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

  Rem, realizing Subaru was awake, looked relieved as she headed toward the bed. Subaru asked her, “What’s wrong? If you’re here to say you feel lonely and can’t sleep by yourself, it’s a hard day for it. If I was a little calmer, I’d have a really good laugh at that, but right now…”

  “That proposal makes my heart flutter, but no. I could not sleep, so I wanted to talk a little.”

  “I see… You, too, then. Well, nothing we can do about that, huh?”

  Subaru crawled out of bed as Rem timidly sat down by his side. Feeling like their shoulders were close enough to touch, he turned his attention to her pale face and opened his mouth.

  “I feel bad that you’ve had to take care of me ever since we left the mansion, Rem.”

  “Please do not apologize for that. I do not think of anything as hardship if it is for your sake.”

  Her strong shake of her head pricked at Subaru’s conscience. He knew that was what Rem would say. Ever since the demon beast uproar, she had been his ally through thick and thin.

  Ironically, she was probably the one who most understood his worth.

  “…Finding out by telepathy must’ve made you way more worried about the mansion than me. And here you are worrying about me on top of that— We still don’t know that anything’s happened, right?”

  Rem nodded stiffly in reply to his question and lowered her eyes.

  “—Don’t worry about it. I’m sure something rough has happened, but she’s not cute enough to fold that easily. We’ll get back soon. I’ll manage to take care of it somehow.”

  Subaru smiled with unwarranted cheerfulness, trying to lessen even a little the burden weighing Rem down. He wanted to make her feel at ease.

  As was typical for him, Subaru’s claims were baseless. It wasn’t as if he had some brilliant, tangible plan to overcome difficult obstacles. Anyone ought to have doubted a declaration like that.

  And yet…

  “—Yes. I believe you, Subaru.”

  Rem smiled pleasantly at him with relief, as if ten thousand cavalrymen had come galloping to her aid.

  “—!”

  Realizing that her smile had captivated him, Subaru’s face reddened as he averted his gaze.

  He’d said something embarrassing, and her acceptance of it had been equally shameless. Subaru immediately turned his back to her without continuing. He didn’t know what Rem must have thought of him.

  —His breath caught when he suddenly felt the weight and warmth of her body against him.

  “M-Miss Rem? Er… I wonder, why are you hugging me like this?”

  The soft sensation against his back and her breath made Subaru unconsciously slip into a more formal form of address.

  “…Because I want to.”

  The answer she gave in response, rich with meaning, carried a warmth that set off alarm bells in his heart.

  Behind Subaru, still sitting on the bed, Rem had her arms around him, as if to cover him up. Her feminine softness, sweet scent, and arms around him drenched Subaru’s entire body in warmth.

  “Er, ah… This feeling is…”

  Subaru, sensing it from head to toe, tilted his head when he suddenly realized that the “warmth” Rem was imparting was something apart from body heat—greatly resembling something he had felt over the past several days.

  In reply to Subaru’s misgivings, Rem maintained the contact and opened her mouth.

  “I am healing your gate, the same as Master Felix did for you, Subaru. After all, I had several opportunities to watch while standing right beside you. Compared to Master Felix, perhaps I cannot do much more than put you at ease a little, but…”

  “R-right, treatment! Treatment, yes! I see, I see. Yes, yes. E-exactly, huh. Ha-ha.”

  Feeling embarrassed at his impure delusions, Subaru glossed things over with a hollow laugh. He felt Rem smile slightly behind him as the strength of the mana flowing into him increased.

  “Whoa, incredible… This feels way better than Ferris’s stuff ramming into me.”

  “Thank you very much. But that assessment is unfair to Master Felix.”

  “Not at all. I’m totally serious. It feels good and…makes me feel…sleepy…”

  Maybe the effect of the treatment was inferior to Ferris’s, but Rem had far greater consideration for her patient. He felt like he was immersed in warm water, wrapped in softness.

