Chapter 76: I Will Become a Spirit Contract Master! (Patreon)

"Huh? Otto told me the Sin Archbishops are terrifying, slippery bastards who barely count as human, but you're already this strong, Hal. You still worry about enemies like that?"

Subaru Natsuki was startled. If the Sin Archbishops were stronger than Hal, then shouldn't they be the strongest people among the four great nations?

"You don't get it, Subaru. On raw strength, apart from that one Sin Archbishop rumored to have beaten the Empire's Eight-Armed Kurgan, I've got every right to say I'm stronger than the rest of them. But the scariest thing about those shit-heaps is that they have no morals, no fear, and they never weigh gains against losses."

Halibel sighed and shook his head. The most fucked-up thing about this world was that no matter how strong a man was, the people around him could still be targeted.

"Put simply, nobody in Kararagi would touch my werewolf village, because they know that if they did, it'd be a fight to the death with me."

"But the Witch Cult doesn't think that way. If I dare stand in front of them, they'll use every method they can to hurt me, no matter how low."

At that, everyone couldn't help frowning.

Honestly, going to war with the Witch Cult might be a worse deal than marching straight into the Vollachian Empire.

And in the middle of that heavy silence, Subaru Natsuki didn't hesitate for a second.

"Then if that's how it is, I'll deal with the Witch Cult. Everyone else can focus on the other two problems. That works, doesn't it?"

"—Huh?!"

Dumbfounded.

Everyone stared at him, stunned silly. Even Halibel, the most worldly of them all, was left utterly blank. "You… hey, Subaru, did you actually hear how I just described those Witch Cult lunatics? This is no joke, woof!"

"I heard." Subaru nodded lightly. "But that's exactly why we have to wipe them out, isn't it?"

"If we let a terror group like that wander the world doing whatever it wants just because we're afraid, doesn't everyone have to live in fear day and night? And right now, it so happens that everyone I care about is far away. I'm alone. As long as I refuse to fall, I'm invincible!"

"Killing them all while I can is what I ought to do, to protect the people I care about, the people I love."

"A time like this, a me like this—aren't we the perfect nemesis for the Witch Cult?"

He would protect his Kararagi. He would protect his world!

He hadn't taken the throne yet, but Subaru Natsuki, brimming with ambition, already regarded this world as his own turf. Naturally, then, he'd protect it without reservation.

The Witch Cult—everyone except their very own Pandora was fair game to kill!

"Hey, hey, hey…"

Halibel gaped. Was this guy serious?

You couldn't even call it reckless anymore. Subaru knew exactly how terrifying the Witch Cult was, and he was still stepping forward without a flicker of doubt, willing to stand on the front line against them?

Subaru, you really… this enormous, natural charisma, this sincerity, this nature of yours… there's just no way to find fault with it.

Halibel couldn't help glancing at Ricardo. "Hey, Ricardo, has Subaru always been like this?"

"Well, he's never changed." Ricardo burst into hearty laughter. "So, what do you think of Miss's taste?"

Felt, whom Subaru regarded as family, was far away in the capital, protected by the Sword Saint, and the Witch Cult could never hurt her. Even so, he had just said something to the effect of "I'll wipe out the Witch Cult to protect the people I love."

This was Kararagi. What person did an outsider, a stranger to the place, like, care about, or love here?

Who else could it be?

That's right. Who else could it be but Anastasia?

Yet Anastasia, who had just been all but publicly confessed to, didn't look the least bit happy.

She knelt upright, still smiling, but anyone could see her displeasure building by the second.

One slender hand grabbed Subaru's collar and hauled him close. Smiling sweetly, with a smile that sent chills down the spine, she said, word by word: "Ah'm gonna get angry, ya know. Puffed up, huffing and puffing, half-mad, then furious with embarrassment, and then Ah'll bully ya good and make ya suffer, hm?"

Huh?

Shock!

Subaru was bewildered. Had he done something wrong?

"Subaru, would ya kindly explain what ya meant by 'it so happens that everyone I care about is far away'? Does that mean Ah don't even count as someone ya care about?"

"Huh? No, no!"

Oh, so that was what this was about.

Subaru breathed a sigh of relief and waved his hands hurriedly. "What I meant was, Felt and Otto aren't here anyway, you've got Julius and Hal and the others protecting you, and I only just got to Kararagi, so the Witch Cult can't possibly know how we're connected."

