After Subaru's first friendly interaction in this different world—a pleasant, heartwarming episode—one hour had passed. "What is the meaning of this?" Their investigation had stalled.
As Subaru faced the girl's cold stare, he scratched at his face, trying to find a way out.
"Even with all of my experience, I never thought that it would be this difficult…"
"You seem to have a really high opinion of yourself, but I haven't seen anything from you to prove it. No matter how you slice it, things aren't going well!"
"Nobody says, 'no matter how you slice it,' anymore…"
Pointing that out only made things worse, and the girl's stare grew sharper, at which Subaru shrank away.
Even though they had been searching for a little under an hour, for some reason, Subaru and the girl were back in an alley. Of course, there was a really good reason for this. There were several factors Subaru had discovered that made their search difficult.
First, Subaru didn't know his way around town. Given that he had just been summoned from another world, it was hard to blame him for wanting a pass on this one. Additionally, it seemed that the girl was unfamiliar with the area as well, and at least ten minutes were wasted with both having full confidence that the other knew their way around. It was pretty funny, actually, or so Subaru thought. But the way the girl was staring at Subaru, she didn't seem to find it funny at all.
Second, the characters and symbols written here and there…were completely illegible to Subaru. Given that Subaru didn't have any trouble communicating by speech, he hadn't thought all that much about it, but after a second look he saw that all around, here and there were handwritten symbols. Unless they were all some kind of "mystic charms to protect against evil magic" that tended to be popular, those symbols were probably letters for the common language. And because he couldn't understand them, he couldn't even read the road signs.
In other words, while a miracle common in most otherworldly summoning works of fiction is "for some reason our words and writing are mutually understood!", in Subaru's case, only half of that came true. But given that if Subaru hadn't been able to communicate through words he would have been as good as dead, it was hard to call his situation unlucky.
"Still, why do you have to raise the difficulty like that on me…? The world's not kind at all."
Rather than exhausting all options, it was more of a case of finding a series of critical problems before you even get started.
While despairing at making absolutely no progress over the past hour, Subaru noticed that his companion, that girl, was standing up by the wall of the alley with her eyes closed, paying absolutely no mind to him. Seeing her lips move as she muttered something a few times, he tilted his head in confusion.
"Wonder what she's doing…"
"Oh that? She's communicating with lesser spirits."
Subaru raised his eyebrows in surprise as the girl's gray cat suddenly reappeared right in front of his eyes.
"I thought that I hadn't seen you in a while, but you hadn't gone home or anything; you were here the whole time?"
"There's still a bit of time left before I have to go. Unlike those minor spirits she's talking to, I take my job seriously."
"Well that's quite honorable of you. …But, what are these uh…lesser spirits again?"
Going by the name, I suppose they're a rank down from regular spirits? Subaru thought.
As if agreeing with Subaru's musing, the cat, floating in midair, waved its long tail back and forth. "Lesser spirits are beings that, in a state prior to becoming real spirits, start to develop some knowledge. If, over time, they gain power and self-awareness, they'll become spirits like me."
As he nodded, listening to the cat's explanation, Subaru noticed that the area around the girl began to glow. The silver-haired girl was surrounded by faint lights that looked as though they were fireflies.
It was the kind of scene that most people would subconsciously hesitate to interfere with. It was like holy ground, whereby the influence of the supernatural, only what was sanctified was allowed to be.
In response to the scene, Subaru…
"Wow! That's so cool! Are all of these glowing things spirits?"
"Ah!"
…intruded on it without a second thought, breaking the fantasy of it all as he started talking to the girl.
As the girl cried out in surprise, you could see droplets of tears that formed in reaction, sparkling in her eyes. Then the girl's flustered state spread to the lights around her and…
"Oh, look at that. They're panicking."
The many lights started to flee this way and that before finally scattering and disappearing into the air.
"…Umm…"
Both Subaru and the girl opened their mouths, dumbstruck, searching for where the lesser spirits had gone. Quickly the girl tried to continue what she had been doing, but it didn't appear the lesser spirits were heeding her call anymore.
"Just look at what you did! They're gone! What are you going to do about this?!"
"Ah… Um… I'm sorry! It was my first time seeing spirits like that and I got a little excited. I mean, it didn't look like they were dangerous or anything."
"It was only safe because I had them under control. If you had done that to an inexperienced spirit mage, it would have been awful. In the worst case, the spirits could have gone berserk and…BAM."
"'Bam?'"
The girl was trying to admonish Subaru for not taking his actions seriously, but using the word "bam" wasn't exactly helpful.
"Oh, come on. There's no way those little sparkly things could be dangerous. Do you really expect me to believe that?"
"Well, to put it one way," Puck said, "I may look pretty cute…but it would only take two seconds for me to turn you into a pile of dust."
"Damn, spirits are scary!" A shiver went down Subaru's spine in response to the cat's peaceful-sounding death threat, and he looked back at the girl. "I definitely hope you don't happen to be so upset you set that cat on me or anything…"
"I would never use Puck for something like that. If I were going to be violent with you, I'd handle you myself… Ugh, it really looks like they aren't going to answer me anymore." Failing to establish a second contact with the lesser spirits, the girl, depressed, shook her head powerlessly.
"I suppose it's not helpful to ask this after the spirits have already gone, but what is it exactly that you were trying to do?"
"I was trying to see if I could get any information from them about what I'm looking for. They disappeared before I was able to ask, though."
"What, really?!" Subaru was struck speechless by the gravity of his mistake. Seeing that, the girl jumped in.
"Um, b-but… It did take some time and lesser spirits don't have the kind of clear awareness that regular spirits have, so I wasn't really expecting much, but… Okay, I'm sorry, that's a lie."
The girl's hesitancy to lie was in conflict with her desire for a positive outlook, so while she tried, she was unable to soften the blow. In fact, her struggle with herself only highlighted to Subaru his own stupidity. At this rate, he wasn't going to be able to do anything but slow her down.
This is bad, both considering the debt I owe and the fact that she's my one precious connection in this world… I'm gonna do my best to cling to this relationship and not let go…!
"From the look on your face, it looks like you're up to no good, but… did you think of something? Um…" In front of Subaru, who had found a questionable new sense of determination, the girl hesitated. Subaru tilted his head and stared at her for a while as she furrowed her brow, but it was the cat that came to her rescue.
"Ah, now that I think of it, we haven't told each other our names yet, have we? Should we introduce ourselves?"
"Oh, you're right. Well then, I guess I'll go ahead and go first!"
In an overly energetic fashion, in part to help cover up for his previous mistake, Subaru struck a pose and pointed to the heavens.
"My name is Subaru Natsuki! The ignorant and unintelligent, forever and everlastingly penniless! Nice to meet you!"
"Well, that doesn't inspire a lot of confidence, does it? Anyway, I'm Puck. Nice to meet you, too."
