Chapter 211 — Arc 5 – 27, “Noise”

A piercing sound.

Abrupt, vibrating, heavy, empty, distant, nearby.

The flow of his blood dulled, as if his blood vessels were infected by an inflow of sludge, his organs were sluggish, as if filled with clay, and oxygen didn’t reach his brain, leaving his thoughts foggy and unreliable.

The vibration was in his nearby vicinity, the sound shaking the membrane of his skull, traveling through his bones to his hands and feet.

The darkness he’d become used to faded for a sudden white light, which his eyes were unable to accept. In that white light, forms and shapes moved about, as if children had cast paint everywhere in a room of white.

The heavy sound faded, and, as his eyes moved under their lids, his body had entirely burned out. Accompanied by nausea and sluggishness, Subaru slowly opened his eyes.

Everything became distant as he entered a calm world, and, after tens of seconds, his eyes were restored to their original state, as darkened rooms and dirty ceilings opened. He felt the breaths of many bodies moving around and keeping busy in his surroundings. People moving around in order to keep the surroundings busy, and their bodies.

???: “Hey, bro, you’re awake!”

Ears ringing with tinnitus, Subaru, attacked by a sudden sound with an unnecessary amount of strength, focused on it.

???: “Cat-eared young lady, over here! Everyone else, keep working! Sorry, but keep working! We’re fighting against time!”

???: “Really nyow, you’re annoying. People need quiet here, so quickly get back to work.”

With a bow of his head, the large beastman apologized for his loud voice as he was approached by an angry young woman, no, young man.

Wearing a revealing dress, a bloodstained Ferris looked at Subaru with a sigh of relief.

Ferris: “Now that you’ve woken up, do you understand the situation… actually, can you speak right now?”

Subaru: “… Ah, Ferris?”

Ferris: “Yep, it’s everyone’s favorite Ferri-chan. You’re Natsuki Subaru, and we’re at a field hospital right nyow since you were heavily injured, got it?”

Ferris quickly explained the situation to a hoarse Subaru. Reluctantly, his brain digested his speech word by word.

Looking around, Subaru identified his surroundings. At last, he noticed that he was lying on a simple bed made of pieces of cloth.

Then, as Ferris said, this looked like a field hospital.

Everyone, people lay writhing in pain, awaiting treatment like Subaru’s.

The taste of blood, a miserable, whispered cry. Just healing magic couldn’t keep up, and needles and sutures were introduced to wounds.

Subaru: “What… exactly is happening?”

Ferris: “Looks chaotic, doesn’t it? Slowly, try to remember what happened before you fainted. If you recall that, you’ll find the answer.”

Ferris’s words weren’t gentle, but that wasn’t a matter of his mood. Rather, he had no energy to spare for gentleness. His sleeves were rolled up, and his white skin and face were stained with blood.

Imagining the volume of work that Ferris, a first-rate healer, would need to take on in the face of this tragedy wasn’t difficult. And, the cause of this tragedy was—

Subaru: “The Witch Cult…”

Ferris: “Really, those guys are the worst. My understanding of them was too naive… I never expected them to pull something like this. Of course, nyo one else was expecting this either.”

Remorsefully biting his lips. Ferris lowered his chin at Subaru.

The regret in Ferris was clear. Although Subaru understood that, there were other uncertainties.

Subaru: “E-Emilia!? Where is Emilia? Is she here?”

Ferris: “……”

Subaru: “That bastard, Greed… the archbishop took Emilia. Then, I…”

He quiver, coming to understand the cause of his restlessness.

In Ferris’s lowered gaze and silence, Subaru found a clear answer. At least, Emilia wasn’t here.

Then if his impression before passing out was right, she’d been taken by Regulus.

Subaru: “And Beatrice? The little girl who was with me? She has an arrogant, lovable face, and curly hair… Beatrice?”

Emilia had more than likely been abducted by Regulus.

Judging from Regulus’s attitude, the likelihood that he would hurt Emilia, although uncertain, should be low. Although he couldn’t be forgiven, that was the case.

But what had happened to Beatrice? Sirius and Regulus had both been present, and Sirius had held a strong hostility toward Beatrice.

Since Subaru had been safely carried into the field hospital, they escaped from Sirius. So who had protected Subaru?

