Subaru pressed his clenched fist firmly against his lips, mimicking Auguste Rodin’s sculpture The Thinker, as if striking the pose would grant him a 50% buff to his thought processing speed.
In the previous loop, by the time he and Emilia had reached Old Man Rom’s loot house, the sky had already gone completely dark.
Elsa had killed both people inside.
The hulking old man’s corpse was presumably Old Man Rom, and the petite blonde girl’s corpse was Felt.
The insignia Emilia was looking for was nowhere to be found.
It might have been taken by Elsa, it might have been on one of the corpses on the floor, or it might have been hidden in some obscure corner of the abandoned building.
In any case, it was incredibly hard to find.
But if he went there now…
Elsa likely hadn’t had the chance to kill anyone yet.
Both Old Man Rom and Felt would still be alive, and the insignia would still be in their hands.
Plan: Go!
“Hey, Emilia!”
Subaru called out to Emilia, who was walking ahead of him.
“Wh-what is it, Subaru?” Emilia was still a little unaccustomed to Subaru calling her directly by her name.
“Listen to me, Emilia-tan,” Subaru pointed one hand toward the sky, “I know where your insignia is!”
“Huh?
What does ‘tan’ mean?”
“Please ignore the title… Anyway,” Subaru gestured for Emilia to climb onto his back, “I’m going to carry you and fly straight there.
We need to hurry.”
…
Subaru was in no mood to fly slowly like he did in the last loop.
He glanced up at the sky.
It was just past noon, the sun angling slightly.
There’s still time… but no matter how much time we have, we can’t afford to waste it.
Whoosh!
A long vapor trail formed behind Subaru as shockwaves of displaced air churned around him.
His speed increased once more, and he dove toward the slums like a human passenger jet.
The only one suffering for it was Emilia on his back.
“The wind is so strong!” Emilia’s silver hair whipped wildly, and she could barely keep her eyes open.
She tried to speak, but the gale-force wind rushed straight into her mouth.
“Subaru!
I ruru… ru…”
She completely couldn’t speak!
What a terrible passenger experience!
Subaru might have made a great racecar driver, but he was definitely an awful taxi driver.
“Okay, Emilia-tan,” Subaru landed in an open clearing not far from the abandoned building in the slums.
The downdraft from his landing flattened the surrounding weeds and flowers.
“We’re here… Emilia?”
Emilia looked positively green.
The moment she slipped off Subaru’s back, her legs gave out, and she sat straight down on the ground.
“You flew way too fast, Subaru…” Emilia raised a hand to her forehead.
It looked like she was seeing double of everything.
Puck tumbled out of Emilia’s long hair and collapsed flat on his back, equally dizzy.
“There are… three suns in the sky…”
Puck?!
The despairing sensation of his internal organs freezing solid rushed back in an instant.
“A-ah, s-sorry…”
Fortunately, the girl and the cat were still in a state of lingering shock themselves, and didn’t pick up on the sheer terror in Subaru’s tone.
“I’ll go knock on the door.
You two wait here for a second.”
Knock, knock, knock.
“Is anyone home?”
Subaru pounded on the door.
Under the orange sunlight, the heavy door of the abandoned building seemed to silently reject him.
The heavy thuds echoed against the wood, but no one answered.
The only reply was an unbearable, suffocating silence.
No way… Is Elsa already here?
Have the people inside already been killed?
Am I still too late?
“Is anyone there… someone has to be there, right?”
Unable to withstand Subaru’s passionate pounding, the wooden door groaned.
The hinges began to warp, and then—
“—Shut up, it’s so noisy!
You don’t know the password or the knock, and you’re trying to tear the door down?!”
The door was violently thrown open.
The heavy panel slammed into Subaru, exactly like the Titanic hitting the iceberg: the iceberg didn’t budge an inch, and the Titanic was smashed to pieces.
Behind the door, a ruddy, bald old man stared at Subaru in astonishment.
Filthy, tattered clothes wrapped around a massive, muscle-bound frame.
His smooth, hairless head reflected the bright red of the sun.