As Subaru put out his hand, Puck leapt into it with his whole body for a handshake. An onlooker would probably think Subaru was trying to squeeze the cat to death.
The girl blinked in surprise at Subaru's bold interaction. "It's rare to see someone who's willing to approach a spirit so easily…and your name is just as unusual. With black hair and dark eyes like that—just where did you come from?"
"Ha, I was waiting for you to ask that question. Given this trope, I'll have to say I come from a small country to the east!"
This is a pattern that has often come up in otherworldly fiction since times long past. A character will state that they come from a hidden country to the east, called something like "Zipang." There tends to not be that much interaction between countries, so if you say you've traveled to where you are from that country, it will make sense to most people. It's a magically convenient cliché.
"If you look at a map of the continent, Lugunica is the country farthest to the east, so…there's no country to the east of here."
"What, are you serious? We're at the ends of the east?! So…does this make this country my long-yearned-for Zipang?!"
"So you don't know where you are, you don't have any money, you can't read, and you have no one you can count on. I'm starting to think you're worse off than I am…"
While Subaru was shocked at this new development, the girl was also starting to look anxious. With every action she took you could see the element of her personality that made her want to help others. She probably couldn't help but be concerned about Subaru, who to her was looking more and more to be not only defenseless, but absolutely helpless.
The girl looked at Subaru again carefully, from the top down.
"Taking another look at you, you actually look like you're in pretty good shape. Um… Uh… Subaru."
"Huh? Oh. Yep, Subaru. That's my name." Having his name called in such a hesitant way for some reason felt like a fresh new experience to Subaru, and he couldn't help but stumble in his response. After clearing his throat to hide the fact that he was shaken up, he showed his biceps. "I do strength training every day. Since I'm almost always cooped up in my
room, I've got to do at least that much to stay in shape."
"I don't really get what you mean by 'cooped up in your room,' but you're from a high-ranking family, aren't you? Weren't you taught some sort of martial art?"
"I'm actually from an extremely ordinary middle-class family, but… what makes you think I'm from a high-class family? Do I exude some refined air of nobility?"
"Well, you do have a bit of a curious air to you, at least."
Subaru jokingly raised his hands as if to acknowledge the flattery.
But then the girl suddenly grabbed those hands, and Subaru, taken aback by the suddenness of her touch, had to hold back a squeak from rising out of his throat.
"It's also these fingers of yours, but your skin and hair are part of it as well. These aren't the hands of a commoner, and your muscles don't look like the product of hard labor."
Subaru blushed as the girl continued to poke at his hands, but understood. He was also impressed by her ability to see that he was not just simply a foreigner in a foreign land. As Subaru stood in wonderment, the girl continued.
"Black hair and dark eyes. I hear that is a common trait of the refugees from the south, but the fact that you are here in Lugunica with those traits means that you are able to live a life of luxury. Also, the craftsmanship of these strange clothes of yours is magnificent… So, have I got it right?"
As Subaru grew quiet, the girl put on a proud smile. Feeling admittedly drawn by the bewitching atmosphere she had made fitting of her beautiful smile, Subaru processed the contents of what she just said and made a reluctant face.
"If you're asking me whether you're wrong or you are right…you're absolutely wrong, but is there any way I can say it so you won't get hurt?"
"If I'm wrong, just tell me I'm wrong. If you don't, it's just going to be more embarrassing for me." The girl blushed as her earlier confidence transformed into embarrassment. As Subaru watched her go silent, he thought about how he was going to explain where he came from.
He could just say, "I'm a loser who was summoned from another world!" but given the precedent set by fantasy fiction about other worlds, that would open the gates for him to be labeled as someone who was wrong in the head. Looking back on the results of what he had said so far, he felt there was a significant risk in telling the truth.
"You don't have to think that hard about it, you know? If it's something you can't talk about, I won't question you any further."
Seeing Subaru struggling with what to say, the girl came to her own conclusions and didn't press him. Given that she had come to his rescue yet again in a way, Subaru grimaced, feeling all the more useless.
"But…really, this isn't looking very good," the girl muttered, in a nowweaker tone, a clouded expression on her face.
"…" Seeing that the girl could no longer hide how hopeless she felt, Subaru felt a faint flame light up inside himself. "What am I, an idiot? Well, yeah, I am an idiot. Just what have I been doing all this time…"
Right in front of Subaru stood the girl who saved his life. Hadn't he offered to help her out so that he could repay her? If that was the case, then how was he supposed to explain his total lack of support?
"Subaru?"
Seeing Subaru fall silent and looking troubled all of a sudden, the girl tilted her head and looked at him puzzled. Watching as with that motion her silver hair tumbled down off her shoulder, Subaru thought as hard as he could.
Subaru tried to remember what had happened when the thief ran through that alley as those thugs were stomping on him. Focusing on that instant in time, he needed to find something, anything that he could use…
"I have a few things that I want to check with you, is that okay?"
"Um…okay, yeah. Go right ahead."
"Thanks. I'm pretty sure I heard you mention it a few times, but this is the capital of whatever country we're in…right? So, basically it's the town that has the king's castle in it, and it's a really big place, is that correct?" Subaru asked, remembering bits of the conversation that he had had with the girl before.
While Subaru realized that his question must have sounded strange, the girl didn't interrupt and simply nodded a yes.
"So in this big city, there's a girl who appears to be making her living stealing things. By the look of her clothes, she definitely doesn't seem to be that well off… Now this may be obvious, but there's got to be a place where people like that live."
"…"
"Is there a place where crime is rampant, or something like a slum in the area…? I'm sure it's hard to exchange stolen goods for money without some connections, so I think there's a good chance she would have to go back to a place like that."
With the image of the thief burned in his memory, Subaru analyzed her from head to toe, and used all of the knowledge he had about fantasy settings to help form his hypothesis.
"So, I think rather than searching around aimlessly, we have a better chance if we aim for that, but… What's wrong?"
"I was just surprised. You really do have a good head on your shoulders."
"Well, rather than a logical conclusion, it's more that it's a common theme in medieval fantasy, but…if this is all it takes for you to start thinking better of me I have a feeling that I've got a long way to go…"
Despite Subaru's response, he seemed to be taking the girl's praise rather well.
While Subaru scratched at the side of his head to try to keep from showing how embarrassed he was, the girl nodded several times. "We'll go with your plan. Let's go back out to the main road and ask some people if they know of a place that's like what you described."
"We're already really behind as it is, after all. Let's hurry up and get going."
After Subaru and the girl looked at each other and nodded, they headed out of the alley and toward the main road. However, right before they could start their search for a spot where a lot of people who they could question were passing by, Subaru remembered something.
"I was just thinking… I know your cat's name now, but I don't think you ever told me your name, ha-ha."
