Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Marcos Gildark’s Diary

1/4/20XX

Today is a good day for Lugunica. No, it’s a great day for the world. The Witch Cult, the criminal organization that has burdened this world for centuries, has taken a massive blow. After their siege against Priestella, the Greed Archbishop has been killed by the Sword Saint, Reinhard, and the Royal Candidate, Emilia. The Pride and Wrath Archbishop have been captured. Despite the casualties in the town, I feel optimistic. For the first time in centuries, we have managed to make progress against the Witch Cult, ironic that this progress has been mostly related to the half-elf's camp. 

Now a few members of the Anastasia and Emilia camps are planning to go to the Watchtower of Great Sage Flugel to learn how to heal the victims of Lust and Gluttony. If they can manage it, then we’ll make even better progress against the Witch Cult. May Od Laguna be with them.

Unfortunately, I am obligated to remind my future self reading this that not everything went well in our battle. In fact, the aftermath confounds me a bit. The Royal Candidate of Crusch, after suffering the cruelty of the Archbishop of Gluttony, losing her memories to Gluttony a year ago has now been cursed by the Archbishop of Lust. That’s unfortunate but not surprising necessarily. The strange thing is that according to Ferris Argyle, the best healer in Lugunica, the curse seems to have healed slightly, to the point that it will not spread any further, provided that Crusch was regularly attended to. I’ve been told that the Pride Archbishop has a similar curse. Ferris has submitted a request to interrogate Pride. 

I intend to grant his request as well as provide him with the resources he needs. I’m not certain what but something about Pride seems dangerous yet familiar. I remember escorting him to his cell, feeling disgusted that we were letting 2 witch cultists live, let alone Archbishops but the disgust faded quickly once I had moved to my office to write this. Honestly, he seems sane but from his eyes, three things alarmed me. First of all, he didn’t seem like someone who’s killed many people, strange for the which cult. Second, he seemed like someone who’s brushed intimately with death. Lastly, he seemed to recognize me. His Authority must affect the mind as well.

I have to check with Ferris later to ensure I haven’t been corrupted by said Authority.

Perhaps stranger still is the village formerly under Roswaal’s protection becoming hostile to Emilia once more. A year ago, they had come to an agreement due to the danger posed by Sloth  . And they'd been on neutral if not positive terms since. But recently, they've been getting rowdy. Perhaps due to Emilia's absent knights who were both injured in Priestella..

Regardless of our losses, I can’t truly bring myself to be upset when the people, the CREATURES that are theorized to be responsible for kick-starting the Demi-Human war. A war which my father had fought in.

I think he’d be happy with this result. Although I can’t say that I enjoy the paperwork that comes with it.

7/4/20XX

It only took a week for the attempt to reach Pleiades Watchtower to be deemed a failure. There’s apparently a spatial distortion field around the Watchtower, preventing the camps from reaching any closer. The Great Spirit, Beatrice, of the Emilia Camp believes that she can create a spell that can negate the magic surrounding the Watchtower given time. So they are taking a short break to form the spell.

I have been informed of a knight of Anastasia’s Camp that has lost his name to Gluttony, Julius Juukulius a spirit knight. Reinhard vouches for him with his intuition that rivals divine protection of Wind Reading. He currently isn’t contracted to his spirits due to his contracts being broken by Gluttony. He plans to re-establish them as soon as possible.

Speaking of Reinhard, I assigned him to assist with Ferris’s interrogation to tell if Pride was telling the truth. Ferris’s report states that Pride told ludicrous stories of him being a Knight to the half-elf candidate, contracted partner to the Great Spirit, Beatrice and assisted in the killing of the White Whale, Sloth, Greed and Great Rabbit. The stories are so ridiculous that I almost believe them. Perhaps I would if not for Reinhard confirming that he was lying. Honestly, with the level of detail in Ferris’s report, I’m surprised that his authority didn’t bypass his intuition. I’ve been informed by Reinhard that his Divine Protections are not as powerful as Authorities so it feels a bit odd that not even his intuition had failed.

Regardless, Ferris appears to be more frustrated than usual due to Pride’s lies. He seems almost certain that they know something, especially with all of the information that Pride has about the Candidates, especially the Emilia Camp. In his words: “If they know so much about the royal candidates, imagine what they might know about the Witch Cult.”

Ferris seems to be getting more and more unstable the more they interact with Pride. I’ve been informed that Crusch had saved Ferris from his abusive household and is very well the primary reason that Ferris has gotten to the stage in life that he is. I also do agree with analysis of the situation, so I’ve assigned more knights to the interrogation. There’s no need to give mercy to a Witch Cultist, let alone an Archbishop.

1/5/20XX

Lugunica has lost all contact with Vollachia Empire. In fact, all of the world has lost contact with Vollachia. There has been no contact to nor from Vollachia. It’s effectively been cut off from the rest of the world. It appears as though the entire country is effectively under an effect similar to  Gluttony’s Authority as well as the Pleiades Watchtower. Every time it is observed from the outside, any memories related to what someone saw will eventually disappear as well as any proof written or otherwise related to what they saw. Any attempt to enter the Kingdom will result in any person who entered, to be placed outside of the Kingdom, unconscious and without memories of what occurred. It’s hard to test and nothing concrete has been found out yet. I truly hope that this will not become as difficult to comprehend as it has been for Gluttony and the White Whale.

The camps of the Royal Selection are also acting oddly and the Priscilla Camp has disappeared entirely likely due to the strange occurrence in Vollachia. This unfortunately includes Heinkel Astrea, captain of the Royal Guards. I have been instructed to take his on his role in his absence. The camps are still officially in an alliance but it is shaky. The Felt Camp has had Reinhard preoccupied with Pride, seeming to come in and leave every other day. I asked him what he was doing and he said that something felt WRONG about Pride aside from his continuous lying according to his divine protections his Divine Protection of Doubt is also telling him that Pride is up to no good, something that doesn't happen for the lesser but still frequent interrogations of Wrath. 

Reinhard's instincts nor Divine Protections have never been wrong so I've increased the number of interrogations to keep a closer eye on Pride and placed more guards on duty near him. Since Wrath is in the adjacent cell, we can keep them both under watch. But with Reinhard preoccupied more and more with Pride, the royal candidate Felt has been getting more rowdy , the slums have been getting more violent and crime in the slums, which had lowered before, has risen once again. Reinhard is being spread thin between the camp, his assignments and Pride. I swear that I saw him nod off for a moment while writing his report of one of Pride’s interrogations.

The Crusch Camp is strangely enough, the least affected. While still cursed, Crusch Karsten is more than capable of movement provided that she is accompanied by her Knight. While weakened and cursed, which hurt her people’s trust in the beginning, her tenacity has granted the people hope. Her curse hasn’t spread any further but hasn't regressed either, making the reason for the curse initially regressing a mystery. She is still the most favored by the populace to win the selection, even more so than she was with her memories.. 

Ferris has attempted studying Pride’s similar curse for any clues but simply found that Pride was already cursed by multiple beings before being afflicted with what seems to be the same curse that Lust inflicted on Crusch. Inflicting a Royal Candidate with numerous curses isn't an option. Ferris is also investing much time into Pride but he’s mostly there at night, when Crusch needs healing the least, and leaving a different healer with Crusch. He hasn’t been making much progress in terms of information but has managed to refine the technique to improve healing efficiency when it comes to curses. Regardless, I’m not sure if Ferris is sleeping, there are bags under his eyes now but he’s covering them with make-up.

The Anastasia Camp is the most odd. Anastasia is known for being an impressive merchant, effectively being able to introduce, remove and sometimes even control the goods of the Kingdom of Lugunica through the Hoshin Company. She has claimed the title of “Great Merchant.” However, now the Hoshin Company is beginning to struggle. Many of the deals that the company has made are falling through and they are having shortages of many of their items. The only reason I even know of this is because rumors about the Hoshin Company have been quite widespread. Anastasia has been the front-runner of the Royal Selection but has now been definitively overtaken by Felt and Crusch. But if this continues, the economy of Lugunica might very well be overturned.

Like Ferris and Reinhard, Julius had also been interrogating Pride. However, he's been investing less time on Pride and more time recreating the bonds that he had lost. He’s been making some good progress and is popular among the populace. 

The Emilia Camp, however, is likely the most affected. Arlam village is still hostile to the Emilia Camp and the hostility has spread to create some ‘unsavory’ rumors. Such as her Great Spirit and knights abandoning her, even though her knights have since returned. Her burning down the Forbidden Library to contract with the great spirit and more. The Emilia Camp’s activities have slowed down. The times that members of the camp leave the mansion, they are seen frustrated. Both at the world and each other. The camp appears to have lost whatever it was that kept them together.

I pray to Od Laguna that things will get better.

1/6/20XX

Pride is due to be executed tomorrow. He’s been reduced to an effectively catatonic state. Ferris says that he’s suffering from a mental ailment, likely due to the torture accompanied with most of his interrogations. He’s effectively lost the will to live and therefore he’s lost his worth as a prisoner. Tomorrow, he will be executed in the Capital to make an example, and set a trap for the Witch Cult. The Royal Candidates will be invited to his execution and a celebration is to be held. 

Hopefully this raises morale despite the adventure to the Watchtower being on hold.

2/6/20XX

Shit.

Chapter Text

A star. 

A Broken Star was summoned to a world. The Broken Star was brought into this world and saved two girls from a predestined fate of death. And through this, the star was no longer broken but reborn. The Broken Star died. Despite the suffering that no living being was ever meant to live through, he was still broken, but he was healing.

The Healing Star was brought to a mansion. The Healing Star entered a home and was hurt. He searched and hunted for what they wanted and lost it. They did their best. They tried their hardest. But the things he wanted hurt him because of things that he couldn’t control. The Healing star died. The Healing Star was afraid.

The Scared Star was trapped in his mind. The Scared Star could not understand because no one told him. And he could not tell anyone about his suffering. He tries and fails. The Scared Star died. But he learned and he was comforted. He learned more of the people he loves. And the Scared Star decided that his suffering was worth it. The Scared Star was hurting.

The Hurting Star tried to be as helpful as he could. Every time he remained still, people close to him suffered for it. So he didn’t remain still. And he was wrong to. He could not trust the people he cared about. And he could not tell them why. The Hurting Star’s soul died. And he broke once more. But rather than apathy, The Hurting Star was arrogant. 

The Arrogant Star believed that he could solve any problem through his suffering. As long as he fought, there would be a way to win. Otherwise, everything he worked for would be for nothing, wouldn’t it. If his existence didn’t save people then what worth did he have? But then, he saw everything stripped away from him. Because of his arrogance, he had let his friends die. The Arrogant Star died. But the Arrogant Star shattered before he broke.

The Shattered Star could not move, he could not speak, he could not think, he could not live, he could not die. The Shattered Star had lost everything, and the weight of his suffering was too much to bear. Until a heavier weight burdened him. He saw someone he loved hurt in front of his eyes, for the first time in his life, the Shattered Star TRULY hated someone more than himself. The Shattered Star died. The Shattered Star reformed itself from pure fury.

The Furious Star tried to quell his righteous anger, still without trusting others but trying to save them. But he didn’t have the tools, the knowledge nor the calmness to achieve his goals. And burned himself out. He tried, in one final effort, to speak of his pain. And it ended in disaster. The furious star died. And the Furious Star was filled with despair.

The Hopeless Star grasped at its final straw. The Hopeless Star tried to save the only person that they believed that they could save, their killer in another fate but a person they saved in this one. They denied the star’s offer and helped the star pick himself up once more. The Star would build themself back up. The Star regained their will.

The Determined Star and the person they saved joined hands. And they worked together and gained the tools, knowledge and determination to achieve their goals. They killed one of the plagues of the world and separated for the Star to save the people they failed in another fate. The star left, he saved almost everyone. But he could not save them all. And he could not save himself. The Determined Star died. And tried again. The Determined Star saved everyone, including himself and declared his love. But he lost someone else in his absence. THe person who killed him, the person who saved him, the person he saved, the person he helped, the person who helped him. They were lost. The Determined Star killed himself. But it was too late. The Star mourned.

The Mourning Star could not remain, for he still had to save what he could. The Mourning Star left the person they failed at his home, the mansion and left for the Sanctuary to find a clown, his servants and the villagers. The Sanctuary held a village of half demi-humans with its barrier. The only way to disable the barrier was to enter the Witch’s Tomb and complete three trials. The girl the star loved entered Echidna’s Tomb, the star followed. The Star met their parents once more, and was thankful for a final reunion to right his wrongs from another world. The Mourning Star was happy. 

T̸̲̿ḫ̷̈́̃e̸͖̠̊̕ ̸͈͆ͅH̸̺̃͋ǎ̵͖̳p̸̟͛p̸̹̖̂̈ÿ̵̥̹́

“People like you don’t deserve to be happy”

The Star returned to reality with the girl he loves and comforted her at her lowest point. They left the Witch’s Tomb. The Star left the Sanctuary with the villagers that could leave and returned to the mansion. The people still in the mansion were killed by the Star’s first enemy, an assassin The Star died. The star tried to go to the mansion earlier, the assassin was there. The Star died. The Star wanted to complete the Sanctuary. The Star was captured then saved. The Star was saved then scarred. The Star was scarred then eaten. The Star died. The Star tried to complete the Sanctuary. The Star broke. The Star was saved by the dead Witch. The Star was tormented by a living Witch.  The Star died. The Star was betrayed by the clown.

“Betrayed by everyone.”

The Betrayed Star pleaded. The Betrayed Star begged. The Betrayed Star could not stop the assassin from killing the people close to them. The Star ran. The Star thought. The Star despaired. The Star was found by a friend. The Star was saved. The Star planned. The Betrayed Star and the Insane Clown made a bet. The Betrayed Star trusted those close to him. 

The Trusting Star fought. The Star gained a friend and brother. The Star trusted the person he loved to complete the Witch’s trials. The Star went to the mansion, their brother killed the assassin and contracted with a great spirit. Together with the Spirit and the one they love, they destroyed another disaster plaguing the world. The Trusting Star was Knighted.

The Knighted Star had peace for a year of peace, they bonded with their friends. They fought with their sister. They played with their brothers. They trained with their spirit. They went on dates with the person they loved. They spoke to the one they failed. Their life was good, they were happy and they made everyone else happy as well. 

Then they went to Priestella to get information on Gluttony and a crystal for the Great Spirit of Fire. The Witch Cult came. The Knighted Star died thrice to stop Wrath but was injured in the process. Then they tried to stop the Witch once more but failed, and the star was cursed. Fortunately, due his previous encounters with curses, he survived mostly unharmed. Finally, they were able to regroup with their allies and together with the Sword Saint and the Girl he loves, killed the invincible Greed Archbishop as his allies captured Wrath. However, while alone, he was attacked by Gluttony and his name was eaten. Without his name, history was rewritten… without him.

