Chapter 133: The Blank Letter
Leading the way at the front, Natsuki Subaru knew that they would arrive at the village soon. Once they got there—no, the operation had actually already begun the moment they entered the forest path.
Multiple Return by Death checkpoints had confirmed it: before the Witch Cult appeared, they were already hiding in the forest.
If nothing had gone wrong, they had likely already noticed Subaru's group's movements.
The safest course of action now would be to accelerate their pace and evacuate everyone before the Witch Cult launched a preemptive strike. Otherwise, the consequences could be disastrous.
With that in mind, Subaru turned and shouted to those behind him:
"Everyone, pick up the pace! We're almost there! Before the Witch Cult—"
But Subaru trailed off.
Everyone had stopped where they stood, their expressions vacant and stunned. Subaru immediately sensed something was wrong. He quickly turned his head, scanning the area to understand what had happened.
That's when he noticed something: people around him were beginning to vanish, and a blue mist slowly spread throughout the area.
Subaru instinctively drew the sword from his waist—a random weapon he had picked out from the dragon carriage carrying their supplies.
He remained on high alert, calling out to the others. But then, a voice suddenly came from behind. He spun around.
There, he saw a blue flower blooming—and from the earth surrounding it, vines emerged one after another.
The world around him seemed to slow down. Subaru swung his sword swiftly, enduring the fatigue and pain coursing through his body, slashing the vines as they lunged at him.
"It's because of this flower... In that case—I'll destroy you!"
Subaru took a step forward to strike the flower, but at that moment, he saw a glimmer of red light float toward the blue blossom.
He immediately recognized what it was—he'd seen it many times while living at the mansion, watching Emilia communicate with lesser spirits.
"A lesser spirit...?"
Still wondering where the spirit had come from, Subaru saw it burn the blue flower to ashes.
Once the flower had been completely incinerated, the spirit floated gently back to his hand and then merged into his body.
And at that moment, the mist cleared, and the surroundings returned to normal.
"Subaru."
"Ah... it's you. What was that just now?"
"It was likely a hallucination magic. Right now, aside from you and me, everyone else is still trapped in it. We need to figure out how to bring them back. But first—how did you escape?"
Subaru lowered the sword in his hand, looking at his palm as he replied:
"Just now in the illusion, a blue flower attacked me. And then, a lesser spirit came out of nowhere and burned it. That's when I returned."
"A flower, huh? Sounds like Ria helped out. If she hadn't pulled you back, I wouldn't have known what to do. In that case, let's get the others out now."
"Ria?"
Subaru looked up at Julius with a puzzled expression. Julius raised his hand, and colorful lesser spirits began to gather around it.
"Did I not tell you? I'm actually a Spirit Knight."
"You absolutely did not mention that! And I'm not even going to ask why one of your spirits is inside me! For now, let's just focus on getting everyone back—this was likely an attack from the Witch Cult!"
"I understand. Then please, stay still."
After reaching an agreement, Julius called the names of two spirits—a black one and a white one. They floated into Subaru's body.
Immediately, voices flooded into Subaru's mind—as if dozens, no, hundreds of people were speaking all at once. He could even recognize a few familiar ones.
"This feels awful—like a swarm of flies buzzing in my ears..."
"That's rare. Even Yin and Ness failed to resonate properly."
"Stop talking about irrelevant stuff and get on with it! My head's pounding and we don't have time for this!"
The annoyed voice made Julius drop whatever he was about to say and instead begin communicating directly with those still trapped in the illusion.
Just then, a white-cloaked figure suddenly appeared at Subaru's side. Because of the mental noise, Subaru didn't notice until it was too late. He was instantly knocked over and hoisted up as the figure ran off with him.
"That's far enough!"
The first to react was Julius.
Then Wilhelm and Felix joined him in blocking the mysterious person's path.
With the voices in his head completely silenced, Subaru—now freed from the illusion—was unceremoniously dropped to the ground.
"Go ahead and kill me. I won't surrender."
Hearing that voice, Subaru stood up and looked at the figure removing their hood.
"Senpai?"
"How is it, Senpai?"
"Mhm. No disturbances in the forest so far."
Still sitting atop Patrasche, Subaru let out a sigh of relief after hearing those words.
"Then we're still in time. Let's hurry!"
"Barusu, aren't you going to explain?"
"Explain what?"
Ram frowned slightly, looking at Subaru as she asked:
"Why you're together with all these people, of course."
"Didn't I say from the beginning? The Witch Cult is attacking the village and the mansion. So I brought reinforcements from the capital."
"Then what's with the blank letter?"
"Blank letter?"
"A blank letter means you have no intention of negotiating, nya. Subaru, you seriously don't know anything, do you?"
"I'm not some all-knowing god, okay? I'm still learning about this world."
"I've always found it strange, nya. The way you speak—it's like you're saying you're not from this world."
"That's because my hometown is very far from here. And I've never left it before. So to me, a place completely unlike where I grew up might as well be a different world."
"I see..."
Turning his face away from Felix, Subaru looked at Ram and said:
"Anyway, that blank letter was just an accident. For now, let's focus on evacuating everyone in the village."
"Understood. Then just for today, Barusu, I'll let you take the lead."
Subaru gave a wry smile, not responding to her words. Instead, his mind drifted to the issue of the blank letter. Why had Rem's handwritten letter ended up completely blank?
That letter had been written by Rem herself and delivered by someone from Crusch's camp. There shouldn't have been any mistake.
Could it have been a delivery error? If so, that was a really basic mistake.
As Subaru puzzled over this, he still had no idea what the blank letter truly meant—or the terrifying implications behind it.
Just like how he still didn't fully understand what happens to people who've been swallowed by the White Whale.
He only knew that their existence disappears from everyone's memory. But he didn't realize yet that it wasn't just memories being erased—
It was their very existence being completely erased from the world.