The torrent of emotions emerging from his heart made the madman who raised his head open his eyes in astonishment. In the intermittent words uttered from his mouth, the consciousness of the original owner of the body was vaguely visible.
Just like that, Sloth's shocked expression was suppressed, replaced by Subaru's expression of pained breathing. This change gave Julius and the others hope.
"Subaru!" "Subaru dear!" "Subaru-dono!"
"I am... Petelgeus Romaniconti... Shut up, it's Natsuki Subaru...!"
"...Do it quickly, Julius"
Upon hearing Subaru's name, Julius's eyes widened motionlessly and his lips trembled.
"What did you say"
"I'm sorry, but... there's no time. If you don't stop me now, we won't win... We have to hurry up before then."
"No! Think about it, Subaru! I am a knight, an elf warlock, and an elf knight who has made a contract with you to help you achieve your goals. How could I do such a thing to break the contract!"
"The contract with me is for you to help Emilia... Ha, this sounds a bit despicable, right?"
Upon hearing Subaru's squeezed answer, Julius's face twisted with bitterness.
The usually generous attitude disappeared. He had always maintained this elegant attitude. Subaru's expression at this moment made Subaru feel a little surprised. He didn't expect that he would be so hesitant.
"Don't you have something to say afterward?"
"...Sorry, I can't seem to say that."
"Mr. Wilhelm, please don't mess around..."
"If you don't act recklessly now, what else can you do? I will definitely end up like this -"
In order to get here, Wilhelm even put aside the treatment of his wounds. His body is covered with scars. The sword demon who can make his body that should not move with his will is really admirable, but his sword is
Can't erase this darkness
Subaru laughed weakly and breathlessly, looking at Yuexing
"——My brother, please..."
Yuexing shook her head gently
"Subaru, tell me that."
"……What?"
"Those four words"
On the edge of painful despair came words of hope
Subaru's painfully deformed face raised a corner of his mouth.
"——I use "Death Return"——"
The moment he shouted the taboo words loudly, the world lost its color and the movement stopped abruptly.
"——Ahhhhh!"
In a short moment, Subaru's consciousness returned to his body, and he collapsed on the ground, with a thankful expression on his face.
"Sir Subaru!" "Sir Subaru!"
…
"Where is the laziness now?"
Subaru, who was glowing with blue light all over his body, looked at Yuexing sitting next to him.
"Who knows, if there is no "possessed" object, the soul will probably be gone."
Yuexing curled her lips and looked in the direction of the village
"I guess the evacuation work is almost done."
Julius walked over with a serious expression, holding a glowing conversation mirror in his hand
The conversation mirror was discovered during a search of "Finger's" body
"It just ended here, but we have to go back to the village quickly, something happened."
"...That nasty premonition really came true, what happened?"
Julius raised the conversation mirror, and the people inside spoke out
"There is something fishy about the cargo of the dragon carriage used for evacuation - it may endanger all the dragon carriages."
…
"Phyllis, thank you for your hard work. Did you find anything wrong with the goods?"
Yuexing looked towards the front of the crowd, Phyllis holding the cargo list.
"About this matter, it's best to ask the person who discovered it...Otto!"
Phyllis suddenly named him, and then the wall of people parted in front of the surprised Subaru, passing between the knights, and the gray-haired young man who almost fell to the ground rushed out——
"Otto?"
Otto rushed over, gasping for breath. After seeing Subaru and his party, he touched his chest and was thankful that they were safe.
"First of all, it's great that you are all safe. To be honest, fighting the Sin Archbishop is tantamount to suicide... No! There is something more important to say now than this!"
"Calm down! Explain slowly, focus on the key points and be concise and to the point."
"It's so difficult! All in all, it's a lot to say. In fact, after comparing the catalog, I found something strange."
"Catalogue? You mean the goods left by traveling merchants in the village? Is there anything strange about it?"
Otto, who lowered his voice, took the catalog from Felice, opened it hurriedly, and then his eyes stopped on a certain page.
"Mr. Kaidi...you may not know this name. The traveling businessman Kaidi Mutado was arrested because he was a spy for the Witch Cult."
The dialogue mirror is obtained from Kaidi.
"I know that, yes, you guys know each other."
Subaru knew that Otto and Kaidi had come into contact several times in previous reincarnations, and that the person he knew was a witch cultist. Otto must also be surprised.
However, Otto didn't care about this and instead leaned forward to approach Subaru.
"Mr. Kaidi is a witch cultist. This is surprising and regrettable, but that's not the problem - his dragon chariot was used to evacuate the villagers, right?"
"——? Oh, yes, let's not care about the owner of the car. The earth dragon is not guilty, and there are no extra dragon cars, so in order to let everyone escape, I have to use them as a last resort."
"Then, the goods and catalogs unloaded from the dragon cart are all the same as what I saw, right?"
"It should be right..."