To sum it up: a gigantic, bald, yet incredibly energetic old man was standing there.
“What the hell are you doing?!
You broke my door!”
The old man acutely realized that Subaru’s strength didn’t seem inferior to his own; in fact, it might even be greater.
“What’s a fresh face like you trying to pull?
Who are you?
How do you know about this place?
Who told you?”
“My name is Subaru Natsuki, a wandering rogue returned from hell.”
Subaru craned his neck as far back as it could go to look up at the old man.
The guy was seriously tall… easily three heads taller than Subaru.
Subaru was around 172 centimeters tall, which meant the old man in front of him had to be at least 220 centimeters.
This was undoubtedly Old Man Rom himself.
“We’re here to buy stolen goods from you.”
“…Who told you about this place?”
Subaru recalled the face of the man he had spoken to in the previous loop and described him to Rom.
Rom stared at Subaru for a long while before finally saying, “Come in.”
Pulling back the shattered door, Subaru and Emilia entered the abandoned building.
Though the “abandoned” part only seemed to apply to the exterior.
With plenty of light filtering in, Subaru could take a good look at the interior.
The decor and furnishings were quite complete.
It actually looked like a pretty comfortable place to live.
Rom scratched his bald head and stepped behind the counter.
Rather than just calling him “tall,” the word “gigantic” suited this old man far better.
Standing behind the counter, he was so cramped he had to hunch over.
He pulled a bottle of liquor from the shelf below, poured it into a glass, and brought it to his lips.
“The sun hasn’t even set yet and you’re already drinking.
You’ll die an early death at this rate.”
Subaru casually dropped an incredibly impolite remark, which earned him a light punch from Emilia.
“Hello, sir.” Emilia sat up perfectly straight on a stool by the bar.
“A very important item of mine was stolen by Felt, and I would like to retrieve it from you.”
“Haha!
Didn’t the brat next to you explain the rules?”
He tilted the bottle toward his empty glass, pouring the amber liquid until it was nearly overflowing.
Rom downed the entire drink in one gulp.
“Here in my loot house, even if it’s your own property that got stolen, the only way you’re getting it back is if you pay up like everyone else.”
Emilia looked displeased and was about to argue, but Subaru stopped her.
He gave her a pointed look, signaling that she should let him handle the negotiations.
Subaru got straight to the point with Rom.
“We’re looking for an insignia with a jewel set in the center.
We’d like to buy it back from you.”
Granted, Subaru could have just taken it by force.
It wasn’t like Rom could actually beat him and Emilia in a fight.
But thanks to his parents’ upbringing, Subaru possessed a fully intact moral compass.
If possible, Subaru didn’t want to do bad things.
He still held onto the fantasy of becoming a superhero.
Power was meant to be used to help people, not hurt them.
Faced with Subaru’s hopeful request, Rom looked troubled.
“A jeweled insignia… Unfortunately, no one has brought anything like that here.”
“…Really?
Think carefully.
You aren’t just getting old and losing your memory, are you?”
“If this old man can’t remember even while in prime condition after a drink, then all I can tell you is that I don’t know.
That’s all there is to it.”
Could being drunk really be called “prime condition”?
That was a first for Subaru.
Rom poured another full glass of liquor and slid the cup toward Subaru.
“In a little while, someone has an appointment to bring something over.
They told me beforehand that it was top-tier merchandise, so there’s a good chance it’s the item you’re looking for.”
“Is the person bringing the item a blonde girl named Felt?” Subaru pushed the offered alcohol away.
He was only seventeen, after all; he still had three years before he could legally drink in Japan.
“Exactly… What, you even know the thief’s name?”
Emilia couldn’t hold back anymore.
“Because she stole it right from in front of me!
That’s why I want it back!”
Emilia’s moral compass was terrifyingly rigid.
She was far too direct, completely lacking the flexibility to navigate social gray areas.
Seeing that the negotiations were on the verge of collapsing, Subaru pulled out his long-time companion—his flip phone—from his pocket and set it on the table.
Drop Stones to push the story forward!