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“…You know, you’ve had a pretty somber expression for a while now.”

Around the time Subaru had reached that conclusion, he noticed Ram had gone silent and her face was unusually gloomy. Subaru remembered seeing the same look when he’d tried to sweep things under the rug during the earlier conversation.

“I’m no Garfiel, but it’s true that this isn’t like you. If there’s something on your mind, you should talk about it.”

When he prodded a second time, Ram’s pink eyes narrowed, and after a moment’s hesitation, she spoke. “…Barusu, something felt amiss earlier.”

Her statement caused Subaru to tilt his head as he asked, “Amiss?”

“At the height of your ridiculousness, you mentioned throwing Ram somewhere as a decoy, yes?”

“I did…or at least I think I did? It was mixed up with a lot of other stuff, so I don’t remember too clearly…”

“You did. And for some odd reason, those words tugged at my chest. It’s as if—”

Her words trailed off, but after a pause, Ram continued.

“—as if such a thing had actually happened before.”

“image”

For a brief moment, Ram’s murmur made his brows furl, but then Subaru realized something. It dawned on him so late he wanted to strangle himself.

Subaru hurling Ram was indeed something that had actually taken place. The only catch was that fact probably didn’t exist anywhere save inside of Subaru—after all, it was a memory that was related to Rem.

At the height of the commotion surrounding the Urugarum demon beasts, Subaru had used Ram as a decoy to stop Rem’s rampage. When all trace of Rem vanished from the world, established facts connected to her were sloppily rearranged to maintain consistency.

“Barusu?”

A world where Rem did not exist was slowly settling into place.

By all rights, there was probably no way to stop such a thing. But it was possible the existence of Subaru Natsuki might keep it at bay…perhaps by driving in some nails fastening Rem’s existence to the world.

“—Ram, I have to talk to you about something important… To you, it’s probably the most important thing in the world.”

“…Beyond Master Roswaal, I do not believe any such thing exists.”

“Nah, there is something—That’s what we’re gonna talk about.”

Subaru was embarrassed that he’d chickened out and avoided this conversation for so long, considering how important it was. There was still a fair bit of time until they reached the mansion.

There were countless things that he had to ponder. Even so, he could at least take the time to—

“There was…a girl named Rem.”

And so he spoke—to build a place for that girl in her beloved older sister’s heart.