Chapter 91: Ram's Pig Desire

[With a "bang," Natsuki Subaru used his spread-open coat to cancel out most of the impact of the incoming meteor hammer.

As a result, he managed to forcefully deflect the meteor hammer slightly off course, sending it smashing into the rock face above his head.

"Now show your true form, you bastard!"

Natsuki Subaru gritted his teeth and spoke in a fury.

"To get to see you just once, I went through no end of hardship!"

As he spoke, he gripped the chain trailing behind the meteor hammer and yanked hard. The chain pulled taut, its other end extending into the depths of a pitch-dark forest across the way.

Whether or not it was an illusion, Natsuki Subaru actually felt as though he heard a sigh come from the other side.

Then the taut chain gradually sank to the ground.

Accompanied by the sound of the chain scraping against the earth, the mysterious attacker in his eyes was slowly walking out of the darkness.

"There's really no helping it."

A woman's voice, one Natsuki Subaru knew all too well, rang out.

"To be finished off without ever knowing—that would have been the best ending."

As the petite figure before him slowly stepped into the range bathed by the blood-red setting sun, her identity was all but spelled out.

Natsuki Subaru's eyes filled with despair. He opened his mouth wide and, gritting his teeth, said,

"You've got to be lying... Rem?"]

"I can't help but feel a touch of admiration for you two sisters, truly."

Priscilla snapped shut the blazing-flame-colored fan in her hand and gazed at Ram through narrowed eyes.

"Even though you harmed this lady's beloved husband more than once, you were still taken into his harem—from a certain perspective, you two sisters really do have quite the allure."

Priscilla arched her brow. Though her words were words of praise, a mocking smile surfaced on her face.

The underlying meaning of her words was: to enter Subaru's harem—are you two sisters even worthy?

Ah, a pity that the one called Rem has fainted—but this elder sister heard it, so it amounts to the same thing.

Priscilla thought to herself.

On the other side, Ram clenched her fists tightly, then slowly loosened them again.

She stared at the image on the screen without blinking. Though she feigned indifference, Priscilla's words had stirred up a confusion in her heart.

Yes, why was it that Barusu, who ought to detest Rem, ought to detest her?

Having been killed by Rem so many times, surely there must be some trauma in his heart?

And she herself was sharp-tongued and unkind, and had never trusted Barusu before either—which was precisely why, when her little sister died from the curse, she was the first to suspect him.

So, why was it?

As Ram pondered, the night she had knelt on the bed and acknowledged Barusu as her master surfaced unbidden in her mind.

Afterward, in her dream as she lay on the brink of death, Barusu had said——

"Me, I like Ram the most, you know!"

At this thought, a happy smile spread across the corners of Ram's mouth.

"So, actually, Subaru likes me..."

A blush rose to Ram's cheeks, and with a smile of pleasant surprise, she couldn't help but murmur aloud.

However, before she could finish speaking, she was cut off by Natsuki Subaru's anguished scream from the image on the screen.

She lifted her head just in time to see the Natsuki Subaru on the screen, having just found a way to shake off Rem, fleeing into the distance.

But then, in the next instant, Natsuki Subaru was struck by an attack she knew all too well—an extremely swift wind blade—that severed his lower leg in a single stroke!

["Aaaaah! My leg..."

Natsuki Subaru screamed, his face contorted in agony.

His severed lower leg lay not far from where he had fallen.]

Outside the screen, before the happy smile on Ram's face had even had time to fade, Natsuki Subaru's screams echoed in her ears over and over again.

That bloody, cruel scene was reflected so clearly in her pupils.

Wh-what was going on—she had struck at Subaru too, but why?

At this moment, Ram felt as though her thoughts had frozen solid, and she struggled to think.

Yet even so, this question wasn't hard to figure out.

She did it for... Rem!

Worried that her little sister wouldn't be able to catch up to Barusu, worried that her little sister would be harmed by Barusu's dying resistance.

And so she simply severed one of his legs, so that for Rem, it would be as easy as slaughtering a chicken. As well as——

Ram held her former pose stiffly, staring fixedly at the image on the screen.