While Subaru thought that bringing this up now might have not been the best time, the girl's eyes widened a bit in surprise. She then closed them, and after a few seconds of silence, said…
"…Satella."
"Oh?"
Subaru, who because of her silence had begun to think that he had made a mistake, was a bit late in reacting to her whispered reply.
In response, the girl turned away from Subaru and continued.
"I don't have a last name, so you can just call me Satella."
Her voice had no emotion in it. Because of her attitude, it was as if, though she was giving her name, she was refusing to be called by it. Through her actions, this girl, who gave her name as "Satella," was putting a distance between herself and Subaru more than she had ever done before.
Subaru, who already thought that he would feel more comfortable having a surname to call her by rather than having to use her personal name, felt that he really couldn't use that name at all. For the time being, looking for a way out, Subaru decided to avoid using her name entirely, and instead just use pronouns.
As he observed Subaru and the girl's exchange from the sidelines, Puck had one thing to say before slipping back under the girl's silver hair.
"…That's in really bad taste, you know," it muttered, though its voice did not even reach the girl's ears, let alone Subaru's.
7
Using the sounds of the bustling crowd as a guide, Subaru and Satella walked back through the alley they were in and reached the main road about ten minutes later.
Shifting his gaze this way and that, Subaru looked for who they should question first, when Satella, who stood beside him, pulled on his sleeve.
"Hey, Subaru…"
When Subaru looked back at Satella he saw that she had her gaze fixed on something on the other side of the street. Subaru looked in the same direction and realized what Satella was looking at.
I have a bad feeling about this, he thought.
Adding further weight to his fears, Satella continued, with a serious look on her face.
"…Do you think that kid is lost?"
Out of all the possible things that could go wrong with this plan, the final one had reared its head.
"…Well, uh…"
One of the several things that Subaru had discovered throughout the day was that the silver-haired girl standing next to him was an incorrigibly kind person. But, whether it was due to a curse or some other reason, she would not ever admit it herself.
Subaru sighed a deep sigh. "Let's just calm down a minute."
"What are we going to do if she gets up and goes somewhere while we're dillydallying?! We've got to go talk to her right away…"
"You know, that kindness of yours is a great virtue, and given the fact that I myself was saved by that kindness I really don't want to say this, but do you have any idea what situation you're in right now?"
Where Satella was looking, near the buildings across the street, there stood a young girl. She looked as though she was around ten years old, with shoulder-length brown hair that was very cute. If she smiled, the people around her probably would not be able to resist smiling back, but unfortunately, at the moment her eyes were filled with anxiety, and she looked moments away from tears.
There was probably an 80 or 90 percent chance that Satella's observation was correct. Subaru was sure it was, but…
"There's also that my screw-ups are partially at fault, but the thief who stole from you is just getting farther and farther away from us. If we waste any more time here, by the time we catch her, she might already have sold it and then we'll have no way to get it back."
"You're probably right…but…"
"Then…"
Certainly it would feel bad to just leave the girl like that, but with all of the other people around, the chance that someone else would help her was high. On the other hand, Subaru and Satella were pressed for time, and needed to gather information to continue their search.
No matter how he thought about it, their current plan should have priority over helping that little girl, but…
"But don't you see, Subaru? Look at her, she's crying."
"…"
"If you don't want to stick around with me, that's just fine. Thanks for everything you've done, Subaru. I'll figure this out on my own…after I help that little girl." While Subaru stood at a loss for words, Satella looked like she had already made her decision. The way she said it, it wasn't as though she was saying that Subaru just didn't understand and she was tired of him, but that she felt guilty for forcing Subaru to play along with her unreasonableness.
Her silver hair dancing behind her, Satella trotted off across the street to where the little girl was standing. The girl, who had been looking down with her teary eyes, noticed that someone had suddenly come to her side. There was a glimmer of hope in her eyes as she looked up, probably because she thought the person she was looking for had found her.
"I'm sorry I'm not the one you're looking for," said Satella as she knelt down to talk to the girl, whose eyes opened wide in surprise.
But in those eyes was not a feeling of relief, but a feeling of fear. You could tell, even from far away, that being spoken to by a stranger had caused her heart to shrink away, afraid.
"I'm sorry if I'm bothering you, but where are your father and mother? Aren't they with you?"
It looked as though Satella had noticed the girl was afraid, and her voice was in a tone that was kinder than Subaru had ever heard it before. However, it wasn't enough to convey her concern to the girl, who had lost sight of her parents and was now shivering because she did not know what to do.
"Umm… Uh… Please don't cry. I won't do anything to hurt you, okay?"
Satella tried to keep open the girl's heart before it shut completely on her, but it didn't seem to work, and the little girl only shook her head back and forth. The tears that had welled up in her eyes looked as though they were about to overflow, when…
"Now feast your eyes on this magnificent notched ten-yen coin!"
"Huh?" said Satella, surprised by the sudden voice that had leapt in, and when she looked up, there was Subaru in his gray tracksuit.
Subaru first smiled weakly at Satella's reaction, and then turned his smile from her to the little girl. The sudden intruder had also surprised her. Subaru then put out his right hand in front of her.
"Now, can you see this coin here in my right hand? I bet you can! All right, now I'm going to squeeze it tight. Like this…squeeze squeeze squeeze…"
"Wait, Subaru…what are you…?"
"And would you look at that!"
Ignoring Satella's interruption, Subaru took his fist where he had been holding the notched ten-yen coin and opened it wide for the two to see. When he did, the coin that should have been in his hand was gone.
"Wow! The coin I was squeezing is gone! Now where could it have run off to…?"
The little girl blinked a few times and then stared hard at Subaru's right hand, but whether she looked at the back of his hand or his palm, she couldn't find it. Subaru, emboldened by the girl's reaction, nodded, and then reached out with his left hand and gently brushed his fingers through her hair.
"Would you look at that! So this is where the coin was hiding."
When the little girl saw the coin resting between the fingers of Subaru's left hand, she was stunned.
Satella, who couldn't figure out the trick, was just as confused.
Subaru took a magnificent bow before the two and then dropped the notched ten-yen coin in the little girl's hand.
"I'll let you keep it as a present. It's special, so take good care of it, okay?"
Subaru looked on with a smile as the little girl held the coin close and nodded vigorously.
As he was doing so, Satella poked him in the side. "Hey, Subaru…"
"Don't look at me like that. I mean, I'll admit what I said before was a bit harsh but…"
"How did you do that?"
"Oh, you mean that? You're not questioning my motives, but how I did the trick?"
Subaru promised to explain the trick later to Satella, who looked very interested, before turning back to the little girl, who was looking very curiously at the ten-yen coin. It seemed like Subaru's amazing magic had helped calm down her anxiety. When Subaru knelt down and asked her a few questions, she answered them quickly and clearly.
"I see. So you got separated from your mother, huh. Don't worry, don't worry. Just leave it to your big brother and sister. We'll find her right away!"
