Chapter 160: Rem, Promise Your Sister Not to Like Women, Okay?

Next, Natsuki Subaru pressed deep into the forest and soon found the little girl the Mabeast had dragged off, then fought a long, grueling battle against a hound-shaped Mabeast before barely managing to win.

But by the time he'd racked his brain and finally dealt with that one beast, he realized that before he knew it he'd been surrounded by a whole pack of Mabeasts.

"Damn it, do these brutes live in packs? Or is somebody pulling their strings from behind the scenes?"

Natsuki Subaru clenched his teeth. Just as he braced himself to meet the pack's assault, a morningstar came whipping through the air and crushed the first Mabeast that lunged at him.

Rem had arrived in the nick of time to back him up!

After that, the two of them ran, Natsuki Subaru cradling the blue-haired little girl while Rem covered them the whole way.

But one pair of hands could only hold out so long. After taking a grievous wound, Rem underwent her Oni transformation, growing the horn unique to the Oni clan even as she lost most of her reason, slaughtering the beasts around her in a frenzy.

"Careful! Rem!"

Just as Natsuki Subaru was looking for an opening to rush in and snap Rem out of it, he spotted three Mabeasts circling into her blind spot for an ambush.

So he shouted and threw himself forward at once, shoving Rem clear to safety while taking the pack's tearing jaws upon himself.

"Subaru!"

In the instant she was pushed aside, Rem's mind cleared, and her eyes went wide with horror as she watched Natsuki Subaru vanish beneath the swarm of Mabeasts right before her, torn and savaged.

"Subaru! No!"

Beyond the screen, Rem had been watching, heart in a knot, as events crept step by step toward this very moment burned into her memory.

And when she saw Subaru shove her aside, throwing his life away to save her, she froze where she stood, dumbstruck.

She had lived through it herself, yet in her memory it was already something from the distant past.

In Kararagi, she had spent decades of peaceful married life with Subaru, settled and content for a very long while.

Now, looking back on this scene, the memory came alive again, and the ache and shock she felt were a hundred, a thousand, ten thousand times stronger than what she'd felt back then.

That was the power of time settling deep.

Subaru! Subaru! Subaru!

Rem shut her eyes and gripped the cloth over her chest tight, as if clutching her own heart.

Over and over she called Natsuki Subaru's name within her, as though to carve the name of her beloved into the very depths of her soul and blood!

So that no matter how much time might pass, even if she lost her memories, she would let herself fall in love again with her man, her husband, by instinct alone: Natsuki Subaru!

And whenever he lost his confidence, she would encourage him with her own lips, telling him he was far from worthless!

Because she would be there behind him, quietly loving Subaru, supporting Subaru.

And if you asked why, the answer was beyond doubt.

Because Subaru was Rem's hero!

Glittering tears welled in Rem's eyes, but soon the screams of Natsuki Subaru being mobbed and torn apart by the Mabeasts on the screen dragged her back to reality.

Rem kept her eyes closed and her fists clenched, filled with helplessness in that moment like a useless wife.

It was all, all because Rem was too weak!

If it had been her sister, she would never have lost her reason during the Oni transformation and gotten Subaru hurt instead!

"If only Zarestia were here…"

Rem murmured, her spirit adrift. Over the decades she had lived alongside that Great Spirit, she had come to rely on her without even realizing it.

Though to put it precisely, it was that the whole big family of hers and Subaru's leaned on Zarestia, and she on them, all together.

Just then, Ram, who had been about to come over and comfort her little sister, caught every last word of that murmur, and without warning she suddenly spoke up.

"Rem, that Zarestia you just mentioned, do you mean the 'Passing Demon'?"

"Sister? Don't tell me you know Lady Tia too?"

At that Rem turned to Ram in surprise, asking with a puzzled, flustered look.

"Wait, Rem, since you said 'too,' does that mean you know her…? Never mind. In any case, one thing's certain: I've never met that legendary spirit, one of the Four Great Spirits."

Ram felt a flash of confusion at first, but then, as if something had occurred to her, she shook her head and pressed no further, merely explaining her own situation.

But right after, Ram's tone shifted and she went on quickly.

"I don't know her, but I saw her with my own eyes, and the timing was right at… just before we entered this mysterious space!"

Ram looked straight at Rem, spelling it out word by word.

"Wait, before we came to this space? Weren't you off with Subaru at that time, going to the village to buy ingredients together?"

Rem blinked, but caught on quickly and answered.

"You ran into Lady Tia on the way to the village? But how is that possible? She's supposed to be in Kararagi…"

Rem sank into obvious bewilderment, yet dimly she began to understand.

Since she herself had been reborn, it seemed Lady Sister, Lady Emilia, and the others all carried memories and experiences from different worldlines as well.

So it wouldn't be at all hard to grasp if Lady Zarestia had also returned to the present bearing the memories of the decades she'd spent with her and Subaru!

"Don't tie yourself in knots over it, Rem. That Great Spirit was in some kind of crazed state for reasons unknown, and she even tried to attack Barusu!"

"Though I discovered through my Clairvoyance that some baffling accident happened to occur right then, which resolved the trouble for the time being."

"But I'm worried she won't give up and will come again, so I wanted to ask whether you have any way of dealing with her. After all, you can't guard against a thief forever."

Rem had been listening earnestly at first, but upon hearing that Zarestia had attacked Natsuki Subaru unprovoked, she went blank for a moment and blurted out a reflexive protest.

"Impossible! Lady Tia is one of our… my family, just like my sister. I love her, and she loves me all the same. Ours is a bond of mutual reliance!"

By the end Rem's voice grew fainter and fainter. What she had meant to say was that she loved "us", loved her and Subaru and her sons and daughters.

But for some reason, perhaps out of a selfish little impulse, in the end she chose not to expose and confess her whole history to Ram this early.

"Lady Sister! Can you be certain Lady Tia meant to kill Subaru back then? Or was she only trying to capture him? Maybe it's all a misunderstanding!"

As one would expect of a woman who had lived decades beside Zarestia, Rem seized on the crux of the matter and pressed her question urgently.

But this time, Ram did not answer her right away.

Puzzled, Rem lifted her head to check, only to find her sister Ram gazing at her with an odd, complicated look for reasons she couldn't fathom.

The expression on her face was like that of a parent who has suddenly heard their own child say something that shatters every belief they hold, half stunned, half uncomprehending.

Seeing this, Rem's face went slack, with no idea what had made her sister wear such a look.

"Rem… actually, Barusu is a fine and dependable man too. You really could give him some thought, you know?"

"I've seen that Great Spirit. She's a woman by all appearances, Rem… promise your sister: anything else is fine, but whatever you do, don't fall for a woman, all right?"

Ram kept starting to speak and stopping, like a parent at a loss for how to counsel a rebellious child, weighing each and every word with care.

"Sister, what on earth are you talking about…"

Rem's voice trembled, and only after hearing Ram's heartfelt, earnest words did it finally click.

The way she'd just now cut off the beginning and end, deliberately hiding the existence of Subaru and their sons and daughters, meant her words had probably, seemingly, most likely come out sounding just the tiniest bit ambiguous…

In an instant, Rem's face flushed crimson.

She promptly buried her face in her hands, letting out a mortified shriek like a kettle boiled over…

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