["Mana of Water, please heal this person."

Rem slowly walked up behind Natsuki Subaru, using healing magic to stanch the bleeding at his severed leg, then said to herself,]

Outside the screen, Ram murmured almost in unison with the Rem on the screen.

"——If you were to die that easily, then the information I could have questioned out of you couldn't be questioned out at all."

And the very instant these words left her lips, the panicked, helpless emotions Ram felt over having harmed Natsuki Subaru herself seemed to find an outlet.

All her bewilderment, all her helplessness, transformed into... anger directed at Rem.

Why? If she was going to kill, then she should have just killed him cleanly—why torment Barusu like this?!

Displaced anger—yes, and not only anger at the Rem on the screen.

Ram even, on account of the unreleasable repression in her heart, subconsciously shot a furious glance at the Rem slumbering in her own arms.

"Mn..."

And whether or not it was the telepathy between the two sisters taking effect, at this moment Rem let out a soft whimper and slowly stirred awake.

"Sis...?"

Rem first sat up in a daze and looked toward Ram, the closest person to her, and then, as her consciousness gradually cleared, she cried out in alarm.

"Subaru! How is Subaru?"

She flusteredly turned her head toward the screen, only for the sight that met her eyes to be Natsuki Subaru, his leg severed, collapsed on the grass like a stray dog.

"This is... something I did? I'm sorry! Subaru..."

From the changes in the surrounding environment in the image, Rem realized that this was yet another new loop.

And what caused her unbearable anguish was that this time, she was once again about to kill Subaru!

Rem covered her face and wept, missing entirely the Ram beside her, whose expression flickered darkly.

[The image continued on.

"Answer truthfully—are you someone from the camp of a candidate hostile to Lady Emilia?"

Rem loomed over him, interrogating Natsuki Subaru with a cold gaze.

"My heart belongs forever to Emilia-tan!"

Natsuki Subaru panted heavily, forcing a strained, ugly smile to the corners of his mouth.

In the face of this answer, Rem's choice was to raise the meteor hammer and bring it smashing down ruthlessly.

Using the utmost pain to exchange for the most genuine information.

"Aaaaah!"

Natsuki Subaru suddenly curled up like a boiled shrimp, letting out hoarse scream after hoarse scream.]

"What are you doing, Rem? Why are you tormenting Barusu like this?"

Outside the screen, Ram, owing to the mental shock just now, had taken a turn for the worse.

She turned her head and looked at Rem with a darkened gaze, questioning her coldly.

Hearing this, Rem—already in unbearable anguish over her own actions on the screen—froze, and looked blankly toward Ram, her dearest sister.

The Ram in her eyes at this moment was, unexpectedly, so unfamiliar.

["By whom, and under what conditions, were you hired to come here?"

Rem skipped over the previous question and pressed on.

"By Emilia's smile... that's priceless..."

Natsuki Subaru answered through gritted teeth.

However——

"Squelch!"

Rem brought the meteor hammer smashing down again without mercy, this time with even greater force, the splattered blood staining her hair and face red.

The Rem at this moment was as terrifying as a fiend crawled up out of hell.]

Outside the screen, neither Rem nor Ram was looking at the screen; they simply stood facing off, staring at each other.

The more she listened to Natsuki Subaru's screams, the more panic-stricken Ram became inside.

She understood that the reason things had come to this present state was all her own fault.

It was she who had severed Natsuki Subaru's leg with a wind blade, which was why he had been caught by Rem, and then abused.

Yet she couldn't help but think.

Even if she hadn't acted, Subaru would have been caught by Rem sooner or later, wouldn't he? After all, there was the insurmountable chasm of magic between the two of them.

Right, it was only because her little sister was too useless that she, the elder sister, had wanted to play it safe—she had done such an excessive thing to Barusu only because she'd had no other choice.

A crazed smile tugged at the corners of Ram's mouth.

Hahaha! She'd realized it—looking at it this way, all of it, all of it was Rem's fault, wasn't it?

