Chapter 122: Start Watching, Wrath-if Line

Everything around him was warm and comfortable, like a vast, hazy white ocean.

At this moment, Natsuki Subaru was drifting in this mysterious white space, and only after a long while did he slowly come to.

"Where is this? How did I suddenly end up here? Wasn't I just in the dining room of the manor a moment ago?"

Natsuki Subaru furrowed his brow tightly, straining to recall the very last scene that lingered in his memory.

He had just left that fairy-like Priscilla in his room—the one who'd been draining the very marrow from his bones—and made his way to the dining room.

Then, in the midst of his exchange with Crusch, he'd been unable to restrain himself, and the two of them had embraced and kissed...

And after that, by all rights, he should have waited for Anastasia and Felt to finish cooking in the kitchen, and then enjoyed an absurdly indulgent morning breakfast.

Yet the truth was that the very next second, he had lost consciousness.

As if waking from a dream—rousing from that gorgeous, butterfly-like dream and returning to this pure white space.

"...like hell I did!"

Natsuki Subaru pressed at his temples speechlessly. Even if he'd woken from a dream, that still didn't explain how he'd ended up in this space he'd never set foot in before.

And besides—had it really been a dream?

A world of catastrophe, monsters in disguise, the manor like a lone boat tossed in a storm.

And every one of those women who carried memories from other timelines... At the very least, those experiences could absolutely not have been fake.

So then, what on earth was going on with all of this?

Unable to help himself, Natsuki Subaru rose to his feet and shouted out into the space, voicing his questions.

The very next second, this pure white space responded in an instant.

A pale blue screen of light unfolded before Natsuki Subaru, line after line of text surfacing one after another upon it:

[Ding!]

[Due to the time limit, the "Game Time Starting From Zero" has ended ahead of schedule.]

[As compensation, everyone who appeared in this instance will retain their memories.]

[The viewing will now continue. About to begin: the Wrath-if line storyline viewing.]

Looking at the text on the screen of light before him, Natsuki Subaru felt a touch of bewildered alarm.

Everything he'd just experienced had only been an instance, not reality?

And what was this so-called "viewing"?

Moreover, judging from the wording that continued above, this viewing didn't seem to be something that had only just appeared, either.

Still, there was no point in simply puzzling over it here. Natsuki Subaru guessed that the pure white space he was now in perhaps existed precisely to serve this so-called viewing.

In that case, what he needed to do now was very simple—he just had to watch on patiently.

Meanwhile, over in the viewing theater.

Whether or not they had appeared in that instance, everyone could only just barely draw a few deep breaths before finally coming back to their senses.

Aside from Emilia, Priscilla, and the others, the rest who hadn't appeared had not the slightest memory concerning the instance, their faces blank with confusion.

(Skipping the stage where everyone exchanges words)

On the contrary, Emilia, Betty, and the others found their breathing somewhat ragged both as they received the memories and afterward.

Crusch, Anastasia, Felt, and the others were just about to say something when they were cut off by a sudden prompt on the screen.

[...The viewing will now continue. About to begin: the Wrath if-line storyline viewing.]

And so, after exchanging glances with one another, they reached a consensus.

First, focus on watching; once it was over, they could talk it out in reality!

And so, very quickly,

Under everyone's gaze, the pitch-black screen gradually lit up, and writing surfaced upon it.

[Take a good, long look at those present moments that do not exist——]

[A drowning man clutches at straws to survive, yet the more he himself struggles, the more people come to harm.]

[No one to trust, no one to rely on, never again able to attain salvation—there is only release.]

[From this point on, Natsuki Subaru no longer exists in this world—there is only the tyrant who purges all!]

"Mm, I've wanted to ask from the very start—this so-called Wrath-if line, what exactly is it?"

"And what do all of these words mean?"

Frederica was the first to break the silent atmosphere of the viewing area, raising her hand and speaking up in confusion.

Her gaze was fixed tightly upon the text on the screen, and for some reason she felt an intense unease in her heart.

The words "purge" and "tyrant" above were so jarring to her eyes, yet no matter what, she couldn't tear her gaze away.

She didn't understand—just what kind of feeling was it that had risen up in her heart at this moment?

Hearing her words, everyone looked at one another, and essentially none of them could answer the question.

After all, they didn't know why, after the viewing had stopped at the part where Natsuki Subaru leaped off the cliff, there would be such a change when it began again.

