likely because Subaru’s words had backed him into an uncomfortable corner. The man seemed well aware that what he was saying was irrational. But the emotions about the Witch welling up inside dimmed his view of any rebuttal of that logic.

  Moreover, that thinking may well have been a universally held opinion in their world, from the lowest rungs to up on high.

  When Subaru realized that, only then did he truly appreciate the meaning of the plea Emilia had made at the royal selection conference.

  “—”

  She was a half-elf. Her destiny was something she could not divorce herself from no matter how hard she tried. She wore an iron shackle that others starting in the same position did not, one she could never remove.

  Cadmon crossed his arms and spoke sullenly.

  “And since that’s what people think, she has no chance of winning at all. Someone being fond of that half-demon and promoting her like this… It’s a bad joke, I tell you.”

  The object of his argument, and his anger, seemed to have shifted from the candidate herself, Emilia, to whoever had hoisted her onto a palanquin when she had no chance of victory.

  It was a benevolent concession on Cadmon’s part, but it was small comfort given the thoroughly negative image of half-elves.

  The girl Emilia first needed to overcome the obstacle of prejudice.

  To the uninformed Subaru—ignorant of the tyrannical history of half-elves and why people feared the Witch as a result—Cadmon asked, “Why put her through it if she has to carry a handicap like that?”

  Certainly, Subaru was completely inexperienced where the history of that world was concerned. He couldn’t know about the wicked deeds of the Witch beyond the details written on a page. It was hard for him to imagine just how much people feared half-elves, how deep their aversion ran, and for that matter, what half-elves living in such an environment thought of other people.

  But he’d heard the girl’s words, spoken with a voice clear as a bell…

  “—Hold it right there, evildoers!”

  She had saved Subaru, who had been crawling on the ground in pain and humiliation.

  Where were the expectations and calculations behind her actions back then?

  Subaru didn’t know their world’s history, about the Witch or half-elves. But he knew Emilia.

  “My name is Emilia. Just Emilia. Thank you, Subaru.”

  He understood that the girl with silver hair and stubborn benevolence who always acted with no regard for her own loss or gain might resemble the Witch of Jealousy, but that had absolutely nothing to do with her.

  He knew that she, who had lived in a world that showed no kindness to her whatsoever, possessed heartfelt good will toward others even so.

  No matter how badly the world might treat her, at least Subaru would—

  Suddenly, a chill ran up his spine as a frosty voice interrupted his thoughts.

  “—It was all for your own benefit, wasn’t it?”

  In the back of his mind, her lovely, charming smile transformed into a sharp gaze and a stern voice.

  “I wanted to believe you…but you’re the one who stopped me, Subaru!”

  He had trampled her trust underfoot, and her pained voice reverberated inside his cramped skull.

  He tried to understand. He thought he got it. He’d acted as if he did. And he’d frivolously broken and tossed aside the promise he’d made to her. The blame impaled his chest once again.

  “—If you don’t say it, I can’t understand, Subaru.”

  In his memories, Emilia berated him for his actions on that day over and over.

  He felt agony as if pieces of his chest had been ripped off, and sadness bore down on him to crush him, but Subaru’s anger toward the girl glaring at him also surfaced.

&n
bsp; He’d worked so hard. He’d helped her so much. He’d been hurt so much. What was wrong with hoping for a reward? What was wrong with wanting her to respond?

  —If I don’t say it, you can’t understand? I could say the same to you.

  Emilia hadn’t told him anything about the royal selection, discrimination, or her feelings on that day. She’d shunned Subaru, pushed him away from her goal, treated him like he was barely a side character.

  Of course Subaru didn’t know anything about Emilia. She wouldn’t tell him anything.

  He didn’t know how she had lived up until then, how she felt as she aimed for the royal throne, what she thought about the world seeing her as the Witch herself…

  And as for what Emilia thought about Subaru, he didn’t want to know.

  “—Kid. You all right? Hey!”

  “…Eh?”

  Subaru, realizing that Cadmon’s face was leaning in extremely close, recoiled with a start.

  “Waah! Pops, don’t do that! Your face could kill someone like that, damn it!”

  “That’s a horrible thing to say! You were staring into space again, just like earlier. You got some chronic illness?”

  “W-well, if the passionate feelings burning in my chest are a disease, I might have been infected with something. It’s a feverish, nasty illness that seduces mankind, sometimes gently and sometimes severely…”

  Cadmon, unable to keep up with Subaru’s joking attempt to hide his empty, wounded heart, shook his head.

  “Yes, yes, you’re afflicted with poor character is what it is. Fine, let’s head back to the shop.”

  Subaru, following him on the way back, came to realize that his entire body was drenched in a cold sweat. Perhaps it was due to the roiling emotions inside him, but each step felt very heavy.

  His head drooped as Cadmon abruptly murmured, his back still turned, “And this might be sticking my nose in, but stop talking about the Witch out in the open. If anyone hears you, they’re not gonna be understanding…me included.”