Chapter 74: Second Viewing, Begin!

"There's nothing to worry about — this is Otto, a good friend of Subaru's," Betty said, arms folded across her chest, her tone unhurried and unruffled. She had recognised Otto at a single glance.

"...Does no one here remember me? I know I was only ever a background character in Mr. Natsuki's life, but it still stings a little, I have to say." Otto laughed — a strained, ingratiating sort of laugh — and felt very much like bursting into tears on the inside.

"Hah?! Where the hell is this place?! Someone let Garfiel out of here right now! I'm telling you, my boss is the one and only legendary hero, Natsuki Subaru! Yeah, that's right — scared now, aren't you?!"

A loud, unruly voice erupted from the other side of where Otto had appeared.

"You idiot, Garfiel, keep it down! We don't even know where we are yet — don't go dragging your big sister into trouble along with you!"

Alongside Garfiel, the manor's maidservant — and Garfiel's elder sister — Frederica appeared at the same moment.

And with the arrival of these three, every wall-mounted lamp in the cinema abruptly went dark at once.

Otto, Garfiel, and Frederica flickered from sight for an instant — and then reappeared, already seated in the chairs that had until a moment ago been empty.

Strangely, the three of them did not sit together. Between two of them, several seats had been left vacant.

It was as though invisible, unseen figures had already claimed those seats for themselves.

No further time was given for anyone to exchange words.

With the cinema's wall lamps extinguished, the screen began to glow — and upon it appeared the same theatre rules that the returning audience members recognised from before.

[Cinema Viewing Rules]

[Rule 1: The use of physical force in any form is strictly prohibited]

[Rule 2: Please remain seated and do not move about freely]

[Rule 3: Damage to any facility within the cinema is strictly prohibited]

[Rule 4: The content shown is established fact — do not question its authenticity]

[The screening is about to begin. All audience members, please return to your seats.]

Cold, silent words branded themselves across the vast grey screen, radiating a faint and ominous light.

The screen, being an inanimate thing, naturally paid no heed whatsoever to the stunned expressions on the faces of those who had never been here before.

The theatre rules faded from the screen — then lit up once more, and the words that appeared carried a solemn, ceremonious weight.

"——The viewing begins!"

As those four words slowly disappeared, a new image bloomed across the screen.

[Natsuki Subaru had just woken from a luxurious and utterly unfamiliar bed. He lay flat on his back, gazing up at the ceiling directly above him with a calm, puzzled expression.

"An unfamiliar ceiling..."

His voice carried something between indifference and numbness.

Natsuki Subaru had not yet recovered from the fight with the Bowel Hunter — and even now, a part of him half-suspected he was still dreaming.

"The wound on my stomach is gone, too."

He pulled his clothes aside and checked.

"Well… thinking it over, it was probably… Emilia who healed me, wasn't it?"

Natsuki Subaru murmured to himself.]

"Subaru?"

"Subaru!"

The moment their beloved — their contracted partner — appeared on the screen, Rem, Ram, and Betty cried out at once.

By comparison, Emilia and Elsa, who were visiting this mysterious space for what was effectively a second time, took it all with considerably more composure.

"Mr. Natsuki... if we think of this place as a theatre, then we're the audience."

"And what plays out on stage would be Mr. Natsuki's own experiences, then? How intriguing."

Otto, ever sharp and observant, had taken a quick look at his own seat and those of the people around him, and the comparison to a theatre audience had come naturally — which made what was being shown on the screen directly ahead of them self-evident.

"Ha... the boss's past experiences, huh? Perfect — let me see exactly what it takes to become a real man!"

Garfiel slammed a fist into his palm with a resounding crack, practically buzzing with excitement.

"Is that the 'boss' you've been going on about since we got here?" Frederica gave Natsuki Subaru a long, appraising look and snorted. "He looks like a stiff breeze could knock him over. You'd really call someone like that a strong man?"

"Tch. To borrow the boss's own words — even if I told you, someone as shallow as you wouldn't get it."

Garfiel crossed his arms and turned his head away, making it plain he had no intention of continuing the conversation with Frederica.

But then, the very next second——

"Ow ow ow ow!"

Garfiel scrambled to protect his ear, and after a considerable struggle finally managed to wrench himself free from Frederica's grip.

"What was that for, big sis?! Don't you know the rules here say no violence?!"

"Then behave yourself...honestly, you're going to be the death of me."

Garfiel grumbled his protests indignantly.

Frederica let go and made no further move to roughhouse with him — she simply turned her gaze toward the Natsuki Subaru on the screen and fell into a quiet, distant stare.

She hadn't expected this. After so many years apart, the first time she'd see Garfiel again — and it would be in a scene as strangely warm as this.

Garfiel had grown into a man.

She didn't know what had happened, exactly. But perhaps this man named Natsuki Subaru really did have some sort of magic about him.

[Natsuki Subaru climbed out of bed, and once it had dawned on him that he had probably — most likely — actually cleared the "fight the Bowel Hunter in the Slums" stage of his life, his thoughts began to stir back to life.

He got out of bed, slipped on his slippers, and wandered out into the corridor beyond the bedroom still dressed in his pyjamas.

With nothing better to do, he strolled idly up and down the hall — and then, all at once, he noticed it. The painting beside the door he'd come out of. He'd seen it before.

"Hmm, hmm — so it's an infinite corridor scenario. The kind where you can't get out unless you find the right room?"

The moment he found himself in territory he recognised, Natsuki Subaru's tone brightened and quickened.

"Going by the standard playbook, the most likely answer is that the starting room is also the destination——"

Saying this, Natsuki Subaru seized the door handle nearest to him with barely-contained excitement, and threw it open.

"Correct! Jackpot!"

Natsuki Subaru broke into a triumphant grin and pointed — with all the theatrical flair of a game show host — at the small figure sitting right across from him, just on the other side of the door.

"First villager, discovered!"

This moment felt, somehow, like the hand of fate.

She had pale, cream-coloured hair, long and styled into twin drills that spiralled downward on either side. She wore an elaborate, frilled dress, and she sat on a little stool by the doorway — a loli-type beauty, her short little legs dangling in the air.

She was like something out of a storybook — the enchanted doll with a human soul that a boy stumbles upon while sorting through a storehouse after losing his parents.

"What an infuriating fellow, I suppose."

The beautiful young girl's expression was perfectly flat — but the verbal tic that slipped out instinctively only made her all the more endearing.]

"So that's what happened... I always wondered — I'd heard that Subaru had woken up, but by the time I got there, he'd fainted again."

Emilia lightly covered her mouth with one hand, and then, as though something had just occurred to her, she pressed her palms together and turned to apologise to Betty.

"I'm sorry, Betty — I know Subaru can be reckless like this sometimes, and he's not always the most mindful of manners, but he really isn't a bad person!"

"Yes, yes, I know. If he were, I never would have formed a contract with him."

Betty gave a perfunctory response, then immediately dropped her voice into a low, disgruntled mutter.

"What does she take Betty for — no matter what Subaru is like, Betty loves every single bit of it, without exception!"

____

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