The Forgotten Star was deemed an Archbishop. Why? His ability to persist and return to a previous time had been controlled by the Witch of Envy. And had cursed him with a thick but useless miasma with no meaning except to mark him as suspicious. But this in and of itself would not be enough to mark him as a Witch Cultist. That is, if not for the Gospel of the Witch Cult. The book instructed the Lust to take the Star away to protect him. Or so it seemed. They only gave him a false title as Pride and let him be captured as they escaped. The Star was captured. 

What happened next… Could only be described as a tragedy. A tragedy with no single person to blame. Was it the Great Spirit’s fault for sensing the miasma and labelling them a Witch Cult. Was it the Greatest Healer’s fault for holding on to a useless hope that torturing Pride could save the person they loved? Was it the Spirit Knight’s fault for not listening to the Star in the same situation as them? Was it the Sword Saint’s fault for being suspicious of the Star’s circumstances but not being able to conclude the Star was innocent? Was it the Witch’s fault for not progressing the Star’s checkpoint, hoping that he would escape but instead subjecting the star to 3 year’s worth of torment through his own power? Was it the half-elf camp’s fault for neglecting him and letting this faith fall upon their knight? Was it the Star’s fault for holding on to hope so tightly that he remained trapped by the world and let his heart suffer with his body? So that his body was abused, destroyed, violated, tarnished, stolen , corrupted by well-intentioned and twisted knights alike.

There were 2 people who were surely to blame. The Cultist that took his name. And the Cultist that twisted his captor’s emotions, sowing doubt where there ought to be none, overriding divine protection twisting intuition into a red herring and letting each and every individual be trapped in a cell of their own making, literally and figuratively. Gluttony and Wrath.

Of course, those two were nowhere to be found as soon as Subaru died, the Witch Cult made sure of that. So the people, couldn't release their anger at them. 

In the end, the Star did not break by his will running out but finally the Witch had had enough. After 3 years of trial and effort of torture, escaping death over and over, the Witch took his mind from his body, letting him be executed and finally freeing his name and returned him forward in time for the first and likely last time. But as backlash for overriding Return By Death in this way, the closest checkpoint the Witch could place him in. An entire year in the future.

However, with that, the star was removed from existence for a year. Essentially dying for that year. And do you know what stars do when they die? THEY GO SUPERNOVA!

Chapter Text

Subaru and darkness have an interesting relationship. At early points in his life, darkness was just something that existed. He never feared it like other kids his age, maybe he always knew instinctually he’d find darkness too many times to be afraid of it. From the darkness that he felt when he felt alone. The Darkness that he’d get from his favorite spell. To the darkness of his prison.

Having said that, this darkness is different. And Subaru recognizes it but also… doesn’t. He senses that something about the darkness is… broken. Like it’s not meant to be like this. If he’s been here before then he doesn’t remember it. It’s similar to Echidna’s Tea Party. Actually, Echidna had asked about him being in a similar place, maybe this is that place. He tried to call out but… He had no body, he was simply… conscious somehow. 

What had happened? He was in prison, he’d just blinked. Death wasn’t uncommon when he was on his own from bleeding out or breaking something important but he made sure to prepare for Reinhard’s visit by making sure he WOULDN’T die by being made to stand up. There’s no reason to be dead at this point.

Was he being sent back to Japan? No, he subconsciously knew that he wouldn’t be going back as soon as he was summoned to Lugunica. So he only knew that something was going to change. Would he be able to fix his name? What was going to happen? But he couldn’t answer that question. So, the only thing to do was wait. So he did. And Subaru wouldn’t have to wait long. Subaru didn’t know it yet but he was the only one that wouldn’t have to wait.

Subaru crumpled to the ground as soon as he was conscious, not feeling his legs. He covered his eyes, that were accustomed to the darkness of his prison. from the light overhead. His mind recoiled instinctively, remembering light as the signal that another 'interrogation' session was here. But he quickly realized that the stone underneath him was different than the prison. 

"Wait... what?" Subaru groggily got up to his knees, eyes still covered from the overhead light and felt a strange pull in his heart, a strange sensation. Subaru felt déjà vu despite knowing for absolute certain that this feeling was new. But as quickly as it had appeared, it vanished. And was replaced by a new feeling. Not joy, he had realized that he was free from his prison but he wouldn't be satisfied until he got his name back by personally wringing Gluttony's neck. Not fear either, at some point the unknown stopped being scary, just new information. Pain was scary and while he was feeling an aching pain all over his body, he had gotten used to that pain years ago.

No, what he felt was someone's gaze. Someone hostile. Subaru had long since gained the ability to sense how strong someone was, even before the prison.  What he DID gain from the prison was the ability to sense someone's gaze and that allowed him to steel himself before interrogations. Regardless, whoever was watching was highly suspicious of him, something he'd gotten used to but nothing good. Subaru clamored to his feet and ran. Or tried before crashing into the ground, his body feeling uncoordinated and head feeling dizzy. How long had it been since he was even able to think of running? He'd stopped exercising many loops ago, it drew attention. 

He picked himself up. He took one step, ignoring the pain in his legs. Then another, consciously controlling each foot before stepping. It made his steps slower than they should be but he was running. He was stuck in that prison for at least 2 months. For that time he spent suffering having each individual broken bone broken and muscle torn, he was actually moving a lot better than he should have been. So he ran but could feel the gaze multiply and the now multiple presences get closer. '

"Shit, Shit, Shit. I can’t get caught again." Subaru muttered

Subaru essentially tackled the closed door of a random tavern down and ran inside. He held his breath, silencing his steps as he felt the gazes be blocked by the walls surrounding him. What should he do? What COULD he do? His eyes were drawn to a window, a reflection in it. A reflection of a boy Subaru didn’t recognize. Sunken eyes with eyebags reaching down to his cheeks, his face was pale and purely white hair. He looked like a very tired Regulus. But all of that was sadly normal to him, he didn’t see his reflection often but those characteristics were things he’d learned to associate with himself. He didn’t recognize it because… 

“They’re faded.”

The features weren’t as bad as they usually were. His hair was mostly white but had hints of black, his eye bags weren’t nearly pure black. Like a past version of himself had combined with his self now. Subaru shook his head and slapped his cheeks, now wasn’t the time.

 An idea popped into his mind. If he broke a window, he’d be able to hide in the room after drawing at least some of the presences away. Subaru picked up a wooden chair without hesitation and threw it out of a window before vaulting over the bar counter and hiding behind it. Voices soon emerged from the entrance.

“Where’d he go?” A raspy voice called out

“The window’s broken, he must have gone that way!” A woman’s voice exclaimed.

Thank Od. They were tricked. He’d at least reduce their numbers with this, that way he could use Invisible Providence to create an opening and dash. He wasn’t sure where to yet but as long as he got distance. In Subaru’s mind, if he were caught then he’d either be brought back to the prison or die and go to the prison through Return  By Death, both were outcomes that he had to avoid at all costs.

“Take out your Gospel!” 

Those words were all it took to stun Subaru. Gospel? Roswaal was the first person that came to mind but he quickly dismissed the notion. Roswaal by his own admission could never hate Subaru so there would be no need for Subaru to sense hostility. So it was the Witch Cult. 

“Are they taking revenge for acting as Pride?” Subaru muttered to himself without thinking, shaking his head as soon as the quiet words left his mouth.

Subaru’s mind was so disorderly that for some reason his first thought had been of the title that plagued him for his time in his prison. Even if he were to be appearing as an Archbishop, it would be Greed that he was appearing as. Hence, he needed to take a moment to reorganize his thoughts but was interrupted by the sound of pages in at least 5 books. They were checking their gospels?

“Burn the counter. He’s hiding there!”

“El-”

Subaru suddenly popped up from behind the counter with a raging expression, interrupting the chant. Now that he was looking at them, the cultists were simply wearing regular clothes. They looked… like 5 normal people.

“You bitches, why would you try to burn the bar down just to take me out? Are you kidding? I guess you really are looking for me, because the Witch Cult wouldn’t be burning down Archbishops, right? So what’s your game? Did Gluttony tell you about me? Are you just here to kill whoever was on the street when you checked? Is my name back all of a sudden? I thought the Witch Cult hid in the shadows and wore creepy-ass robes but you’re just existing in the middle of nowhere with one else in the street and for what? Why wasn’t there anything else in the street? Was it all planned just to target me? A cultist attack to kill someone whose name had been eaten and body imp-”

Subaru stopped halfway through his rant, his initial plan was to hide until the people chasing him left. When he realized they knew where he was, Subaru had planned to distract them with a long rant before coming up with a plan, a trick he used on Lust and the White Whale to good effect. And while it did confuse the cultist, Subaru was the first to tire out. His tired lungs ran out of air before he managed to finish. He leaned against the countertop to catch his breath while the cultists stood in shock. Subaru took a deep breath and steadied himself before talking again.

Subaru put on his best customer service smile. “Anyways, welcome to Subaru’s bar! Have a drink!”

Subaru quickly threw a barrage of alcoholic drinks from below the counter-top and at the cultists. He knew it wouldn’t deal any damage but he had to in order to cause chaos and buy time. Three cultists dodge the bottles and dash towards Subaru, pulling weapons out of nowhere. One of the other two creates a water shield with Huma as the other shoots a fireball Goa spell at Subaru. 

Subaru quickly dashes to the side as the entire countertop was engulfed in flame, he felt the heat from behind him and rolled to the ground, skidding to a stop as he saw a blade aimed for his neck. Subaru was about to use his sloth Witch Factor but something stopped him, a desperate urge to gain distance. He jumped back, tripping over a chair and landing face-up on a table. He rolls off as a battle axe from a different cultish splits the table in half. Subaru grabbed a chair and threw it at another Goa spell aimed at him, detonating the fireball early. Subaru would pay for such a risky maneuver because as he stumbled back, the final weapon wielding cultist stabbed Subaru’s shoulder with a knife. Subaru grunted in pain and started panicking.

“INVISIBLE PROVIDENCE!”

Nothing happened. His authority wasn’t unresponsive, it just… wasn’t there. 

“No, No, No, No. Get away!”

He tripped backwards and tried to crawl away but his legs were cleaved off by the battle-axe, letting his blood drain onto the floor. Subaru screamed and still tried to crawl to get away from the cultist but it was useless.

“GET AWAY!” Subaru screamed, as a purple energy erupted from him, pushing the three closest cultists away.

The room was silent for a moment.

Subaru’s panic stopped for a moment, the pain no longer registering. “My… gate, it’s working.”

But before Subaru could act on this realization, he was engulfed in flame. His internal organs melting and leaking through whatever pores or wound they could find.

Natsuki Subaru has died to the Witch Cult.

Chapter Text

Subaru flinched as he knelt on the floor, the process of Return By Death causing all the information to rush into his mind. Painful, the process was always painful. It was like a tsunami of memories crashing into him all at once, drowning him. Then, after the water had disoriented him, the fire. The final moments of his last life encompassed his very being. His organs, skin, his brain melting and boiling, turning into mush. 

He gasped for breath, finally reaching the surface of the sea of his past and breathing in the damp, stale air of the prison.

That’s not the air that he was feeling. 

“Th-The Capital!” Subaru exclaimed.

He was at the capital.

His checkpoint, after not being updated for three years, had finally, FINALLY BEEN UPDATED. A tear ran down his face, then another. Then Subaru started crying. And sobbing, He had never felt such relief before. He couldn’t believe it. He was free. Free of the torture, the pain, the killings, the violating. He was free.

Subaru was quickly hit with reality due to basking in his freedom for too long, once again experiencing a fiery death by the disguised (or undisguised?) Witch Cultist.

Natsuki Subaru died to the Witch Cult

Subaru started the next loop in a sprint, or at least running as fast as he could manage without falling. He considered getting to a place with witnesses but thinking logically, that would simply end in more people dying and even if they would back off, the capital seemed to be abandoned. He could call for help, but the idea of getting help from a knight felt suffocating, even in his mind. He didn’t trust himself to call out without having a panic attack. Subaru slowed down for a moment before coming to a realization.

He would have to defeat the cultists himself.

Subaru stopped at the same tavern door. If he went inside, he was effectively cornering himself. He would be committing himself to a fight. He’d probably die. 

Subaru smiled, placing his hand on the door.

“Murak.”

The door creaked slightly, becoming weightless under his touch. He pushed the door gently.

“Vita.” 

The spell increased the forces acting on the door and without gravity the only force acting on the door was Subaru. The door flew off of its hinges, crashing into the bar’s countertop. 

Subaru laughed bitterly, “As if running was ever an option.”

The Witch Cultists entered the room, scanning the area for Subaru. At a glance, he was nowhere to be seen. The door that had once been an entrance to this long-abandoned building. There wasn't any sign of movement in a while. 

"Take out your gospel!" the previously sword-wielding cultist ordered as he stepped forwards, preparing to inspect the door. 

The Cultists obliged and began flipping through the pages but they never got to read their instructions as a voice above them called out a single word. 

"Shamac!"

The room was filled with black smoke.

When Subaru died, before he was summoned in the Capital again, he was sent back to the first day in his cell. After the first few deaths, Subaru resolved himself to make a decision in the first hour of his new life. Whether he would fully destroy his contract with Beatrice or not. Of course, due to the effects of Gluttony, his contract was null and void. That meant that anything more than simply knowing it was there was impossible. He couldn’t call Beatrice, use magic or even expelling mana. Worse yet, it prevented any spirits from coming to him. Effectively, he could only look at the broken pieces of the contract.

Subaru usually kept the contract intact. It wasn’t because he found a use for it, it was just that he felt hopeless without it. Like cutting off the last part of his name. Also, as he had figured out, the spirits weren’t particularly helpful. Not only was Julius or Reinhard simply able to sense if he had called a spirit and promptly kill him if he did anything more than observe them silently. But also, the mana poisoning that comes with his broken gate had become a crucial piece in survival. If he wasn’t being poisoned despite his broken Gate, Felix and the others would become wary of him and that would cause his public execution. Subaru had lived through 5 public executions. It was one of the worst parts of losing his name.

All of that to say, while rare, he did in fact still use spirit magic in prison. 

“Minya!”

So he hadn't forgotten how to cast spells. Even if he didn’t have time to form a contract, his gate was now working.