After giving the girl another pat on the head, Subaru held out his hand to her, and with a little hesitation, she grabbed it. Satella, who was watching, opened her eyes wide.
"You really look like you're used to this… Subaru, is your profession taming children?"
"When you take it out of context like that, that sounds really, really bad! And no. I'm unemployed."
Technically, Subaru had the incredibly convenient status of being a student. However, given that he hadn't been going to school lately, and particularly now that he had been summoned to a different world, he didn't really feel that he was qualified to call himself that anymore.
But, regardless…
"So, big sister, how about you hold this lonely little girl's hand? She looks like she could use another friend," said Subaru with a wink. The little girl had reached her other hand, the one that was not holding on to Subaru's, out to Satella.
Satella looked surprised for a moment and held her breath, but then let it out and took the little girl's hand in her own. "Right. Don't you worry. Just let your big sister handle this. We'll definitely find your mom, okay?" Satella said, smiling at the little girl as she nodded silently.
Subaru and Satella led the girl along, with her between them, and the three continued down the main road through the waves of people together.
"The way we are now, don't you think there are some people out there who look at us and think that we're a young couple with our child? How embarrassing!"
"…Huh? Even with the benefit of the doubt I don't see how anyone would think that you and that girl are anything other than brother and sister…"
"I can't tell if that's just a really dry joke, or that's really what you thought I meant!"
As Satella and Subaru went on talking, the little girl between them let a small smile spread across her face.
8
Fortunately, perhaps because they really stood out as a group, it didn't take long before they found the little girl's mother. In this case, it wasn't only Subaru who stood out, but also Satella, with her silver hair and extraordinary beauty.
"Thank you so much!"
Once the girl's mother was reunited with her child, she thanked Subaru and Satella several times, though they smiled and played it off as if it were nothing.
As the little girl and her mother were leaving, the girl looked back and waved good-bye several times, and Subaru and Satella waved back. Subaru turned to look at Satella, as she stood beside him waving to the girl, and saw that she had a bright and cheerful expression on her face.
"Now, I get the feeling that we've wasted a lot of time doing this, but what does our big sister have to say? I'm sure she'll find some kind of way to describe this as a means to an end!" Subaru said in an orchestrated manner, snapping his fingers and making fun of Satella's all-too-kind nature.
Of course, he wasn't really criticizing her; it was more that he was just poking fun. After all, Satella had given such a roundabout excuse for why her encounter with Subaru was useful, so he was curious to hear what she would say.
"…It's simple." In response to Subaru's teasing, Satella smiled. "Now we can be in a good mood as we continue to search."
"…"
"Even if we got my badge back, I'm sure I would have regretted not helping that girl. Don't you think it is better to both help the girl and get my badge back?"
It didn't look like Satella was just saying that to keep her own hopes up. She looked so refreshed she probably believed it.
With that kind of response, Subaru really didn't know what to say. He would have to rethink his opinion of this girl.
Not only was she the type of person who was so kind she always ended
up losing everything, she also was the type of person who wanted to have it all.
"I see. You're right. Thanks to your quick decision, we won't have to say, 'Sure, we abandoned that little anxious crying girl all lost and by herself, but we were able to get the badge back, safe and sound, hooray!'"
"Well that's a really negative way to put it," said Satella, frowning, then glaring at him as though she seemed to have remembered something. "But besides that… Why did you help me? I thought you were against helping the girl, Subaru."
"I just wanted to show off my ability to do magic tricks! …Which is, of course, a lie. Didn't I say so before? I'm going to help you find your badge so I can do my good deed for the day and go to heaven."
"But since you helped the girl, doesn't that count for your good deed for the day already?"
"That's a very good argument! But I mean, it's not like I'm limited to one a day or anything. I can do more. So anyway, I'm going to do enough for tomorrow today! I'm actually planning to get this whole week out of the way!"
Subaru had the feeling that he was getting away from the true meaning of this whole "do one good deed a day" concept, but he still tried to make an argument. Satella stood by, shocked.
"Subaru…with a personality like that, you're going to end up losing everything one day."
"You're the last person I want to hear that from!" Subaru shouted, flipping her words back toward her, but Satella just tilted her head in confusion.
Apparently she really just didn't get it. "You really are a nice boy, aren't you?"
"You know, it kind of bothers me that you're treating me like I'm younger than you. I know that a lot of people think East Asians are younger than they are, but we really can't be that different in age, can we?"
Subaru thought that by a rough estimate Satella looked to be about seventeen or eighteen years old. Given that Subaru had a rather early birthday compared to others in his age group, he was seventeen and thought that it was possible she could even be younger than him.
But in response, Satella narrowed her violet eyes slightly and said, "However old you think I am, I don't think that you're very close… After all, I'm a half-elf."
"…"
Subaru was at a loss for words. Seeing his response, a number of complicated emotions flashed across Satella's eyes. Finally, the emotion that settled was an ineffable mixture of resignation and hopelessness.
"I see. No wonder you're so cute. After all, it's like a given in fantasy worlds that elves are always beautiful."
"…Huh?"
Subaru finally nodded, having come to his own conclusions about Satella being a half-elf. Satella blinked her eyes several times. Her expectations had completely missed their mark.
"Hmm? What's wrong?"
"It's not that anything is wrong, it's just…I mean…I'm a half-elf, and…"
"Yeah…I heard you the first time."
Unsure of what Satella had a problem with, that's the only way Subaru could think to answer, but Satella's reaction was dramatic.
"….ah."
Satella made a strange sound in her throat, before suddenly turning away from Subaru, finding the nearest wall, kneeling beside it, and holding her silver-haired head in her hands.
In the face of such an inexplicable reaction, Subaru just didn't know what to say.
"Take that!"
"Ow! What the hell was that for?!"
The gray cat, which as always seemed to come and go as it pleased, had punched him in the face with its paw like it was reenacting a fancy fighting move.
Puck purred, flicking at his whiskers with the same paw he had punched Subaru with. "I don't know, I just felt this overwhelming frustration and couldn't keep it bottled up inside of me."
"If that's the only reason, it's going to be hard to get rid of the feeling that a great injustice has been done to me, but it was a soft and squishy punch, so I forgive you."
"I mean, I'm not really mad at you or anything. If I had to say one way
or the other, I'd say it's the opposite." "The opposite?" said Subaru, confused.
"Yes, the opposite," Puck said with a nod.
But before Subaru could ask what Puck really meant by that, Satella had returned.
Twisting the ends of her silver hair in her fingers, Satella glared at Subaru.
"Subaru, you…nincompoop."
"Nobody uses the word 'nincompoop' anymore, and what have I done to be insulted by you?"
"Hmph. If you don't understand, that's not my problem. More importantly, we've got to continue our search."
