Re:ZERO -Starting Life in Another World- Vol. 15 Read online

  “Get along nicely and wait, okay? And always, always reaaaaally get along.”

  “Yes, yes, you worrywart. But don’t make us wait too long. That would put me in a serious bind.”

  “No, there is no need to hurry. Take your time. We shall wait for as long as is required, Lady Emilia.”

  With the smiling pair—With her parents seeing her off, Emilia took a deep breath.

  Then, unable to hold it in any longer, she turned around, looked straight at the two of them, and parted her lips once more.

  “—I love you both.”

  3

  —From a plateau with a view of the entire lake, Emilia stood, gently caressed by the wind.

  “”

  She was closely watching the intimate couple on the distant shore at the other end of the lake with her violet eyes, which her mother always praised so much.

  Geuse said something without realizing the impact of his words; Fortuna went red in the face as she refuted him. Emilia pursed her lips as she watched the lightly amusing scenes. And then—

  “Emilia, isn’t it dangerous for you to be here all by yourself?”

  —hearing a familiar voice call out to her from behind, Emilia looked back. She was standing atop a sheer cliff with the lake spread out below it. Facing her was a handsome young man with golden hair and green eyes—Archi Elior, one of the elves living with them in the Great Elior Forest and, to Emilia, practically her own brother.

  “Archi…”

  “—Somehow, your voice and face seem different, Emilia. Did you leave your usual head-in-the-clouds-ness off by the wayside? You’re starting to worry me.”

  “Hmph. That’s a terrible thing to say. Stupid Archi. I don’t know you. Go away.”

  “Sorry, sorry. If you’re seriously worried about something, then I’ll seriously hear you out, all right?”

  Faced with Emilia’s sullenness, Archi flashed a pained smile as he raised both hands in surrender and walked in her direction. Then he stood alongside Emilia upon the cliff. “What’s wrong?” he asked, tilting his head.

  “Today Lord Archbishop was supposed to come to the forest, yes? Weren’t you with…? Ahhh, isn’t that him over there? Er, did you give them some time alone, by any chance?”

  “…Mm, that’s right. What do you think of them, Archi?”

  “I think they’re a good match. Everyone in the forest thinks so, too. Lady Fortuna is so strict with herself, even though we would prefer it if she thought of her own happiness more…”

  As he shared those thoughts, Archi reeled in shock, for he had caught sight of Emilia’s wet eyes and the tears ready to spill out from them.

  “Ah, um, Emilia, it’s not… It’s all right! Even if Lady Fortuna and Lord Archbishop were joined together, they would never forsake you!”

  “…It’s not that, stupid.”

  “Not that, huh…? Ahhh, then, er, how about this? Certainly, it might be difficult right now, and I do not know how many years must pass in the meantime, but someday, both of them will—”

  “—Time.”

  As Archi hurriedly tried to comfort her, Emilia lifted her head, lips quivering.

  If they’d had time, the distance between Fortuna and Geuse would have narrowed. To be blunt, the current speed of progress seemed no faster than a snail’s pace, but eventually, the day would surely come when they would be together.

  When that day came, everyone in the forest would celebrate. Of course, Emilia would celebrate most of all, and if possible, she wanted not only the people of the forest but the people of the entire world to celebrate the couple.

  That would be a world of peace, of tranquility, of freedom in all things, where everyone could smile together—

  “—But that world doesn’t exist.”

  Lowering her eyes rimmed with long eyelashes, Emilia touched her hair ornament as she murmured—the floral hair ornament she had inherited from her mother, of which two should not exist in that world.

  Her mother, all dressed up and waiting for her on the lakeshore, wore the very same hair ornament.

  In other words, this was a place apart from the forest that had already met its snowy end, an unknowable, idealized future—

  “…Looking at this unknowable present, have you not thought, I want to live here?”

  “Archi…”

  “Here, I, Lady Fortuna, Lord Archbishop, and everyone else are living safe and sound. No tragedy will ever befall this place. It is a happy world. Emilia, you could have a good life here, too, free of worry and hurt.”

  To Emilia, who had realized this was a false world, Archi raised a gentle plea for her not to make such a sad face. That he found nothing suspect with his own theory was proof itself that this world was a sham.

  It would have been a lie to claim his plea, Archi’s plea, didn’t sway her heart.

  “Surely, you want the two of them to be happy. Surely, you want to live here to see it. After all, this is your ideal present…the future you yourself desired.”

  “The future that I… Yes, I think you’re right. I’m sure you are.”

  She wanted Fortuna to be happy. She wanted Geuse to make her mother happy.

  If only everyone in the forest could smile together, if only she could get along nicely with Archi, to always be in such a world of happiness.

  —If only she could pretend not to know, to somehow forget her mother’s tragic demise and Geuse’s unspeakable grief.

  “Lady Fortuna has already passed away. Lord Archbishop’s well-being or lack thereof is unknown. Everyone in the forest has been turned to statues of ice.”

  “…Yeah.”

  “Our homeland has been frozen over, blocked off to all outsiders, and now you have even parted ways with the spirit who was like family to you.”

