CHAPTER 1
LOVELOVELOVELOVELOVELOVELOVELOVELOVELOVELOVELOVEME
1
The whisper of love echoed.
It sweetly, gently echoed against his eardrums, his brain, his heart, his soul.
“—I love you.”
The whisper of love was muffled.
Did it come from a man or a woman—? Even this was left vague.
But beyond any doubt, this whisper of love was directed at Subaru Natsuki and he alone.
A black wriggling shadow spoke to him softly.
It took the shape of a person, clad in a dress the color of darkness, with long raven-black hair. The shadow stared at him with an inky sable face.
Everything composing the shadow ensnared Subaru’s mind and body, smothering him in sweetness.
“—I love you.”
His thought process had ground to a halt. Subaru had even forgotten how to breathe. All he could manage was to simply gaze forward, unable to make the slightest move.
A dense miasma made his skin prickle as the terrible spectacle of the Sanctuary sank into shadow. Like a small animal encountering a menace so overpowering that it struggled to breathe, Subaru was trapped in a world that had lost its vitality, ripped out by its very roots.
Subaru knew this place. He had tasted its agony and despair over and over again.
This was the world that always appeared whenever he broke the taboo, a place where time stopped and the Witch—
“—I love you. I love you.”
As Subaru was frozen in silence, the shadow slowly extended a finger toward his cheek.
He couldn’t avoid it. The issue wasn’t the shadow holding him down or anything like that.
His inability to move was because Subaru’s own flesh and blood would not permit it. Subaru’s soul refused to offer any resistance against the shadow.
Accordingly, the shadow touched Subaru as it pleased.
“—I love you. I love you. I love you.”
Subaru couldn’t sense any malice from the shadow. There was no animosity. But this wasn’t because it was indifferent toward Subaru.
Indeed, quite the opposite.
The shadow inundated Subaru with an overwhelming level of adoration that bordered on madness.
It was blind, almost stubborn devotion—enough to make a person ask, Why go to such lengths? Subaru felt like he was being blotted out by the inescapably crazed passion—in that moment, the shadow had no interest in anything besides Subaru.
“—I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you.”
The whispers of adoration swirled around inside Subaru’s skull like they were caught in a vortex.
Love stirred his eardrums. Love drenched his brain. As love filled his consciousness to the brim, love was also boiling his soul until it fell to pieces. It was an assault by love, a slaughter by love, a violation by love.
“I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you I love you I love you I love you I love you I love you I love you I love you I love you.”
Love controlled Subaru. Love had enslaved Subaru. Love was robbing Subaru of every drop of love he had—
“—Hey, stop screwin’ around!!”
Suddenly, an unspeakably destructive force wedged itself between Subaru and the shadow’s loving embrace. It crashed violently into the shadow, shattering the blackened earth. As a dark shock wave erupted, the impact sent Subaru flying directly backward.
“Whoaa—?!”
Tumbling across the hard ground after landing, Subaru finally came to a halt when he slammed into an old graveyard wall. Once he gave his head a good shake and looked up, he noticed his mind had been freed from the supernatural fever that had gripped him only moments earlier.
Now that the static in his thoughts had cleared, he forced his eyes open to see what was happening. Then—
“This is seriously the worst-case scenario. Hey, can you move, damn it?”
—there was a voice. Subaru spotted golden hair and a short person backing away from the shadow.
Subaru recognized that abrasive tone and overflowing readiness to leap into battle. He remembered the sight of the peculiar stance that kept the body low to the ground and those bared fangs. The realization that he knew this person shook Subaru to his core.
Even in his wildest dreams he never would’ve guessed who would come to shield him from peril.
“Garfiel… Why are you…?!”
“You serious? In this situation? Don’t make me laugh. Definitely not my first choice, but no way I ain’t pickin’ ya up.”
Garfiel reacted to Subaru’s shock with annoyance. Still wary of the shadow before him, he grabbed Subaru’s collar even though the boy was still in a heap on the ground.
“We’re jumpin’. Might break your neck but just grin ’n’ bear it!”
“That really isn’t somethin’ you can just grin and b—?!”
