“Yes, Master!”
“Mm.
I’m counting on you.”
Subaru did his best not to let any flaws show.
He did not want the girl in front of him to discover the secret plan he was hiding.
Only after Shaula left did he let out a long sigh of relief.
He secretly glanced at the staircase, and after confirming that she had really gone down, Subaru immediately began moving.
It was simple.
He had told Shaula that he had forgotten something in the underground palace below, something extremely important, and asked her to help him find it.
Just as expected, after Subaru said it with a very serious expression, Shaula left without the slightest hesitation.
Guilt rose in his heart.
Did this count as deceiving a girl’s feelings?
“No, right?
After all, the one she loves isn’t you.
It’s that Master from four hundred years ago, isn’t it?”
He had heard that when people did something that went against their principles, their hearts would produce words to comfort themselves.
Words used to deceive themselves.
“I have to move fast.
Before she comes back…”
Subaru gathered food and water, finishing all his preparations.
Fortunately, after a month of training, his stamina had become much better than before.
Otherwise, carrying this much stuff while walking through the sand dunes would have been difficult.
He could not stop.
If he broke the tower’s rules, Shaula would attack him, right?
Then he had to leave before that happened.
He had to get far enough away that she could not attack him.
Subaru went down the stairs and arrived on the fifth floor.
There stood an enormous gate, and the gate was wide open.
Outside, yellow sand filled the sky.
It was nighttime now.
The sunlight was not scorching, and though it was cold, this was his only chance.
At this time, the number of mabeasts outside would be relatively low.
He walked up to the gate.
[Shaula… Shaula wants Master to stay with Shaula forever…]
[Master wasn’t just bragging.
Shaula accepted every one of those words.
Because Master said those words, even waiting four hundred years was worth the price of admission!]
[Maybe… it’s because… my feelings for Master are just a little stronger than my fear of that guy?]
[Master doesn’t have to rush.
We have a long time!
Whether it takes one month, one year, or even ten years, I’m willing to stay with you, Master!]
[The Master I know isn’t a coward who gives up after looking down on himself.
He’s a Great Sage who, no matter what deadly situation he faces, will rack his brain and overcome it.
And—]
[Master wasn’t just bragging.
Shaula accepted every one of those words.
Because Master said those words, even waiting four hundred years was worth the price of admission!]
Subaru stood there, staring at the sea of sand before him.
It stretched endlessly.
“Don’t remember that now… Damn it… If I stop here… If I stop here…”
Subaru clenched his fists.
His legs felt as if molten steel had been poured into them.
No matter what he did, he could not take that step through the gate in front of him.
“Then I’ll never be able to save her!”
He said that to comfort his own heart.
Then he stepped forward.
On the second floor, Electra—
Reid, who had been sleeping soundly on the grassland, suddenly sensed something.
His eyes opened slightly, and a trace of confusion appeared in those sky-blue eyes.
Then, he seemed to understand something and burst into laughter.
“This is really… Small fry, you bastard—”
“You’re seriously arrogant!
Hopelessly arrogant, and hopelessly cowardly!”
Subaru ran outside.
He had left the tower that had trapped him for two months.
He ran.
He ran with everything he had, putting all his strength into it. New chapters come out on g.com first.
He had to leave that place.
He had to get out.
Freedom.
It was freedom.
It was freedom!
Subaru greedily breathed in the air outside the tower.
Even though the sandstorm filled his mouth with grit, all he felt was joy rushing through his whole body.
He had left.
He had finally left.
He did not need to face that terrifying Reid anymore.
He could go outside now and enjoy the wind of freedom.
The night wind blew freely against Subaru’s body.
He laughed, then laughed loudly toward the moon in the sky.
“Natsuki Subaru’s isekai life starts now!”
His heart felt lighter than ever before—
[Having Master say that makes me so happy!
Just hearing those words from Master makes even four hundred years of waiting feel like nothing at all!]
Suddenly, Subaru felt as if his heart tightened.
He remembered that girl again.
He had abandoned her.
No matter how he justified it, no matter how he lied to himself, that was the truth.
“What’s wrong with that?!
The one she was waiting for wasn’t even me in the first place!
I was already deceiving her feelings and using her!
Natsuki Subaru, what are you regretting?!”
Subaru did not know who he was shouting at.
“She saved my life, and I’ll repay that debt later!