  “”

  Emilia closed her eyes as she digested the words Archi was speaking to her.

  It would have been easier for her if that voice reproached her.

  It would have been easier if it had blamed her for her errors in judgment, berating her for her poor thinking, to insult her for her shameful lack of gratitude—but Archi had puffed out his chest and said he would do no such thing.

  What infused his voice was not anger. Instead—

  “Even though you could be happy here… Even though you wanted this world… You poor thing…”

  —all he wanted was for Emilia to be happy, to be at peace.

  It was exactly as he’d said. This was a world that existed for no reason other than to make Emilia happy…

  “…Sorry, Archi.”

  “—Why do you desire a future that will hurt you so much?”

  “I don’t want to be hurt. I’m searching for a future where I don’t have to be hurt, where I don’t have to run, hide, or push things away, where I can hold hands with others.”

  “And the wounds you suffer? The pain? What you have lost will never return. Will you search for such a thing even so?”

  “”

  Even Emilia had thought of what it would be like to have no one think of her as detestable. Many times over, she’d wanted to cast all the pain and suffering by the wayside.

  The earnestness in Archi’s words gently and deeply touched upon scars that covered Emilia’s weak heart.

  “…I want people to think I look cool.”

  “Emilia?”

  Doubt crept into his voice. Archi seemed like he did not believe his own ears.

  Emilia lifted her head, staring straight at her kin, at the man who was practically a brother to her, and spoke with the determination she felt.

  “I want to be like Mom, who I look up to so much. I want to be gentle and strong, like Geuse. I want to be like Granny Tanse and the others, who were never mean to me even once. I want to be like Archi, who smiled to the very, very end so that I wouldn’t get scared.”

  “”

  “I want to be like Puck, who kept protecting me so I wouldn’t be alone. I want to be like Ram, who wants to work harder
than anyone else for the person she holds dearest. I want to be like Otto, doing his utmost for the sake of his friend. I want to be like Garfiel, who refuses to speak one timid word or complaint.”

  “Emilia…”

  “And I want to be like Subaru, who suffers and gets all beat up, who’s always reckless—who told me he loves me.”

  Emilia was weak and pathetic and always failing, but even so, she wanted to do everything she could for the people she wanted to be with—for the people inside and outside the forest, for those who once walked alongside her and for those who would stand by her from now on.

  “I want those people to think I look cool. I want to reach my hand out to the others the way so many people assured me that things would be all right.”

  It was time for the girl who had always been saved by others to start saving them.

  The boy who always endured so much for Emilia’s sake had put his trust in her, promising that everything would turn out all right in the end.

  —That was why Emilia would live in the outside world.

  “I’m all right. I’m not afraid of the outside world. I’m not afraid of the future.”

  “”

  “Thank you for worrying about me. I’m…all right, Big Brother.”

  Being called that made Archi open his eyes wide. Emilia smiled, seeing his surprised face.

  She’d always thought of him as a brother, but shyness and her defiant heart had kept her from calling him that even once.

  But now there was no reason to be embarrassed by those sunny feelings. She could boldly say what she had always felt.

  In Emilia’s forest homeland, she had a mother, a father, and an older brother—she had a family.

  “—You…”

  Faced with Emilia’s charming smile, Archi kept trying to say something. But the flood of complicated and mystifying emotions within him dissipated without taking any definite shape. After all—

  “Emilia, you’re so stubborn. Once you’ve decided on something, you never listen to anyone. I wonder if you have any idea how hard that was on Lady Fortuna and the rest of us?”

  “Wahhh… I’m really sorry about that.”

  “It’s fine. I mean…”

  Then Archi’s words trailed off as he smiled. His face contained not worry but a beaming smile.

  “It’s an older brother’s place to indulge his little sister’s selfish ways.”

  “”

  The way he spoke with a smile on his face made Emilia truly feel the depth of his love. Just how many times had she been protected, and just how much love and tranquility had she received?

  “Thank you, Big Brother.”

  All of Emilia’s and Archi’s feelings were encapsulated in the smiles they exchanged.

  Then she turned her back to him, standing atop the cliff once more. From that vantage point, she could see Fortuna and Geuse in the distance, as well as the surface of the lake immediately beneath her.

  “”

  Suddenly, the two noticed Emilia in the distance and waved to her. She waved back.

  Burning the sight of them happily together into her eyes, her mind, her soul, and her memories, she left it all behind.

  “—Thank you for showing me this world, Echidna.”

  She was speaking to Archi, standing behind—No, this was not Archi. She spoke to Echidna the Witch.

  “”

  Including Archi, who was aware of far too many details that he should’ve never known, this entire world was an illusory space to begin with. Remembering the Trial, Emilia understood this was not reality.

  Perhaps the mother, father, older brother, and everyone else she saw here were all nothing but fabrications.

  Even if that was true, Emilia still felt gratitude in her chest.

  “Maybe this is a world that could never exist, but I never thought I’d see the day that Mom and Geuse…that Mom and Dad could be together like this, smiling side by side. So thank you.”

  It scared her to acknowledge this as an unreal, fleeting dream.