With the subject of Satella's unreasonableness cut off without another word, Subaru looked irritated, but that irritation evaporated as Satella began to act more friendly and familiar. Subaru still didn't know why she'd had such a sudden change in attitude, but there were more important things to think about.
"Anyway, that episode with the little lost girl made it painfully clear— isn't this town just too big to be searching around for something in?"
"Well, it's the capital of Lugunica. It's the largest city in the nation. If I remember correctly, there are about…three hundred thousand people who live here, and a lot of others come and go." Satella answered Subaru's question in detail and with a hint of pride in her voice.
"I see, I see. Three hundred thousand people, huh. That's quite a lot… Thanks for the regurgitated information."
"Urr…" Satella muttered. It appeared Subaru's guess had been on the mark.
Subaru tried to use that new information to picture Lugunica's capital city in his mind. If it had a population of 300,000 people, then for a city in a medieval fantasy setting, it was quite large. Of course, that number only reflected the people who lived in the city, so after adding in traveling merchants and adventurers, the number of people at any given time would probably be greater than that.
As Subaru watched all of the people passing by from the side of the street, he was again astonished by the concentration of such variety in a group of people. There were half-humans, half-beasts, and regular humans all mixed together, and it really was like a melting pot of different races.
The fact that they had gotten lost in the alleyways for almost an hour wasn't just something to laugh about, either.
The area was so large and the roads so complicated that they really had gotten lost.
"In other words, we don't have any more room for error. We have already given up a big advantage to the thief, and if we get stuck again it really will be too late. So let's choose our next move carefully."
"What do you mean?"
"If we run around without some sort of plan, we won't get any results. For instance, if we go back to the place where your badge was stolen, we might be able to get more information out of people. Was there anyone who saw what happened?"
"Actually…I think there may have been." Satella put her hand to her mouth as if she had remembered something and then explained herself to Subaru.
According to Satella, her badge had been stolen in broad daylight, right in the middle of a crowd of people. If so, the theft was a bold move, but looking at the commotion on the street in front of him, Subaru thought that it wasn't necessarily a bad decision on the part of the thief. The more people there are, the easier it is to get lost in the crowd.
"Do you remember where it was stolen from you?"
"Yes, I think…it was this way."
Subaru followed Satella down the street. As they made their way through the confusion of the bustling crowd with its many different kinds of people, Subaru felt his sense of distance and direction taken from him just as quickly as when they had made their way through the maze of alleyways before. He felt as if he no longer had any idea of where he was walking. While the place they were in should have been one he had never seen before, Subaru felt a strange feeling that he had seen it before, and that feeling just wouldn't go away.
"Wait. No, I have definitely seen this place before."
Seeing the place that Satella had led him to, he scratched the side of his face and smiled a half smile.
The place where Satella had had her badge stolen from her was the same street corner to which Subaru had been summoned.
"This is where I was so confused I decided to go cool my head down in an empty alley, and then had my encounter with thugs A, B, and C…"
Remembering what had happened about two hours earlier, Subaru now mused to himself that amazing coincidences like this really did happen sometimes.
If so, he was in in luck. He had someone in mind that they could talk to.
"So that's the situation. I told her, 'Leave it to me!' and came over here to see you, Mr. Fruit Salesman."
Subaru spun around and pointed at the owner of a fruit shop on the side of the main road. The fruit that lined his shop was fresh, and just looking at it made his mouth water.
"…What, it's you again? I was hoping for a customer, Mr. Broke," said the shop owner with a cold glare that didn't seem fitting for one who dealt with customers on a daily basis.
The man wore a bandanna and was very muscular. He had a stern looking face and a deep, threatening voice.
To top it all off, he also had a white scar that ran down the left side of his face, probably left by some kind of blade. No matter how you looked at it, there was no way he was a respectable, law-abiding citizen.
That's why it was so surprising for him to be behind the counter of a fruit shop.
"Oh, don't be so cold, Pops. You were acting pretty nice to me not all that long ago."
"That's because I thought you were a customer. If I had known you had no money on you, I would have chased you out earlier, like I'm about to do now."
Subaru was trying to act like they were best friends, but the shop owner was having none of it. He waved his hand as if he was shooing away a bug.
"Oh, come on," Subaru sighed, relaxing his shoulders. "Are you sure you want to treat me like this? Haven't you noticed that I'm different from the last time I came here?"
"What's that?" said the shop owner, unsure of how to react as Subaru made a triumphant expression, nostrils flaring.
Subaru stepped aside and held both his hands out to show Satella standing behind him.
"Look at that! I brought someone with me! You may have chased me off once you learned I was penniless, but what do you think, now that I've brought in someone who just very well may become a new frequent customer of yours?!"
"Um, Subaru…? I hate to say this when you've got your hopes up, but I don't have any money on me."
"Huh, what, really? You're telling me that we were walking around the capital without so much as a single coin between us?!"
The shop owner gave a sigh as he looked at the two paupers in his shop.
"So? What was it that you wanted to say, now that one beggar's become two?"
"Well, actually, we're looking for something, and I wanted to ask if you could at least hear us out?"
"That was just my way of saying I don't have the time to deal with you people! Take a hint!" the shop owner yelled.
Subaru felt himself take some intense eardrum damage.
"Th-this wasn't a good idea after all, was it?" said Satella, shrinking away as she tugged on Subaru's sleeve.
It might be true that asking for help without buying anything was pretty selfish, but that didn't change the fact that they had no money to buy anything with.
Just when Subaru was about to give up on trying to get any information out of the man, he heard a voice.
"Hmm? Are you…the two from before?"
Subaru and Satella turned around. Standing right in front of them was a woman with long brown hair. It was someone they had both seen before; after all, the woman was not alone. Holding her hand was a little girl who looked very happy to see them.
"We are, but…why are you here in a place like this? The only other person here is this heartless, scary-faced man."
"Ha-ha… This is my husband's shop, so I thought I'd stop by and say hello."
"Your husband's shop?"
Subaru and Satella looked at each other, and then turned back to look inside the shop, their gazes finally settling on the scar-faced man, who had folded his arms.
"Pops…you didn't kill this woman's husband and take their shop, did you?"
"What are you going on about? This is my shop, and that is my wife!"
Subaru looked back in shock at the woman, who smiled, looking a bit unsure of how to react. She was a beautiful woman, with fine features and a gentle demeanor. This woman and that stern-faced man? There had to be some mistake.
He couldn't possibly be threatening her, could he? Subaru thought with a worried look. But despite Subaru's rude conjecture, the little girl who was holding her mother's hand darted past Subaru to the shop owner, who hugged her and picked her up.
"Oh, look at you! Aren't you all excited. Now tell me, do you know these two destitute beggars?"
"Beggars? Dear, don't call them that!"
After hearing her husband's sharp words, the girl's mother raised her eyebrows and began berating her husband. She then explained how she, her daughter, Subaru, and Satella had come to meet.