Opposite me, Otto, who was particular about details, and Subaru were confused but nodded.
"really"
Faced with the affirmation, Otto's face showed conviction, and then he continued in a stiff voice.
“After comparing the goods and catalogs left behind, we couldn’t find what we should have in the village.”
"Something that should be there?"
"Originally, Mr. Kaidi's dragon cart should have a large number of fire magic stones, but now they can't be found - the amount is enough to blow up seven or eight dragon carts, and it is impossible to disappear out of thin air."
Kaidi's dragon chariot was not going to the "sacred territory", but was used in the convoy heading to the royal capital for refuge.
After listening to Otto's words and confirming the distribution of dragon carriages, Subaru came to this conclusion.
There are three witch cultists lurking among the traveling merchants. The three dragon carriages that lost their owners were driven by members of the expedition team, and one of them was the carriage Emilia was riding in.
"You mean, are the magic stones in the catalog really in the goods? Although I don't really want to say this, the credibility of the Witch Cult's catalog..."
"Integrating into daily life, only to become poisonous when trouble occurs. This is the horror of Witch Cultists. They will cleverly play temporary identities... You are turning a blind eye to things you don't want to see, Subaru."
"You are making such correct remarks in a place like this again...I know, it's my fault."
The anxious Subaru was sternly dragged back to reality by Julius. Subaru retorted reflexively, but immediately reflected on himself. Phyllis next to him looked at Otto.
"The person who noticed the discrepancy between the catalog and the goods was Otto Chirp. There is a reason."
"Yes, all the goods except magic stones are consistent with the catalog... In fact, I have seen the real thing with my own eyes."
"When you say you've seen it, do you mean you've seen magic stones in the cargo? When!?"
Otto, who claimed to be a witness, raised his finger at Subaru's question.
"When the notice calling for evacuation dragon carriages was posted, Mr. Kaiji and I heard what it said, so in order to rush ahead of others... When calculating the distance before departure, I secretly checked with others.
goods”
"So shrewd...although the result is very casual"
"There's no need to talk about it!? All in all, I have actually seen the goods with my own eyes. The quality, even if
It's just a guess, and the power is fully guaranteed... The magic stone is not here, I dare to speculate like this."
After the explanation came to an end, Subaru looked at Julius and Felice with a grimace. However, both of them also looked serious, especially Julius, who was very angry with himself. Subaru could also relate to his anger.
"Damn it, that's an oversight! It's the poor personality to use whatever you can use, which is a bad thing!"
"I have confirmed that no spells have been cast above,...but I did not expect that the dragon chariot itself has been cast into a physical trap. I'm sorry, it was my oversight."
"It's not your fault, it's my fault that I should have paid attention but didn't."
Julius should be very thorough in guarding against magic traps. Since he is responsible for this aspect, Subaru should be responsible for the physical mechanisms.
The most annoying thing is that Subaru himself experienced the explosion of the dragon carriage in the previous round.
In the last round, when Kaichi, who was possessed by sloth, revealed his true nature, Subaru and the other three were involved in the explosion of the dragon chariot. Since they later learned that "Finger" had an explosive technique to perform suicide, they always thought that the explosion of the dragon chariot was the result of the explosion.
What was caused by that technique——
"That explosion was not a magic spell, but a trap on the dragon chariot...and it was also on the dragon chariot that was evacuated this time."
Hiding magic stones on the dragon cart is very useful when it is revealed that you are a witch cultist. Not only can it cause great losses to the expedition team, but it can also notify your companions that the situation has changed.
Considering the paranoid malice of the Witch Cult, it is not difficult to imagine such an arrangement.
"Phyllis! If Kuailong increases his whip now, can he catch up with the evacuation team heading to the royal capital!?"
"It will be a hurry. Lady Emilia and the others have already set off for an hour and a half... In order to avoid being discovered by the Witch Cult, they will not run at full speed, but they will not drive slowly either."
Among the evacuation teams that were divided into two, the Royal Capital Evacuation Team focused on escaping from Rufus Street as quickly as possible, so speed was the priority. Once they left the Mesa territory and entered the streets, it would be difficult to catch up.
However, if the trap is not dealt with, Emilia and the children will become victims——
"Isn't it still not enough? I've made it this far, but I'm still...!"
Even if Subaru uses all his means, fate will lay traps everywhere, literally laying thorns on every path Subaru takes.
However, the one who reached out to Subaru, who was being stalked by fate unreasonably, offered a helping hand——
"——Can I ask you something, Mr. Natsuki?"
The person who raised his hand to break Subaru's anxiety was Otto with a serious look on his face.
The awareness in his eyes made him look completely different from the weak look just now. However, Subaru had an impression of his sudden change. In the round of world when he actually met him for the first time, Subaru went to ask for a drink.
The worried Otto discussed it, and when he was drunk at that time, he also had the same businessman appearance as he does now, that is to say——