  He felt comfortable, relaxed, and drowsy, so he did not catch Rem’s faint whisper.

  “That is most likely…the difference between our feelings toward you, Subaru.” His head was slipping down when Rem brought her lips close to his ear. “It’s all right to fall asleep. I’ll lay you down in bed properly, cover you with blankets, and leave after I’ve had my fill of watching you sleep.”

  “I wasn’t worried about my belly being out in the open, and that’s quite a line at the end… But when you’re working so hard, how can I fall asleep in the middle of it, Rem?”

  It was petty stubbornness, but he didn’t want to come off as rude after everything she’d done.

  He sensed Rem beaming as he felt her hands touch his head. The warmth coming from her palms increased, making his eyelids even heavier.

  “Aww, crap… Why am I…? I mean, it’s…hard for you, too, but… Rem, why are you…doing this for me…?” He rubbed his eyes, irrationally resisting the drowsiness, continuing to speak to hold on to his consciousness. “Rem, why…so much…for me…?”

  “Because I want to… I do not need any other reason.”

  He let go of his mind before her words really sank in. Even so, he heard Rem reply, “I want.” That part was important.

  That was probably the starting point for all the thoughts enveloping Subaru—

  What would happen when he returned to the mansion and reunited with Emilia? He was full of anxiety.

  “She’ll…yell at me at first, won’t she…?”

  Subaru’s eyes fell as he shook his head.

  As he wobbled, Rem’s arms gently embraced him to provide support. “It’ll be all right, Subaru. You’re a wonderful person. With time and a proper meeting, if you tell her how you feel, I’m sure she will understand.”

  “Is that…so. Guess…I am, for you to think…like this about me…”

  Sound grew distant. No, his mind had begun to withdraw from reality.

  The comfortable drowsiness coursed through him like a curse, his eyes closing to become a cage around his mind.

  Just before his consciousness completely slipped away from reality, Subaru thought he felt the faint touch of Rem’s lips against his neck as she said, “So please keep me in a little corner of your thoughts, and don’t go anywhere else, Subaru…”

  Subaru no longer had the mental strength to reply to the seemingly pleading whisper as his mind gently sank into the darkness.

  5

  —What woke Subaru up was the feeling of hot sunrays burning his eyelids.

  He remained lying in the bed as he absentmindedly lifted a hand to block out the sun. The light entering through the room’s large window was strong; with him covered in bed up to his shoulders, they made him so hot that it was hard to sleep.

  He indulged in that feeling for several long seconds before enough blood flowed into his half-asleep head for him to realize…

  “The…sun’s up?!”

  Subaru threw off his blankets, leaped off the bed, and sprinted to the window. When he pushed it open, a cool breeze flowed into the room, and he gazed dumbfounded at the sun watching him from high in the sky.

  That sight struck him with the terrible truth.

  “No way… At a time like this… Am I an idiot?!”

  Having arrived at the despairing conclusion he’d overslept, he rushed with all haste to Rem’s bedroom next door in the inn. Subaru knocked furiously on the door before throwing it open.

  “Rem! Wake up! We massively overslept!”

  Cursing the fact that he’d slept nearly half the day away, he scanned the room in despera
tion. Anyway, he had to get Rem up so that they could resume their march— Or so he had thought.

  “…Rem?”

  The room was completely empty.

  There was no bulge on the bed. The sheets were untouched. Subaru had a bad feeling about the lack of evidence that anyone had been in the bed at all. The room held no warmth from a human presence.

  Unable to even see any luggage, he ran out of the room to the inn’s front desk. The innkeeper who had greeted him and Rem the previous evening was sitting at the desk, smiling sociably when he noticed the boy.

  “My, my, good morning. It would seem you slept very well last night…”

  Subaru did not return the innkeeper’s courtesy, slamming his fist on the desk to drive his question home.

  “What happened to the blue-haired girl who came here with me?!”