Before Subaru could finish his quip, Garfiel tensed his knees and launched upward, drawing a “Gwah!” of agony out of Subaru as they escaped into the air—and a moment later, the shadow on the ground swelled up and exploded.
Rapidly gaining mass, the black shadow billowed into a wave that chased the flying pair, threatening to smash them flat. The black wave engulfed everything nearby, scattering destruction over a wide area with dreadful force and scale.
The cascade was so fierce that the forest, the houses, and even the Witch’s tomb were indiscriminately swallowed whole.
“Don’t go bitin’ ya tongue now!!”
Subaru could only gape at the apocalyptic spectacle, but Garfiel didn’t falter.
Obeying his instincts, Garfiel continued bounding ahead in search of a foothold where they might find refuge from the wave. As the encroaching darkness cracked open the muddy ground and knocked over one tree after another, they leaped and leaped and leaped—
“C’mon! C’mooon! Hoaaaa!!”
As the black wave mowed down the forest—tearing up the very earth and blotting out the ground wherever it passed—everything Subaru could see was churned up and consumed by the shadow as it seemed to grow large enough to envelop the entire world. That was when Garfiel finally arrived at their destination.
There was a lone stonework house left standing at the edge of the settlement in the Sanctuary.
The moment he touched down onto its roof, Garfiel tossed Subaru some distance away while continuing to draw ragged breaths.
“Aww, damn it all!! That bastard…!”
“Th-thanks for saving me…”
“The hell? You sure don’t seem like the type who’d say thanks. Ya got a problem or somethin’, huh?”
Garfiel bared his fangs at Subaru, who was crawling along the roof. Looking up at the ferocious darkness forming overhead, Subaru grimaced. The discomfort he felt was showing on his face as well.
“I ain’t complaining… It’s just…I didn’t think you’d save me, so…”
“Ha! Treatin’ me like I got no heart or somethin’. The Rose Knights of Tileos have no need for cradles, y’know? If ya don’t like it, go ahead and jump right into that thing’s bosom.”
“Sorry, I’ve already settled on a favorite bosom, so I’ll pass.”
Sighing at Garfiel’s jab, Subaru gently placed a hand on his chest.
Besides the incomprehensible situation, there was another reason that made his heart leap. Getting saved by Garfiel was a shocking development.
After all, Garfiel was supposed to be his greatest foe within the Sanctuary. The last time around, after rejecting Subaru’s declaration that he would challenge the Trial, he was the one had who incarcerated Subaru before training fang and claw on Ram, Otto, and the people of Earlham Village who had helped him try to escape.
He hadn’t forgotten the anger he felt. It had been unforgivable. This was his mortal enemy who he needed to defeat.
That was why Subaru had no idea why Garfiel was doing his best to save Subaru…
“Garfiel, don’t you…?”
“Don’t make me repeat myself. Can’t ya see the situation we’re in? Who gives a damn about our differences? Right now, what’s important is figuring out how to tear out that thing’s neck. Nothin’ else matters.”
When Subaru pressed the point, Garfiel brushed his idle concern aside with a quiet comment. His tone had been calm, but that’s exactly what instilled Subaru with the greatest fear he had felt that day. It was then that he belatedly realized the fire blazing in Garfiel’s jade eyes…
Rage, indignation, fury—the intensity in those eyes immediately brought those words to mind.
As Garfiel nursed those emotions, Subaru finally found the words to ask the question he ought to have brought up earlier.
“—Garfiel. What happened to Ram and the others?”
“
”
“By the time I came out of the tomb, the surface of the whole area had been swallowed up already. You’re here in perfect shape, but where’s everyone else…?”
“…They’re inside the shadow.”
After Subaru raised his fears, hoping they would be laid to rest, the only thing that came back to him was a cruel reply.
As Subaru’s breath caught in his throat, Garfiel made a growl of remorse and said, “It came out of nowhere. By the time I noticed what was happening, everything was already covered by the darkness. As for me, if Ram hadn’t sent me flyin’ with her wind, I probably would’ve gotten caught up in it, too.”