It’s not like I won’t repay it!
Going outside is the only way to repay it properly!
If I just keep getting defeated by Reid again and again, then in the end, nothing will ever come true!”
“Why does my chest hurt?
Why does it feel so empty…?
My beautiful isekai life is still waiting for me!”
Inside the sandstorm, Subaru shouted at the empty space in front of him.
If someone outside saw him, they would probably think he had lost his mind.
“Hah… Ah…”
After venting, Subaru felt his emotions calm down a little.
No.
This sense of calm was only self deception.
But an arrow already released from the bow could not turn back.
He had already come out.
He could not go back anymore.
Subaru finally looked back at the tower behind him.
“I’ll definitely come back… I—”
Before Subaru could finish speaking, the entire ground suddenly shook violently.
It was like the roar of a landslide.
The ground had split open?!
Startled by the sudden scene, Subaru desperately tried to grab something.
But he was only struck by large falling rocks.
His body was still flesh and blood, and being hit by stone hurt all the same.
Boom!
Subaru fell.
He fell somewhere below.
Rocks dropped violently onto his body.
The food he had prepared scattered everywhere.
Enduring the pain, Subaru struggled out from the pile of rocks.
“Cough, cough… What the hell… What happened?!”
Subaru looked around and realized he had fallen into a place like the underground palace.
No.
Could this be the same underground palace he had been in before?
A terrifying thought rose into his mind.
“Crap, crap, crap, crap, crap, crap, crap, crap, crap, crap, crap, crap!”
Subaru hurriedly climbed to his feet, not even looking at the food on the ground.
“I have to leave this place.
I already made up my mind… Damn it, I need to go!”
Subaru clenched his teeth and threw himself at the wall, frantically searching for a suitable place to push off from.
He wanted to climb up.
He had to leave.
A fierce wind blew from deep inside the cave.
He smelled it.
The scent of death.
Something.
Something was approaching.
His inner alarm stretched to its limit.
Subaru felt nothing but fear and terror.
“I want to get out.
I want to get out.
Damn it, let me climb up!!”
Subaru stepped on one protruding rock after another, desperately trying to climb out of this place.
But the wall was too smooth, and the footholds were too weak.
He tried again and again, only to fall hard to the ground each time.
Pain and fear crawled over Subaru’s body together.
“Damn it, what is it this time?!”
Subaru knew there was no time left.
He hurriedly grabbed his phone and shone the light ahead.
The approaching shadow stood beneath the moonlight.
That was clearly not a person.
It was a monster.
Its existence seemed to completely overturn the natural world’s sense of scale.
At the very front of its body was a pair of wildly exaggerated giant pincers, terrifying enough to make the heart tremble.
Its enormous body was like a heavily armored tank, covered all over by a thick, hard shell.
That shell was a deep yet vivid dark red, as if it had been formed from blazing magma that cooled and solidified.
Under the moonlight, the surface of the shell flowed with a cold metallic and dangerous luster.
But the most frightening thing was the tail raised high behind it.
“S-Scorpion…”
Subaru had never seen a scorpion this huge before.
In its compound eyes, he saw a desire to kill.
“No… Don’t come over here…”
The scorpion would not obey Subaru’s words.
Its enormous legs slowly moved.
Whenever those legs struck the ground, they produced a heavy thud, as if the earth itself trembled along with them.
“Don’t come near me!”
Subaru shouted and turned around, trying once again to climb up.
But before he could take the next step, those massive pincers had already caught him first.
“Help me… Anyone, please save me!
Shaula!!”
In his fear, Subaru still instinctively shouted the name of the girl who had once saved his life.
How laughable.
He had clearly just abandoned her, yet now the person he begged for mercy from, the person he cried for help from, was still her.
Subaru thought that bitterly.
The giant scorpion seemed to freeze for a moment.
“A chance?!”
Subaru put strength into both arms and actually broke free, falling to the ground.
He scrambled up and immediately ran at full speed.
His parkour training during this time had not been for nothing.
That was what Subaru thought.
Slice—
Suddenly, he felt his field of vision turn upside down.
Were heaven and earth spinning?
No.
When Subaru saw his own body— when that headless body entered his eyes— he understood what had happened.
“Ah…”
“I died…”
The headless corpse sprayed out a huge amount of blood, soaking the severed head as it spun through the air.
(TL: Aura less monster~ kewk, just joking)