"So why don't we just part ways and act like we have nothing to do with each other? I'll stay somewhere else and go kill Witch Cultists. That way they won't notice you, and they'll think there's no way to threaten me. See, doesn't that work out perfectly?"

"Oh my, perfectly?"

Anastasia smiled with her lips only. Her cute pale-blue eyes were wide open, and then, in an instant, her face went blank, terrifyingly so.

Even Subaru couldn't help shrinking back with a guilty conscience.

She stared at the boy with that blank face, enunciating every word more slowly than ever, through gritted teeth: "Does Subaru think Ah'm as easy to fool and bully as Miss Felt? Some naive little dumpling with no brains?"

"Listen up, Subaru. Ah'm only sayin' this once!"

"Ah'm clever. Ah'm the cleverest there is. Ah'm so clever that nobody can deceive me. Ya can scheme in front of anyone ya like, but never, ever try those tricks in front of me! Remember that well, got it?"

Did he really think she couldn't see through him?

This boy had at least three motives!

First, he was too kind-hearted. Since he'd be a king sooner or later, he figured it was only right to protect his future subjects early.

Second was exactly what he'd said: protecting the people he cared about. Of course, that person could be Miss Felt, or Otto or someone, but at least here in Kararagi, it could only be, and would only be, her, Anna, right?

Third, this boy was scheming at her, the awful calculation that left her pouting.

He knew she was fond of him, yet for some reason he always refused to accept her kindness. So he wanted to use this chance to get her to agree to let him move out on his own, to live far from her.

So infuriating!

If it weren't for the fact that Subaru was willing to fight the Witch Cult alone for her sake, that third point alone would've had her squeezing him in every way possible. Ah'd never let him off lightly!

"…Ah." Subaru let out a meaningless murmur.

Anna was just too imposing. She leaned her upper body forward as she spoke, which meant he could see her adorable face in ever sharper detail.

And since he had to show he was listening properly, he couldn't look away at all, or she'd definitely scold him again.

The longer he looked, the cuter she seemed. Even from this close, he couldn't find a single flaw.

"What does 'ah' mean? Answer me properly, got it?"

"I understand…"

"Mm-hm, good boy. That's my good Subaru."

Having watched the whole exchange, Ricardo, Halibel and Julius exchanged glances, then gulped and swallowed hard in fear.

She was a lovely beauty who couldn't even truss up a chicken, but once she got serious, she was formidable.

Ricardo and Halibel were awed, but also secretly sighed. They'd known Anna since she was little, so they'd seen her full aura on display several times and had built up a bit of resistance.

But it was the first time they'd seen it for a reason like this.

It was hard to say how much Anna had liked Subaru before today, but that vow of his, which sounded just like a confession, his firm promise to protect Anna, had definitely raised her opinion of him by a lot in one go.

"Miss's taste has truly never been bad," Halibel muttered. "I'd planned to size up Subaru's intentions myself, so little Anna wouldn't end up with the wrong sort. Now it looks completely unnecessary."

For all he knew, in this pairing, little Anna might be the one who didn't measure up to Subaru.

After all, Hal's own heart was really pounding now. He almost wanted to swear brotherhood with a fine, one-of-a-kind guy like Subaru right on the spot.

As for Vice-Chairman Chuden, who'd been quietly sizing up Subaru from the very beginning?

Forget him. He wasn't important at all.

Ricardo laughed heartily and threw an arm around Julius. "Well, Julius, did that leave you speechless?"

"I can't deny it." Julius gave a wry smile. "I never expected Lady Anastasia to have a side like this."

"But it's not bad at all, is it?"

Ricardo ruthlessly ruffled Julius's head like a dog's, mussing his excellent hairstyle. "Whatever Miss is like, she's always impressive. Sure, right now Subaru's humoring her, but isn't getting Subaru to humor her part of her charm?"

"Don't whisper behind my back! If Ah find out you're badmouthing Subaru or me, you'd better start worrying about yourselves!"

Having won the right to keep Subaru in her camp for as long as he stayed in Kararagi, Anastasia gave a triumphant little hum, turned around, and took charge of the meeting again, giving the two shameless old uncles, Halibel and Ricardo, a vicious scolding.

"In any case, Kararagi is my turf. Since the Witch Cult dared to stick their filthy paws in here, it doesn't matter whether there are Sin Archbishops or not. If they dare come, we chop them all to pieces! This isn't Subaru's responsibility alone. Of course, Ah'd be delighted if Subaru helped, but we do this together!"