“…You mean…Ram just got caught by that thing? Ryuzu and Otto, too?”
“Yeah, that’s right. The old hag, the noisy dude—everyone.”
“And…Emilia…?”
“”
Garfiel offered no reply for the trembling Subaru. That was all the answer he needed.
Below where they stood, the ominously undulating shadow continued its encroachment upon the Sanctuary. Stunned to see the treetops of the forest steadily sinking, Subaru forgot to breathe.
Everything was being engulfed by the pitch-black body. What happened to everything that was swallowed by that darkness? The hope that the people inside were only unconscious was dashed the moment he took a good hard look.
Subaru could only imagine that the chances of finding survivors inside the shadow were despairingly bad.
“Wh-what the hell’s going on…? How could…at a time like this?”
—The Bowel Hunter, the Beast Master, the Great Rabbit…and Garfiel.
Subaru had come flying out of the tomb ready to defy any disaster that threatened to befall him. After obtaining Echidna’s cooperation, he had hardened his resolve to face and overcome any obstacle that stood in his way.
…Naturally, he had decided all that completely unaware of the incomprehensible entity before him now.
“Why here, why now…?!”
Subaru glared at the center of the swirling shadow that was devoid of rhyme or reason. He screamed with everything he had.
“Tell me why the hell you’re here—Witch of Jealousy!!”
His ears had heard the name over and over. He’d felt the being’s existence countless times before.
The stories handed down for generations named her as the worst of all calamities. She was the one responsible for Subaru’s suffering. She was the root of all evil—the shadow that had engulfed Emilia and the others was none other than the Witch of Jealousy.
“Think. Thinkthinkthink. If I don’t do something, figure something out and—and—and defeat it somehow…”
Pounding his dull-feeling head, Subaru desperately searched for a path to victory. He had to drive back the shadow and retake the Sanctuary now enveloped by darkness. What for? You’ve already lost Emilia and the others in this world.
“—Ah.”
Subaru, slammed by the internal thought, made a slight sound in his throat.
In contrast to Subaru’s roiling emotions, his inner voice had delivered an exceptionally cold-blooded judgment. It was mocking him for stubbornly clinging to a doomed world that had already gone past the point of no return and demanding that he take logical, decisive action.
What would we do even if we did manage to overcome this? There’s no way to go on. Not in a world like this.
“…Bastard. Tryin’ to say there’s no point in comin’ after me?”
“Wha…?”
With one murmur from Garfiel, Subaru’s deep introspective thoughts vanished. Not bothering with the young boy right beside him, Garfiel turned his sharp, jade-colored eyes toward the shadow.
“Scratch that. This bastard isn’t even looking this way! After doin’ all this, now ya head outside and ignore me, huh?!”
Garfiel roared, practically spitting blood at the humiliation. But the shadow paid him no mind. Like he had said, it was already attempting to leave the Sanctuary, exiting the forest.
After displaying such obsession earlier, the shadow suddenly wasn’t even acknowledging Subaru’s existence as it proceeded out of the Sanctuary. Unable to discern what the true intent might be, Subaru was left confused—then he shuddered, as if struck by a thunderbolt.
A sudden flash of inspiration came to him without a single factual basis. And yet, he knew there could be no mistake. He could declare with absolute certainty that…
“—To the mansion.”
“Ah?”
“The mansion! That Witch, she’s trying to head for Roswaal’s mansion!”
The memory of the Witch’s whispers of love as well as how that it had intruded upon his thoughts even as it violated his mind and soul all came roaring back.
The goal hadn’t been to love Subaru. The purpose was to dive deep inside of Subaru in search of everything that he cared about, to understand those things.
The ultimate goal was to rob the world of everything Subaru might turn his love toward, monopolizing his affections.
“As if I’d let you do whatever you want… We gotta—we’ve gotta stop her…!”
Stop her how? asked the cold, whispering inner voice, but he stubbornly flung it aside.
Stop her how? Figure out a plan; then just stop her, obviously.
He had to find a way to strike down that Witch. It wasn’t pointless. There had to be some meaning in trying to stop her.
“Garfiel! Can’t you attack her?! Slow her down somehow?!”