After hearing what happened, the shop owner set his daughter down.
"I'm sorry about that. That was not the way to talk to the people who saved my daughter. Please forgive me."
"Oh, don't worry about it. I mean, it is true that we don't have any money on us, and…"
"That's right, old man! I hope you think long and hard about your action…s… Um…your cute face looks pretty scary right now." A look from Satella shut Subaru up.
Right after that, the little girl reached out her hand to Satella. In her hand was a small ornament in the shape of a red flower. Satella held her breath, and looked from the ornament to the little girl and back several times, with a slightly troubled expression.
"Please, take it," said the mother, placing her hand on Satella's back, urging her on. "My daughter wants to thank you in her own way."
Satella nodded slightly and then took the flower ornament from the little girl's hand, and pinned it on the left breast of her white cloak, before kneeling down so that the little girl could see it.
"Thank you. I like it very much."
As Subaru watched Satella's brilliant smile from the side, he found himself unable to look away. Seeing that smile, the little girl blushed and looked away, and the shop owner, watching all of this, cleared his throat.
"You saved my daughter. I want to thank you. Ask me whatever you want."
With a strong nod, the stern-faced shop owner put on his best smile.
Satella was surprised, but then looked to Subaru and smiled, but it wasn't the same smile as before. This one was a triumphant one.
"See, I told you. It really did come around and help us in the end!" she said, as if this odd twist of fate was entirely her own doing.
9
—Even though the street was just one off the main road, the atmosphere was full of gloom.
It was still and silent, and there was no sign of any kind of life, let alone traces of people around.
The street Subaru and Satella were on wasn't far from the main road, but the hustle and bustle from before now seemed like a far-off dream.
"We heard from that guy that if we were looking for stolen goods, they would be handled and sold in the slums, but…" whispered Subaru as he peered down the street that supposedly would lead them to the slums, "… the air down there and the mood, not to mention the general character of the people down there, are all probably going to be pretty terrible. Are you sure you really want to go?"
"You're the one who suggested that my badge might be there in the first place, and the owner of that shop said it would probably be there, too…"
"You shouldn't forget that right after he said that, he added that we should probably give up," said Subaru, reflecting back with a sour face on what was said at the fruit shop.
Thirty minutes after unexpectedly reuniting with the little girl and her mother at the fruit shop, and using that coincidence to turn the situation around and gain some valuable information, Subaru and Satella were now at the entrance to the rumored slums, where most stolen goods were said to be brought.
After realizing that Subaru and Satella had helped his daughter, the stern-faced shop owner had warmed up to them, and listened to their plight.
Because of that, they were able to get information about the slums, but now they were hesitating.
"I probably should have mentioned this earlier, but wouldn't it be better to ask for help? Like, if we asked the police, or…I guess they would be guards in this case…I'm sure if we asked those kind of people to help us search and they sent a team out to find it, this would get resolved a lot more quickly."
"We can't."
Satella immediately rejected Subaru's suggestion. In fact, she so flatly rejected it that it took Subaru by surprise.
"I'm sorry, but…we can't. I also don't think we can get the guards to act over such a small theft, and…I have other reasons that I can't ask the guards for help," said Satella, pausing for a moment with her lips shut tightly, before looking at Subaru with a look of pleading in her eyes. "I'm sorry, but I can't say why."
Realizing that she quite clearly didn't want to be asked, Subaru raised his hands slightly, conceding. "So, what should we do, then? I suppose we can still employ team tactics with just the two of us," said Subaru in a light and joking tone, trying to keep the mood up.
"Don't forget me!" replied Puck, who had reappeared on Satella's shoulder, looking at Subaru and Satella as it wiped its face with its paw. "But we don't really have the time to just sit around and talk anymore. Even if you want to try those team tactics with two humans and a cat, I've only got about an hour before it's time's-up for me."
As Puck looked up at the sky, Subaru followed its gaze and saw that most of the sky that was peaking through the buildings on either side of the street had already shifted from blue to orange. The reason the slums seemed so dark and dreary wasn't only because of the damp and sour smell coming from it. It was getting closer and closer to sunset—which of course meant that Puck would soon reach his limit.
"So whether you decide to go or turn back, it's best to make that decision soon," finished Puck.
"I don't know what you mean by 'team tactics,' but we've got to keep going. There's no way that we can let this chance go and risk having my badge be out of our reach forever," Satella said, answering Puck. She then turned to Subaru. "All right, so I've decided I'm going, but…the people who live here are probably used to getting into fights, so I want you to be careful, even more than before. If you're scared, you can just wait here for me to come back."
"Wait here?! Just how much of a chicken do you think I am?! I'm going! I'm going to stick to you like I'm a spirit who's come back to haunt you!"
"So in other words you don't want to be in front. That would really, really make it easier on me, though." Satella sighed yet again in the face of Subaru's energetic readiness to flee.
Subaru thought about how, ever since he and Satella had met, he had only made her look troubled. The few times she did smile, the reason had nothing to do with Subaru. It was unfortunate. Given how cute she looked even when she was displaying negative emotions, Subaru thought it would be wonderful if she ever did smile at him.
"All right! Let's do this! It's about time I do something to show you what I'm made of!"
"What are you so excited about all of a sudden? I can see up your nostrils."
"Well, that was a great way to ruin my display-of-determination scene! Thanks!"
Even though he had his energy tripped up a notch from the start, Subaru hurried his pace so he wouldn't fall behind Satella, his arms flailing back and forth as he rushed to not be left behind by this girl who kept continuing on toward her goal.
10
Now, Subaru and Satella entered the next stage on the way to completing their task—the slums. And it looked like they were going to have a lot of trouble… That is, until it became clear that an unlikely character would prove themself very useful; very useful indeed.
"Who, you ask? Me! Yes, me! For some unknown reason, the people here in the slums are really nice to me! Just what unknown variable is responsible for this?! Has my charm stat finally been adjusted?! I haven't felt so loved since I was in preschool!"
Back in preschool, Subaru was quite the cute one. His hair was long and
he was often mistaken for a girl. Given the change to his current state only took ten plus a few years. The passage of time really is cruel and unforgiving.
"Has something about me changed from before? Do I, like, have something on my face?"
"Well, you do have your evil-looking eyes, short ears, and flat nose on your face…"
"I could have gone without the evil eyes and flat nose description!" retorted Subaru before hanging his head.
Satella put her finger to her lips and thought. "Hmm… It probably has to do with the way you look and are dressed right now. You're covered in dust and dirt and there are even traces of blood. The people who live here also have it hard, so they must look at you in pity and can't help but be kind to you…"
"Right now you're doing a good job of making me feel as bad as I look!
But you're right! It makes perfect sense! Damn it all!"