Anastasia stood up, arms crossed, swept her gaze over everyone and settled the matter. Naturally, nobody objected.

"In that case, once this meeting breaks up, I'll send word to the bigwigs to hunt down Witch Cultists everywhere. They put me in charge of this troublesome job, so they can't go against the decisions made here. And with little Anna involved this time, that's a huge bargaining chip, woof."

Halibel was every inch the Praiser, a truly good man beyond all reckoning.

They'd only known each other a short while, but Subaru loved him to death, and probably to about the same degree that Hal loved him.

Brothers for life!

Under Subaru's adoring stare, Hal didn't get shy at all. He barked with laughter and blew him a kiss.

That gave Ricardo, Chuden, Julius and Mimi a chill.

But Subaru not only took it in stride, he blew a kiss back, making the others suck in a sharp breath.

"As for the rest, hmm…"

Anastasia paid no attention to the kisses between Subaru and Halibel. She knew full well that it was just the natural goofiness of those two, a pure brotherly bond.

Well, if she minded that, she'd probably die of headaches, since she now knew, at least for the time being, that Subaru seemed to attract other men.

Ever since their first meeting, Julius had been anxious about him all the time and couldn't stop thinking of him. Wilhelm van Astrea, the Sword Saint, Al, and the rest, not one of them had escaped, otherwise nobody would have defied the Council of Wise Men's orders.

Now there was just one more, Hal. No big deal.

As long as they were men, there was no problem. She only worried about girls.

Still, the girl front should be even less of a problem, right?

After all, she was super cute. Undying, all-knowing, all-powerful, the world's cutest girl as decreed by Subaru, that was Anastasia, of course~

There shouldn't be any good girl cuter or more charming than her, right? There wouldn't be, right? Of course not!

So she'd best calm down and think about the real business.

"About that crazy woman who calls herself Zarestia, and the second woman, have ya come across either of them, Halibel?"

"I'd love to, but sadly I haven't had the chance. Not once, woof. Still, according to my informants, the crazy woman who calls herself Zarestia can't be communicated with at all. Anyone who gets close gets killed."

"Is that so… Then it seems the only way to learn her true identity is to extract information from the second woman. The enemy of my enemy is my friend. We'll see whether that second woman can be talked to!"

If she could, everyone would be happy. And if they could use the second woman to persuade the first to stop her rampage and correctly tell who the Witch Cultists were, even better.

That would shrink three problems into one, and add two powerful allies who could strike the Witch Cult alongside them.

But if neither woman could be reasoned with, what would they do then…

Anastasia didn't spell that out for now, but she didn't have to. Everyone understood that if it came to that, they'd have no choice but to strike to kill.

"Right, shall we end the preliminary meeting here? Finding the Witch Cult takes time, and Ah'll have people on it. The two women need time to get here too. For now, Ah'll treat Subaru to a good soak in Kararagi's hot springs. Of course, Julius, ya should go enjoy the men's bath properly too."

Anastasia pressed her palms together in a small clap.

Halibel nodded and was the first to stand. He needed to send word to the bigwigs and give orders to the ninjas under him, so they could search for Witch Cult traces everywhere and prepare for the coming raid.

"But Lady Anastasia, as a knight I shouldn't indulge in pleasures. I must stay alert at all times, that's my duty, or else, ugh… glub glub…"

"Come now, little Julius, don't be so stiff and stuffy. Now that you're in Kararagi, refusing the hot springs counts as a provocation, ha ha!"

"Julius, you handsome, good-looking, classy bastard. If you don't want to bathe, I'll make you bathe even more, and I'll shatter that perfect air of yours. Accept your fate. Subaru Natsuki will stand above you!"

Stop your squawking!

Julius resisted and tried to refuse, but Ricardo and Subaru joined forces with villainous cackles and dragged him away by force. Mimi watched from behind with sparkling, twinkling eyes.

"Wow! Captain and Big Brother are invincible! Captain and Big Brother teamed up to humiliate and violate Julius!"

What a trickster.

Anastasia covered her mouth and giggled. Julius was still desperately begging her for help, but her answer was: "Bye-bye! Enjoy Ricardo's and Subaru's baptism, Julius!"

"Waaah!"

Funny? All he saw was a helpless Finest of Knights!

Chuden, round and plump as a panda, sighed with feeling. He'd just witnessed the fall of a noble knight.

