Time passed quickly.
Before he knew it, nearly a week had gone by since Natsuki Subaru had woken up.
And this room really was special.
Even including the five days he had spent unconscious, it had only been close to two weeks—about half a month.
Yet the serious injuries all over his body had already almost completely healed.
As for how Subaru had spent that time, it was a little hard to put into words.
Sure, he had a convenient apprentice constantly helping him, but the food here was truly hard to accept.
The flesh and blood of those mabeasts was not only incredibly disgusting, but the taste was also awful.
Sometimes, Subaru even suspected that eating it would give him diarrhea.
Thankfully, the powerful Shaula could easily start fires, so at least grilled meat made him feel a little more at ease.
But living day after day like this was no solution.
Subaru went to the fifth floor.
As expected, there was an enormous gate there.
Beyond the gate was a vast, endless desert.
Yellow sand filled the sky, and he could not see even the faintest shadow of a city.
“If I just walk out directly, I’ll probably die of thirst or hunger halfway… And according to Shaula, there are a lot of mabeasts in the desert too.
All of them are dangerous…”
On top of that, if he left without clearing the trial, he would be killed by his convenient apprentice.
No matter how he looked at it, this deal was not worth it.
Subaru sighed.
In the end, he could only return to the Green Room on the fourth floor and begin today’s rehabilitation exercises.
After going so long without properly moving his body, even his muscles felt a little rusty.
“Ah, Master~~!
Today is peaceful too!
Nothing happened at all, right—?!”
Shaula leapt toward him.
Subaru skillfully dodged to the side.
Unable to stop in time, Shaula crashed straight into the floor.
With her hands and feet pressed against the ground, she looked up and glared at Subaru with a face full of resentment.
“Master is so mean!”
“You use too much force.
If you get close to me like that, my body, which barely recovered, will break again!
Besides, who would even come visit a broken down tower built in the middle of a desert?”
Normally, Shaula would patrol the watchpoint to see if any outsiders were approaching the tower.
According to the orders left by her master, anyone who came near the tower had to be dealt with.
“Master shouldn’t talk about his own creation like that!”
“Yes, yes… By the way, Shaula, how long have you been guarding this tower all by yourself?”
Subaru suddenly grew curious and asked.
“Huh?
Why are you suddenly asking that?
Could it be that Master has finally started caring about Shaula?!”
“Don’t make me sound like some cold, heartless jerk.
You’re my lifesaver.
No matter what, there’s no way I could be completely indifferent toward you.”
Subaru sighed and spoke with a somewhat helpless expression.
Even if this girl had mistaken him for someone else, the fact that she had saved him and helped him escape that horrible underground cave would not change.
“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!”
Shaula cheered with a smile.
“Four hundred years… Seriously?
You stayed here for four hundred years?!”
That number was so huge that Subaru could barely imagine it.
Many countries did not even have histories that long.
Yet the girl in front of him had not only lived for an absurd four hundred years, she had apparently done it all for an agreement.
For a promise.
Just what kind of loyalty was this?
“Ah, yes.
But it doesn’t really matter.
As long as Master has come back, all that time is just unimportant waiting.
What matters more is now.”
Shaula nodded as if she were saying something completely obvious.
“You…”
The words reached Subaru’s lips, but he did not know what to say.
He had never truly experienced four hundred years of lonely life alone, so he could not claim to understand her feelings.
Nor did he know how to comfort her.
After all, the girl in front of him did not look like she was suffering.
Subaru reached out and unconsciously patted the girl’s head.
Shaula did not resist.
In fact, she seemed to enjoy it quite a lot.
“That master of yours really is a bastard.
Don’t let me meet him, or I’ll definitely punch him.”
“What?
Then Shaula will have no choice but to look forward to watching Master fight Master!”
After reorganizing his thoughts, Subaru once again recalled the tower rules that Shaula had told him about a week ago.
There were four rules in total.
First, leaving before completing the test was forbidden.
