"I'm never causing trouble."
He snorted.
"That's a damn lie."
"Probably."
That earned me another glare, but he still stepped outside.
The cabin door shut behind them.
Silence fell.
Roswaal and I were alone.
The lantern flickered.
The bandaged clown smiled.
And I finally let my expression flatten.
Hoho? You're fooling me? Instead of admitting defeat, you're lying in front of me?
The phrase floated through my head with all the elegance of villain monologue.
I almost laughed.
Instead, I folded my arms.
"Let's stop pretending."
Roswaal's smile did not move.
"Pretending?"
"Yes."
I took one step forward.
Then another.
"You just tried to send me back to the mansion."
Roswaal's eye remained fixed on mine.
"I did."
"Which means you expected me to leave the Sanctuary."
"Indeed."
"And if I had gone, I would have walked straight into Elsa and Meili."
His smile twitched.
"...Perhaps."
"Not perhaps."
I pointed at him.
"Definitely."
Roswaal said nothing.
So I kept going.
"Did you know I already sent Frederica and Petra to the capital?"
His eye widened by a fraction.
"Beatrice is safely in the library, not that she'd leave."
Another fraction.
"Rem is here."
A pause.
"And I already had the Iron Fang stationed to deal with Elsa and Meili."
That one landed.
I saw it.
The tiniest crack in the clown's composure.
Not enough for anyone else to notice.
But enough for me.
"So your plan is cooked."
Roswaal's smile remained in place, but it had gone stiff around the edges.
"The mansion is already saved."
I leaned forward slightly.
"And you know what the funniest part is?"
He didn't answer.
I did it for him.
"You were trying to force me into the same kind of stupid choice you made."
Roswaal's visible eye sharpened.
I continued, voice steady.
"You're obsessed with proving that one can only choose one thing."
His expression didn't change.
But the air in the room did.
"You want me to believe I have to pick between the mansion and the Sanctuary."
I tapped my chest once.
"You want me to become like you."
Roswaal's eye narrowed.
"Like me?"
"Yes."
I smiled thinly.
"Obsessed."
That finally made something flicker across his face.
Not anger.
Not yet.
Recognition.
I kept going.
"You're trying to make me into a man who sacrifices everything for one goal."
My voice stayed calm.
"You're trying to make me obsessed with Emilia the way you're obsessed with Echidna."
Roswaal's breathing changed.
Just slightly.
Enough.
"But here's the problem."
I spread my hands.
"I kind of already saved the mansion."
His eye widened.
"And Emilia will do the Trials."
I tilted my head.
"And if she succeeds, you have to burn your Gospel and become our ally."
The room went very, very quiet.
I watched him carefully.
"See the issue?"
Roswaal's smile was still there.
But now it looked painted on.
"Your whole philosophy depends on me being cornered."
I took another step closer.
"But I'm not."
His eye flickered.
"You wanted to force a choice."
I pointed toward the door.
"I already made the choice that mattered."
Then I pointed back at him.
"And I already won."
Roswaal's expression remained frozen.
But I could feel it now.
The panic.
The tiny, frantic recalculations behind the mask.
The gears grinding.
The script tearing itself apart.
I could almost hear his thoughts.
Wait.
Right.
He's a prophet as he claims.
A massive blunder on my part.
That was the moment.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHHA! Bro this is the biggest gamble on my part. If he decides to kill everyone I'm slimed.
The exact instant the clown's narrative control shattered.
Roswaal had spent four hundred years building a world where every path led back to his own obsession.
And I had just walked in with a map he didn't know existed.
He tried to recover.
His voice came out softer than before.
"Subaru-kun..."
"No."
I cut him off immediately.
"You don't get to do the dramatic voice now."
His eye twitched.
I folded my arms again.
"You don't get to act like this is still your board."
Roswaal's smile strained.
"You speak as though you understand everything."
"I understand enough."
I leaned in just a little.
"You're not the only one who can plan ahead."
His eye narrowed.
I continued, each word deliberate.
"You wanted to test whether I'd abandon one thing for another."
"You wanted to see if I'd choose the mansion or Emilia."
"You wanted to prove that I'd break the same way you did, riiiiiiiiiiiight?"
Roswaal's breathing had gone shallow.
I could see it now.
The way his confidence was slipping.
The way his certainty was collapsing under the weight of facts he hadn't accounted for.
"But I didn't."
I smiled.
"The mansion will be saved."
"And I'm still here."
Roswaal stared at me.
I stared back.
Then I delivered the final blow.
"So your whole little tragedy?"
I shrugged.
"Failed."
For the first time since I'd entered the cabin, Roswaal's expression actually changed.
Not much.
Just enough.
The smile faltered.
The eye widened.
The theatrical lilt in his voice cracked at the edges.
"...How?"
I gave him a look.
"By not being stupid."
That made him go still.
I could practically see the internal system error.
The clown had no response ready for a world where his opponent had already solved the problem before the trap was sprung.
I straightened up.
"Frederica and Petra are safe."
"Beatrice is safe."
"Rem is safe."
"The Iron Fang is probably already handling Elsa and Meili."
"And Emilia is going to do the Trials."
I ticked each point off on my fingers.
"So tell me, Roswaal."
I smiled.
"What exactly is left for you to manipulate?"
Silence.
His eye trembled.
Just once.
Then he forced the smile back onto his face, but it was weaker now.
Thinner.
Less like a mask and more like a desperate habit.
"...Ara."
The word came out faintly.
"Subaru-kun... you are truly..."
"Don't."
I cut him off again.
"You don't get to compliment me now either."
That finally did it.
Not enough for anyone else to notice.
But enough for me.
Roswaal's composure had cracked.
Not shattered.
Not yet.
But cracked wide enough that I could see the panic underneath.
The clown had blue-screened.
And I had done it with nothing but information and spite.
I turned toward the door.
Then paused.
"Oh, and one more thing."
Roswaal's eye followed me.
I glanced back over my shoulder.
"I can't reset time, if you think you can just force a reset. I can see the future, so maybe you can say that's a reset because I see a future and then it ceases to exist"