  The innkeeper reacted with surprise. Seeing Subaru’s expression, he raised his hands in an attempt to mollify him.

  “D-dear guest… Please calm down; you will disturb the other patrons…”

  “Answer me! Where is she…? Where did Rem go?!”

  “Y-your companion… Who came with you on…the dragon carriage late last night…?”

  “That’s not an answer!”

  Cowed by Subaru’s threatening demeanor, the innkeeper practically shouted his reply.

  “Hear me out!! She left during the night! She left on the same dragon carriage you came in on! She paid for your stay and left a bag for you on the way out! She actually paid enough for you to lodge here for several days, so there is no problem whatsoe—”

  “No…problem…you say?”

  The innkeeper had tried to take care not to provoke Subaru, but the words he chose enraged him further.

  “There damn well…is a problem!!”

  Raising an angry voice, Subaru slammed his arm against the bag on top of the counter and clutched his head.

  Welling up inside him was distrust. Doubt. Anger. Sadness. The irrational feelings wrestled with one another in his head as Subaru tore at his black hair and looked up to the sky.

  “Rem… What… What the hell are you thinking…?!”

  The fact that even the person who knew him best had failed to understand him weighed down on him as he wailed in despair.

  6

  To Subaru.

  By the time you read this letter, you will no doubt be quite angry with me.

  I will not ask you to forgive me for leaving you to head for the manor. However, please understand.

  It is dangerous to bring you to the mansion as you are now. I am thinking not only of the state of the mansion but the state of your body, Subaru.

  Therefore, please wait for me here in Fleur village. I will be back for you when everything is taken care of.

  I have left behind all the money. I have already paid the innkeeper thoroughly, so you can stay for several days without any trouble.

  Please take care of yourself, and please wait until I return—I beg you.

  —From, Your Rem

  CHAPTER 3

  A DISEASE CALLED DESPAIR

  1

  —He’d been betrayed. Betrayed. Betrayed. Betrayed.

  “Rem, you idiot…!”

  When Subaru read the letter accompanying the bag left for him, he spat in irrepressible rage.

  He was sitting on a hard sofa in a lounge on the first floor of the inn. No one else was around. The reason for that was his prolonged, violent behavior. The innkeeper who’d led him to the lounge hadn’t even been able to look him in the eye when answering his questions.

  A wise decision. That moment, anyone who appeared in Subaru’s line of sight was his enemy.

  “And I thought…at least you understood me…!”

  The letter was written completely in carefully penned I-script. Subaru, who was still learning the written language, couldn’t read anything except I-script characters. Rem had been considerate in that sense, but in light of her abandonment of him, that only shoved Subaru’s heart deeper into darkness.

  The letter overflowed with concern for Subaru’s well-being, but so much sadness filled his head that he had no chance to realize that. He gleaned only one thought from reading the letter.

  “Even you think I’m useless and powerless, Rem…”

  His conversations at the Crusch residence, his dialogue with Rem the previous night, and Emilia’s lecture in the royal capital came rushing back to him. Words upon words piled on him in their voices, berating Subaru for his helplessness and incompetence. He’d brushed them all aside and seized the perfect opportunity to prove to them Subaru Natsuki’s value—or so he had thought. He’d thought that at least Rem believed he was worth something, yet…

  “Yeah, I get it…! You’re tellin’ me that I’m dead weight, so you’re cutting me loose… And if I don’t believe you, you want me to look at how much I’ve been relying on you…!” Subaru spat, clenching his teeth as he rose to his feet.

  The luggage and the allowance Rem had left were lined up on the table in the lounge. There was quite a lot of money in the sack. Apparently Roswaal had left a small fortune in Rem’s hands. With that much money at his disposal, Subaru wouldn’t have any trouble with daily necessities for quite some time. He knew that was exactly what Rem had in mind when she left it with him.

  She underestimated him. Did she really think she could betray his trust, leave him with nothing but money, and expect him to meekly kneel and submit? There was no way he’d do as she pleased.