"Vice-Chairman."

"Yes, what are your orders?"

Hearing his name, Chuden straightened up.

"Ah need ya to handle three things."

Anastasia gave her orders crisply. "First, have the company's people and the neighbors all help report on what happens to the Witch Cult. Ah shouldn't need to explain that. Second, buy a few well-fitting, nice-looking outfits so Subaru and the others can change into them after the bath. Third, bring me all the account books from when I left for the Kingdom up to the latest ones. Ah'll look them over."

The last one wasn't because she distrusted Chuden, quite the opposite. Like Ricardo, he was someone she'd known since childhood, and her trust in him was the highest.

It was simply that her skill at accounts and management was top-tier, far beyond Chuden's. Now that she was back in Kararagi, she wanted to take a quick pass through the books in her spare time, just in case of some careless error or omission.

Subaru never imagined that Anna would be racing against the clock to work, even while soaking in the women's hot spring.

He was just laughing and joking with Ricardo. Together they had already pinned Julius into the men's hot spring, leaving Julius so speechless and helpless that he couldn't even get angry with him or Ricardo.

"Woof-hoo! Hal's coming in too!"

Splash!

His work done, Halibel took a thunderous leap and crashed right in, sending a huge wave of hot-spring water flying.

"Ahh, that's the stuff… Living in Kararagi really is the best. No other place has hot springs to soak in, ha ha! So, Subaru and Sir Knight, do you like it?"

Faced with Halibel's roaring laughter, Subaru let out a long, blissful sigh. "I love it to death, brother."

Then he, Hal and Ricardo all turned to look at Julius in unison.

Julius: …

It was very comfortable, no doubt, but wouldn't admitting it be unbecoming of the Finest of Knights?

Seeing this, Ricardo and Hal moved to act, but Subaru raised a hand to stop them. Not yet, watch me work!

"Ah, such a comfortable hot spring. What a shame. When I think that someone might not like it, might refuse to say he likes it… All I can say is, he didn't do anything wrong, but he's no longer my brother."

Subaru shook his head with theatrical flair. His scheme was obvious, plain for any passerby to see, and Ricardo and Hal quickly chimed in with sly grins. "Right, then he's no longer our brother!"

"Splash him with water, isolate him, slander him, attack him, bully him!"

Julius started to speak and stopped, started to stop and spoke again. After much thought he stammered, and in the end, ruthlessly bullied and isolated by the three thugs, he had no choice but to open his mouth and squeeze a single word out of his throat, as quietly as possible: "…I like it."

"Oh my, what did our Finest of Knights say? Why can't I seem to hear him?" Subaru approached with a sly grin. "Louder?"

Hal and Ricardo immediately started whistling and jeering like they were teasing a young girl. "Yeah, show some spirit, don't lose face. Anyone who didn't know would think you're no Finest of Knights, just a coward. Come on, louder!"

"I, I l-like… I like the hot springs!!"

Under the thugs' relentless pressure, Julius's face turned completely red and his voice cracked as he shouted, churning the whole hot spring into waves.

Subaru exchanged a glance with Ricardo and Halibel, and the three of them burst out laughing together, laughter that shook the heavens. It was truly vicious, truly thuggish.

Three pure bully brothers!

The only innocent, kind and pitiable one there, Julius, could only shiver as they bullied him completely.

When he realized what he'd shouted, Julius immediately covered his face. He could hardly show it in public. It was the first time he'd been so unrestrained.

But…

He'd been bullied, yet unexpectedly, he didn't hate it at all.

Instead, it was a different sort of feeling, one he'd never experienced… much like the noble Subaru he had seen in the capital's slums.

Now, that same noble Subaru was showing this joking, utterly unserious thug side just so Julius could join in with Ricardo and Halibel.

It was truly rare… truly, wondrous.

After learning that Subaru wanted to be king, since Lady Anastasia refused to be wary herself, Julius should have taken it upon himself to guard against Subaru. But sorry, he couldn't do it.

He really couldn't.

"Julius, you really can be an even better man!"

Praised by Subaru, praised by Subaru!

Julius lowered his head, closed his eyes, and smiled.

Let him wallow in it for now. At this moment he didn't want to say anything, only to be quiet and replay certain scenes and certain lines in his mind.

"Haaah…"

The others fell quiet too, enjoying the wonderful hot-spring soak.

Until, at some point, Subaru thought of something. "By the way, Hal, how do I get stronger?"