“Now the idiot asks… Stop runnin’ your damned mouth! Me, I’ve been slammin’ every attack I could think of into that thing for ages! Nothin’ gets through that shadow dress. Doesn’t even leave a scratch!”
“If Garfiel can’t…”
Even what seemed like a surprise attack hadn’t inflicted any damage to the Witch.
If even Garfiel’s mighty blows had no effect, it was very possible that the shadow dress nullified physical attacks. If that was the case, only magic would work. And the top contender for that was—
“I’ll tell ya right now, there ain’t a single reason to look for that damn Roswaal. The only ones left in this forest are me ’n’ that legendary lady Witch.”
“Even Roswaal?! You’re sure?!”
“The old hag’s house and the Cathedral are both gone, down to the last brick. Can’t rely on the loon. It’s just us.”
Even if he was far from full health, Roswaal was unmistakably a powerful man. Unfortunately, Garfiel curtly cut down the optimistic image Subaru had in mind.
If they couldn’t even rely on Roswaal’s aid, the overwhelming power required to win simply didn’t seem to exist.
This was the worst Witch, the one who killed even the other Witches of the Deadly Sins and swallowed half the world.
“Can’t we…do anything? At this rate, even the mansion is gonna get…”
Everything would be engulfed, stolen by that shadow, mercilessly trampled.
Was there something, anything, Subaru could do besides despair—?
“—Wait.”
Watching the Witch grow distant, Subaru had the odd sense that something was wrong.
Was there really no way to stop her? Was there well and truly no move that might come to mind? Think, remember, consider, recall. Find the one thing that only applies in this particular place—
“—There’s the barrier.”
“…What?”
“The barrier! The Witch of Jealousy has to fulfill the conditions to pass through the barrier covering the Sanctuary! The tomb’s Trial hasn’t been cleared and she’s a half-elf!”
It was said that Satella, the Witch of Jealousy, was a silver-haired half-elf.
This fact had caused Emilia to endure irrational discrimination from a great deal of people. At the same time, it was the stories about those notorious features passed down from four centuries ago that made him certain the Witch of Jealousy would be bound by that forest.
That said, if the Witch turned out to be something like a vestigial mind with no physical body, things might not go the way he hoped—
“—No need to worry ’bout that.”
The certainty behind the murmur made Subaru raise his eyebrows. After seeing his reaction, Garfiel clicked his fangs together.
“The Witch has a physical body. Right now it’s just like the root of Balgren’s left wing, ain’t it?”
“…You mean, like, it’s a weak point?”
“Ain’t got no other meanin’! Yeah, yeah, yeah, I got it now!”
Slapping Subaru’s shoulder as if praising him for his insight, Garfiel smiled ferociously and carried on.
“She’ll be beggin’ under that disgusting veil when I finally tear her head off!!”
2
The Witch of Jealousy brazenly advanced straight toward the boundary of the Sanctuary, dragging shadow behind her.
Chasing after that vast body of shadow, Subaru—or rather, Garfiel carrying Subaru—set out, traversing the treetops and circling around the Witch’s path.
“Don’t know how much effect the barrier’ll have, but if she weakens even a little…”
Garfiel’s claws would have an opening. If that was the case, even the Witch of Jealousy would not escape unscathed.
Subaru was confident because he had personally experienced what it was like to face Garfiel when he was in his beast form. He needed no explanation to know that a single blow from the bestial Garfiel contained overwhelming raw power.
The only other thing they needed was a way to guarantee the two would clash. And for that—
“Garfiel, she’s drawn to me. So…”
“Hey, if you’re tellin’ me to use ya as a decoy, I’ll bite your fingers off one by one.”
Leaping through the forest from branch to branch, Garfiel chewed out Subaru over his proposal. Faced with his standoffish attitude, Subaru was daunted for a moment; then he lobbed an angry retort.
“I’m not sayin’ this as some kind of joke! Barrier and decoy! They’ll make our chances better, even if only a bit! Isn’t that right?!”
“Oh, shaddap. If you’re gonna be that ignorant, I’ll throw ya overboard right now.”