  However, even if it was a world that would never come to pass, Emilia had gotten a chance to see the happiness that had been possible.

  In this world, she had felt joy, love, and a happy sadness that sent shivers through her whole body.

  She was glad from the bottom of her heart that she got the opportunity to bear witness to everything she had seen here.

  “…You…”

  Responding to Emilia’s words of thanks, Archi—No, the voice was feminine; it was the voice of the Witch.

  Emilia’s memory of being hated by her during the course of the first Trial was still fresh. She’d half given up on hearing her voice in that world, let alone seeing her face.

  But there, the Witch appeared in that transient world at the very, very end, and her voice trembled.

  “Echidna…?”

  Turning around, Emilia faced the Witch head-on. That same moment, Emilia wished she hadn’t. When she turned around, there stood Echidna, her expression so raw, it made Emilia regret seeing it.

  —For Echidna was simply standing there, staring at Emilia with a face ready to break into tears.

  “I hate you—I just…hate you.”

  “”

  Emilia didn’t comment on the hesitation she detected in the words Echidna wrung out.

  Then, right before Emilia’s eyes, Echidna’s body became hazy. Like a ripple moving along the water’s surface, her existence became distorted, and the Witch’s form seemed to melt as she retreated from the world of illusion.

  There was nothing left behind. With the one who had supposedly been Archi gone, wind and time began to flow once more.

  “Echidna…”

  Having instilled such bitterness that she had wanted to say nothing, Emilia clenched her own chest with her hand. From there, she put her breathing in order; then she turned back toward the cliff one more time, peering into the water below.

  She saw her reflection on the distant surface of the clear, shallow lake. Her heartbeats grew stronger, faster.

  Simultaneously, she instinctively understood how to bring the second Trial to an end.

  “”

  Between this world and the one she really belonged to, what part was different yet the same? The only answer was Emilia herself. She was the only foreign element in either world.

  The way to end the Trial was for Emilia to find herself and seek out a way to acknowledge, accept, and understand that self.

  Her memories of the past ended when her homeland froze over and she fell into a deep slumber. Until the present day, over a century had passed—and in all that time, Emilia had never once set eyes upon her grown-up self.

  The reason was simple. She was simply…afraid. She was too afraid to look.

  When she awoke, the aging her body had undergone conflicted with the memories she had lost. Her clumsy, unfamiliar body terrified her immature heart, and the way the people living close to the forest treated her drove that fear deeper still.

  Her features inevitably drew comparisons to the Witch of Jealousy, and Emilia spent that time in misfortune. This made people uneasy, so they persecuted her, causing her to harbor even greater fear than before.

  She deliberately avoided mirrors, and she’d trained herself to not even look at the reflective surface of water.

  —As part of her contract with Puck, he picked how Emilia would groom herself each day.

  Normally, he hid everything under his aloof, frivolous demeanor, but this, too, was actually all to protect Emilia’s fragile heart from reopening old wounds.

  “Truly, just how much have people been protecting me…?”

  How much had she failed to notice while she’d been sulking all on her own?

  The time she’d spent ignoring the love others gave her had finally come to an end.

  “—!”

  With resolve in her heart, Emilia closed her eyes, and moments later, her feet left the ground.

  In an instant, gravity d
ragged her floating body downward, pulling her into a fall upside down. The rushing wind entwined her long silver hair around her body. Her figure was perfectly straight as she plunged headfirst—hurtling toward the water below.

  She felt goose bumps on her skin. Sensing the surface of the water was close by, Emilia opened her eyes.

  It was just in time for her to drink in the sight of the silver-haired, violet-eyed girl reflected by the clear lake’s surface.

  It was as if she was resolved to greet the end of the world head-on. Then, quietly, she widened her eyes further.

  “—Huh.”

  A disappointed voice trickled out.

  Her face reflected in the water, the face of the little girl who had grown so big, drew nearer and nearer with every passing moment.

  Emilia let out a soft sigh and muttered.

  “That’s too bad. I look less like Mom than I thought…”

  An instant after that sulky murmur, Emilia crashed into the watery mirror.

  She would never let go of the happiness she found. However, the world of dreams from which she had to depart had finally come to an end…

  4

  —Neither the cold nor the impact of breaking the water’s surface receded when Emilia’s mind returned to reality.

  When she came to, the first thing she saw was the small, cold room in the dimly lit tomb. Lying upon her side, Emilia blinked again and again, thinking back to the Trial that had ended a moment before.

  Perhaps it had been an illusion. The scene was one that could have existed, and that fact made her chest throb.

  “My feelings for Mom, for Dad…for Big Brother and everyone else I hold dear—those haven’t changed.”

  If anything, her feelings for them had only deepened and grown stronger. She kept these emotions stored away in her heart, and she would carry them with her forevermore.

  Her resolve had crystallized. Both of Echidna’s Trials had given her something precious.

  The words of thanks she offered the Witch were not false in any way.

  “…With this, the second Trial is over. That’s good, right?”

  As she rose to her feet, Emilia set aside her questions about Echidna’s final actions for later.