Purple stakes filled the air and pierced into the smoke where the cultists stood. Minya is an instant-kill magic "Arrows of Stopped Time." Purple stakes of crystalized mana covered in light purple flames once the stakes were 'activated', they would explode into shards and fly in the direction of the caster's choosing. As soon as the shards made contact with a person, they would begin crystallizing from the point of contact, regardless of how strong they were. 

However once the smoke cleared Subaru was frustrated, although not surprised, that he'd only managed to hit one cultist who had casted Huma, protecting the other cultists but a shard had stuck her hand as she casted the spell. The cultist shattered into pieces as the water forcefield collapsed. 

Subaru pushed off of the wall he was hanging on. His weightless body, under the effects of Murak, floated away from the cultists quite slowly. Resulting in the final mage cultist to fire a Goa spell and the knife-wielding cultist to throw their knives at Subaru. However, this was a bait. Subaru stopped time around his body, causing the fire and knife to do little more than obscure his vision of the cultists and vice-versa. However, his technique was not perfect and a few burns now adorned his body. 

Subaru’s Gate at this moment was not large, but it wasn’t as small as it was when he entered the world either. It was as if his gate were capable of growth when it was broken, hence his training with Beatrice over the year before his imprisonment had not gone to waste. So rather than a newborn, Subaru’s gate was about the size of Petra’s. Fortunately Minya, the only offensive Yin spell he knew, didn’t need much mana. Only now that he was casting himself, did he realize how poor Beatrice's mana consumption was. Though at the moment, he truly wished he had Beatrice’s help. If he did, his first ambush would have ended the fight.

“El Minya!” Subaru called out once he had reached the wall, purple stakes lining the roof of the tavern but now, there were 40 of them. Subaru activated them 2 at a time, causing a rain of purple shards to fall towards the cultist, slow enough that he had a constant supply of ammo for 20 seconds. Fast enough that the cultists couldn't let up their defense for a single moment.

The axe and sword-wielding cultists dived under a table, dodging the shards as they fell. The final magic caster created a barrier of flame, protecting himself and the formerly knife-wielding cultist.That was exactly what Subaru wanted. He closed his eyes, and pushed off the wall as hard he could, towards the knife and final mage cultists. And activated his absolute negation magic, limiting the surrounding barrier to about a meter in radius. It cancelled the flames and Murak as he came closer by but knowing he was near the cultists in any capacity caused his heart to beat faster to the point that he couldn’t think straight; it felt even worse than having his heart squeezed. This prevented him from continuing to focus on his absolute negation magic.

He had already activated Minya so the shards weren’t affected by his panic attack, although the rest of the stakes quickly dissipated without doing anything. That was why he even considered this action. He was doing what he did best, using himself as a sacrifice and bait. 

“What the?”

“Gah!”

Subaru rolled on the ground, crashing into the cultists, tripping them but not knocking them off of their feet as they regained balance after Subaru passed by. Or at least they would have if the final purple shards hadn’t hit them at the exact moment Subaru passed by, causing them to shatter as soon as they touched the ground. 

Since they hadn’t moved from the doorway, Subaru immediately rolled out from the tavern. Once he came to a stop, he was now adorned with cuts and bruises, it was a miracle that he hadn’t broken anything. Now his body was a less desecrated version of his time in prison both physically and mentally, minus the curse.

“urgh….”

Subaru slowly got to his feet, the world spinning but he vaguely saw two more figures at the doorway of the tavern. They were hesitating.

“Shit.”

Subaru had killed 3 cultists but his plan had actually failed. Not only did his initial attack fail to kill the cultists but he had lost the element of surprise now. Not only that but the cultists were acting… differently than he remembered. Back when the cultists attacked Arlam Village, they had almost no sense of self-preservation. They practically threw themselves at anyone who could defend themselves and slaughtered the rest. The only ones that even hesitated to attack were strong enough to fight Rem on even footing. Something had changed. 

Now they would be able to defend themselves from Minya, simply by using their surroundings. Subaru had already killed the mages, he could use Murak to run, but he wasn’t sure he would be able to escape the cultists. Even if he did, if word got out to the cult then he’d likely be a target. Or worse, the word would get out to the knights. Subaru didn’t hold the advantage anymore. Should he cut his losses and escape or make a final stand. He didn’t want to rely on Return by Death anymore. What could he do? What CAN he do?

“SCREE! TCTSHCTCTCT.”

…The sounds of screeching and chittering filled the air as bat-like creatures swarmed the final two cultists. Biting off flesh and obscuring vision. They attempted to slash at the air with their respective weapons, killing the bats quickly. Subaru had only a moment to be shocked but at the same moment, he realized he only had this one chance

“Minya!”

Subaru aimed the shards low, crystalizing the feet of the cultists and lowering the potency so that the crystals stopped at their waists. He had a feeling that someone wouldn’t want the bats to die uselessly. The bats quickly flew away from the cultists, leaving them stuck in place. Subaru listened for something in the silent capital. Nothing…. Until he heard a gentle thud, like a child had jumped off of a large table or decently sized mount.

Subaru waited for a moment, but no one came out. So turning towards the alleyway behind him, and activating his defensive magic, letting the cultists throw their weapons in on final attack. The weapons clattered to the ground. Subaru chuckled slightly, both at the prospect of seeing a familiar face and relief at surviving. But… no one appeared. Subaru’s slight smile disappeared

“I know you’re there, Meili.”

A small child with dark blue hair appeared at the opposite side of the alleyway. She looked apprehensive, as if a multitude of conflicting emotions were stirring within her.

Subaru smiled, wider this time. His first real smile since he was first imprisoned, it felt weird on his face. “Hi, it’s been a while, hasn’t it?”

Tears ran down Meili’s face but she mirrored his smile. “It has! Welcome back, Onii-san!”

Chapter Text

The collapse of Lugunica practically happened overnight. 

When Subaru was killed, his name was freed almost instantly. The air stood still. Memories came back but slowly. It took time for everyone to connect their lost memories and their new ones. The very first thing that had happened was absolute chaos. There were riots in the street. People tried to kill the Knights, they tried to destroy Royal Candidates, even the Council of Wise Men were under attack.

It would have been bad enough if Subaru was executed. He had made a horrible debut, disrespecting every knight in Lugunica. Then he had firmly lost in a duel with the finest Knight. And then in a single week had destroyed an Archbishop and two Great Beasts. The Archbishop and Great Rabbit were killed without casualties, no less. He was the killer of an archbishop. He had vanquished 2 Great Beasts. At first, his achievements were doubted. They were quickly believed over the next year. And after his death, they were almost fully believed. 

A person, during their first noteworthy moment had disrespected every Knight publicly. Then, he was beaten soundly. Then, he killed 2 Great Disasters and an Archbishop. Then, after his showing in Priestella, his name was taken and he was later executed with blatant signs of abuse on his person. That was suspicious enough. Worse yet, the Council of Wise Men chose to hide his involvement in Priestella even after his name had returned. They shouldn’t escalate things too far.

That was nothing more than a bomb to be set off. 

The secret crumbled quickly, none of the Royal Candidates, servants nor Knights were willing to keep his involvement a secret. Even suggesting the idea had nearly resulted in Emilia freezing over the Royal Castle. Worse yet, she was nearly allowed to, even Julius and Reinhard had turned a blind eye to the frost.  It seemed that not even the Sword Saint was truly willing to side with the council any longer. In the end, Felt was actually the one that stopped her, saying that things had gone too far.

Despite this, the Candidates weren’t the ones to reveal the secret, it was the Witch Cult. Lust had staged an attack on the Capital under the pretense of Revenge on Natsuki Subaru for assisting in the killing Greed and the capturing Wrath. Worse yet, one of the Archbishops of Gluttony had freed Wrath. Killing and erasing many Knights in their way. 

The direct attack was quelled quickly but there were now more active Witch Cultists in the Capital. And therefore more people to stir the pot.

The chaos ensuing was anything but avoidable. Almost no one trusted the Council anymore and even less trusted the Royal Candidates. The only Candidate that was even somewhat supported was Felt who, along with her Knight, had entered the Royal Castle one day and never came back out.

“The Council’s a formality nowadays. The entirety of Lugunica, is in a quiet civil war. There are so many sides, and now even the Witch Cult is being supported by some. People stay off the streetsThe economy is broken too. Most of the merchants are Cultists too but removing them will cause problems. Every day a new fight between or within factions breaks out.” Meili explained.

“That’s… bad.” Subaru said. It was obvious but he couldn’t find anything better to say.

Meili leaned back in her seat, putting her feet on the table. “I don’t really care about any of that though, I just have my pets looking for Lust so I can avoid her.” 

“Lust is ‘Mother’?” Subaru guessed.

“I see your time in prison hasn’t dulled your mind. How long were you in there anyways?” Meili asked.

Subaru opened his mouth to answer but then he thought for a moment then he narrowed his eyes. He knew about how long he was in prison for, about 3 years. He knew that he was ACTUALLY in prison for: 2 months. But… Meili, had teared up when she saw him. She missed him but, more importantly, she also RECOGNIZED him. She knew what had happened, she knew the aftermath of what happened and Subaru doubted she was there for the consequences, so she must have learned about it herself or had been told. So why wouldn’t she know how long he was in prison for? And even stranger…

“Why do you ask?” Subaru questioned.

That shouldn’t have been her first question.

Meili’s breath caught in her throat. “S-sorry.” Meili sat down normally again, expression serious and… concerned? “It’s not like me to beat around the bush. I just wanted to confirm. You can go back in time, can’t you?”

"...What?"

Later...

Subaru jumped from tree to tree as Meili rode a Guiltylowe through the forest. Under the effects of Murak, movement…. Well movement wasn’t actually easy but he could keep up with Meili by placing his feet carefully. Every so often Subaru would crash into a tree or get his foot stuck and plummet straight downwards, nearly killing or injuring himself many times. During one such occurrence, Subaru took a bit to recover mana and rest.

“Are you sure you don’t want to hitch a ride?” Meili asked in concern.

“I’m sure that I do want to.” Subaru clarified. “But I can’t.”

As Subaru had figured out from the cultists and confirmed when Meili stepped closer to him, Subaru had acquired Haphephobia at some point during his interrogations. The fear of being touched. That meant that he literally couldn’t get closer than at most 2 meters from Meili or any of her Witchbeasts without having a panic attack. He hoped that restriction didn’t apply to Beatrice… or Emilia… or Rem. 

That’s why they weren’t heading straight for the mansion but for Arlam village which would be a good place to reintroduce Subaru first, not to mention safe. Out of everywhere to hide, Meili spent time there the most. She usually stayed with Petra and Fredrica. Meili genuinely had checked her surroundings for any sign of the Lust through her bat Witchbeasts but there was a reason that she checked the Capital despite Witch Cultists being more active there.

“Petra had asked me to keep an eye out for you. I didn’t really think I’d find you.” Meili sighed, sitting down casually on the Guiltylowe.

“Why were you happy to see me?” Subaru asked.

“...Huh?”

Subaru spoke, “I mean, I really wasn’t… ‘good’ to you. We imprisoned you, killed the closest thing you had to family, the only thing I did was talk to you and sew plushies for you. I’m surprised you even kept touch with Petra, let alone… not kill me on sight.” 

He didn’t even pause. It was like he’d asked the question a hundred times.

“I will do it now if you want.” Meili said with a dark expression, Guiltylowe growling at Subaru. Seeing that Subaru didn’t flinch, Meili and Guiltylowe went back into a resting position. “Tch, how boring”

“Sorry… I’ve gotten good at sensing hostility.” Subaru explained.

Meili scoffed. “Don’t sound so apologetic. Jeez, is that what you spent your time doing instead of escaping? Thinking about all the things that you might have done wrong?”

"...."

"...."

"...."

Meili’s expression darkened the longer Subaru hesitated to answer; eventually she looked away with tears in her eyes. “Od Laguna.You’re messed up, you know? More than Elsa ever was.”

Subaru smiled, finally getting enough energy and mana back to consider himself ready to go. He stood up, casting Murak on himself once more, becoming weightless. He jumped to the trees once more.

“Sorry for bringing down the mood.” Subaru started

Meili interrupted him, not looking at his face. “It’s because you were nice.”

“Huh?”

“It’s because you were nice to me. Before, Elsa was the only one that was nice to me, besides the Witchbeasts but… they had to be nice, it’s my divine protection.”

Subaru opened his mouth to speak but Meili wasn’t done.

“At first, I thought that it was normal, if someone as crazy as Elsa could be nice to me then, surely everyone would be. Maybe it was normal.”

“It is, isn’t it?” Subaru asked.

“Kind of. The village was nice to me. I didn’t get gifts or anything, but it was nice. The Camp wasn’t particularly fond of me. I could tell Beatrice only tolerated me. And Emilia tried her best. But only you and Petra actually liked me and were genuinely nice to me.”

Meili took a small breath.

“Things got harder when you were gone, the camp was on edge. The village is still on edge. Hell, even knowing you’re alive… I’m nervous. I… don’t really know how you feel about me after… the time you spent. I don’t really want to go back to when I didn’t even have Elsa on my side. When you go back, do you miss the bonds you made?”

Subaru was a bit shocked at the vulnerability that Meili was revealing. “Yeah. Gluttony was an extreme version of it. But it always hurts.”

“Does it ever get easier?”

“...No.”

Meili fell silent but Subaru smiled.

“I can’t really pat your head right now. Or… even get much closer to you. But if no one else does, then I’ll be sure to love you enough for the whole world.”

Meili’s face became red as she looked in the opposite direction of Subaru. “Is that a promise? Fanged Onee-san says you were a 'habitual promise-breaker'.”

“Fredrica said that? I guess I’ll just have to keep this promise then!” Subaru said confidently.”

Meili snickered, still looking away to, unsuccessfully, hide her blush. “You were stuck in prison for a long time. Now you’re back and you’re already back to old habits.”

The forest was filled with laughter. Subaru was glad that Meili was with him, it was proof that his past life was still here. He’d lost it all once, he didn’t want to lose it again. White hair or black, bruised or healthy, he was going to get it back. And that started by reuniting with his former friends. And that included the knights, even if that started with him beating them bloody first. He wasn’t sure how he’d hurt Reinhard yet but he’d figure it out. 

He was free now. And he didn’t plan to waste that freedom at all.

Chapter Text

“Almost at the village,” Meili called over. “I’ll send a signal.”

A few bats flew ahead and upwards, clearly visible through the trees as the Guiltylowe roared. A few minutes later, they were at Arlam Village. Meili walked into the clearing. She had to leave her Witchbeasts behind, due to the barrier still surrounding the village that blocked them. Meili couldn’t have the village being attacked while she wasn’t present. Although, she seems to recall trying to convince Frederica to let her

Petra and Frederica walked out to greet Meili who put on her best neutral smile.