Yet just then, a warm and powerful voice rang out beside everyone, resolving their confusion:

"This question—I think I can try to answer part of it."

Reinhard wore a gentle smile on his face as he spoke modestly.

As a member who had taken part in the very first viewing, he had seen the story of another of Subaru's possibilities unfold.

The opening of that story had been exactly the same as the one before them now.

It was just that, back then, there hadn't been any sort of if-line prompt.

Still, he figured it probably wasn't the same story as the one playing now.

"What's playing is most likely a story where Subaru, due to all sorts of coincidences, walks toward another possibility—one that may overturn everything we've ever known about Subaru."

Reinhard offered only this simple line of explanation, but it was already enough.

He had no intention of telling the others about the contents of the Arrogance-if line he'd watched—harboring, perhaps, a little selfish motive of his own in that regard.

"Another possibility..."

Upon hearing this, for some reason everyone present fell into a tacit silence, lost in thought.

Many of them had noticed that the story development called "normal" at the very beginning didn't match their own memories.

Ferris of the Arrogance line, Rem of the Sloth line, Roswaal of the Greed line, the four candidates of the Lust line.

They were all secretly guessing—would this time have anything to do with them?

And at the same time, two people lowered their heads and said nothing after seeing the text on the screen.

"Sister?"

At this moment, the empathic bond between the sisters let Rem sense that something was wrong with Ram beside her.

Turning her head to look, she only then discovered that the head-bowed Ram's face was, at some unknown point, already brimming over with tears.

Rem stared blankly at this sight, opened her mouth, yet didn't know what to say.

She didn't know what her sister had gone through in places unknown to her, for her to be in such pain.

All she could do was stay by her side and accompany her.

As for the other one with her head bowed, Emilia, her expression was one of confusion, feeling only that her mind was somewhat in disarray.

Although she was happy that the viewing had played a story from her memories, together with Subaru.

But the memories from the Greed-if line that had suddenly appeared in her mind during that earlier little game now left her somewhat muddled.

Yet now was not the time to dwell on those extra memories. She shook her head, gathered her focus, and looked toward the screen.

There, the picture had lit up at some unknown moment.

["You—the murderer who killed Rem!!"

"I will definitely, kill you!"

Ringing out first, before the picture even appeared, was Ram's violent, hatred-filled voice.

But this seemed to be only an echo within someone's memory.

Because in the picture that had just lit up, Natsuki Subaru had already been fleeing through the forest for quite some time.

He was gasping for breath, fleeing forward with all his might in what could only be called an ugly running posture, his face twisted in anguish.

It seemed as though the painful expression and voice of Ram—who had grieved over the death of her younger sister Rem before he fled—kept echoing endlessly in his mind.]

"Huh? This doesn't seem any different from the story shown before. The development is almost exactly the same."

Outside the picture, Garfiel was the first to lose his patience, folding his arms across his chest and voicing his doubts at Reinhard.

For some reason, he always felt he didn't get along with this red-haired knight—just looking at him made him feel irritated!

So upon discovering that the other party might be lying to deceive him, he didn't hesitate to fire off his complaints.

"No... maybe it really is as you say, but if you look closely there are still differences, Garf."

At this point Otto, who was on relatively good terms with Garfiel, spoke up in rebuttal, propping up his chin as he analyzed earnestly.

"The viewing never shows scenes that serve no purpose. In the last scene we saw before, Subaru was already at the edge of the cliff, agonizing over whether or not to redo things."

"But now, it's as if time has rewound—Subaru has only just fled from the manor not long ago, and hasn't yet reached the cliff's edge."

He said with conviction.

"In other words, what the viewing perhaps wants to tell us is—"

"The story begins to change from right here!"

"This... so that's how it is. Then this great one will just keep watching—there should be an answer soon enough."

Hearing this, Garfiel gradually quieted down and said no more.

["Finally found you. You really gave me a hard time searching, Kasira."]

In the picture, Natsuki Subaru's panting suddenly stopped, and what rang out next was a distinctive voice.

Seeing this scene, everyone in the audience went wide-eyed.

Even those as composed as Julius and Wilhelm couldn't help but stand straight up and look ahead.

It was no wonder they were so shocked, for what appeared in the picture was an existence who absolutely should not have appeared at this moment—Betty.

In other words.

The course of the story had begun to deviate...

____

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