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

  Her whisper was not a joke or a taunt, either. Every technique she witnessed in battle did not work a second time. Having already foreseen this second straight kick, the woman avoided it with minimal movement as she lined up her next attack: a backward slash with her blade.

  That blow, apparently intended to serve as punishment for foolishly resorting to the same technique a second time while fighting a powerful foe, hit its mark.

  “Rrrrraaa!!”

  In that same instant, Garfiel’s foolish kick slammed right into the woman’s face.

  “—Ngh!”

  She bit down to suppress the groan of pain that threatened to escape from the back of her throat. Her knife had entered his right foot, carving his flesh all the way up to his femur. If he’d been even slightly slower, she would’ve no doubt sliced off the entire leg. But for that price, Garfiel had landed a clean blow on the woman.

  In the battle up to that point, Garfiel had grown to admire—and trust—the skill of Elsa, his foe.

  The excellence of her technique, her overwhelming combat intuition, the physical abilities she’d honed, and the impossibly fine control over her own body—few could claim to be as strong as this woman. He was certain that if he showed her the same technique twice, she’d definitely see right through it. It was this absolute trust in her ability that allowed Garfiel to land a direct hit on her.

  He was sure he’d torn the woman’s sultry face. Even if it did not end her life, it would leave her gravely wounded and unable to continue combat. But Garfiel did not let his guard down. After all—

  “—Aaagh, that hurt, and quite a bit. Makes me appreciate being alive.”

  “Damn it, this ain’t no joke. What is that body of yours made out of?”

  As Garfiel sighed, Elsa let out a heated breath of excitement. She was touching her left hand to her face as if to suppress the bleeding, and when she slowly lowered it, anyone watching would have expected a wound underneath terrible enough to make the faint of heart avert their eyes. But it was not so.

  When she removed her left hand, Elsa revealed her face didn’t even have a scratch, let alone any bleeding.

  “The general called ya a woman who wouldn’t die even if one killed her…but this is just messed up.”

  “I suppose it is. Even I feel slightly apologetic about my physical nature. It seems to be robbing everything you do of all meaning… I wonder, do you hate women like me?”

  Hearing how disconcerted Garfiel was made Elsa slightly incline her head. The tone of the question made Garfiel abruptly furrow his brows.

  It was slight, minute, but he felt some part of Elsa’s tone of voice was filled with sadness.

  “Even as I move about, my wounds heal, and I feel neither pain nor fatigue, allowing me to continue fighting without limit. Do you feel fighting such a woman lacks any meaning? I wonder, do you really think of me as someone you can test the results of your training against?”

  “—Hell if I care.”

  The throwaway tone of Garfiel’s voice made Elsa widen her eyes in apparent surprise. She blinked hard, which momentarily made her seem much younger. Garfiel crinkled his nose as he spoke again.

  “You’re my enemy. And me, I’m the super-strongest shield who’s been assigned the toughest enemy. I got the general and the woman I fell for expectin’ a lot from me. I ain’t givin’ up from a little setback like this.”

  “You…”

  “I’m gonna blow you away, Elsa Gramhilde. Don’t matter how many times ya come back.”

  Baring his fangs and keeping his legs wide apart, Garfiel adopted a fighting stance as he howled.

  Garfiel’s caustic words left Elsa silent for a time. She let her refined eyelashes fall just a tiny bit as she touched a hand to her own mouth—he heard a laughing voice.

  “Huh? The hell are you laughin’ at?!”

  “Tee-hee…! Ah, er, I am quite sorry. I heard some unexpected words, so I could not help but find them amusing… Yes, you seem to be a very good boy.”

  “Don’t treat me like some little kid. Me, I’m a fine man. A grown male.”

  “Oh really now? You hardly look fully developed to me, either as an adult or a man…”

  As Elsa relaxed her cheeks, her ridicule drew a sour snort out of Garfiel.