It was Rem who was too useless, making her, the elder sister, worry.

It was Rem who took matters into her own hands, who refused to believe Barusu's words and abused him over and over.

["Reeking with such a heavy witch's scent, and you still claim to have nothing to do with the Witch Cult—there's a limit to playing dumb!"

Rem roared.

"Watching Sis talking to you, Rem was nearly driven mad by unease and anger."

"The very culprit who put Sis through that ordeal has come strutting so brazenly to the dwelling of Rem and Sis!"]

Ram watched the image on the screen, a flush of joy surfacing on her face, as if she had seized hold of Rem's weak point.

"Rem! Why did you take matters into your own hands? Why couldn't you have endured it a little longer?"

"Sis, I..."

Driven back a step by the relentless questioning, Rem retreated.

Reflected in her bewildered eyes was the figure of Ram at this moment.

Her gaze was deep and dark, like a fathomless cold pool, letting through not a single glimmer of light.

Her expression had collapsed, the smile on her face mixed with madness, resentment, secret glee, and a lingering trace of... happiness?

All manner of emotions blended together on Ram's face, making her look utterly twisted at this moment.

At this moment, Rem and Ram had become the center of the audience area, all eyes turning toward the two of them, sparing only their peripheral vision for the screen.

And under everyone's gaze, Ram closed in on Rem step by step.

"Why make excuses? It has nothing to do with me, does it? I never once said anything like wanting Rem to take revenge on the Witch Cult—why drag me into it, drag Barusu into it?"

"So it's all your fault, Rem!"

Ram, her eyes full of resentment, her emotions erupting, shouted at Rem:

"Why——did you have to take your anger out on Barusu?!"

At precisely that moment, Natsuki Subaru's weeping cries came from the screen.

"What on earth do you want me to do? What did I do wrong? Why do you two hate me so much?!"]

Natsuki Subaru's resentful voice resounded in the ears of every single person in the audience area outside the screen.

His words also brought Ram's footsteps to a halt.

Barusu said... they—that is, that included her too!

"No—it has nothing to do with me, does it? It was all that side, it's all Rem's fault, surely!"

Ram turned her body toward the screen, explaining to the Natsuki Subaru in the image, as though also speaking to the others in the audience area.

[After venting hysterically, Natsuki Subaru reined in his expression.

Recalling those wonderful experiences shared with the two sisters across the loops, he forced a twisted smile onto his face.

"I've always... you two are the ones I like the most..."]

Ram watched this scene with delighted surprise, her deep, dark eyes holding not the slightest worry for Natsuki Subaru's injuries—only joy at the confession he was about to speak.

Say it... we are the ones you like the most...

A sweet, bashful smile appeared on Ram's face.

Then, all she heard was a "squelch," and she saw, in the image on the screen——

A wind blade came whipping out, coldly and mercilessly slitting Natsuki Subaru's throat.

And that wind blade had come from none other than her own hand.

And so, the moment she realized this, just like not long ago when she had watched herself sever Natsuki Subaru's lower leg with a wind blade, she staggered back several steps.

The venting just now had been nothing but a farce.

The final image had already laid it out clearly and unmistakably.

In this loop, it was she—Ram—who had killed Natsuki Subaru with her own hands.

And before that, she had also severed Natsuki Subaru's lower leg.

And the Rem she had blamed? In fact, she hadn't taken Natsuki Subaru's life for half the day, and had even healed him with magic.

And so the expression on Ram's face utterly collapsed.

In her mental breakdown, she had been doing irrational things all along.

Displaced anger—this was precisely the flaw in her character.

Short-sightedly shifting responsibility again and again, fixating only on the goal before her eyes while neglecting the more important things——Rem's feelings, and her worry and care for Subaru.

Priscilla, who had witnessed this whole affair from start to finish, opened her fan in boredom and covered the lower half of her face.

Pronouncing her verdict on this farce.

"To selfishly and short-sightedly take one's anger out on another—truly, it is the desire of a pig."

____

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