"Why ask that?" Ricardo turned his head. "Aren't you already strong, Subaru?"

They hadn't fought one-on-one yet, but his werewolf instincts told him Subaru was strong. In a duel, it would come down to luck.

If luck was on his side, he could kill Subaru at the cost of being wounded. If luck was on Subaru's side, Subaru could kill him at the cost of being wounded.

Don't underestimate him. He couldn't compare to Hal, one of the strongest of the four nations, true, but he was the second-strongest of the werewolf clan, a famous powerhouse even across all Kararagi.

Take Julius, for instance. If Julius didn't use his spirit trump cards, in a pure swordsmanship match he could at best trade wins and losses with Ricardo.

That was a very high tier, enough to make a name for yourself in any country.

"I'm strong, sure… but I feel it's not enough."

Subaru sighed. "If I fought the assassin Elsa the Bowel Hunter one-on-one, I might not even win, let alone a Sin Archbishop that even Hal finds troublesome."

"And that crazy woman who calls herself Zarestia, one of the four great spirits… even if she isn't really Zarestia, going by what you say about Zarestia's power, if she has even a fraction of it, she'd definitely be a handful."

He wanted to protect the people he loved, and to protect the entire world.

His current strength was nowhere near enough.

"Your standards are really high, Subaru." Halibel shook his head. "The Bowel Hunter is the strongest mercenary in the world, second only to me. There's no shame in failing to beat her. As for the Sin Archbishops and Zarestia… ha!"

Apart from the Sword Saint and Blue Lightning, probably nobody else in the world would take those people as targets.

Even Halibel the Praiser would hope, if possible, never to meet such enemies in his life.

But since his good brother was determined, he'd analyze it for him.

"Let me think… There are only a few ways to get stronger. First, improving your swordsmanship, but that can't be done overnight. I can sense that your swordplay is already strong, about on par with Sir Knight here, which makes you two just behind the Sword Saint and Blue Lightning in this era. The young Sword Demon's swordsmanship would've surpassed yours, but now that he's old, hard to say."

Halibel counted off on his fingers.

"Next is Divine Protection. Subaru, do you have one? Oh, you don't, so we can rule that out right away."

"Then there's magic… well, if you haven't studied magic since you were a kid, it's hard to get anywhere with it, since it takes lots of time. Of course, if you just want to learn one or two spells for crucial moments, that shouldn't be a problem."

"The catch is that only the Kingdom of Lugunica and the Holy Kingdom of Gusteko are skilled in magic. Kararagi, like the Vollachian Empire, doesn't have many people good at it."

"That leaves the last two paths. One is curses. I hear the Holy Kingdom of Gusteko has quite a few secret curse rituals that can strengthen people in outlandish ways, even turn them into vampires with powerful regeneration and a degree of immortality. But Kararagi doesn't have any of that."

Don't ask why Kararagi has nothing. The answer is simple: of the four great nations, only the other three are old states with long histories. Kararagi was formed four hundred years ago when Hoshin of the Wilderness persuaded a number of small states, more than ten of them, to unite into a so-called great nation.

They were small states that could barely protect themselves and served only as buffer zones between the great powers. Even united, they couldn't possibly have had anything good.

After all, if a small state had real heritage, it wouldn't have been small in the first place. What they lacked as small states, they naturally still lacked once they became a great nation.

Couldn't Kararagi just buy such things with money? The answer was no, it really couldn't.

The other three great nations kept all their secrets about combat power tightly sealed, leaking only a little now and then for assorted reasons.

But don't worry. Our Hal still had one last trick!

"The last path, Subaru, whether it works depends on Sir Knight."

Halibel looked at Julius. "Hey, Sir Knight, aren't you a spirit mage? What do the lesser spirits contracted to you think of Subaru?"

"Well…"

Julius gave a wry smile. It was hard for him to say, but he couldn't lie, so he told the truth. "They all say that if they hadn't already contracted with me, if they were still free, they would probably be unable to resist contracting with Subaru and becoming his spirits."

"Hssss—"

Halibel sucked in a sharp breath. "That kind of talent? Then there's nothing more to say. It's decided, Subaru. Your road to getting stronger lies right here!"

"With talent like yours, if you could sign some other powerful spirit, like that half-elf Emilia over in the Kingdom who signed the Beast of the End, damn, I can't even imagine how far your combat power would leap. For all I know, I'd be the one clinging to your leg instead!"