  Garfiel couldn’t read Elsa’s emotions. To be blunt, he wasn’t interested in them. That moment, what was important to him was fulfilling his role—by beating the opponent before his eyes to a pulp.

  —In so doing, he would prove the Sanctuary’s mightiest shield could fulfill that role even in the outside world.

  “You truly are marvelous… But that makes this more the pity.”

  “The hell you talkin’ about?!”

  “Right now, your attention is directed toward me and nothing else. I wonder, how are your older sister and the others faring? You’ve been wondering the whole time, haven’t you?”

  Elsa’s comment concerned Frederica as well as Subaru and Otto as they scurried across the mansion.

  She wasn’t wrong. Certainly, Garfiel was worried for his friends. He could not deny that they’d remained in the corner of his mind throughout the fight.

  “I wonder, if the cause of your fear was cut away, would you look at me and only me? —In any case, your friends cannot escape from this mansion. You’ve realized this, too, haven’t you?”

  “…Seems like there are demon beasts crawlin’ all over this place. The work of your little helper, huh?”

  “My little sister. So long as her perimeter is intact, there is no way to escape. She worked hard and brought an entire horde of demon beasts. At this point, everyone could very well have been eaten down to the last morsel.”

  The entirety of Roswaal Manor was buried in disgusting scents and auras.

  He’d heard beforehand of the existence of a Beast Master who controlled demon beasts. Subaru and company must have tried using that repel crystal for barriers as a countermeasure, but the beasts still remained in the mansion that very moment. He knew from the faint tremors reaching his eardrums and what he could pick up from their auras.

  In other words, some kind of unforeseen problem had arisen. It no doubt had something to do with Elsa’s little sister, the Beast Master he had yet to personally lay eyes on. The more he thought about it, the deeper he sank into worry.

  “Really, you want to rush over to your friends this very moment, don’t you? Not that I’ll let you…but if the nervousness is dulling your fangs, that is very, very disappointing.”

  Garfiel, too, understood a warrior’s desire to battle an enemy at their finest. But Elsa was different. She thought like a huntress, using every power at her disposal to take down her prey.

  Considering her way of thinking, she probably thought the current situation put Garfiel at a disadvantage.

  —But that was completely off the mark.

  “Don’t get the wrong idea, lady.”

  “Am I wrong?”

  “You just don’t get it. Demon beasts are wanderin’ around, yeah? And what, you think I gotta go save ’em or somethin’? Stupid crap like that ain’t gonna stop the general.”

  Garfiel, supposedly unable to fight at full strength out of worry for his friends, seethed with an uncontainable heat that blazed within him.

  He boldly stepped forward, baring his fangs as he closed the distance between him and Elsa.

  “The general and his crew are the ones who gave me a royal poundin’. No matter how many demon beasts get in their way, they’ll just laugh and kill ’em all!!”

  2

  “Nowaynowaynoway seriously no way seriouslynoway, we’re totally done for…!”

  Practically out of breath, Subaru collapsed as he rambled in a tearful voice.

  He put Rem, who was on his back, over his knees, breathing raggedly as he lay low on the first floor of the mansion. Otto and Petra were right beside him, both completely exhausted.

  —In that moonlit corridor, their group had encountered the demon beast Gi
ltirau, and combat had ensued.

  Combat was a poor word to describe it. There was no way that Subaru and his current companions could land a blow on such a beast, so there had been no option but instantly fleeing. They’d tumbled into the nearest room, and seizing the opportunity when the monster’s huge frame got stuck in the entrance, they fled out the window into the yard, putting some distance between them and their hunter.

  From there, they’d returned to the mansion via a different room, but—

  “Th-that demon beast… Is it biding its time and patrolling the entire building…?”

  “It may have been assigned to guard this position… When we poked our heads out earlier, it was right here in the main wing. Combining the magic stones I had on hand with a spell to muffle our footsteps allowed us to somehow get away, but…”

  Even when resorting to such tricks to throw the monstrous guard off their trail, it would be difficult to avoid encountering the creature if they wanted to secure a reliable escape route.