As they say, people with the same sickness pity each other. While it was great that Subaru seemed to be more likable in the slums in an unexpected way, Satella's likability was at an all-time low. The reason again probably had to do with the way that she was dressed.
"The thugs from before made similar comments, but you really are dressed pretty well, aren't you?"
"I guess I do stand out, don't I…?" replied Satella, looking at Subaru nervously, as she rolled down the sleeves of her white cloak.
However, while she acknowledged the problem with her fine clothes, she seemed to be oblivious to the fact that it wasn't just the clothes, but the person wearing them as well.
"Um, I have something I'd like to ask you, but—"
"What's that? This is no place for you and your fancy clothes to be walking around in, young lady, so go on now, get outta here!"
Again, Satella was brusquely turned away as she tried to ask someone for help. Given that her low rate of success had to do with both her good looks and her fine clothes, rather than twice worse off, it was better to say she was "worse off squared." However, it wasn't as though Subaru could suggest that she get all dirty like he was.
"At least you might be a little better off if you take off your cloak…" Subaru suggested.
"…I know, but…" Satella gripped both shoulders of her cloak with her hands, but would not take it off. Subaru thought that her response was a little bit strange, but he didn't bring it up.
As Satella looked down, she lightly brushed her hand against the red flower decoration pinned on her left breast. Subaru, seeing how Satella found comfort in that decoration, couldn't help but feel like smiling, and it made him want to try even harder for her sake.
If Satella couldn't do this on her own, he was glad to make use of his dirty appearance to make progress. I guess this means that good things can come even from getting beat up by a bunch of thugs in an alley, Subaru thought. "Well, don't worry too much. You can leave this to me. Anyway, with the fruits of my labor, we'll soon have her cornered, so let's keep chasing after that criminal. So yeah, with the fruits of my labor, we'll soon
have her cornered! So! Let's…keep…searching!"
"I understand that you're happy to be useful for once, but it's really lame when you put so much emphasis on yourself like that."
Subaru had struck a pose with every pause of his sentence, which he thought was cool, but when Satella put it like that, it just made Subaru seem like he was hopping up and down as if to say, Look what I can do!
Satella stared at Subaru with a face that looked like she regretted raising her opinion of him earlier, and Subaru just responded with a weak smile.
It had been little more than two hours since they had met, but with things like this, Subaru already felt as though he had known Satella for a long time. However, this little episode had a different ending than the last few.
"I'm sorry, but I'm already at my limit," said Puck weakly as he leaned up against Satella's neck. His gray coat glowed with a weak light, and his figure blurred as if he were going to disappear at any moment.
"The way you disappear kind of looks like you're dying."
"I tried to stick around longer than usual because I wanted to protect my precious daughter from this evil-eyed guy hanging around her. But when I work myself to the bone, I end up fading away when it's time for me to disappear."
"That's terrible! But leave it to me! I won't let any dangerous guys near her after you disappear!"
"Wait, does that mean it's okay for me to wipe you off the face of the
Earth before I disappear?"
"No! Not okay!" shouted Subaru, stepping away and hugging himself.
"I'm joking," said Puck with a small burst of laughter.
After that, Puck looked to Satella, who took from her breast pocket a crystal that was glowing with a green light.
"I'm sorry for pushing you so hard, Puck. I'll do my best from here on out, so you just get some rest."
The green crystal continued to glow with a faint light in Satella's hand as she held it. It looked different from what you might call a jewel. So far as Subaru could tell, "crystal" was the word that fit best.
Puck crawled down Satella's arm and approached the crystal, then reached out and hugged it to its small body. Finally he turned back toward Satella.
"I'm sure you know this already, but be careful, and don't push yourself too hard. If something happens don't hesitate to use your od to call me back out."
"I know, I know. I'm not a child. I can take care of myself."
"I wonder about that… My precious daughter here always makes me worry when it comes to things like this. I'm counting on you, Subaru."
Puck looked at Satella with affection, the way a parent looks at their child. Satella blushed, but also looked annoyed.
With the conversation thrown his way, Subaru beat on his chest. "All right! Just you leave it to me. You can trust my sixth sense. When it sounds the danger alarm, I'll get us out of there in no time!"
"I really don't understand half of what you're saying, but all right. Now with that out of the way, good night. …Be careful."
With a last glance directed at Satella, Puck finally vanished. His small body became a small ball of light, which gradually melted away into the world around it as he disappeared.
Other than the fact that it was a talking cat, this was the first time Subaru had seen Puck do anything spirit-like. Now, having seen this fantastical display, he felt mixed feelings of excitement and awe welling up inside him.
As Subaru was getting excited all by himself, Satella ran her hands lightly over the crystal and put it carefully back in her breast pocket.
From the conversations that they had before, Subaru thought that crystal must be holding Puck's core right now.
"Now it'll be just the two of us…but don't get any ideas. I can still use magic, you know."
Apparently Satella had taken Puck's last words seriously, and was on her guard.
"Hey, the last time I was alone with a girl was in elementary school. I'm not really capable of doing anything. Haven't you been paying attention to my lack of human skills thus far?"
"You're totally hopeless, but then again, I'm convinced. …All right. Let's keep going. But remember, with Puck gone we need to be even more careful than before."
Perhaps shocked by Subaru's proud proclamation of his cowardice, Satella couldn't seem to keep up her apprehensions of him, and so tied back up the front of her robe and went on ahead.
"I'll be the vanguard, so you just keep your eyes on what's behind us. If anything happens, call me right away. You mustn't think that you can handle everything on your own. I don't want be mean…but you're really weak."
"Well, when you put it that way, it's hard to get angry about it…"
If Satella just wanted to push Subaru away, "You're really weak" would have been enough.
Given that she couldn't hide what she truly felt, Satella was soft at the core…too soft, even.
Subaru nudged Satella along, even though it looked like she wanted to say something, and the two continued their search.
Despite all the talk, their search continued in the same way as before. Their methods were basic. Whenever they found someone, they would describe who they were looking for and asked if the person had any ideas about who it might be.
Subaru, who was now doing all of the asking, had gotten better at it after having talked to so many different people. He was starting to hit his stride.
"You know? It might be that Felt girl. She was blond and really fast, right?"
A little under an hour after they had entered the slums and started asking around, they had finally run into some valuable information.
The guy who gave the information was someone that Subaru had gone straight up to and said, "Hey, my brother, how's life?" like they were already friends.
"If it's Felt you're looking for, whatever she stole is probably sitting in the loot cellar. She usually takes things there, gets them tagged, and then the old man who's the master there'll get them sold at a market somewhere else."
"That sounds like a pretty strange system… Doesn't anyone worry about the master of the cellar taking off with all of the goods?"
"The reason he's the master is because people trust him not to do that. But, well, even if you go up and tell him it's stolen, he'll probably just say 'So what?' right back at you, so you'd better be prepared to negotiate a price to buy it back. After all, it's the original owner's fault for being stupid and getting it stolen in the first place!" the man finished with a laugh.