Subaru: “Hey, please. Tell me. Beatrice…”

Ferris: “——”

Not finding an answer to his unease, Subaru desperately sought an answer from Ferris, who closed his eyes. The giant beastman standing next to him, Ricardo, the head of the [Iron Fang], looked to the side.

Subaru followed his gaze.

Subaru: “Beatrice.”

Lying a ways from the people receiving treatment was a lone maiden in a dress.

Seeing her sleeping in a makeshift bed like his own. Subaru went to lift the towel covering his stomach and run to her.

However, halfway to his feet, severe pain crippled him. On top of that, his right foot stopped obeying him, and the system of his body broke down.

His head was heavy with fatigue, and his right foot couldn’t understand why it was unable to move.

Hurrying to take a look, the horror of his own foot left Subaru speechless.

Subaru: “Oh…”

Ferris: “Subaru-kyun would have lost a foot without Beatrice’s healing. You’ll have to thank that child later.”

Subaru’s right foot was missing about half of its flesh, and was obviously a different size from his left foot. It was also wrapped in several layers of thick bandages, and a board had been fixed to his heel. All those had caused him to lose his balance.

He couldn’t help but brush it with his fingers, and, in that moment, a bolt of realization struck him.

Subaru: “I remember…!”

Regulus’s last blow before he’d left.

He’d taken Emilia, said some nonsense, and kicked the ground up as easily as he could kick sand, and the soil had struck Subaru’s food.

At that moment, Subaru’s right foot had been wounded as if it had been mauled by a wild animal’s claws. And that had resulted in the present state of Subaru’s right foot.

Ricardo: “When I stumbled upon the scene, your foot was only connected by a few tendons. A crying little miss had been desperately healing it until we got you help.”

Ferris: “After that, Subaru was carried here and treated by Ferri-chan. Although Ferri-chan’s treatment can’t guarantee that your foot will be the same as before, nyow the bones and nerves are linked, and the flesh is regenerating, so don’t do anything to upset it.”

Crossing his wrists, Ferris made an X, prepared to deal with Subaru’s reluctance, however, Subaru obeyed in silence, his attention more focused on Beatrice’s bed.

As Ferris sighed in relief, a large hand supported Subaru’s shoulder, allowing him to slowly make his way to Beatrice.

Ricardo: “As for getting you to that little miss, I can handle that.”

Subaru: “Thanks, sorry about this.”

Ricardo: “No worries.”

Ricardo moved Subaru’s entire bed near Beatrice’s. From there, Subaru leaned forward to take a better look at her. The little girl was sleeping so quietly that Subaru couldn’t even hear her breathing.

Even though she was a spirit, Beatrice slept like a human. Unlike Puck, she couldn’t dematerialize, so this was how she reduced the burden of materialization on her mana.

For this reason, seeing Beatrice’s sleeping face was hardly uncommon for Subaru. Only, this was the first time he’d seen her sleeping so quietly.

Subaru: “She’s, just sleeping… right? Still, I’m worried…”

Ferris: “Asleep isn’t the right word. Right now, she’s lost her function as a spirit… A state of suspended animation might be closer.”

Subaru: “Suspended animation? Why…!?”

Touching Beatrice’s forehead, he was surprised to find how low her temperature was. Brushing her eyelashes and her face yielded no reaction, just as Ferris had reported. In response to the look on Subaru’s face, Ricardo squatted down.

Ricardo: “According to the cat-eared lady, this happened as the result of mana overuse, which indeed seems to be the case. I found the square you were in completely by accident, bro. Everyone there had almost the same injury, which the little miss was taking care of on her own.”

Subaru: “——”

Ricardo spoke with a sigh, leaving Subaru silent for a while.

The same wound as Subaru — that was the result of the a bond transmitting the injury Subaru had gotten from Regulus Subaru attacking the feet of Regulus. Sirius certainly had complicated matters. The madwoman seemed to have left the scene, and Beatrice’s fight had begun there.

She’d given equally thorough treatment to Subaru and everyone else who was wounded.

Of course, Subaru was a greedy man who asked for too much, and the child who accompanied that Subaru also refused to give up anyone.

So Beatrice had squeezed every last drop of her mana dry to save all those people, at this heavy price.

Subaru: “Beatrice is fine, right…? She just needs a little rest…”

Ferris: “… To be honest, I’m nyot too optimistic. Ferri-chan is a first rate healer, but doesn’t know much about spirits. And this child isn’t an ordinary spirit either. So I don’t really knyow any real solutions.”