  In addition to the abominable Giltirau, there were numerous demon beasts milling about the mansion. These lesser creatures could be driven off with repel stones, but if they encountered any opposition, the Giltirau would undoubtedly notice—leaving them in a vicious cycle.

  “This is what I get for operating separately from Garfiel, huh…?”

  “Please do not speak such timid words. After all, this very moment, Garfiel may well be howling in high spirits that we must be all right. We should at least respond with expectations equal to his.”

  “You’re so big on returning favors. You really aren’t cut out to be a merchant…”

  Hearing these words from Otto, who was in the best physical condition among them, Subaru flashed a wry smile as he stood up with renewed resolve.

  Returning Rem to his back, he found her body despairingly light. Carrying an unconscious person was a heavy burden, a fact that he’d personally experienced in this world several times over, but in her current state, Rem was the exception to the rule.

  He couldn’t feel her warmth or weight or much of anything at all. Her tenuous hold on existence even affected her physical body. Only the faint sounds of her heart and her sleeping breaths told him that she truly existed in her current state.

  If she fell off his back, he probably wouldn’t even notice. Fearful of this exact possibility, he put even more strength into supporting Rem’s body.

  “Subaru…”

  Petra moved closer to him, gently tugging on his sleeve with a somber expression.

  Petra, still so very young, had resolutely raced alongside them throughout the night of their lives without a single word of complaint despite the great danger.

  “A-are you all right?”

  Her pink lips were pursed as she posed a question—not out of concern for her own life but with words of concern for Subaru, so earnestly bearing Rem on his back, even as his own breaths ran ragged.

  Petra’s feelings were like a healing salve to Subaru. Without such salvation, he would never have been even half as determined to go on.

  Despair wouldn’t get them out of their predicament. Subaru Natsuki rose back to his feet.

  “Have you thought of something?”

  Perhaps seeing something in Subaru’s expression, Otto closed one eye and questioned him so. He didn’t even consider disguising the expectations and trust in the tone of his voice and his gaze.

  “”

  When Subaru looked over, he noticed Petra’s eyes, peering up at him, held the very same expectations and trust.

  Feeling those gazes on him, trusting without doubt that he must have thought of something, Subaru’s breath caught. Then he wore a pained smile.

  “Hey, come on now… Just what do you two expect me to do here?”

  After deeply exhaling, Subaru rocked his body, gently adjusting Rem against his back.

  Expectations—if he was to invoke that word, it was Rem who expected more from Subaru than anyone.

  That moment, he was carrying her on his shoulders. That moment, Otto and Petra were staring at Subaru, expecting something from him.

  He breathed out. Then he decided with his gut.

  “We were trying to run from this mansion, but that means blowing past that demon beast…that something-rau thing.”

  “However, it is difficult to defeat the beast with what we have at our disposal. What should we do?”

  Otto posed his question. Considering the capabilities of each person, the resources and techniques they possessed, and the mansion that served as the stage, how could they meet all the required conditions? Think, think, think—

  “We’re short on martial and magical ability—so it’s finally time for me to put my unparalleled modern knowledge to good use.”

  3

  At first, the demon beast—Giltirau, the Black King of the Forest—picked up a faint noise.

  “”

  It was a quiet, seemingly fearful sound…the sort of sound prey made as it clumsily attempted to sneak around.

  Hearing this, the Giltirau lifted its lion head upward, then almost seemed to sigh with raw disappointment.

  To the Giltirau, hunting was the very reason for its existence. It could think of no greater joy than to catch fleeing prey with its claws, plunge in its fangs, and drain the life from its mark to sate its empty belly.

  What mattered for the hunt was whether the prey was worthy of the fangs of the king.

  Hunting strong, sturdy, able-legged prey, taking it down through brute force—the current hunt completely failed to live up to those standards. Having its expectations dashed put the Giltirau in the most terrible of moods.