“Welcome back, Meili.” Frederica told Meili as Petra wrapped her in a tight embrace.

“Did you find anything?” Petra asked, of course, she wasn’t expecting Subaru to have been found but generally knowing what was happening in the city.

Meili feigned a frustrated sigh. “The Witch Cult is getting bolder, they attacked someone in broad daylight today. But I stopped them.”

“What?” gasped Petra

“Why did you risk your safety?” Frederica asked, knowing how much Meili had risked just to check the Capital daily, Meili was still terrified of ‘Mother’ but she had braved that fear simply to look for Subaru.

Meili’s poker face began to slip as she teetered idly. “Weeeelllll.”

“She had good reason,” a voice called out from behind.

Petra and Frederica ’s eyes widened as Subaru fell from the trees, slowly deactivating Murak. He had white hair instead of black from stress. His eyes were red, from crying and lack of sleep and his eyebags reached his cheeks. His body looked cut and bruised, recent wounds from his fight and his struggles to move through the forest and some faded scars adorned his body. Frederica and Petra had been there for the execution, he was even worse then. But still…

“Subaru!” Petra dashed past Meili to hug-tackle Subaru.

Meili’s excited restlessness suddenly paused as she tried to stop Petra and was replaced by the silent horror of realization. “WAIT NO!”

Subaru was still vulnerable to physical touch, if she hugged him now, he’d have a heart attack. Fortunately, Frederica reacted quickly, grabbing the relatively small girl before she could touch Subaru; who had tripped backwards and was now shivering on the ground, clutching his heart and trying desperately not to pass out.

“S-s-sorry. I…” Subaru tried to speak.

“I’ll explain, Onii-san needs to get himself together.”

Meili pulled Frederica back a few paces. It didn’t take very long to explain, or for Subaru to be back to a relatively normal position. But he was still slightly shaken. Petra and Subaru were now stuck in an endless loop of apologizing to each other. As Meili and Frederica spoke.

“So the Witch Cult saw him and just attacked? No regrouping, no one told anyone else nothing?” Frederica asked.

Meili nodded. “I double checked with my pets when Subaru and I were talking. Also, Subaru’s senses have gotten a lot better since he was first imprisoned. If he doesn’t think that anyone else was watching him, I’ll be inclined to believe him.”

Frederica pondered for a bit. “How long would you have to be tort... trapped to gain senses like that?”

Meili tensed subtly but slightly. “Senses like that are trained with experience, judging by how harsh he was treated, he might not have been in that prison for much longer than 2 months even if he went back.”

Frederica glanced at Subaru. “Do you really think that?”

Meili looked at Subaru as well. He was beaten, bruised, and bloody. He was tired. Meili used to be an assassin, she saw the damage that was caused by Subaru’s fight. She already knew that Subaru was smart, even before his name was erased. But he had used the environment like a seasoned fighter, he had used Yin magic like he had practiced it for much longer than he had.

Frederica watched as Meili gently pulled a purple shard of crystal out of her pocket, a piece of the former cultist that was crystallized by Subaru’s Minya.

“Why do you have that?” Frederica asked.

“I don’t know. I just… felt like I should pick it up when I looked at it."

And for some reason, maybe some theory or instinct, she held the translucent purple crystal up to her eye hesitantly. She looked at Subaru and suddenly became stiff.

“No, no I don’t think that….” Meili shivered as she spoke nauseously.

“Are you ok?” Frederica asked as Meili swallowed back vomit, falling to her knees.

Meili just shook her head and shivered, mouth filling with vomit once more. Frederica gently took the fragile crystal and placed it in front of her eye, hoping to figure out what had caused this reaction. The world looked mostly normal, just purple and. She was able to see some footprints in the ground, some scars on her hand that had long since healed.

Right, Minya is the arrow of stopped time, it makes some sense that looking through it would show the past. Meili had quite a few scars and cuts when Frederica looked through it. More than a normal person would have in a lifetime. Although Meili was both a former assassin and was raised by Witchbeast, so it wasn’t much of a surprise to see wounds all over her body. Though it did make Frederica feel a bit sad. Frederica looked at Natsuki without the crystal and gritted her teeth, was already in poor condition. Meili had seen horrors when she was 13, she was 15 now. What did the crystal show her?

Frederica brought the crystal to her eye.

She had to see.

She turned to Subaru

And for a moment, the crystal showed Subaru without the purple tint.

Frederica collapsed to her knees like Meili, not able to hold in the vomit, she threw up over herself, this alerted Subaru and Petra. Frederica wanted to inspect Subaru, but she's end up hurting him. She wanted to heal him, but she didn’t have the ability to. She wanted to comfort him, but she’d end up scarring him further.

“Frederica ! Meili!”Subaru and Petra called out in sync, running up to them. Subaru’s phobia not allowing him to get very close.

The two girls had now ruined their clothes with whatever they had eaten earlier today. Frederica pocketed the crystal, not willing to let Petra see what they had. Meili and Frederica tried to look up but when their eyes landed on Subaru, they could still see what the crystal had revealed.

They saw sword slashes running across their body, veins glowing unhealthily, eyes removed, bones shattered, misshapen or misplaced. Chain cuff imprints adorning their neck, wrists and ankles. Handprints from people grabbing his throat, crushing his limbs, restraining him forcibly from behind. Burns, cuts, breaks, tears. Literal hundreds of injuries overlapping each other. It was a literal shock to the mind to even start to comprehend where they started. The emotional distress from seeing him so… so… tarnished

They felt something was wrong when they forgot him, they knew. They’d tried to understand. They tried to figure out why. Why things were different, why their friends were acting differently. Why things had fallen into place like they did. When Subaru’s name returned, it hurt more than anyone had expected. The fallout was so much stronger than anyone had anticipated. The world had fallen into a silent and almost invisible apocalypse. It was so much more than Subaru’s death

They didn’t realize it but they had managed with the wounds. They had coped, they had learned to live with the guilt. They learned to deal with the loss. They managed to deal with the fallout. But the images on Subaru, now burned into the back of their eyelids as if taunting them with the words: “It was your fault.”

The healing wounds in their minds reopened.

And just like what happened when Subaru had died.

The world was first stained with red.

And then world was stained with black

Chapter Text

“What happened?” Subaru asked Petra as they both inspected Meili and Frederica who were now trembling on the ground, unconscious.

“I-I don’t know. This never- They were fine before!” Petra said in a panic.

“Hey, hey. Calm down…” Subaru said, trying to soothe Petra. “ Let’s… let’s get them to the village.”

“But you can’t-” Petra started.

“We can’t LEAVE them here, something’s wrong. Besides, they're unconscious. I can deal with an unconscious girl for 5 minutes. You carry Meili, I’ll carry Frederica .”

Subaru was right, he was TECHNICALLY able to hold Frederica . But with much difficulty. If Subaru could use Murak on Frederica , carrying her would have been easy. But his body and mind were already rejecting the idea of being near a living being so despite his best efforts, he wasn’t able to cast spells. He tried to give her a piggyback carry next but as soon as her body weight was leaned against him, Subaru nearly dropped her in shock. In the end, Subaru had to resort to a bridal carry, which wasn’t ideal since Frederica was larger than he was and Subaru was still visibly uncomfortable from the proximity.

Petra grit her teeth “Are you-?”

"Quickly, I can't hold her for long."

Subaru was right, he couldn’t hold her for long. He was still out of experience when it came to moving his body and while the body usually got stronger when it healed, Felix had made sure that wouldn't happen. Even though his body had healed to an extent when he had reached the capital, Subaru was still silently hurting all over. So he was out of practice, in pain and having a small panic attack. He tried not to show it but even with his perfected poker face, Petra had already seen how Subaru felt. It hurt to realize how scarred he was.

Regardless, Subaru was running out of stamina quickly but still long enough to bring Frederica to Arlam Village and into a bed in Petra. No one actually recognized Subaru but they looked concerned nonetheless. His wounds, scars and burns would give anyone pause. The only reason Petra hadn’t mentioned it was because she was so happy to see him again, even if it was in this pathetic state.

When Subaru managed to place Frederica into the bed that she had been using during her stay, he’d forgotten that Petra was in the room. Actually, it was less that he had forgotten, and more that he was entirely unaware of his surroundings. As soon as Subaru had placed Frederica down, all of the stress from even being near her was immediately released in the only way Subaru knew how. His entire mind blanked and when he came back to his senses, Petra was desperately trying to restrain his arms.

“Please come back to your senses, Subaru!” Petra cried, tears running down her senses.

“Alright, I’m back! I’m back!” Subaru almost yelled.

Petra fell off of him as Subaru pushed her away in a panic. He immediately apologized, reaching a hand out instinctively and realizing… his forearm was bloody, both were. Actually, it wasn’t just bloody, he was used to scratching himself to the point of dizziness. But this was different, Subaru hadn’t just scratched his forearms, he'd actually carved into his flesh, causing blood to spill onto the floor and now bloody skin to start peeling off. He was lucky that he hadn’t hit a muscle.

“...Crap.”

“Crap? That’s all? ” Petra said, slowly standing up, face stained with tears. “Subaru, please…. Please don’t do that again… We can’t… I can’t lose you again… please…”

“I… I’m sorry.”

Subaru was banned from interacting with ANYONE until further notice. No friend or foe. No lover or rival. No witchbeast or spirit. He couldn't touch or even THINK of touching something that was alive until further notice. Petra had made an executive decision that Subaru had no choice but to follow. They had planned to redebut Subaru to the village but they had decided The only people that knew Natsuki Subaru had returned were Meili, Frederica , Petra and Petra's parents who had expressed great delight and curiosity about Subaru's return, to the point that it was a bit difficult to avoid them hugging Subaru before they had managed to explain his situation.

While Petra changed Meili and Frederica , who had thrown up over themselves before fainting, into new clothes Subaru had taken a bath and changed into one of non-bloody or tattered tracksuits that Petra had painstakingly sewn for the past year. Subaru was surprised at how similar they felt but it was a relief to not have his old tracksuit, now bloody and carrying unwanted memories. Subaru would burn it the first chance he had, leaving his body’s scars as the only physical reminder of the cell he left behind.

Before Subaru stepped out of the bathroom, he took out the crystal that he’d pilfered from Frederica , just before he’d mutilated his arm. Thank goodness Petra didn’t notice while she was trying to restrain him. He realized its effects when he’d seen his hand through it… or his bloody and mutilated limb. Looking at himself in the mirror with the crystal he truly did look horrible. Subaru grimaced but didn’t look surprised.

“So I’m why they fainted. Thankfully, the injuries are only from this loop.” Subaru said, pocketing the crystal. “Although I didn’t really need to become MORE disgusting to look at.”

Subaru left the bathroom, only spending 5 minutes there in total.

“Fast.” Petra said, seeing Subaru walk out of the bathroom with newly bandaged arms.

“I couldn’t stay in the bath for long,” Subaru said, arms wrapped around himself. “The water felt… invasive. Brings back bad memories. Many bad memories”

Petra had concerns about what kind of memories but didn’t push the issue. Petra and Subaru were now in the living room, ironic I know, about to talk of his situation.

“So… Roswaal told you.” Subaru started.

Petra nodded her head. Subaru didn’t think he’d reveal Return By Death, even if Roswaal didn’t know what the trigger was. He must have told the Emilia Camp to give them some hope that he’d return or that he wasn’t dead. Neither was correct but in the end, Roswaal had given him a way back to the camp through Meili and had saved him some trouble with the Witch Cult.

Petra smiled slightly. “I was really surprised. Going back in time, what scary power.. “ Petra paused. “Although, I doubt you used it often. You came out of almost every dangerous situation worse for wear. Although, your recent one has been the worst out of all of them. It took me longer than I would have liked to clean my hands from your blood.”

“Yeah, sorry about that.” Subaru mumbled.

Petra sighed. “Don’t apologize, just… don’t even THINK about getting too close to anyone until you need to.”.

“Right, anyways. What happened to Arlam Village?” Subaru asked, “Meili mentioned that the people were on edge but no one even talked to me. Despite my….”

“State of being?”

“Harsh… But yeah. They used to be more… affectionate,” Subaru thought aloud, “Actually, I’m pretty sure I saw some weapons outside?”

Petra hesitated, looking away from Subaru, but decided to speak, “There… have been problems since you left. The village is both a victim of people who… well, to be frank would rather let you be forgotten and to people who think you were directly betrayed.”

“So I caused the village to have a target on its back,” Subaru groaned.

Petra sighed. “The victim-blaming is disconcerting and the way you’ve phrased your sentence is flawed but in essence, your statement is technically valid.”

“You sound like Ram…”

“Sorry to say this but if you’re going to be so needlessly cruel to yourself then you haven’t really left your prison. You’ve just changed the torturer.”

“I take it back, even Ram wouldn’t be this harsh.”

“Subaru, you should know that I can’t forgive anyone that speaks ill of you or harms you so cruelly.”

“...Even if it’s me?”

“Especially so,” Petra nodded.

“Sor- No… Thank you, Petra,” Subaru smiled.

Petra smiled back. “Any time!”

Chapter Text

After his talk with Petra, Subaru walked around the village. A lot of the houses were torn down in the time he was gone and moved closer to the village center. Some by choice and some because of destruction by repeated attacks. Actually the ground was basically full of  pitfalls, making movement across difficult. Subaru would have fallen in them if he wasn't paying attention. Although, he wasn't quite sure how he was avoiding them even then. It seems that magic had been used to fully conceal the holes but Subaru had instinctively avoided every one.

"Hm... I should ask Beatrice about this."

Eventually, Subaru moved back to Petra's home. It seemed that his new clothes had been imbued with a similar kind of magic that Emilia's cloak used to have. The main difference was that instead of concealing his identity, they concealed his existence, making it harder to notice him altogether. Unless someone was on-guard, looking for him, or he stood out too much. So, while the trapped meadow didn't raise any red flags, it wouldn't be able to be used for sneak attacks or infiltration, at least not easily.

After getting back, Subaru placed the crystal in a drawer and promptly fell into bed. Subaru had expected to have trouble falling asleep. After all, he had spent years on a cold, dark, cruel and hard stone floor. If he had trained himself to sleep on that, with a learning curve, then with his luck then he'd probably struggle to get comfortable on anything else. Fortunately, his luck was better for his first night of freedom and for once, he fell into a dreamless slumber.