Subaru: “There… there has to be a way! If Beatrice can’t be saved, I…”

It had only been a year.

He had freed her from the archive in order to bring her happiness, and her life couldn’t end here.

Happiness, happiness, happiness, no one deserves happiness more than this child. than anyone should be happy child is not it.

Ricardo: “If she needs magic to be brought back, can’t she take some from another source? If bro is her contractor, than she should be able to get some from him, right?”

Ferris: “… Obviously, Subaru would easily be the source, but that idiot fractured his gate, so she can’t use his mana.”

Subaru: “Right, bocca fruits. With bocca fruits, I can restore my own mana, and from there I can give some to Beatrice…!”

Ferris: “Idiot!”

Ferris snapped angrily as he glared at the desperate Subaru.

Subaru was surprised at that unexpectedly sharp reprimand, and Ferris immediately put on a fiddling, shy demeanor.

Ferris: “How many times have I said this? That’s really dangerous for Subaru-kyun’s body. In fact, it would be like poison. If you did that, we’d just end up with two casualties… so you can’t.”

Subaru: “……”

Ferris’s strict words were tinged with sadness. Reading that sincere thought, Subaru closed his mouth and swallowed his reckless judgments.

Ferris was an expert in healing, so he had of course considered a myriad of ways to help Beatrice.

Subaru’s sudden thought must have already been considered.

Ferris: “I can understand Subaru’s worry about Beatrice-chan. And although I understand, there’s nyothing we can do for her right nyow. There are many other things that we have to worry about than just that child…”

Subaru: “Beatrice. . . Right, there’s Emilia too…”

Ferris’s words brought Subaru back to reality.

He turned his attention to the field hospital — and found that something was off. There were people with wounded right feet, the same injury as Subaru, but there were also plenty of people with different injuries.

Subaru: “How’s the situation? … No, what else has happened? What’s with all the injuries?”

Ricardo: “The Witch Cult is here like you said, bro.”

Subaru: “But it can’t just be them, right? I only saw two archbishops. This level of harm can’t be enacted by just two people. In other words, they’ve brought the fodder cultists too.”

The two archbishops were ridiculously powerful.

So Subaru had simply assumed that they would be the only cultists present — but it was only natural that, as Petelgeuse did, they had brought underlings to the city as well.

That was the only explanation for such damage.

Subaru: “The two archbishops and the cultists under them, are they attacking the city right now?”

Ferris: “On this matter, there are a variety of…”

Ferris’s voice was bitter as he began to answer Subaru’s conclusion.

However, before she could confirm or deny it, an unexpected interruption came. That was,

???: “Yahoo, yahoo, yahoo!”

The space rang with the sound of a high pitched voice.

The voice’s relaxed tone contrasted sharply with the somber atmosphere, as if someone had accidentally tuned a TV channel of an entertainment program, during a serious conversation.

Subaru: “Wh-what?”

Hearing the sound, Subaru looked around wildly, and, unable to find the owner, he immediately realized its the source.

Subaru’s immediate impression of the sudden voice was that it sounded like it had come from a loudspeaker or radio, a thought that mirrored one he’d had this morning.

Subaru: “The city’s radio broadcast magic?”

???: “Hello, all you meat creatures! No matter how many times you’ve heard it, doesn’t my beauty and my lovely voice excite you? Gahahahaha!”

As if verifying Subaru’s idea, the voice appeared again, amplified by a magic speaker.

That voice rang with a childlike cruelty, like a girl who’d spurned etiquette and trampled on conventional manners of speech.

Her sharp laughter seemed able to pierce right into your mind, causing an aversion both mental and physical.

Subaru: “What, a stupid voice, this is…”

Ferris: “Hush, Subaru, quiet.”

Ferris straightened his ear with one finger and put another over her mouth.

A serious Ferris seemed to be completely absorbed, and Ricardo wore a vigilant expression. The bedridden injured all clapped their hands over their ears.

This didn’t seem to be the first time they’d heard it.

???: “Alright, you meat creatures enthralled by a beautiful girl’s enticing voice, I have news for you: we’re all tired, so we’re going home now. Just kidding! The true tossing and turning of day and night starts now! Gahahahaha!”

A harsh, harsh voice, like a mirror next to the ear being scratched with sharp claws, filled with sadistic glee. What, what, what was this voice, what was this woman?