  Of course, it did not even think of defying the orders of its master. But it would obey those orders and nothing else. It simply owed a debt to the master, who had liberated it from the Curse of the Horn. Accordingly, it had listened to her request.

  Moving its nose around, the Giltirau pursued the sound of the footsteps as its prey tried to slink away.

  Defenseless. Thoughtless. Unrestrained. Futile. They were the footsteps of the weak, lacking any elegance whatsoever.

  “”

  The Giltirau sprinted with shocking agility that contrasted with its huge frame. Its four thick limbs did not make a sound as they trod upon the floor, a feat that brought into sharp relief why it was also called the Shadow Lion.

  Like an assassin, the Black King of the Forest was a silent nightmare as it raced, seemingly leaping through the halls of the moonlit mansion. The footsteps it followed gradually became less guarded, betraying no sign of noticing the death stalking so very close.

  The one making the footsteps was right around the corner. The king swung a claw just beyond that corner, a single blow that would rend the prey’s back apart, throwing its corpse to the ground, and expose its humiliation in full. However—

  “—?”

  Right after swinging its claw, the Giltirau paused, sensing something was off. The presence it was certain was there had vanished, and the only one standing in the corridor was the great and dignified king.

  The foolish, fragile, disgustingly weak prey had vanished, nowhere to be found.

  —A moment later, another sound of shoes reached its ears, and the Giltirau ferociously took up its pursuit once more.

  Its target was using the stairs, heading for the floor below. The sound of fleeing, running footsteps made the Giltirau reassess its prey ever so slightly—it had gone from intolerably weak to a fool worthy of killing.

  If its quarry had merely been running wildly, the beast would have settled for ending things with a single claw swipe, cruelly slashing the fool apart. However, this prey had refused the king’s mercy, willingly rejecting a quick death—and so it would die a thousand deaths instead.

  The Giltirau kicked off the wall of a landing, its huge frame seemingly dancing as it leaped down the stairs. The hulking monster gave chase, reaching the second floor before going down one more, pursuing its prey to the lowest floo
r.

  In the distance, somewhere beyond the building, it heard the voice of its master trying to call it back.

  “”

  For an instant, the Giltirau pondered that voice, but it prioritized the prey right before its eyes. It was this very prey that had earned the master’s ire. It would swiftly dispose of the fool and then rejoin her.

  —Die, foolish prey. This is the greatest glory for those who defy the master.

  Feeling a surge of emotion, the king forgot even to suppress its own sound as it sprinted. The thunder of its very powerful footsteps announced to its fleeing prey: The king, death itself, has come for you.

  Go ahead. Try to run. Flee pathetically in a panic. Show me your back, so that I may flay it open for you.

  Up ahead, it heard the sound of a door closing. The Giltirau did not hesitate to force it open by slamming its body home. This sent the door flying with great ease, and the Giltirau was greeted by a particularly spacious room.

  It was not a small, cramped room like the stupid, ignorant prey had fled into earlier. It was a spacious room where the Giltirau could swing its claws and leap around with its giant frame to its heart’s content.

  Perhaps the prey was finally invoking the last of its spirit to challenge the Giltirau to a duel. However, the prey was nowhere to be seen, and at the back of the room, the monster heard the sound of yet another door closing—the door of an entrance separate from the one it had destroyed, and connecting the guest room to a smaller one, had shut.

  In the end, that is all you have, thought the Giltirau, genuinely disappointed. The guest room came with a large table with a white cloth over it and, atop that, a row of lit candles. The flickering flames illuminated the king’s red face as, with heavy steps, it headed for the little room in back.

  Its vile tail, like a great serpent, sharply swung about, easily slicing the wooden door apart. Savagely springing its forelegs up, the Giltirau drew in its breath; it then pushed in with a roar.

  “!!!”

  Devastation. If there was a word worthy to describe what occurred in this sad tale, that was it.

  Absolute devastation.