Chapter 48: Reinhard: How Many Times Have I Been a Stepping Stone Today? (Patreon)

"What are you yelling about!"

Subaru Natsuki wasn't about to indulge her. He gave a light snort.

"If you knew we were making friends over here, you could've just sat quietly like a good girl. But no, you had to butt in and act like a kid desperate for attention. The second people don't crowd around you and treat you like the center of the world, you flip out."

"I have no need to flip out, nor any need to crave anything. Wherever I go, I am the eternal focal point. But you, you ignorant fool, what is that attitude? 'Disrespectful' doesn't even begin to cover it. What, have you forgotten that you've already been defeated? Are you shrinking back and refusing to admit your loss?"

Priscilla Barielle was honestly starting to laugh from sheer irritation.

Something was off.

True, it had surprised her that the perfect fortune she was born with had no effect on Subaru Natsuki. But that hardly mattered. Her fortune merely made it more convenient for her to walk through the world. What was truly perfect was her own peerless ability and self.

Even if her fortune failed, all she had to do was draw the Yang Sword, and any ignorant mortal would still be forced to shut his filthy mouth.

That Subaru Natsuki would lose, that his strength could never match hers, had been within her expectations and understanding long before the fight began.

So what was this?

She was the one who had won. Yet this fool still dared to throw a tantrum. He hadn't been humbled by the radiance of her sun, and he didn't even possess a shred of self-awareness?

"Are you joking?" Subaru Natsuki said, pursing his lips as Emilia carried him in her arms like a princess. "When did I ever say I wouldn't admit the result? A loss is a loss. Why would I deny it?"

"Eh?"

Hearing this, Emilia blinked in surprise. "But Shopkeeper really doesn't seem like a loser at all~"

Of course, Emilia wasn't mocking Subaru Natsuki for losing. It was just that in this world, when someone lost, they were usually left unable to hold their head up, or even at the mercy of the winner, weren't they?

Emilia's puzzlement also made Subaru Natsuki understand why Priscilla was so rattled and flustered. He chuckled smugly. "Do I need to look like some whipped stray dog?"

"Sure, I lost. The biggest factor was the flaw in my weapon, but making excuses wouldn't get me anywhere. A loss is a loss. But so what?"

"I agreed to put on this fight, yes, but we never set any terms beforehand about what happens if I lose. Since there was no such deal, my losing doesn't change anything. Why should I change how I treat Priscilla?"

"Besides, it's only one loss. That doesn't mean I'll lose again. If anything, Priscilla, you should be sincerely grateful. Today might be the only chance you'll ever get to beat me!"

His soaring confidence hadn't been dented in the slightest.

It was a confidence he should have lost long ago, during his mediocre years. But Subaru Natsuki now shone bright. He wasn't dejected at all, and he certainly wasn't covered in the dust of defeat.

Of course not.

Because someone believed in him. Someone believed in him fiercely.

The notebook.

Even though he had written that goal down without thinking, the all-powerful notebook still drove him on with [Become King] and demanded it of him. That meant the notebook firmly believed he had that potential and aptitude.

And then there was Aragorn, who had seen with his own eyes how incompetent Subaru was and still believed he could advance without limit through effort.

He was being held up. He was being believed in.

In that case, Subaru Natsuki was bound to succeed. Even if he'd just been playing the big shot and gotten beaten for it, there was nothing to be discouraged about, and certainly nothing to be ashamed of.

It was one insignificant win-or-lose match.

He would improve. He could keep climbing. One day he'd turn the tables, because he was Subaru Natsuki, the man people believed in!

"…I see. I don't know where this shallow, pedantic self-indulgence comes from, but, mortal, it seems your confidence isn't baseless after all. You truly have some kind of backing. That you could rewrite the ugly spectacle of a clown's defeat is enough that I am willing to lower my gaze to you for a moment."

Priscilla's eyes shimmered, and she suddenly began to extol herself.

"As expected of me. Though the world is so convenient for me, I still cannot see through everything in creation. What a fool will say, what he will go through, how he will act, all of it is an unwritten act to me. The future and amusement it brings are a rare sort of beauty as well."

"This unknown beauty must be why someone as flawless as I am is not omniscient and omnipotent."

Ram's perpetually impassive face twitched at that very moment.

She looked at Subaru Natsuki, then turned to look at Priscilla.

It was unbearable to watch.

The Shopkeeper seemed quite moved, but when you got down to it, he was the same as Priscilla. Both were hopelessly self-centered. He lost, yet said it didn't matter because he'd win it back next time. How was that any different from Priscilla being cursed at and still closing the loop with her own logic?

A pair of people who were always winning, even when they lost.

Still, Ram had to admit that these two had genuinely bent reality by sheer force, relying on what should have been nothing more than self-indulgent emotion.

If someone's self-made logic could only fool themselves, they'd be a well-known laughingstock.

But Priscilla and the Shopkeeper were different. Their souls and their logic both had more than enough room to maneuver. So even if their egos were hard to assess, people were still persuaded without realizing it. At least some portion of them were persuaded, won over, and came to trust their logic.

That was changing reality itself. So even those who disliked them had to admit that such people were truly formidable and hard to belittle.

That said, Subaru Natsuki didn't think he had anything in common with Priscilla. With Emilia shielding him, he curled his lip and provoked her anyway:

"If you can spin even this around, then what if one day I forced myself on you and had my way with you? Would you smile and stubbornly claim, 'Ah, Lady Priscilla likes you, Subaru Natsuki, so she deliberately let you take her'?"

"…Such delusion. Do you truly want me to withhold my mercy?"

This time, Priscilla was resolute. Her brows slanted sharply, leaving no room for mercy whatsoever. She snapped her fan against the air faster than the speed of sound and sneered down at Subaru Natsuki.

"It is only natural that ignorant mortals covet my perfect body. My allure is simply unrivaled in this world. But does a mere mortal dare dream of scaling my peak? Every inch of this flawless skin exists for me alone. Stop your fantasies, clown."

"Even if heaven and earth were overturned, the world destroyed, the sky fallen, even if that pedantic Sword Saint were defeated and slain, there would never be the slightest shallow chance between you and me. Go on, then. Lust after me and never have me. Be treated like garbage by me amid your agonized longing and endurance, and die without ever touching my perfect skin, mortal!"