Second, breaking the rules of the test was forbidden.
Third, disrespecting the library was forbidden.
Fourth, damaging the tower itself was forbidden.
Subaru carefully analyzed these rules.
The one enforcing them should be Shaula.
As long as someone broke the rules, she would ignore her feelings and turn into a cold killing machine.
But the rules themselves were strange.
Some of them even felt contradictory.
Especially the second rule—breaking the rules of the test was forbidden.
Did that mean the test had other rules as well?
Even after asking Shaula again, he could not get any more useful information.
Though Shaula had lived here for as long as four hundred years, she had spent almost all her time watching the sea of sand.
In other words, sniping outsiders.
She had barely even walked around the tower itself.
“So in the end, I still have to do this myself.”
Subaru prepared himself.
He planned to head to the next floor, the third floor—Taygeta.
“Shaula—come over here for a second.”
Subaru once again called out to Shaula, who was not far away.
“Coming, coming!
I’ll be there right away!”
He received a reply full of energy.
A moment later, he saw a figure leap high into the air.
It was Shaula.
Her speed really was impressive.
As expected of someone from another world, her physical ability was ridiculously good.
She stretched out both arms, her long scorpion tail swaying behind her.
With a bright smile on her face, she tried to dive straight into Subaru’s arms.
It was another classic high speed charge.
And another classic rolling dodge.
“Aww, Master, why do you always refuse to accept my feelings?!”
“I already told you, I only just recovered from serious injuries!
You need to treat injured people gently!”
“If I slowly get close to you, then will you hug me?”
“Hm?
Subaru thought about it for a moment, then answered.
“Yay!
As expected, it’s all thanks to me being so sexy and so bitchy!”
“Like I said, don’t just casually use words like that!
At least have a little self respect.
Saying things like that makes it way too easy for people to take advantage of you…”
Subaru retorted.
Shaula’s expression, however, suddenly became serious.
She spoke with complete sincerity.
“I only act like this toward Master.
If it’s an outsider, I use Hell’s Snipe.”
“No, no, no.
Shooting people with Hell’s Snipe the moment you meet them is going way too far.
Just interact normally!”
“Ehehe.”
Shaula stuck out her tongue and used her sexy body to act cute.
“So, Master, did you call me for something?”
“Right.
I’m preparing to challenge the third-floor trial.
Come with me.”
Subaru said.
“Yes, Master!
As you command, Master!
Shaula swears to protect Master’s decision with her life!
Shalala!”
Looking at Shaula like this, whether one called her lively or simply impossible to pin down, it was very hard for Subaru to connect her with the words “killing machine.”
“Yeah.
Let’s go.”
Subaru brought Shaula with him and headed from the fourth floor toward the stairway leading to the third floor.
After passing through a long flight of stairs, they soon arrived in a pure white space.
The space was unbelievably huge.
The pure whiteness stretched so far that he could not see walls or an end.
Even when he looked up, he could not see the ceiling.
Looking down, the only visible point was the staircase, which looked like a black hole opening its wide mouth.
Then, directly ahead in the white space—in front of the staircase—there was an unbelievable object floating in the air.
It was a pitch-black, enormous stone slab.
Calling it a stone slab was not quite right, though.
It was not stone, nor was it metal.
It was made from some substance that Subaru could not recognize.
It was huge, wide enough for two people to stand side by side.
“So this is the tool for the test?
The device?”
Subaru looked toward Shaula.
Shaula shook her head to show that she did not know either.
That made sense.
She had never come to this floor before.
Subaru approached the slab and touched it.
The surface of the slab suddenly gave off light.
Then, from behind it, new copied slabs shot out one after another.
They flew around the room at incredible speed, scattering irregularly everywhere and floating in midair.
“What is this supposed to be?”
Countless slabs were arranged throughout the white space.
Subaru could not understand what it meant at all.
Then, a voice rang out inside his mind.
“The hero beaten to death by Shaula—touch his most dazzling moment.”