Subaru was able to get the guy to tell him the location of the loot cellar, so they would probably be able to find it soon, but there was a new problem. Subaru and Satella were both penniless.
"That guy said we should buy it back, but without any leverage, I get the feeling this master guy would wipe the floor with us."
"Why do I have to pay to get back something I already own…?"
As the problem veered back toward their combined lack of funds, Satella looked worried. She had a point, of course, but it wasn't like they could expect the loot cellar's master to agree.
In order to solve the matter peacefully, and with certainty, it would be best to follow that man's advice and try to negotiate. However…
"It seems a little late to be asking this question, but that badge you say was stolen from you…does it happen to look expensive? Even if we walk in expecting to be overcharged, it would be impossible to negotiate without having any idea of what it's worth."
"…It's small, but there is a jewel embedded in its center. I don't know how much money that someone might buy it for, but I am fairly certain it wouldn't be a small amount."
"A jewel, huh… That seems like it's going to be a problem."
Even for people unfamiliar with how much things are worth, a jewel is one of those convenient items that you can tell is expensive at a glance. Subaru doubted that there was the technology to produce imitations in this world, so most things that resembled jewels were probably jewels. In other words, they would all fetch a high price.
While none of this new information sounded like good news, Subaru thought there was something strange about what Satella was saying. Even though the badge was supposedly hers, she said that she did not know its value. While it was possible it was something she might have received from someone else, it stuck in his mind.
"Anyway, let's first just find this loot-cellar place. It is possible that we can negotiate a way to buy it back at a reasonable price…"
In the worst-case scenario, Subaru had one way to secure funds, although he was reluctant to use it. And he didn't want to tell Satella until right before he had to.
As they walked, Subaru and Satella spent the next ten minutes talking about various ways they might be able to take back her badge, but nothing seemed to come together.
Now that they were in front of the place called the "loot cellar," Subaru and Satella looked at each other.
"This place is a lot bigger than I imagined. Just how well can the market for theft be going these days?" Subaru said.
"I understand them calling it a cellar rather than a shed…if this place is filled only with stolen goods… Either way I'm not sure the people here have any hope of salvation," added Satella.
Of course, as the loot cellar existed as a place to hold items until they were sold, it was unlikely it would be filled to the brim. It wasn't a highstoried building, but it was wide enough to the point where it looked as though it could function as living quarters for a large number of people. The building was right up against a tall defensive wall, and was in the deepest part of the slums.
"That tall wall behind the building…is that…?"
"I think it's one of the walls of the city. Which means that we must have come all the way from the city's center to its edge," replied Satella.
Subaru tried to imagine a map of the city in his mind, given what Satella had said. It was likely that the city was built as a square and had walls like this on all four sides. Additionally, either in the center or on the northernmost side there should be a castle, from which these slums would be positioned far away.
Considering that it had been three to four hours since Subaru and Satella had begun their search, the scope of the city seemed to be a little larger than Subaru had originally imagined.
"All right, according to what we've heard, there should be a master in charge of this cellar who handles all of the stolen goods, but…just how exactly do you want to approach this?"
"We're going to be direct and honest. We'll just say, 'We've had something stolen from us, so if you can find it, please return it to us.'"
Subaru tried to explain that that wasn't going to work, but Satella wouldn't listen to him.
At her core, Satella was too direct and honest herself. If something was twisted or bent, she couldn't help but try to set it right. Of course, that was one of the reasons Satella saved Subaru in the first place.
"All right, I got it. But leave this to me."
Because of Satella's personality, Subaru was all too sure things would get complicated if she was the one doing the talking, so Subaru volunteered himself.
His backup plan… Well, it was hard to call it a "backup plan" if he was already considering using it, but if things got complicated before he had the chance to put it into action, that would also be a problem. Subaru had made his decision; he wasn't one to hesitate at times like this.
Satella looked surprised that Subaru wanted to do the talking, and while Subaru was musing on how cute her surprised expression was, he hurried to try to think of a comeback for whatever argument against it Satella would have, but…
"All right. I'll leave it to you."
"Look, I understand that it's hard for you to let me handle something this important, and I'm not stupid enough to think that I've gained your trust, but I've got a plan, so if you'd just trust me this once—Wait. Huh?!"
"W-why are you so surprised?"
"Going by everything that's happened so far, you'd think that this would signal the start of an argument, right? I imagined you'd say something like, 'Do you really expect me to just let a good-for-nothing like you, whose only ability is to convert oxygen into carbon dioxide, handle something this important? Don't make me laugh! I'd expect a dog to do a better job than you!' Then I, while hurt, would use the opportunity to renew my determination!"
"I would never say something that mean!"
As Subaru exposed his exaggerated persecution complex, Satella didn't look all that happy. However, clearing her throat, she fixed her amethyst eyes on Subaru and said, "Of course I would be lying if I said I didn't think that you were holding me back in any way, and just when I think you're finally being serious, to my chagrin you say something completely stupid…"
"'To my chagrin,' huh? I haven't heard that in a while," joked Subaru. He sighed and relaxed his shoulders, unable to argue back.
"Still, even though you act like a jerk sometimes, it was because of you that we were able to keep that little girl from crying, and I don't think you're the kind of person to lie or do anything without thinking about it first," said Satella, looking back over their much-sidetracked journey thus far. "So…I'll trust you. …If this all works out I might even think that meeting you was all worth it."
"You know, if instead of that last part you had just looked up at me and said, 'Please, do your best for my sake,' I would have been totally pumped up to do this, you know?"
"I can't force myself to say something like that, but… Good luck." This was a girl who could not bring herself to lie for any reason.
"…All right, I'll give it my best shot," said Subaru, breaking into a smile before heading toward the entrance of the cellar.
The trump card Subaru had, which he wasn't able to tell Satella about, was the one thing out of what he had brought from the previous world that he could really consider worth anything. Because that thing probably didn't otherwise exist in this world, there was a possibility he could use it to barter. Subaru would have liked to avoid doing that, but at the same time he was fairly certain that in this world, Satella's badge couldn't possibly fetch a higher price than his cell phone, and he didn't think he would have another chance in this world to use his cell phone this way.
"Um… Is anybody home? …Er, wait…the door's open."
A sour, spoiled sort of smell drifted out of the entrance to the loot cellar. Subaru went to knock on the door, but from a gap in it, he saw that it wasn't locked. As he peeked inside, he could only see that it was incredibly dark.
"It's hard when there's not any kind of light… Well, considering the purpose of the place, I suppose it makes sense, and it even serves as a metaphor for the dark feeling of guilt in doing dirty business."
Subaru stuck his head inside and tried to look around, but not even the light from the moon reached this place in the deepest part of the slums. He couldn't see an inch in front of his face.