And as Subaru fell asleep, Meili and Fredrica awakened at the same time. Looking at each other from their beds, it had been a while since they’d moved here so they’d gotten used to becoming roommates. However, they were still a bit nauseous but at the moment they didn't remember why. Although when they’d sat up, the image of a bloodied Subaru had appeared in their minds. On empty stomachs, bile filled their mouths instead of half digested food but they managed to swallow it back in. Cloth wasn't victimized this time but now their tongues had been stained with a bitter taste.

"An assassin fainting from blood. I'm losing my touch," Meili tried to laugh at her own joke but it came out hollow, she didn't throw up looking at the blood, although that too had left an unpleasant taste in her mouth. “I’m going to brush my teeth.”

“I’m going to take a bath.” Frederica added.

Ignoring the food set at her bedside that Petra had likely set, both girls climbed out of bed. They'd emptied their stomachs but their appetite was ruined. Hopping out of the bed, Meili rubbed her eyes vigorously before stretching her arms above her head, not unlike what Subaru had sometimes entered her room to do in the past. He'd woken her up with the routine many times, seemingly with no rhyme or reason for when he'd do it and make her join in. It kept her active, she'd give him that. Although, he was very much disruptive of her sleep. Meili scratched her arm gently as she recalled the memory fondly.

"Did you feel guilty back then too, Onii-san?" Meili asked Subaru despite him not being present. 

Frederica placed her hand on the doorknob to the bedroom, rubbing her shoulder against the doorknob to open it and Meili pushed the door closed with her back. Meili bumped her legs into some furniture as she made her way to the bathroom, opening the door by pressing her forehead against it. She moved to the sink and looked at herself in the mirror. She scratched her head as she looked at herself. Normal. Nothing about her had changed physically. However, the swallowed vomit made her feel dirty. Although gross things like blood and vomit had never bothered her before, she felt the need to clean herself. She started to brush her teeth, gums and everywhere she could reach inside of her mouth vigorously, trying to get the disgusting feeling out.

"Onii-san was the one to bring toothpaste to the village I think," Meili thought aloud, trying to distract herself. "Minty. I don't think I like it."

“Then why did you brush your teeth this time?” Frederica asked, walking into the room with a new set of outdoor clothes for herself and Meili.

Meili didn't usually brush her teeth, usually cleaning them by washing it with water and picking her teeth with sticks in the forest. She still held some habits from her time being raised as a Witchbeast.

“The feeling in my mouth is gross.” Meili responded, Frederica silently nodded and handed Meili a fresh set of clothes. “I didn’t ask for this but thanks.”

She nonetheless took the new set and finished brushing her teeth, rubbing her lips against them for good measure and left the room for Frederica to clean herself. Like Meili, Fredrica still felt dirty so she practically dived into the bathtub and scrubbed herself vigorously, she somehow felt even itchier and dirtier than when she woke up. But it was fine, she'd just have to scrub harder, she could deal with it. There wasn't even anything wrong, it was all in her head after all. It's just a feeling. Frederica climbed out of the bathtub. She rubbed the towel on her skin desperately, the filthy itch had spread beneath her skin.  Invasive. The worst part is the feeling wasn't foreign, it came directly from within her mind.

"It's fine, it doesn't hurt or anything," Frederica said in denial rubbing her eyes again, "Actually, no I'd rather be in pain."

Pain was natural to her. Maybe not as familiar to her as it was for Meili but it only meant something was wrong with her body but something she could fix, or at least heal from. Itchiness was a glitch within the system. Something that triggers the need to remove whatever was causing the itchiness, even if it was harmless. But nothing was on her skin, the itchiness wasn't even real. It might have started as something real when she had looked through the crystal but it wasn't anymore, now the itchiness was her own mind betraying her. She resisted the urge to bite off her skin as she changed into her outside clothes, readjusting them as she walked.

"Why'd they have to remove his fucking eyes?" Meili mumbled, already changed, stepping outside with Fredrica as she rubbed her eyes. She was going to brush her skin against whatever leaves she could find in the forest to get rid of the damn itch.

"Huh?"

Except they hadn't walked outside, she walked into the room that Subaru was sleeping where Petra was readjusting his bandages carefully, trying not to wake him with only some faint candlelight. Or at least she was, before Meili started mumbling about eyes.

"Sorry, it's nothing," Meili dismissed her previous comment before seeing the slightly bloodied bandages Petra was holding. More concerning were the extremely bloodied bandages that Petra had clearly taken off of his arms before.

Despite the fact that Subaru's injuries had indirectly caused her itchiness, it had now been moved to the back of her mind and was replaced by concern.

"Alright What happened to him?" Frederica asked, getting closer.

Petra scowled, looking at Subaru again. "He... He scratched himself."

Meili unconsciously itched her arm. "A bit more than scratching, don't you think?" 

Petra looked at Subaru's arms and back at Meili. "He carried Frederica to the house, he just... clawed his arms after he put her down."

Meili, seeing Subaru sleeping, itch now gone entirely. "I'll help, I know how to deal with injuries."

Petra's frown softened and she nodded in the faint candlelight. The girls silently patched Subaru’s arms for the rest of the night.

Subaru woke up in the morning to hear soft snoring. Meili, Frederica and Petra all asleep, leaning on each other. They were outside of his newly recognized personal space, even exhausted they had managed to be careful of him. Looking at his arms, they were rewrapped. New bandages were adorning his arms now. Subaru had to wonder how they'd managed this. Usually Subaru would wake up if a guard even passed by his cell. Was he just that tired? Regardless... 

"Thanks guys." Subaru said silently struggling with his desire to pat them on their heads and his fear of getting any closer. 

Subaru felt a bit a bit lethargic from blood loss so he was about to rest for a bit longer but... then he felt a light tug from within his heart.  He'd figured out what the feeling was now, or at least he thought so. It was his new check point. His checkpoints were back but now he could tell when they were set. The new checkpoint didn't actually mean that he was in danger but rather that he was safe. The question was... how safe? Subaru climbed out of bed and went outside, he hadn't changed out of his tracksuit so he was already ready to go outside. So he grabbed the crystal from the drawer.

Subaru started by checking the village for anything that was off, everything seemed about right. People were still a bit on-edge seeing as there weren't many people outside and some people were on patrol, checking around the village. Of course, no one was stupid enough to check through the forest, after all it was practically filled with Witchbeasts, the only way to get through there were with Meili. Roswaal HAD cleared many Witchbeasts a year ago but that wouldn't last, especially with Meili in the area. Subaru wouldn't be surprised if there were even more Witchbeasts than before. Someone would have  to be insane to go through there.

...Right? 

"Murak." Subaru became weightless.

He had to check, just in case.

Subaru ran through the trees. Checking for anything unsafe HAD been a good plan, he wasn't willing to relent on that front. His gate was certainly enough to move through the trees using Murak. And it wasn't particularly to move while tired and out of practice but it was fine. He could certainly still move through and scan a significant part of the forest. He might even be to look through the entire forest if he jumped high enough.

But he couldn't.

Well, he could. But he'd also die before he hit the ground. Because the Witch's scent had called all the Witchbeasts in the area to give chase.

"Shamac!" Subaru shouted, sending black smoke to cover the area around him.

Subaru dodged to the ground as the bat Witchbeasts crashed into the branches above him. Now he was faced with the Witchbeasts on the ground. Subaru was trying not to kill them, never mind that Meili wouldn't know. He wasn't in the business of killing any more than he had to. And he had plans to kill an entire cult, he was limiting himself there. Subaru took a wide dodge to the right to avoid a Wolgarm by 5 meters. He weaved through trees trying to get some distance.

"Come on, come on." Subaru muttered. "Shamak!"

More black smoke, Subaru jumped back to the tree branches. If nothing else, this was a good way to reintroduce his body to movement, magic and figuring out his new restriction of not getting close to living things. He was terrified at first but he quickly formulated a plan to get out of the swarm. He had already circled this area 4 times to make sure that he had all the Witchbeasts in this area following him. Now all he had to do was trust that he had enough mana for this plan. Subaru planted his feet on a particularly sturdy branch. Murak was still active but he'd still only have one chance to do this. Everything was in place. Subaru jumped as high as he could. 

By Subaru’s count, there were about 60 flying Witchbeasts after him. Landing wasn’t going to be an issue, he’d already ensured that the wind would carry him to safety. At least as long as he could knock down the bats, birds and flying rats that were after him. 

“Here we go!. Vita!” Subaru shouted.

One bat started to slow in the air, gravity rising for it, causing the ones nearby to crash into it. They hadn’t fallen yet but they were close enough. Subaru cast Vita again, sending a bird crashing into it. Then 5 more Vitas sent the beasts all crashing down but as long as they had Subaru’s sent they’d still chase. So there was one last spell to cast.

Subaru yelled out. “SHAMAK-SAN! SHOW THEM WHAT YOU GOT!”

And in an instant, all the beasts chasing Subaru had lost his scent as he was fully blown away by the wind.

“Now I just have to watch out for the landing. This part should be easy. I’m pretty sure I’m too light to take fall damage anyways.” Subaru told himself.

He already knew the general area where he’d be landing and now that was left to check the surroundings before going back to the village. Wait… Shit. There were a minimum of 400 people moving through the forest and worst yet, they had weapons.

“An invasion.” Subaru grunted. 

On his landing, Subaru moved further into the forest. 

Chapter Text

Subaru grunted, annoyed. Already on his first day out of prison he had died twice and was forced to fight 5 cultists. That would be bad enough, Subaru had never used Return By Death on something so menial before. When he died before it was due to Roswaal’s machinations or an Archbishop. If he was going to die twice to 5 cultists then what was he going to do against the entire cult? 

Worse yet, now there was a mass of nearly 500 people. Subaru’s first thought was that this was an invasion of Arlam Village but he had hoped that he was jumping the gun. Maybe it was for something else? 

He couldn’t actually think of anything else. Especially moving through the forest, the only reason to be moving through the forest would be to move somewhere while unseen. There would be no reason to move through here. Even without the Witchbeasts, this area was not good for traversement. Only someone particularly agile, like Emilia and himself with Murak or had a mount as versatile as Patrasche or a Witchbeast.

“Patrasche…” Subaru mumbled, quickly shaking his head and regaining his focus.

Regardless, neither of those would gain any benefits when moving with half a thousand people. So they were sneaking up something or someone, and only a single village came to mind. Subaru considered moving back to the village immediately. But revealing himself this early made him feel uneasy. Especially if the invaders retreated. If word of Subaru’s return got out then he’d be screwed. Maybe, not by the knights… Well, most knights.

“Move on.” Subaru told himself, unwilling to linger on that thought.

His name had returned so any ‘normal’ knights wouldn’t be assaulting him. The problem was that if his DEATH caused multiple civil wars then his life would be even more dangerous. That was a problem that he would have to solve later when he had his camp minimum and ideally when figuring out where the other camps were. 

At the moment though, revealing himself was a bad idea. He’d managed to pass by when he carried Frederica but he hadn’t made direct eye contact with anyone. If he went back now then his name would be spread if anyone even called out or looked at him in battle. Was it likely? He wasn’t sure but he wasn’t going to take chances before he observed the group.

First things first, how are they avoiding the Witchbeasts? Subaru took a deep breath and dived into the shadows. Silencing their steps and stepping weightlessly through the trees, and trying to ignore the numbing pain in his arms, Subaru began observing the small army. 

If Subaru had any doubts about this being an invasion, he didn’t have them anymore. The group was in a battle formation. Rather than swords and spears in the front, there were simply large shields that were certainly making the trek to the village slow but with them it would practically be impossible to break through their ranks with force. In any other scenario the pitfalls would disrupt movement but there barely seemed to be a close-ranged weapon in the area. The attack would be at range. Subaru wasn’t sure if they had a way to pass the pitfalls directly but as long as they kept using ranged attacks then they would simply have enough time to get through as the villagers would be forced to take cover.

“How meticulous.” Subaru whispered to himself. “El Vita.”

“URGH!”

The gravity and mass on a large branch increased, causing it to snap off of a tree from its own weight. The heavy branch slamming into the heads of a few people had knocked them out and forced the entire army to give pause to treat as Subaru jumped to and hid in a different tree, continuing to analyze, using his tired arms to keep himself steady..

“Barrier crystals.” Subaru noted as he looked at the outline of the invaders. “So this is why they were willing to get through here. They must have taken or observed one from a different invasion.”

Subaru would have liked to nip the invasion in the bud now. But he’d run the risk of being seen if he engaged too much. Even if he did…

Subaru held the Minya Crystal up to his eye. He had been hoping that it would reveal the Witch Cult somehow. He was sure they were here in some capacity, definitely not all of them but enough to string the operation along and control the narrative. Unfortunately for him, the crystal didn’t. Well… at least not directly. When looked through the crystal it showed former injuries and scars that a person had but none of that was actually relevant. 

However, Subaru had found something that WAS relevant. Every Witch Cultist had a book hidden somewhere on their person. Their Gospel. Even when disguised as a normal person, they needed to keep it. As Beatrice had once said, it is the foundation of their faith. In fact if not for Lust’s interference, he wouldn't have been arrested at all. How frustrating. 

Regardless, you likely wouldn’t be able to tell who was a Witch Cultist even by observing a book, the books were hidden too well for that, under clothes, in pockets, behind shields, within weapons. But the crystal could be used to tell what exactly was Gospel. Not only was the crystal able to reveal if clothes or weapons were modified to hide something but also Gospels wouldn’t be able to be seen through the crystal.

“So the future-seeing book and past-perceiving crystal cancel each other out leaving a void where a Gospel would be.” Subaru observed.

That meant that any changes unrelated to the past through a crystal meant that a Gospel was there. That usually meant a slight shift in a pocket, a minor bend in a weapon, a slight change in body shape. Almost unnoticeable. Unless you spent 3 years with perception being the only difference deciding if you survived one hour or three days. 

That aside, Subaru can tell where most of the Gospels are. Every person with a barrier crystal seems to be a cultist and there were around 25 crystals in total. The range of the crystals seem to be around 20 meters, seeing that it was the range where Witchbeasts would be blocked and quickly lose interest. But… what if they didn’t lose interest? Then wouldn’t the army be forced to move back? Fortunately, he had just the way to do that.

“Let’s do this, Satella.” Subaru said, still hiding in the trees and ensuring that he wouldn’t be heard. “I can Return by Death.”

“...?”

Subaru had clutched his heart to prepare for the pain. But it never came. He was entirely unharmed. The restriction of Return By Death had disappeared. Either that or Satella wasn’t watching him. Subaru would have felt conflicted about his painful safety net being gone but had more worrying things to deal with.

His initial plan was to use Return By Death's restriction to attract Witchbeasts with his scent. Even if the barriers stopped them, it would be difficult for the army to progress. 

