Chapter 71.2
In front of the corpse’s shattered skull, a young girl was kneeling .
Having fallen from such heights, no human flesh could survive the impact without shattering . His black hair, along with the contents of his scalp, were splattered over the ground, blooming into a crimson flower of death .
{――――}
The sensation of his consciousness being switched wasn’t surprising anymore .
He had expected this the moment his awareness was forcibly cut .
But what he did not expect was the sight he would be presented with when his consciousness awoke――
[???: Spewing nonsense until the very end…… when nothing… can……]
Fallen to his death, Subaru’s body was sprawled out over the ground . Standing beside him, spitting this out, was a girl with peach-colored hair――Ram .
Her usually impeccable grooming had been flustered, and visible rips and tears riddled the ends of her maid’s uniform . On her face, which she had always consciously kept expressionless, was some unbearably complex and enraged emotion .
Rather than regret for Subaru’s death―― it was closer to fury at this outcome .
Ram violently scratched her head, and turned around .
[Ram: So, was this all according to your designs, Beatrice-sama? You stood in my path just so he could……]
[Beatrice: ――――]
Just as she was setting off her accusation, Ram’s face stiffened as she stopped mid-sentence .
For reflected in her light-pink irises, was Beatrice, kneeling beside Subaru’s corpse . Unworried about dirtying her dress, the girl just sat there on the ground―― while Ram’s gaze wavered, seeing her like this .
[Ram: Beatrice-sama……]
[Beatrice: ――why]
She softly murmured .
Paying no mind to Ram’s existence, Beatrice single-mindedly kept her eyes on the dead Subaru .
Tears were trailing from the corners of her blue eyes, even Subaru could see it .
――Beatrice was crying .
The fact plunged a knife of guilt into Subaru’s heart .
Feeling the depths of his non-existent eyes heat up from the heart-gouging pain, he wanted to run up to that small, little girl, and say something, anything to her .
Yet he lacked the legs, arms, and mouth to do so .
[Beatrice: You… aren’t, that person…… I know that… at least…… but……]
Her face devoid of expression, Beatrice whispered as if in a daze while the teardrops continued to fall .
Before that heart-rending figure, Ram gave up trying to say anything further . She exhaled a sigh, and turned her scornful eyes towards Subaru’s corpse, and its neck, bent upwards at an outrageous angle,
[Ram: What nonsense… Love us―― you’re truly beyond saving]
※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※
{Witness, a present that was not to be}
※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※
As if the very air was being frozen, a white, misty cold presided over the world .
The frozen forest broke apart at every gust of wind, and, unable to maintain their existence in this mana-starved environment, all was returning to dust .
The trees, the streets, the creatures, and the world all fell to white, crystalline particles in the sweeping gale, as the White End slowly consumed the earth .
{――――}
This time, Subaru was witnessing the ending of the world .
Mirroring the white void that was his consciousness, the world awaited its cold and merciful end .
Except,
[???: ――So, you’ve come]
The sombre voice, quaking the atmosphere as it bellowed, was one of agreement .
Immediately, followed the deafening boom of earthshaking tremor as the impact of the behemoth’s fall reshaped the landscape . Trees snapped and toppled, shattering upon each other like icicles as the the forest was wiped into flat, barren land .
The one that flattened the frozen forest was an enormous, four-legged, almost feline creature coated in grey fur .
Half of the beast’s overflowing teeth were broken, while white mists escaped the gaps between its sword-like fangs . Collapsed onto its side, its radiant, golden irises turned to look at something in front of it .
And, with trembling, almost convulsing motions,
[Beast: A shame…… I knew this would happen, and yet I couldn’t change a thing]
[???: ――I’ve more or less grasped what had transpired . Indeed, it is regrettable]
The beast spoke, not to lament its defeat, but simply in knowing acceptance of the truth . And, it was a strikingly clear and elegant voice that replied .
In a world that was ending, that voice did not suffer the slightest loss of vitality or strength . Standing tall and straight, with red hair fluttering in the ivory wind, was a blue-eyed youth .
[Youth: Emilia-sama and Subaru are no longer in this world, I take it?]
