34. Trapped in Hell

34. Trapped in Hell

Blurred and dazed, Subaru instinctively rubbed his still aching neck. The memories before he passed out surged back like a tidal wave.

"I got knocked out by Reinhild... I'm alive.

Oh no, I remember Felt was unconscious for about half a day... wait, if that much time has passed and I'm still alive, doesn't that mean the crisis is over!?"

Subaru got excited instantly, but when he noticed his surroundings, his joy slowly vanished.

"This looks like a shelter… why am I still here? Is the battle not over yet? Damn it, how long was I out? I feel kind of stiff… doesn't seem like too much time passed."

He stood up while talking to himself, stretched his limbs, and confirmed that aside from his neck, he was unharmed.

Looking at the dim corridor, Subaru hesitated for a while before finally deciding to leave the room.

"Maybe the battle's already over, and they're just clearing out the remaining enemy forces…"

"Why haven't I reached the exit yet? And there's no one around… don't tell me the Astrea household has been wiped out…"

"Reinhild seriously… if she hadn't knocked me out—"

"Is anyone there!? Anybody!?"

The most terrifying thing is always the unknown.

Subaru felt like he had been walking for a long time, yet he hadn't seen a single person, nor had he found the familiar exit.

Fear steadily built up inside him, and his voice gradually escalated from quiet muttering to full-blown shouting. But even then, no one responded.

However, Subaru was still Bernie's student, so his sense of direction wasn't wrong.

Even though Reinhild had specifically placed him in the innermost (and thus safest) room for his safety, Subaru eventually made it out of the maze-like shelter and arrived at the royal guard station.

"Only three hours passed? How's the situation, brother?"

Finally emerging from the secret passage, Subaru glanced at the familiar magical clock to confirm the time.

He then casually patted the shoulder of a royal guard standing by and asked.

His mood was relaxed—after all, there were no enemies in the secret passage, and the guard standing there meant everything was fine, right?

Bang!!!

Subaru stared in shock at the royal guard who suddenly collapsed to the ground.

His trembling hand reached slowly for the man's helmet—and then his eyes widened.

"Dead."

Subaru stared at the body, and after a bit of checking, confirmed there were no external wounds.

With a twinge of guilt, he pulled off the helmet and looked at the man's face.

In that instant, he understood—it was the same deadly poison he had once experienced himself.

Mixed in his concern over the situation was also a faint sense of dark amusement.

But the moment he raised his head, his throat locked up in shock, and Subaru instinctively stepped back.

Right in front of him, several shadowy figures had silently appeared—so quiet they seemed to blend into the surroundings.

They were entirely clad in black, their faces obscured by hooded garments.

Their origins unknown.

The shadows walked up to the dead guard, confirmed he was dead, and then turned their attention to the boy.

The black shapes swayed, tightening their encirclement around Subaru like they were gliding.

"Wh-What...!?"

Subaru sensed something deeply wrong.

Even after they appeared, the room remained eerily silent—he couldn't even feel their breathing.

The shadows simply stared at Subaru.

They weren't hostile—but neither were they friendly.

Standing before these unmoving shadows, Subaru's ability to speak was paralyzed by sheer terror.

He couldn't move a single finger.

The silent stare-off continued. Time felt frozen, tension thickening in the air. And then, as suddenly as it began, the overwhelming silence was shattered.

The shadows bowed to Subaru with respectful grace.

"Huh?"

Subaru's brain completely gave up trying to process the scene.

This meaningless group appeared for no reason, gave him inexplicable respect, then silently left—gliding out of his view like ghosts.

Unable to utter a sound, Subaru could only gape. The shadows didn't harm him. They left as quietly as they came, with the same eerie step that allowed them to enter unnoticed.

Subaru knew nothing about them—except for that one thing.

Choosing not to understand, Subaru pushed down his anxiety and quickened his pace.

As if trying to outrun fear and discomfort, he broke into a run toward the mansion's exit.

As for those incomprehensible shadows—their purpose and existence entirely beyond his grasp—he simply gave up trying to make sense of them.

Because of that, he didn't notice—or perhaps deliberately ignored—the fact that the shadows were heading in the same direction from which he had just come.

.

.

.

Still in a desperate sprint, Subaru tripped over something.

He fell to the ground hard, shoulder slamming into the floor.

Groaning from pain, Subaru reflexively glared at what had tripped him—and met the lifeless, hollow eyes of Ben Childe.

"Ahhhh—!!"

Finally registering his surroundings, Subaru began to scream frantically.

All around him lay countless corpses: armored guards, shadowy figures like the ones he had just seen, and various others in mismatched gear and weaponry.

The guards were the least in number, and many bore no fatal wounds at all.

"Damn it, damn it, damn it!"

The kind-hearted Reinhild, the strict but fulfilling life of a servant, the days spent training with the royal guard, the nighttime magic lessons from Bernie and Eileen... how did it all end up like this?

"Yeah... why... serves them right, serves them right, serves them right!"

Felix, Wilhelm, Winston, the many mansion servants who never believed him—because they didn't trust him, this was the result. It had to be their fault.

"Don't zone out in the middle of a battlefield!"

A thunderous voice. Subaru felt a tremendous force yank him from his spot.

A second later, black flames engulfed the place where he'd just stood.

"Awwww, what a pain. I went out of my way to take care of that meat pulp for free."

Soaring in the sky was a massive black dragon—a being from countless stories, covered in scales and alive in this nightmare.

"Bad luck, huh? But this one's under orders from Lady Reinhild to protect you. Subaru—time to go."

Before Subaru even processed what was happening, he was airborne.

Leander's guandao cleaved the dragon's head clean off—but in the next instant, the headless corpse continued attacking.

No—it wasn't just still moving.

The monster had grown a new head and continued its assault on Leander.