“So that won’t work. I’ll stall them once more then.” Subaru mumbled. “El Vita.”

A chorus of tree branches snapping filled the air as another branch caused a chain reaction, sending multiple heavy branches into the army. Subaru left the group behind as a clamor of swears filled the air behind. He had another plan forming, he just needed some help.

“I really really hope you can still trust me after all this time,” Subaru sighed before nearly crashing into a bat Witchbeast. “Crap… Huh?”

Subaru had prepared to run but paused. The bat wasn’t attacking him but instead flew away towards the Arlam village. Meili was looking for him, and if she was looking for him then Petra and Frederica were as well. 

 “...They wouldn’t do THAT, right? I’ve only been gone for half an hour.” Subaru tried to convince himself but his gut told him otherwise. 

20 minutes ago at the village

Frederica woke up on the floor, sitting down against the wall, as Petra and Meili were leaned against either side of her, they'd spent quite a bit of time readjusting, reapplying and fixing Subaru's bandages, being very careful not to wake Subaru up. It was... comforting. It had been a while since they had all done things together, Petra had been a strange mix of depressed and determined. Not only that but the entire village seemed to have taken a similar feeling. A kind of tired energy of 'We have to do this.' The camp was split, outsiders had attacked the village repeatedly and people had died. The only thing that really kept them going was the memory of Subaru. Hence why the village was actually renamed Natsuki Village, thinking about it made Frederica smile. Speaking of which, Subaru didn't actually know of the...

Where's Subaru?

Frederica pushed off of the wall and stood up in an instant, causing Meili and Petra to fall over, headbutting each other. In almost any other circumstance, Frederica would have apologized but she didn't even realize that the two children's heads had collided; she was just looking around the room in a slight panic. Even as the girls were bundled up in pain.

“Where’s Subaru?” Frederica asked with urgency

The girls were no longer bundled up in pain.

“What!?” Petra said in distress.

Meili was already out of the room, looking for him throughout Petra’s home, waking Petra’s parents up in the process. Pretty soon the entire house was in a panic; a very messy panic.

“Onii-san’s still injured! Why would he…? Where did he go?” Meili asked.

“We should tell the village,” Petra’s dad suggested.

“But him being here is a secret.” Petra refuted.

Frederica shook her head. “Let’s look through the village first. If we can’t find any trace of him then we’ll ask the villagers for help. Meili can you-?”

Meili was already running towards the forest, fearful tears in her eyes.

“Ok, fine. Let’s go.” Petra said, also running out of the door.

Present

Subaru watched from the trees as he watched the entire village call out for him. He knew that they would have to have been informed eventually but this was ridiculous, he wasn't even present for it. Worse yet, they only just learned that Subaru was alive and they were already worried for him. He wasn't even gone for very long. How would he even re-enter the village without being swarmed?

"Just my luck." Subaru said, tapping his foot on a branch.

"ONII-SAN!" Meili yelled in relief as she jumped off of her Guiltylowe mount. 

Subaru ignored her as he continued to stare at the village. He muttered something under his breath.

"Subaru?"

"30..."

Meili tilted her head in confusion. "What?"

"I was gone.... FOR THIRTY MINUTES!" Subaru yelled out, loud enough for the villagers near the edge of the village to hear.

Soon enough, Subaru's personal space issue had been explained to the villagers. With some difficulty, Subaru was able to organize the villagers so that Meili, Petra and Frederica were close enough for him to talk to but allowing the villagers to hear him. 

"Don't you think that you think that you were a bit hasty in revealing that I was here to everyone?" Subaru asked.

Meili and Petra shook their heads as Frederica spoke. “With all due respect, Subaru-sama. In the year following your death, it would not be an exaggeration to say that it was the worst year of our lives. It would be best if you remained close to us.”

Subaru looked unimpressed “So basically, you panicked because you didn't know where I was…” 

The three girls became a bit redder and stopped making eye contact. 

Subaru sighed. “I appreciate your concern…”

“Are you ok?” One of the kids asked from the back.

“What do…? Oh right, I do look different, and I'm guessing that I don't look like I'm in top condition. White hair, bandaged arms, bruised pretty badly. Um… I-I know that sounds bad but I'm ok. Wait, you don't know what that means. I'm alright. Things… really went south when I was gone… It's been a while.”

The village elder, Milde Arlam, spoke up. “Where have you been, young man? It’s been a year since we've last seen you.”

“I’m not sure… I was in prison one day then woke up in the Capital. I wasn’t there for the… everything.” 

Subaru answered questions for the next 5 minutes before cutting the questions off.

“Alright, stop!” Subaru shouted out before taking a full minute to breathe. “That’s enough. Sorry… my lung… capacity is lower than before.”

Petra raised her hand. “One more question. Why were you gone today?”

“I had to check the forest, I had a feeling so I checked the forest.” Seeing Petra, Meili and Frederica’s concerned faces, Subaru realized what that implied. “Nothing actually triggered the feeling, I just thought I should check.”

Frederica and Meili untensed but Petra knew that look on his face, a look of hidden concern. The same look he had when he saved her from the burning mansion. “Did you find something?”

Subaru hesitated and stepped back, seeing a dangerous glint in Petra's eyes. Petra stepped closer

"Did you find anything?:

Subaru muttered something under his breath, Petra's glare intensified.

“About 500.”

“I KNEW IT!” Petra yelled, furiously.

"How do these things keep happening when you're around, Onii-san?" Meili asked. 

"Guess I'm just that lucky," Subaru groaned, "I-I need Petra, Frederica and Meili."

"I'm actually kind of surprised it was that easy." Subaru said, landing back to the ground in front of the girls after jumping to the air to ensure that they were going the right way.

"Well, the last time we didn't lis-"  Meili started but stopped after seeing Subaru, Petra and Frederica look unimpressed. "Tough crowd."

"You remembered what that means." Subaru noted, understandably surprised that his Subaruisms were still being remembered but then he paused. "...Did my loan words last longer than my name?"

Meili snickered as Frederica and Petra sighed. But in the next moment, all four were visibly put off by this realization, Frederica tried to divert the conversation

"Anyways this IS the first time, right?" Frederica asked.

"Oh, you'll know when it's not...." Subaru grumbled.

"You could have simply answered yes." Frederica pointed out.

"You said it like there's a tell," Meili pointed out, "What does going back even feel like?"

Subaru grimaced, calling back many, many painful memories. "Urgh. I don't want to get into details." 

If Subaru did, then he'd risk them figuring out the condition. "But it's... kind of like being dunked underwater."

"Dunk?" Subaru's companions asked.

"I really haven't changed that much, huh?" Subaru said, "Being submerged quickly in water. A bunch of memories just crashing into me an instant. It takes a while to register"

"That sounds difficult." Frederica said.

"It's... manageable." Subaru half-lied before looking at Petra "You look like you have something to say."

"I thought I hid it pretty well," Petra pouted, "Um... why didn't you tell us."

Subaru laughed bitterly "Well at first it was just dangerous to let people know. Then I tried and found out that there was a restriction on talking about it. The restriction is gone now though which means I'll have to be more careful with my words."

"What's the restriction?" Petra asked.

Silence.

Meili tilted her head. "Onii-san?" 

Subaru remained silent.

"Subaru-sama?"

Subaru mumbled something under his breath.

"Huh?

"Heart gets crushed."

"WHAT?" all three girls yelled.

"Hush!" Subaru whispered, "We're almost there."

"What do you mean your heart gets crushed?" Frederica whisper shouts

"I mean it hurts, alright? I won't die..." Subaru explains.

"That's not-" Petra started.

"I didn't choose to get the restriction, I didn't even ask to get the power. Spare me the pity, please."

There's a moment of silence.

"...Onii-san can't stop us from worrying about him," Meili said, "If you love us then you'll let us do that at least."

Subaru remained silent for a bit before nodding solemnly. He couldn't see it as he was looking forwards but the girls smiled behind him. Suddenly, Subaru stopped, raising his hand and motioning the group to stop.

"Everyone get into position. We're here."

Chapter Text

It wasn't a secret that the Lugunican Capital was simply a prison of fear. It was simply that no one wanted to admit it. When people walked outside, they'd risk finding a protest, an argument, a fight. And they'd be expected, encouraged, required to pick a side. Worse yet, sometimes they had a side. A side they wouldn't be willing to give up for their life.

After Natsuki Subaru's death there was chaos. And one would think that the chaos would die down. That after some time the chaos would end.

It didn't. Not with the Witch Cult. With the people rioting, and knights preoccupied, the Witch Cult had a fog. It had a way of being hidden. People fought, people killed, people raged. 

They fought, killed and raged because of a horrible, horrible mistake. The knights were expected to be strong and righteous. The Council was expected to be wise and intelligent. The camps were meant to be a force of good and peace.

Natsuki Subaru was not simply a knight. Even if his camp had not won then he would have been remembered as the killer of the Witch Cult's archbishops. He showed a change of fate where even the weakest of men could make a difference for the better.

He wasn't a symbol of righteousness, his debut had shown that.

He wasn't a symbol of strength, he was beaten quickly and soundly.

He wasn't a symbol of wisdom, he had gained nothing from his first actions.

He wasn't a symbol of intelligence, there's so much he didn't know.

He wasn't a symbol of good, no person that supported the half-elf's camp would be considered as such. 

He wasn't even really a symbol of peace, he always fought for something, never relenting once.

He was a symbol of change for a better future.

Until he died.

Then he was righteous for showing the corruption of the knights, the council, the Royal Camps

Then he was strong for fighting a battle he could not win and standing strong even after defeat.

Then he was wise for recognizing the folly of the Knights, the Selection, the Council.

Then he was intelligent for he made his mark before he could be erased.

Then he was good for he fought against corruption until his final breath.

Then he was peaceful, for choosing to trust each and everyone of them and letting them become better.

Then he was killed. His trust was betrayed.

That was the narrative the Witch Cult chose to bring forth.

They played the villain to make Subaru the hero.

They played the victim to make Subaru seem like the victor.

They played the cowards, attacking when Subaru was gone.

They played the fools, letting Wrath remain in prison until Subaru had disappeared.

They played the catalyst, letting the people be furious that their savior had been killed.

They played the mastermind, directing anger, dividing the people.

They had played the world and let it eat itself from the inside.

The Witch Cult had planned the circumstances perfectly. After numerous attacks on the newly named 'Natsuki Village' they'd managed to cause tension within the capital to be at its highest. People would be furious at the village that Natsuki Subaru protected from being destroyed. People would be happy that the village that had left him to rot would have justice. People would be indignant that Natsuki's name would be destroyed once more. People would be joyous that the ones who stole the man's name for their dead village would be punished.

Now, the cult truly intended to set the bomb, that they themselves made, off and let the world riot. Draw out the half-elf, draw out the artificial spirit, draw out the camps. And tighten the strings they had around Lugnunica's neck.

All of that was a bit much for a village girl. Watching the entirety of the army march towards her home. 

Petra hid silently behind the trees, wearing a cloak enchanted by Roswaal to hide her presence. If she drew too much attention to herself, this would all be for nothing.

She was really glad that Subaru had decided to rely on her but was really dreading her part. Because if she messed up, then no one else would be able to do anything in Subaru's plan.

At best, they’d be forced to retreat to the village for a last stand. At worst, Subaru’s existence would be revealed to the Witch Cult.

So they needed to make this look like an accident at worst and a self-sabotage at best. Subaru’s plan would work only if everyone played their part perfectly.

The reason that Petra was particularly stressed about her role was because it was extremely precise. If she was just a bit off, she would be revealed. 

But she also couldn’t panic, because yang magic had the weakness of becoming ineffective depending on the user’s mental state. So if she couldn’t control her emotions then it wouldn’t matter if she was precise. But that thought didn’t calm her down, she started to lose control of her breathing.

A voice from the trees called down to her. “Hey, hey. You don’t have to do this if you don’t want to.” 

Petra paused for a moment and looked at Subaru. “What will you do if I can’t?”

Subaru pondered for a moment. “I’d probably use Vita to break off tree branches and shatter the crystals that way.”

“Risky. And more suspicious.” Petra countered.

Subaru nodded thoughtfully “True, I might just try to go back to the village and make a plan involving them. A final stand.”

“People will probably die.”

“I could try again…”

Petra narrowed her eyes. “You know, I realized something weird about you.”

“What is it?”

“You don’t want us to worry about you.”

Subaru stopped moving, he wasn’t moving much before but now he stopped. “Isn’t that natural?”

Petra looked at Subaru as if he'd transformed into a Witchbeast right before her eyes. “...No? If that were true, then why would you be worrying about everyone else since you met Meili? Isn't that hypocritical?”

Subaru opened his mouth to reply and then closed it. “I… guess I just forgot what it was like to have someone care.”

“That’s a bit sad. I can’t really hug you right now. Or… even get much closer to you. But if no one else does, then we’ll be sure to love you enough for the whole world.” Petra said, smiling. Unknowingly copying almost exactly what Subaru had told Meili.

Subaru smiled and looked away, embarrassed. “Huh… so that’s how that sounds. Well, if you’re that determined then you’ll do just fine. So let’s do this.”

Petra nodded and aimed her finger at the army and waited for her signal.

And she didn't have to wait long. The army stopped moving as a pack of Wolgarms past by, trying to attack the army but was blocked by the barrier. 

Petra whispered, "Jiwald."

The end of Petra's finger glowed white and a beam of light was fired at a barrier crystal while the holder was distracted, shattering it instantly. The two years of magic training showing their worth now. Petra and Subaru grinned as part of the invisible barrier shattered and the Wolgarms ravenously devoured the cultist's body, splattering blood and viscera gruesomely. Then stopped before looking at each other.

"Are you ok with this?" They both asked each other before laughing quietly.

Petra had been in her village for almost a year following Subaru's death. Seeing blood, gore and death wasn't a rarity for her anymore. It was painful, it was cruel. She lost friends and family alike. So when it came to any attackers of her village dying, Petra did have empathy for them but it was muted. But when it came to a Witch Cultist, a member of the group directly responsible for Subaru's execution.

Likewise, Subaru had died repeatedly trying to survive in his cell. He had already seen his death and every individual organ in his body be removed, become destroyed or simply boil inside his body. He wasn't numb to his death but as for the Witch Cult. His only real regret was not being able to kill them himself.

"This is messed up..." Subaru said, still grinning.

"It really is." Petra confirmed, pointing again. "Jiwald."

Another crystal shattered as the cult tried to push the Witchbeasts away from the group with a crystal; causing the cultist to fall over and quickly be devoured.  