“—!! You should know already! About the miasma coming from my body that attracts it…”
Irritated by Garfiel’s stubborn attitude, Subaru brought up the miasma swirling around him on his own. Surely Garfiel could not refute an argument made on that basis. However…
“The old hag! And Ram! And everyone else… They all got swallowed up right before my eyes…!”
“—!”
“Like I’m gonna live with the shame of lettin’ even a bastard like you join ’em! The scars of Pararagurara never fade! No way, no way in hell I’d accept that! These scars’ll be carved on the Witch’s heart!!”
Eyes bloodshot, Garfiel vented his raging emotions as he adamantly pushed away Subaru’s plan.
Garfiel’s anger stemmed from stubbornness—the pointless kind, at that.
Subaru understood why the inner voice of his cold, callous side spat out that Garfiel’s insistence was worthless. But the rest of Subaru couldn’t laugh at him at all.
After all, unlike Subaru, who had arrived late to the scene, Garfiel had witnessed the horrors with his own eyes.
Watching Ram, Ryuzu, and all the other people he cared about get swallowed whole, vanishing within the shadow.
But even after so many precious people were stolen from him, Garfiel refused to use revenge as an excuse to throw all decency aside. He wouldn’t tolerate any talk about a victory that involved sacrificing Subaru.
If this was indeed the rationality and conviction at Garfiel’s core that guided his actions—
“Then how could he be capable of doing that to everyone—?”
How had he ended up killing the brave villagers and Otto when he shielded Subaru in such a cruel manner?
When he, too, knew full well the pain of losing something precious, the sadness of loss…
“We’re here.”
With no answer to that question forthcoming, the pair arrived at their destination.
They had chosen a tiny open space within the forest as the site of the decisive battle. The forest had been clear-cut there, leaving the waning moon and the stars overhead as the only audience to witness the Witch of Jealousy’s return to the stage.
Behind them was the barrier; ahead of them, Subaru sensed the wriggling shadow drawing closer. The Witch was headed straight toward them. All that remained was to counterattack—but there was a simple problem with that.
“Garfiel, what are you gonna do? The barrier affects you the same way, right?”
Half-bloods—mixed-blood demi-humans—could not go past the forest’s barrier. That applied to both Garfiel and the Witch. If he was weakened, it wouldn’t matter how much power the Witch lost.
In response, Garfiel took something out of his loincloth. And that something was—
“…A crystal? That’s yours?”
“I don’t owe ya an explanation. Just shut up and watch. Gonna put this early risin’ Witch back to sleep so fast that we won’t need decoys or anythin’ else.”
The crystal glimmered blue—a glimmer he had laid eyes upon several times amid the twists and turns surrounding the Sanctuary.
He knew that Garfiel possessed one identical to the one Frederica owned. In earlier laps he had been through in the current time loop, Subaru had seen those crystals change hands several times over. Even now, he still didn’t know the finer details surrounding the items, but—
“—! Who’s there?!”
The faint sound of footfalls landing on grass made Subaru instantly turn around. It was not the Witch. The direction and the mental pressure were far too different to be her. However, that alone wasn’t a reason to lower his guard.
“…Huh?”
And yet, the instant he set eyes upon the newcomer, Subaru’s caution was blotted out by shock.
“”
A thicket parted and a young girl emerged.
He had seen her before. The long pink hair and a white poncho-style outfit. Her ears were a little longer than those of the average person, making her impossible to mix up with someone else.
This was Ryuzu, the representative of the Sanctuary who had allegedly been swallowed up by the shadow.
But there was no way this was Ryuzu. What Subaru saw next completely refuted that possibility.
“Is this…some kind of joke…?”
Multiple figures stepped barefoot onto the grass and made their way through the underbrush. Every single one wore the same clothing, the same expression, the same demeanor—in fact, all of them were perfectly identical.
More than twenty perfect copies of Ryuzu appeared from all directions.
“”
The great throng of girls bearing the same face as Ryuzu were silent, not speaking a single word. Their expressions unchanging, the girls gathered together and stood in a loose row at Garfiel’s back.