Chapter 73 73: “Before the Viewing, Everyone Gathers”

Tick-tock. Tick-tock...

Accompanied by the sound of a clock's hands turning — coming from no discernible source — Ram's consciousness slowly returned.

"I… where am I? It's so dark. What happened?"

Ram pressed a hand to her head. It throbbed in waves, like the morning after a night of too much drink — unpleasant, but just about bearable.

The surroundings were pitch black, not a sliver of light to be seen, yet a persistent, maddening stench clung to the air around her.

The impression this place gave her was of a sewer beneath the Royal Capital — dark and damp and thoroughly miserable.

And so, acting on pure instinct, Ram set her feet moving, walking straight ahead in what she took to be the forward direction.

Anywhere would do. She simply needed to leave this place — this place that made her feel as though cold and shadow were seeping into her very bones.

As she walked, she sorted through her thoughts.

She remembered it clearly — just moments ago, one of the legendary Four Great Spirits had launched a sudden, unprovoked attack.

And she, acting under Natsuki Subaru's orders, had led the villagers in the name of Count Mathers to evacuate from the village.

Once she had guided the villagers to safety, she had turned back immediately, hoping to be of some use to Natsuki Subaru.

But on the way back, everything had simply gone dark without warning — and she had lost consciousness.

When she came to, she was here.

Could it be… that she had run into the Great Spirit on the road, and been killed in an instant?

And was she now walking the road to the afterlife, her whole life flashing before her eyes like a revolving lantern?

Ram's face went pale as a dreadful possibility occurred to her.

If that was the case, then Subaru and the others——

She didn't dare let the thought go any further. She only quickened her pace in silence.

She refused to believe that Subaru had died. Just like that.

So even if the road ahead led straight to hell, she would claw her way out — and see the outcome for herself.

Tick-tock. Tick-tock...

The clock-like sound rose around her once more.

Ram felt a strange, inexplicable weightlessness — as though she were slipping through the cracks of time itself.

And then, all at once, the darkness that had stretched on endlessly before her gave way to light.

Ram raised one arm to shield her eyes. With one decisive step, the space ahead of her opened out suddenly, wide and vast.

She seemed to have arrived somewhere — a mysterious, enclosed space unlike anything she recognised.

She had barely steadied herself and begun to look around when a startled cry rang out from somewhere ahead.

"Ram? You've come here too!"

Ram heard a familiar voice, and raised her head to find Emilia standing across from her, staring at her with an expression of undisguised delight.

"Lady Emilia! What are you doing here?"

Ram asked, puzzled. The mysterious space before her didn't particularly resemble any vision of hell, but Lady Emilia being here was confusing enough on its own.

"That's exactly what I'd like to ask! If we're talking about time, I arrived here quite a bit earlier than you, Ram."

Emilia stood with her hands on her hips, looking somewhat at a loss as to where to even begin explaining.

"For the time being, think of this place as a kind of theatre. What plays out on the stage are… various experiences of Subaru's..."

Emilia hesitated, carefully choosing her words to describe the place.

"Now that Lady Ram has arrived here as well, I would venture that there may be others who join us still."

Reinhard, who had been standing quietly behind Emilia, spoke up.

At the same time, he did not neglect his manners — one hand came to rest over his chest as he inclined his head toward Ram in a small bow.

"...I really do wonder what that legendary Great Spirit is made of."

Elsa, who had not moved from her seat in the viewing area, was still absorbed in the battle that had preceded her losing consciousness.

"I wonder — if you cut her head off, would she recover just as quickly as before?"

Elsa mused aloud to Meili, who had at some point settled leisurely into the seat beside her.

The other three merely glanced over at the pair, then, by unspoken mutual agreement, decided to leave the two deranged sisters entirely to their own devices.

"Big Sister? Lady Emilia?"

Suddenly, a startled cry from not far away drew all three of their gazes.

Rem emerged from the shadows, looking around with anxious eyes — and only let out a breath of relief when she spotted Ram and Emilia, making her way toward them.

"Why is everyone here? And… Lord Reinhard?"

Rem was still taking in her surroundings with unease when a disgruntled voice spoke up from behind her.

"Step aside, maid — don't go blocking the way in front of Betty, I wonder."

Rem hastily moved out of the way. Betty strode straight past her and came to stand before the other three.

"This space... familiar traces of mana, all over the place..."

Betty tilted her head back, scanning the space around her, her brow furrowed in thought as she spoke.

"Oh, good morning, Lia—— mm-wah, what is this? What's going on?"

Puck appeared from somewhere within Emilia's hair, blearily rubbing the tears from the corners of his eyes with one paw — he'd apparently been yawning.

The sight of so many people gathered in one place, set against the backdrop of this strange and mysterious space, made him let out a startled yelp.

"Puck, you're here too... wait, actually — weren't you absent the last time we watched?"

The moment Emilia saw Puck, her face broke into a relieved smile.

But then something seemed to occur to her, and she peered at him up and down with a quizzical look.

"Hmm, I'm not quite sure what Lia is talking about, haha... ha."

Puck scratched his head with one paw, managing only a dry, awkward laugh.

"My, my——I wonder what has everyone gathered here like this."

It was at just that moment that Roswaal drew out his voice in that distinctive, languid way of his, capturing everyone's attention at once.

"If no one would mind——perhaps someone might fill me in, hmm——"

"Roswaal's here too."

Ram observed everything with cool, detached eyes, her thoughts full of one person — Natsuki Subaru, the man she loved.

According to Lady Emilia, this place was something like a cinema. Which would make them the audience?

And what came next — they were to watch the experiences of Subaru's life?

But whoever had arranged all of this — what could their purpose possibly be?

That one point, Ram couldn't work out. And beneath the surface of her thoughts, she couldn't shake a formless sense of foreboding — a quiet but insistent unease she couldn't quite name.

She had a feeling. That something terrible — something she would not want to see — was about to happen.

"In any case, everyone should take their seats — it looks like things are about to begin."

Emilia glanced left and right; no one seemed to have any intention of sitting down on their own, so she took the initiative to suggest it.

At that, everyone filed into the viewing seats and settled in.

Since they all knew one another well, they sat close together, clustering naturally without a thought.

Once everyone was seated, the screen directly facing the audience remained dark and unlit. A restless, uncertain mood settled over the group.

And it was at that moment that they heard it — from somewhere in the area behind the seats, the sound of hurried footsteps approaching rapidly.

"Hah... hah... that was close. I very nearly couldn't find my way out of that darkness!"

Everyone looked over to find a slight, slender man in a green merchant's coat come stumbling out of the shadows at a half-run.

He seemed to have not yet caught his breath — both hands braced on his knees, chest heaving.

"Who is this person...?"

The people already seated in the cinema exchanged uncertain glances with one another. No one appeared to recognise the man standing before them — slight of build, dressed head to toe in green, a feather tucked into the band of his hat.

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