"Get AWAY! FIX THE BARRIER!” A leader in the army called out.

“THE CRYSTALS ARE BREAKING BY THEMSELVES, WE’VE BEEN SABOTAGED!” Subaru called out in a disguised woman’s voice, forcing Petra to cover her mouth to prevent her laughter from being heard.

The entire army was already panicking, simply due to the death of two cultists. One of the Wolgarms gripped a fallen 'Gospel' with their teeth and flicked its head, causing the book to strike into the crowd.

"A blank book?" someone in the crowd questioned.

"IS THAT A GOSPEL?" Subaru called out in a disguised voice, causing the entirety of the arm to grow.

"A gospel?" 

"Why is there a gospel here?"

"Focus! There are more mabeasts here!"

And it was true, more and more Witchbeasts were starting to reveal themselves, preying on the would-be invaders. Only Witch Cultists had died, and that was a calculated effort on Meili's part. Carefully, observing the situation from the trees. 

The attack was convincing. A crystal shattered and then the mabeasts attacked the closest person before the barrier was resealed. But that wouldn't last. Eventually it would become clear that the attack was targeted, regardless that the knowledge to control mabeasts were only available to a select few.

For an entire year, former members of the half-elf camp had protected the village. After some time, each would need to leave for some reason or another. A requirement for each not to stay in the same place for too long, lest they draw attention. 

Not of the Witch, of the general populace. The fact that the most controversial camp was protecting a village would be enough to paint it as a target.

So the camp had to be discreet, ensure they were never protecting them too strongly, make the village look abandoned, and be forced to let people die.

The Witch Cult had caught the camp in a trap and with the destruction of the village, war would rise once again. Theories, anger fights. All rampant again.

The Witch Cult would realize quickly that the crystals weren't breaking at random, it only took one mistake. So the longer this facade went on, the riskier it would be for them. 

So they'd make an unbelievable present. A scenario so unbelievable that the only option left would be to believe it. A scenario so insane that no person would orchestrate it for they would have nothing to gain and so out of left field that the camp couldn't orchestrate it.

Subaru's plan didn't simply involve saving the village. Or even preventing rumors from spreading. Subaru planned to redirect the rumors. 

And that started by using the three camp members that had almost no notoriety or fame.

An assassin that had remained unknown for years due to using mabeasts to be unsuspected.

A young village girl, turned maid, that knew a spell faster than could be tracked by any normal human. 

And a maid that while known, had a lesser known ability that allowed this plan to work perfectly.

A roar emanated from the forest, causing the Wolgarms to look up from their meal and suddenly become wary. Or at least that was how it seemed to an outsider.

A large yellow leopard beast jumped out of the forest, Frederica had made an appearance.

The only way this could be more perfect would be if Otto, who arguably held less fame than any of them, was involved.

Regardless, Frederica jumped into the fray. Moving between the army and the Witchbeasts. 

"Jiwald." Petra whispered again, shattering another barrier crystal.

"Hold off for now, let them regroup for a bit." Subaru called out to her. "We're aiming for a retreat, not a massacre."

Petra nodded. Subaru wonders what exactly happened when he was gone to make Petra this unapologetically bloodthirsty.

Frederica protected the army, headbutting, clawing and biting Wolgarms that got closer. Roaring periodically to scare both the Wolgarms back (really only signaling Meili to make them retreat before she was inflicted by a curse) and scaring the army back. A few heroic people tried attacking the Wolgarms to let the hole in the barrier be fixed.

But quickly more and more mabeasts started to appear, seemingly having a truce with other mabeasts to feast on the humans. 

"Now." Subaru said, prompting Petra to shatter another crystal while no one was paying attention to it.

The Witchbeasts tried to launch forward to attack the cultist but Frederica and the army managed to fend them off for a few extra moments.

Pretty soon, some of the army was figuring out what was happening. There might be foul play involved but the Emilia Camp wouldn't be the perpetrators, it would be the Witch Cult. There would likely be a lot of suspicion, and for once the suspicion would be beneficial.

The army called for a retreat once they had patched the barrier, so now that no one else was destined to die. Only 4 cultists had died, but now they'd sewn doubt. And now, that doubt would buy time.

Subaru's plan had worked flawlessly.

After ensuring that they really were retreating, Frederica (with a fresh set of clothes) Meili, Petra and Subaru all regrouped.

Subaru grinned, looking at two bloodied gospels that weren't taken back. "Well, that worked out even better than I expected. I hope we can use these somehow. We should check on the mansion, right? I doubt it but it might also be under attack"

"Right, but there's one thing to do first," Meili said

"Go back to the village?" Subaru asked, "Wasn't that a given?"

"Two things then." Frederica said.

Seeing Subaru tilt his head in confusion, the three girls threw their hands in the air and yelled unapologetically.  "Victory!" 

Subaru took a moment but then doubled over laughing, they had used the ending of his aerobic exercises for a victory chant. It had been so long that he'd forgotten it. Subaru lost breath quickly, almost collapsing but then also his hands in the air.

"Victory."

Chapter Text

Otto Suwen and Anastasia Hoshin sat down across from each other, a table separating them. Behind Anastasia, Julius stood solemnly and did not make eye contact. This was due to two things. 

First of all, his spirits had ascended to full spirits after he had reformed his contract with them. This, in theory, was a good thing. His power should have dramatically increased. Unfortunately, this outcome would only be if his situation was ‘normal.’  

When Subaru was imprisoned, Julius had been recreating his past bonds. Things were fine, he had regained a fraction of the people’s trust and his spirits were happy.

But then, Subaru was executed. Putting Julius’ guilt aside for later, the Witch Cult’s attacks had become frequent but indirect. Starting riots, enhancing and encouraging terrorism, and erasing names. The last of which was especially difficult to track, making avenging Subaru an increasingly difficult task. 

Worst yet in their current situation the knights, or rather former knights, of the kingdom were absolutely required to step in and stop such situations. This was bad enough with the public against them, resulting in the deaths, quitting and complete betrayal of knights; but it was especially bad for Julius, who needed to maintain his relationship with his spirits.

This resulted in Julius both sacrificing time to sleep and being forced to lose time with his spirits, who as complete spirits, now had an even stronger sense of will and intelligence. Julius’ divine protection and spirit affinity allow him to naturally be liked by spirits. However, it did nothing in terms of letting his own spirits get along. Hence, it was only natural that his attention would be fought over even when he had none to give. 

Julius was low on sleep and time. In order to even function, he needed to use ‘In’, his yang spirit to provide him with energy, this requirement further hurt Julius’ spirits’ relationship. So Julius was effectively required to interact with his spirits while he had free time. This was the first reason he had not made eye contact.

The second reason was because of his shame. Subaru had been the reason that Julius was able to reconnect with his allies and friends. Otherwise, Julius would have likely run away and tried to fix his name by himself. That made Julius feel even worse about his treatment of the boy he was hoping to befriend. Both when his name was erased and before. If it were up to him, he would have been dead the very second of his execution. In fact, that was how it would have ended, if not for Anastasia’s intervention.  

Julius would have said that he was forever in her debt, but as time went by it became increasingly clear to him that Anastasia relied on him just as much as he relied on her. Anastasia had the world crumble around her, at present her only true assets were the Iron Fang and Julius himself. As the Hoshin company was both literally and figuratively burned to the ground.

Both of them had become each other’s reason to live. And each other’s hope. That made it especially difficult now, facing both of Natsuki Subaru’s brothers. Who if they had their way would have absolutely no qualms about killing Julius or both of them if Anastasia tried to defend him. 

With their spirits, there would certainly be a fight but with Anastasia and Julius near complete exhaustion from stress and work alike, their end would be inevitable. So it was a good thing that they were currently holding back the Witch Cult together and that they were also managing with their own sense of guilt, regrettable as it may be.

After Subaru’s death the camp grew apart, but not out of pain or blame.  The camp was better than that. It would be a lie to say that the camp members, or really anyone who was formerly involved in the royal selection, was stable; however they were all very willing to work together and assist each other. In fact, they still were working together very closely. But they’d grown apart out of necessity. Not only were members suited and therefore necessary for different roles. But also, staying together would risk being seen. And if people recognized that members of the Royal Selection were still working together… Suffice to say, it was best for members of every camp to stay as far away from each other as possible unless they were in a safe place.

Which is why only Otto, Julius, Anastasia and Garfiel were in this meeting. They needed to manage the Witch Cult’s activities and still needed some strength as insurance. Otto and Anastasia had truly, truly been attempting to ensure that the Witch Cult did not have full control over the economy, lest their connections strengthen. It was growing increasingly difficult to restrict them or even locate them.

Rem and Julius' names and memories were released when Subaru died. Roswaal, Anastasia and Otto theorized that this was due to Subaru. Somehow, his death had backfired to release the names closest to them. This theory was further validated by Anastasia’s damaged but functional information network.

Regardless, it meant that Rem was awake and capable of sensing cultists. However, much to her (and her sister’s) dismay, the cultists that they could find were heavily involved in keeping the capital ‘stable.’ If they were removed then others could take their place but the act of removing them would risk not only backlash but also would simply result in another cultist taking their place.

It would be one thing if Anastasia was still in control of the Hoshin company but their situation was dire. So their only choice was to manipulate the market.

“What are the dangerous items on the market?” Otto asked.

Julius handed Anastasia a paper. “Thank you, Julius. Let’s see. Flannel powder, a drug that makes a person less aware and more ‘agreeable’ instead of simply getting them drunk. It’s being used to convert people to different factions, if it’s left on the market for long there will be a riot. So we have Gaston, Rachins and Camberlay of the Felt Camp to investigate.”

Otto nodded so Anastasia continued. “Hexcel is also being sold, most of it being used to make even normal people capable of casting higher level spells. Seems it’s even being used to turn people into suicide bombs. It might be best to improve our defenses against such attacks.”

“Most of the suicide attacks aren’t even from cultists, are they?” Garfiel asked from behind Otto.

Anastasia glanced at Julius who shook his head. “We didn’t find any remnants of a Gospel among the remains and according to you, Rem wasn’t able to recognize any of the attacks before they happened.”

“According to us?” Otto questioned.

The air in the room dropped by a few degrees. Julius swallowed and bowed slightly. “Please forgive my phrasing. I only meant that if they were then Rem would have likely seen them.”

“No, don’t apologize. I’m just… tired. We all are,” Otto said before looking through a nearby window, nose starting to bleed and his speech started to slow. “Oh… I’m already overheating… Sorry, I’m getting distracted.”

Otto stood up and spoke with alarm. “The cult is getting closer, we have to go NOW. Garfiel, give an exit.”

“On it.” Two pillars of Earth destroyed two holes into the roof and quickly retracted, Otto and Garfiel stepped next to each other, preparing to be launched out of the roof through another piller

Anastasia also stood and looked at Julius. “Crap. Julius?”

Julius quickly picked up Anastasia in a bridal carry. “Understood. Nes, Shamac!” The room was filled with smoke and was evacuated before they were seen by anyone outside. As the Witch Cult ran back to the hideout that Otto, Julius, Anastasia and Garfield used as a meeting place, they would hear Garfiel yell a battle cry and Julius call Al Clarista, resulting in the building collapsing on the cult members. 

Otto gave a tired and jaded smile. “Alright, Garfiel. Let’s go to the next meeting place.”

Ram didn't hate the Witch Cult when they attacked her village.

Now, that might be a strange thing but really, she didn't. When it came down to it, Ram took vengeance against the attackers of the village and the person who cut off her horn with help from Roswaal but that wasn't really for herself. She had done it both out of principle and to avenge Rem's pain. In fact, she didn't even miss her horn. She was in a constant state of pain now that it was gone and struggled with even the simplest of tasks but she was really glad that it was gone.

With the horn, she always had to resist the urge to kill and fight. This urge became stronger and harder to resist as she aged. If not for the horn being cut, it was truly possible for Ram to lose her sense of self and simply become a killing machine. She'd risk killing her sister.

Aside from her horn, she truly did not care for the village. Her very first action in existence was threatening to kill every single one of them should they harm her sister. So naturally, she didn't truly feel a sense of companionship. Even her parents, who had praised her endlessly and took care of her, did not truly invoke a sense of loss when they died. Perhaps due to their feeding of Rem's inferiority complex or perhaps the burden of being the second coming of the Oni God was too much for her.

Much like Roswaal, Ram believed that the Oni Clan was doomed regardless of the Witch Cult unless their principles were to be done away with, at least they would if Rem was to live a life free of judgement and comparison. If it was for her, the loss of her horn and the entirety of the Oni Village was a small price to pay. Even if the literal destruction was too far. Although Ram herself would be the first to admit there was a reason that there was only one village left to be destroyed.

In any case, Ram's initial hatred of Roswaal was due to keeping Rem as a hostage and his manipulative actions to purposefully lead to the village's premature destruction. Those feelings had since faded and when Rem's name was erased, her complicated feelings towards Roswaal were entirely gone, she truly and uncompromisingly loved him. And they didn't return when Rem's name was back either. Ram had resolved herself to save Roswaal from himself. Although with time, her love for Roswaal had changed in nature, now more of a love for a guardian or parent than... whatever it was before. She had believed that her love for Roswaal was only dwarfed by the love for her sister. 

But when Subaru's name returned, Ram was more furious at his death than relieved that her sister had returned despite Rem being brought to the execution in her wheelchair. This was especially true when the Witch Cult attacked, almost immediately after his execution Ram and Rem had immediately entered an enraged state, despite Rem's weakened state.

Ram didn't hate the Witch Cult for attacking her village. Causing the death of her colleague, her friend, his sister's hero, her brother.  That was unforgivable. 

It wasn't simply a moment of anger either, that rage she felt that day had not faded in the slightest. If it was not for Roswaal, who now had taken the role of supervisor and caretaker now that his title as Margrave was effectively null, Ram and Rem would have gotten themselves killed in days.

There had been very few days that Rem and Ram were not actively hunting for Cultists. The worst part was that they were not even able to kill the numerous cultists that they could find, instead having to report their findings to the other camps. Which was also difficult, since both Ram and Rem had nearly attacked Felix and Julius every time they saw them. In Roswaal's words, Ram had somehow gained a similar instinct for Subaru as she did for Rem.

Roswaal also said that there was a chance that Subaru would reappear at some time in the future. The idea was theorized when Subaru's body was burned to ash almost instantly. It was unnatural. Even further confirmed by Clind not seeing a soul within Subaru's body at the time of his execution, nor Puck being able to sense his emotions.

