Is It Over Just Like That?
The moment his consciousness returned, Subaru felt a sharp pain all over his body.
In that instant, he felt relief—because the pain told him he hadn't triggered "Return by Death," which meant he was still in the sixth loop.
His memories returned quickly, and he recalled the last thing he saw before fainting—flaming fireballs raining down on the mansion.
He sat up in a panic.
The sunlight from the sky made his eyes tear uncontrollably, and Subaru instinctively lowered his head and closed his eyes.
Wait a minute—sunlight!!!
With his head still bowed toward the ground, Subaru slowly opened his eyes.
The first thing he confirmed was that he was lying on grass.
Once his eyes adjusted to the light, he looked up and saw the sun hanging high in the sky.
Ah... it was already daytime.
Subaru fell silent.
This was his second time seeing the sun on the eighth day, but instead of excitement, all he felt was a giant question mark in his heart.
"Hey hey hey, getting knocked out by the aftermath of the final battle and waking up to find everything over... am I the comic relief side character in a gag manga or something!?"
With a sarcastic quip to relieve his complex emotions, Subaru finally began checking his current situation.
First was the Astrea mansion, now in ruins.
Judging by the collapsed buildings, it was clear how powerful the magical assault had been.
Then he looked around—bodies lay scattered across the ground.
They bore no sharp injuries from weapons, only burns, frostbite, electric shocks that left hair spiked, and bloated drowned corpses—signs of various magical elements.
The attacker this time had clearly been a magic user.
And then... that was it.
"So what the hell actually happened!?"
Subaru couldn't help shouting.
Though he was used to bizarre developments by now, this definitely ranked in the top tier of strange events he'd encountered—maybe top three (including being transported to another world)... top five (two times of inexplicably waking up)... no, top ten?
The more he thought about it, maybe not even top ten.
That realization depressed him further.
"Thinking back on it all, everything's just been one tidal wave after another."
He muttered as he checked himself for missing limbs—everything intact.
Then he stood up to face Otto and the others who were approaching. Honestly, with Subaru's pitiful intelligence, he had no idea what had happened.
"Natsuki Subaru-san, Roswaal would like to see you. Could we trouble you to come with us?"
"I don't think I can refuse, right? But could you at least explain the situation? Honestly, I'm completely confused.
This feels like prepping for a final boss fight, only for the game to end right after the boss's entrance cutscene."
Otto's face showed visible confusion, but Subaru didn't plan to explain that metaphor.
Otto didn't pursue it either and began walking, with Subaru following while mulling over Roswaal's request.
"Well then, let me explain as we walk. Last night, Count Roswaal, the Beast of the End, and the White Rabbit all launched an attack on the Astrea mansion simultaneously."
No mention of Cecilus—was it because he didn't join the battle? Or was it too sensitive to mention? Should Subaru ask?
"Is Reinhild okay?"
That was Subaru's top concern.
As long as Reinhild was safe, Subaru had no plans to trigger Return by Death again.
In that case, he didn't need to dig into Cecilus's whereabouts.
"Lady Reinhild is fine. But because of the large-scale conflict, she's currently being questioned in the royal capital."
"What about the others? Old Man Rom, Felt, Eileen...?"
"I'll explain one by one. Yesterday, after Lady Reinhild, Eileen, and Leander led the royal guards to fight the Beast of the End and the White Rabbit, Roswaal suddenly appeared and attacked the mansion.
Old Man Rom took you to a shelter but was killed in the battle with Roswaal.
Lady Felt also died fighting alongside him.
Despite our abundant magic stone stockpile, Roswaal's mastery of Yin magic was beyond imagination. Even soldiers enhanced by Yang magic couldn't hit the flying Roswaal. As for the ones on the ground..."
"They got blasted apart."
"Yes. But thank you—you helped. Thanks to those magic stones, we weren't annihilated in the first wave."
"???"
"For example, Natsuki Subaru-san, your body was enhanced by the Yang magic field, which is the only reason you survived.
Otherwise, you'd already be boxed up and wouldn't even need cremation.
But in the end, the mansion's magical defenses were mostly destroyed, and the Yin barrier was completely dispersed.
Bernie also died—before dying, he threw you all out.
Because of the large number of people, we still haven't finished reorganizing."
"So how did we survive in the end?"
"Lady Reinhild sensed something was wrong and returned midway.
She knocked Roswaal out with one punch.
Magic users are generally weak in close combat—even though Roswaal isn't bad at physical combat, he still got KO'd by a top-tier warrior.
Captain Marcos once KO'd him too.
After that, Reinhild went on to finish off the Beast of the End and then helped Eileen and the others defeat White Rabbit."
Otto didn't say it, but had he not administered first aid in time, Roswaal might not have survived long enough to even talk to Subaru now.
"So Cecilus did run into Reinhild...?"
Subaru concluded internally, thinking back over Otto's report.
Still, he was genuinely surprised that Eileen, Leander, and Otto all survived.
Especially Eileen and Leander—Subaru had grown close to them in this loop, and Leander had even sacrificed himself several times for Subaru.
That made their survival even more gratifying.
He couldn't deny it—this was an unexpected joy.
—Is it really over?
Subaru suddenly wondered, a surreal feeling welling up inside.
It felt like he hadn't done anything—but thinking carefully, he realized he had done quite a lot.
In fact, it was because he did so much that things turned out this well.
Tears welled up in his eyes.
"Natsuki Subaru-san?"
"No, it's nothing. Right... so, why does Roswaal want to see me? I mean, I've got nothing to do with him."
"Don't worry. We're not suspecting you—at least not now.
Honestly, we don't know why Roswaal insists on seeing you.
No matter how we interrogated him, he just kept saying he'd only talk after seeing you.
So we're hoping you'll cooperate. Please."
Subaru hesitated but ultimately gave in to his curiosity—he wanted to know why Roswaal wanted to meet him.
So he stepped inside.
There, he saw Roswaal sitting in a chair, restrained by a sealing collar.
"You've come, Subaru~~~"