[Beast: Lia is sleeping, eternally . A world without that child has no reason to exist . And I, having failed to protect that child, am just as guilty as that man――]
[Youth: So for that reason, you would destroy the world?]
[Beast: I knew that I would be obstructed . But doing so was my oath]
Unsheathed from its dragon-talon scabbard, the glinting steel was pointed at the beast’s snout―― at Puck, in his true form, while, wielding it, the Sword-Saint Reinhard quietly shook his head .
Harbored within his saffire eyes, was a deep, and compassionate sorrow .
[Reinhard: I understand your regret . And I feel the same . But that does not mean you may ruthlessly vent that regret upon this land . Your actions, and your oath would bring chaos to this world . ――And I shall never permit it]
[Puck: Because that would be unjust?]
[Reinhard: Yes, because that would be unjust . ――I am the exemplar of Justice . The sword to rectify error . And thus, I shall slay you here . Great Spirit-sama]
Despite their overwhelming disparity in mass, which side the balance of power favored was too plain to see .
Even Puck, in his true form, failing to marr Reinhard’s unfazed expression, was on his dying breaths . By simply drawing a silver arc with the point of his outstretched sword, Reinhard’s blade would carve the spirit’s existence in two .
Expelling an outward surge of his Swordmanship-Aura, Reinhard was loudly proclaiming this fact .
[Puck: ――kh]
The sound led Reinhard to furrow his brows .
Even Subaru’s disembodied consciousness felt something akin to confusion in his scant emotions .
Brief and intermittent, it was difficult to make out what that sound may be .
Difficult, simply because it was so hard to believe that it was precisely what it sounded like .
[Puck: Kh, kheheh……haha, hhahaha!]
[Reinhard: ――What’s so funny?]
With his throat trembling, and on the verge of death, Puck’s face twisted as he burst into laughter .
Even with his life and death in another’s hands, and having had his actions impeded, Puck was laughing . Unable to fathom his meaning, Reinhard asked this question .
But Puck only seemed to find his reaction even more hilarious .
[Puck: What’s so funny? It’s funny, of course it’s funny . Reinhard, you…… no, what would this upstart possibly know?]
[Reinhard: …………]
[Puck: I remember now . How it was meant to be . It took me long enough to understand it . And, having understood, when I saw how you still don’t know, it’s so funny I couldn’t help myself]
There was something different about the tone and volume of that statement that was completely unlike Puck .
For Subaru, who had plenty of memories of seeing Puck in his cat-form, this was the first time he had heard such malice in his words .
This was different from his loathing towards Subaru and Petelgeuse after Emilia was killed . At that time, Puck was still Puck .
[Reinhard: ……I will make sure that there are no more casualties . If you want someone to hate, then hate me]
[Puck: I don’t hate you, Reinhard . You are a hero . And a hero has a hero’s role to fill . I don’t resent or fault you for following your creed]
[Reinhard: ――――]
[Puck: You are a hero, Reinhard . ――A hero is all you will ever be]
At the end of the end, he uttered the most spiteful remark of them all .
With the fall of the last syllable, Reinhard lifted his sword over his head, and in a single flash of his Swordsmanship―― from the glint of his blade’s edge an intense heat shot out .
Cleaving through the air, piercing the atmosphere and shattering the earth, the maelstrom of up-swept mana severed everything along the line of the swung-out blade―― and, as the light settled, the world parted before Subaru’s disembodied eyes .
[Reinhard: ――――]
At the close of the torrential sword-slash, the world that was covered in the white, encompassing cold was born anew .
The parted world was mended, as the spiral of mana faded into a ring, returning to the atmosphere . From the shattered earth, flowers budded and bloomed . The pierced-through air was imbued with warmth, as sunlight peered from the severed sky .
The Sword-Saint’s strike simultaneously brought about the world’s end as well as its rebirth .
――While the colossal beast that was rent by that strike vanished without a trace .
Indisputably present only moments ago, the enormous body was gone, and no indication of its destruction remained .
{――――}
With a shrill ring, Reinhard returned his Knight’s Sword to its scabbard .
The wind caressing the bangs of his red hair, Reinhard squinted his eyes as he looked up to the sky while spilling an all but inaudible sigh .
[Reinhard: ――Felt-sama will surely be saddened]
He whispered, closing his eyes .