Forehead dripping with cold sweat, Subaru was well aware of his body’s abnormal condition. As Subaru’s mind turned, his body had been captured.

???: “Setting aside my funny, laugh-inducing joke, let’s continue with the news. As I said just now, the city has been occupied by us. You’re all caged birds… no, you’re all insects in a cage for insects.”

Subaru: “——!?”

???: “Insects are just bugs, and the owner of that cage gets to decide just what to do with you. Wings and head, prepare to have them removed… Kahahaha, how ugly, how awful! What a merciless life. You should be thankful for being left in my tender care. Gahahahaha!”

A repeated, malicious laugh.

One which belonged to a presence which despised others and found vicious delight in ravaging their joy.

Subaru knew this kind of presence better than anybody.

???: “Wait, wait, you idiots can’t understand the real meaning of my precious words. Poor incompetent fools, only thinking about slabs of meat in their free time. My gentle, loving self will make this easier to understand. I’ll tell you with my spit which you masochists love.”

Subaru: “——”

???: “Insects in a cage can’t do anything about their owner’s mood. The most you can do to please us is to lie fearfully in your cage. When we’re in a bad mood, you can only tremble in fear as we tear your wings or legs off. When I bring you honey, I’ll be like your mother, gently stroking you heads. There~fore~, kahahahahaha!”

In the face of that constant viciousness, Subaru imitated Ferris and listened silently. A breath, a word, muddy feelings in his chest stifled, Subaru sealed his will with iron. And then, he noticed. He noticed it.

What, was that?

???: “Later, we’ll have more to ask of you scum. You’ll wear desperately ugly expressions, cry that you don’twanttodiedon’twantodiedon’twanttodie and think of ways to emerge from the crowd and give us answers. In that case, my moving kindness might have me consider setting down the cage in my hand. Gah— isn’t that really easy to understand! Gahahaha!”

With excitement, the speaker clapped, stomping her feet from her seat.

Her speech, her attitude, her voice, Subaru found them all unbearably irritating— but that wasn’t the problem at hand.

From the beginning, he could hear that sound.

He had thought that it had come from being in the same room as that magic device. Faintly accompanying that woman’s voice was a sound that Subaru had certainly caught.

However, he was unsure of what exactly that sound was.

What was still worse was that he had almost, but not quite, reached the answer. Unknowing, unaware, unwitting.

A noisy heartbeat, the noisy flow of his blood. Reject and understand, reject and understand.

— A very faint buzzing sound, like the flapping of a myriad of wings.

He was very close, infinitely near the right solution. Although close, he wasn’t quite there. A plume of flapping feathers, that was the noise that seemed to be mixed into the broadcast.

Many magical phenomena were unclear to Subaru. So perhaps this was just his imagination. But Subaru’s common sense felt that something was off.

That sense of violation and that plume of feathers stuck in Subaru’s mind.

???: “And, the end. My precious words end here. Metamorphosing meat creatures and insects should work their hardest. Like I said before… we’ve taken control of the four towers that operate the waterways. I think it’s best to not try anything weird? A drowned man’s dead face is unbearable ugly! Gahahahaha—”

That cruel high-pitched laughter was interrupted as the sound faded.

That sound of wings was gone as well. Subaru could finally disengage his body, and he immediately flew over to Ferris and Ricardo.

Subaru: “What did you think of the broadcast just now?”

Ferris: “What I think of it… Our limbs were mercilessly taken, and we’ve been reduced to just a head, that’s how Ferri-chan sees this.”

A bitter Ferris bit his fingers and replied to a frowning Subaru.

Various places had become stages, for the purpose of being seized by the enemy.

Subaru: “So just now, that was the Witch Cult…”

Ferris: “The first broadcast came when Subaru-kyun was sleeping. In it, the broadcaster introduced herself…”

Ferris paused, looking unsure of whether or not he should continue. Subaru, ignorant of the reason for his hesitation, tilted his head.

In the Witch Cult, the common practice among archbishops was to first announce their sin. After that came their name.

The Sin Archbishop of Lust, the third archbishop that Subaru hadn’t imagined would be present. Her name was,

Ferris: “Although this is disgusting, and Ferri-chan doesn’t believe it in the slightest, this is the name that was given.”

Ferris said so, rendering the credibility of the testimony he was about to repeat very low.

Ferris: “Capella Emerada Lugunica. —Although it couldn’t be, it’s a nyame of royalty.”