  No, Subaru was coming up with all kinds of ways he could use money to break the stalemate.

  “If I hire a dragon carriage and driver, I might be able to get to the mansion… That said…”

  Rem had made careful preparations to trip up any such plans Subaru might have. According to the innkeeper, that village didn’t have any establishment that could lend a dragon coach. In addition, the appearance of the “fog” had thrown off the schedules of carriages that regularly connected the various villages.

  There was no dragon coach at any price. No doubt Rem had begun planning everything out as soon as they’d lodged at that village inn the night before. It was as if she was laughing at Subaru’s paper-thin knowledge, politely smashing his options flat one by one…all to strand him in that village and stop him from returning to the mansion.

  “Then I’ll just have to hoof it… That’s stupid. I don’t have a map, and I can’t deal with monsters.”

  If bandits or demon beasts appeared, that chapter would be over. He’d seen world maps several times over, but he didn’t know the local lay of the land. Wandering around aimlessly would reduce his chances of arriving at the mansion to practically zero.

  It was all a result of his own ignorance. Subaru’s lack of education and strength kept letting him down.

  He had never anticipated having to deal with bandits and demon beasts to begin with.

  The fact that he’d never carried even a single sword on him was proof of that. He’d had Wilhelm instruct him in the art, but he could do nothing with that training if he set out empty-handed.

  Subaru hadn’t taken such normal, prudent measures because he was relying on Rem.

  The price of an overnight stay at an inn was far less than the fare for a dragon carriage. Even if he had a small fortune, his inability to procure something of value made it worthless.

  It was the cost of his lack of education, which was the direct result of Subaru’s letting numerous opportunities to study slip away.

  “Well, I can’t help that now. I’ve gotta do what I can with what I have.”

  Subaru himself was the root cause of the stalemate keeping him penned in. His knees bounced in annoyance as he tried to pretend he wasn’t well aware of that fact.

  “So no hoofing it. I have to get a dragon carriage… There’s gotta be a way. Think.”

  Subaru put a hand to his forehead, desperately reviewing everything he’d seen and heard in that world and everything he’d learned from the people in his origin
al world, trying to come up with a plan.

  “—”

  He ran through every memory and shred of knowledge in his head, focusing all his body’s resources above his neckline. Then he looked at the possibilities that might exist for breaking out of his cage.

  “This village…has no establishment that can lend a dragon carriage. The regularly scheduled carriages aren’t available…meaning…”

  The village was now occupied by its original residents, travelers who’d arrived by regular carriage, and—

  “Maybe there’s someone who came in on their own dragon carriage, like Rem and I did, who stopped over?”

  If anyone were to enter and leave the village freely, they would have to have their own means of transportation. That very inn had stables for the use of its guests; his thought couldn’t be far off the mark.

  “To have a dragon carriage you’d have to be rich… No, a merchant would be perfect. A merchant who hasn’t settled down is either working for someone else or a peddler going around with a horse-drawn wagon. That’s just basic.”

  The lantern light of Subaru’s extinguished hopes began to flicker once more.

  To find the right person, Subaru immediately went to the innkeeper and explained. At first, the innkeeper was reluctant, but he introduced several merchants, albeit with a strained expression.

  “But most traveling merchants will be intent on shipping goods to their destination. I don’t know if any would be willing to take on someone as a passenger…”

  “Well, I’ll give it a try anyway. Thank you very much for telling me about them.”

  Thanking the considerate innkeeper, Subaru visited the traveling merchants one by one.

  —But in line with the innkeeper’s concerns, negotiations proved very difficult. Just as he had claimed, they had little inclination to alter their travel routes, but the situation was far direr than that. Each and every one responded to Subaru’s suggestion the same way, shaking their heads.

  “The Mathers dominion? Sorry, but I can’t go there now,” said a very scrawny man as he ended negotiations with Subaru.