That was meant to give hope to the former camp members. But neither Ram nor Rem truly cared. Regardless of Subaru's hopeful eventual return, it was undeniable that the Witch Cult,  especially Gluttony, Lust and Wrath, had caused Subaru's imprisonment, torture execution. Simply out of principle and to quell the anger in their hearts, Ram and Rem had attempted to avenge him the best they could. Unfortunately they were not able to kill most of the cultists that they found, there were too many and they held positions as such merchants and leaders that would be difficult to remove cleanly. 

Ram and Rem were reaching the end of their patience. However, unbeknownst to them, Subaru had extended them an olive branch. On their way back to the mansion, Rem smelled the Witch Cult. Roswaal, Ram and Rem all hid near the forest before seeing a small army returning to the capital with barrier crystals.

"How strange... Barrier Crystals... Those are only useful against Mabeasts. They must have been planning an attack on the village juding by their numbers and weapon choices," Roswaal whispered before enhancing his hearing with Yang magic. "Hm... interesting. Rem, how many of these people are Witch Cultists?"

Rem sniffed the air before wincing at the smell. "Rem estimates that about 10% of them are cultists. So just below 50"

Ram scowled. "Roswaal-sama, I beg you. Please let us execute them."

"Ok."

Rem and Ram flinched at this, Roswaal almost never allowed them to remove the cultists. It was almost always risky. And certainly not with witnesses.

"They're arguing about cultists. Whatever caused them to retreat, also revealed that there are cultists among them. We won't get a better chance to control the narrative than this," Roswaal stated, "Be careful, I'll step in if things become dangerous."

Ram and Rem smiled. And stepped out into the open, revealing themselves. The army tensed immediately, seemingly preparing to attack.

"I am Rem, former maid of Roswaal L. Mathers, former member of the Emilia Camp and one of the few surviving Onis."

"I am Ram, former maid of Roswaal L. Mathers, former member of the Emilia Camp and one of the few surviving Onis."

The two spoke in sync. "It has come to our attention that you were planning an attack on Natsuki Village, named after the knight of the former Emilia camp."

Rem revealed a morningstar from her dress and smashed it on the ground. "Your actions are an insult to my hero, Natsuki Subaru. And threatened the lives of the people he protected."

Ram revealed her wand and pointed it at the army. "Your actions are an insult to the name of my colleague... No... Your transgressions have sullied the name of my brother, Touto-su. Hence, my sister and I will administer your punishment"

Rem summoned her horn and Rem began to channel wind magic. "Total annihilation against the cultists in your midst!"

Puck had also reappeared before Subaru's name had returned. And his contract with Emilia was rebuilt, much to the relief of Emilia and Beatrice who had formed a contract with. The new contract being much more beneficial to both of them.... Or it SHOULD have been.

The oh-so-annoying time restriction had been gone away with and there was no longer a need for Emilia to avoid seeing her reflection. And a few of the other stipulations of their contract were less intrusive. Puck didn't actually HAVE to make the active decision to choose her hairstyle every day but he still enjoyed doing so. However, a few of the details that Puck thought reasonable were now actually difficult to perform. 

For example, talking to her lesser spirits every morning and evening was necessary for her spirits to remain content and to provide an extra layer of protection, even if Puck could now materialize at any time. Emilia always, ALWAYS struggled to wake up. She slept like a baby, and would wake up nearly an hour before actually finding the strength to actually get out of bed. This often forced Puck to literally push her out of bed in the past. 

That was always a strangely fond memory for Puck but now it was actively nostalgic because at least then, his daughter didn't actively resist waking up. Emilia was now constantly and consistently depressed. It was an actual risk to their contract, and Puck had to basically fight Lia every. single. day. 

Worse yet, she was skipping meals. She was so depressed that she was actually struggling to take care of her body. Puck was essentially forced to take care of her. Which he was going to do regardless but was still concerning.

His only saving grace was that if someone was in trouble, Emilia would stop nothing to ensure their safety. In the end, after her will was sapped and her heart fractured, her desire to help people was still there. If only it extended to herself

 “Roswaal…. I hope that you were right about it.” Puck found himself saying.

Puck hadn’t been wrong to entrust Emilia’s safety to Subaru. He had done wonders for keeping her safe, killing the sin Archbishop of Greed to protect her had proved that. Subaru had done a good job, and Puck was genuinely thankful about it. But he had made the mistake of letting him get executed. 

Puck didn’t remember him, no. But he should have stopped the execution sooner. The moment that Puck realized that Subaru was not feeling any emotion, an impossibility for any cultist but ESPECIALLY an Archbishop, whose Authority required strong emotions to work (compatible or not), should have raised red flags. And Emilia’s increased sense of ‘wrongness’ during the execution should have also raised red flags. 

It was truly a horrible scenario, her knight had catalysed the destruction of a kingdom. And there wasn’t anything that could be done to stop it. Emilia and Subaru relied on each other for a sense of comfort and understanding, Puck truly wondered how unlucky Subaru was. 

First, his name had to be erased by Gluttony.

Then, a sin Archbishop had pretended to protect him. 

Then Subaru’s spirit, Beatrice, had to somewhat fill the hole that Subaru had left behind for Emilia and Emilia had to do the same for Beatrice. 

After that, Emilia also could not use much magic during the time that Subaru's name was gone otherwise Puck would not have been able to fully materialize again and patch (but not fix) the hole that both of them had in their heart lest they realize that someone was missing. 

Note: The requirement of Emilia not using much magic was also necessary to be fulfilled by their failure to reach the Watchtower, which would not be the case if either Beatrice remembered the spell that she and Subaru created, Emilia had cast magic to mark their way out of the adventure to the Watchtower (this idea was formed by Subaru) or any event requiring Emilia to use magic had been occurring because logically, Beatrice’s mana consumption as an artificial spirit should have kept Puck away for longer, however Emilia has an insane mana capacity.

It was so hilariously unlucky, that Puck couldn’t help but laugh bitterly. Emilia and Beatrice were basically forced to protect the mansion by killing off cultists that attempted to get close. No non-cultist came closer because Beatrice had created a spatial distortion barrier around the mansion, similar to the one near Pleidades Watchtower. No one she didn’t want to get in could get in. Unless they had a Yin affinity or had a way to disrupt the barrier (which the cult often did), in which case Emilia, Puck or Beatrice would be forced to pick them off or scare them off if they only just happened to have a Yin affinity. (That only happened once)

 But that wasn’t the worst part. The worst was Beatrice and Emilia’s relationship. The memory of the time they had been contracted with each other had become a parasitic memory removing positive memories of each and draining their emotions energy. Hence, Beatrice needed mana to maintain her spatial distortion barrier and Emilia had it. But the action of draining/giving made them much more hostile to each other. Because to them it was a representation of their failure. Because to each other, they were a representation of their loss.

So on a day when Beatrice was particularly tired and she sensed an intruder. She happened to see Emilia first, and in her current state… well…

“Minya!” Beatrica shouted, launching purple stakes at the half-elf. By the time she had realized her mistake, it was too late to cancel the spell.

“Huma!” Puck defended against the attack by creating an ice barrier around Emilia and himself. 

When the barrier dissipated into mana, Beatrice had an apologetic and surprised expression. An expression which she quickly hid when Emilia looked at her with an angry and betrayed expression.

Emilia spoke with so much fury and volume in her voice that even Puck flinched. “BEAKO! YOU’VE REEEEEAAAAAAA~LLY CROSSED A LINE!”

“You’ll have to forgive Betty, she is a bit tired today, I suppose.” Beatrice claimed dismissively. “And do NOT call me that, in fact.”

“You’re LYING!” Emilia accused, crushing the ground beneath her foot. “Spirits can’t get tired unless they have low mana or a time limit on their contract.”

That wasn’t wholly true, if a Spirit’s mental state was bad enough then they could also face the same effects as being tired but before Puck could clarify this, Beatrice countered.

“You have no right to accuse Betty of anything, I suppose.” Beatrice said, turning away.

“Beako…” Emilia growled, getting her attention. “We used to be friends.”

Beatrice’s eyes grew cloudy. “...No, we used to be acquaintances. My contractor loved you, he loved Betty too, in fact.”

That broke Emilia, tears started to run down her face. She screamed, dropping the temperature surrounding her by a few degrees.

“DON’T TALK ABOUT HIM LIKE HE’S GONE!”

“Lia, please.” Puck tried to say before Beatrice screamed back.

“HE IS GONE, IN FACT! WE KILLED HIM, IN FACT!” 

“Betty, that’s…”

“SHUT UP! SHUT UP! SHUT UP! SHUT UP! SHUT UP!” Emilia covered her ears and instinctively summoned a barrage of icicles, pointed at Beatrice, who created a barrage of Minya crystals in response.

“NO!” Puck tried, but he had reacted too slowly, the attacks were fired.

…And dissipated before they could even meet.

Beatrice’s eyes widened. “That’s… that’s impossible, in fact. Only one other person knows that spell, in fact.

Emilia stopped covering her ears and her eyes widened, seeing someone appear at the center of the deconstructed mana. “S-s-s”

Puck gave a tired laugh. “You couldn’t have come back at a better time.”

Despite the near-disaster he just prevented, the person couldn’t help but smile. Subaru pointed a finger toward the sky and said softly. “...I’m back.”

Chapter Text

Before going to the Mansion

Subaru and co. returned to the village where they were greeted with open, but reasonably distanced, arms.  They would have to go and tell them of the invasion force being repelled and they were due for an actual reintroduction to Subaru. Aside from the Emilia Camp, these people probably missed him the most. So naturally, even if he couldn’t be touched, a reunion was necessary.

"What is our situation? Did everything go well?" the village elder asked.

Subaru nodded. “The invasion is over, we won. You should be safe for some time. 

The elder turned towards the other villagers, leaving Subaru in temporary confusion for a moment. 

Milde Arlam raised her arms and shouted out. “3! 2! 1!”

The entire village chanted. “VICTORY! FOR NATSUKI VILLAGE!”

Subaru smiled but then grimaced in confusion. “Wait. Wait… Natsuki Village?”

The Elder nodded. “Ah, yes. After your… Well I can’t say execution anymore, can I?” 

Subaru winced slightly. “I don’t think it would be wrong, but disappearance would be more accurate I guess?”

Arlam smiled empathetically. “We named the village after our village’s hero.”

Subaru’s face was unnaturally pale from his treatment in prison but it was suddenly stained with red. “Ah…”

“We have to thank you. And… well, we’re glad you’ve returned even if you’re… in a less than ideal position.”

Subaru rubbed the back of his head bashfully. “Thanks, I appreciate it.”

Petra’s mother spoke. “We should be thanking you. We expect that you’ll have your hands full. If not out of obligation then simply from knowing your luck.”

“....Ouch.” Subaru groaned as the villagers laughed hollowly.

“But we’d appreciate nonetheless if you would stay for a midday feast.”

"Finally food, it's been a while since I had good food," Subaru thought aloud, “I’d love to.”

"Huh..." Frederica mumbled, Subaru really hadn't eaten since he'd gotten back so it makes sense that he'd want food. But also, realistically he should be starving. After all, Subaru didn't have a slow metabolism. That... that meant something but she couldn't really place her finger on it. Regardless of Frederica’s concern, the villagers decided to have a mid-day feast for the celebration of Subaru’s return.

While the villagers were setting up, Subaru decided to refamiliarize himself with the village’s new layout. It had been a while since was here last so he had to check. Meili went with him to make sure he didn’t wander off again. It was really more for her own peace of mind than his safety.

“Less than ideal position…” Subaru said, looking at a lock of slightly grey but mostly white hair.

“I wasn’t expecting you to be so bothered by this Onii-san.”

“You'd be bothered too if you can't tell whether your hair's grey because it's dirty or because my hair was black. I can't remember if it was and pictures don't exist in this world so I can't check without asking." Subaru thought before responding, "It's just ironic, you know?”

Meili smirked. “Yeah, I get it. Honestly, I didn't think you'd come back.”

“Really now and here I was hoping I could still be trusted” Subaru half-joked.

“Trusted, huh? I don't know. All these people are happy to see you back. You repelled an invasion without your trump card. It's a bit late to be worrying about that now.”

“Trust is something I haven't had in a while.” Subaru reminisced as he looked around.

The village was more densely packed now, probably due to other invasions threatening the outer house, or killing the villagers dark as a thought as that may be. There was a short stone wall around the village too, about Meili's height. Probably good for any extra protection and a good place for cover. 

Subaru ran his hand along the wall. “I didn’t see too many bow and arrows in the village, it seems like that would be good for the wall." 

“The walls are newly constructed. We’re working on placing Earth Lagmites in them so they can’t be destroyed easily. As for the bows and arrows, Otto and Garfiel are out for a few days to collect them, with some help from Julius a-" Meili stopped, seeing Subaru flinch at the name before chuckling to himself.

“Right. Of course he would still be alive, I'd be disappointed if he wasn't," Subaru said, somehow both bitterly and with humor. "So how's our finest knight been?"

"..." Meili took a moment. "...His spirits are currently having a fight and well... you've heard about the trouble, he's still involved. Of course, with the royal selection cancelled, he's no longer a knight."

“Huh. The bastard must be drowning in guilt,” Subaru cracked his knuckles but flinched at the sound. "Huh... anyways. I'm hoping to pound his face in as soon as possible."

"From what I've heard, I think you both-" Meili interrupted herself, "I'm sorry- Did you just flinch because that sounded like bones cracking?" 

"Um...." Subaru stalled vaulting over the stone wall, but his already injured arm crumpled underneath his weakened body, resulting in him falling down onto the arm and then onto the side that he intended to fall on, knocking the wind out of his lungs. “Ack…”

“Onii-san!” Meili cried out, pulling herself over the wall.

Subaru struggled to suck air into his tired lungs. "I- *cough* I'm *cough* fine....

Subaru had misplaced his bandages so he was forced to shamefully retreat back to  Petra’s home and reapply the bandages. Meili had her jaw clenched on the walk back.

“Please just…. Just laugh.” Subaru begged, trying to break the silenced

Meili, who was reevaluating Subaru’s condition, was aghast. “You’re gasping for air and you spilled blood on our new wall. How am I supposed to laugh at you?”

Subaru closed his eyes to think about it but ended up not having a satisfactory answer. “I… stopped questioning it after the third loop.”

Meili sighed. “That’s a horrible thing to say and an even worse thing to go through. Why would you say that as a throwaway joke?” 

“Keeps me sane,” Subaru groaned, finally reaching Petra's home.

Before actually going in, Meili pulled Petra aside while she was helping set the table.

“Petra, I’m done. You can deal with him.” Meili said, already tired of watching the state Subaru was in. Watching how Subaru’s injuries and lack of movement in prison had affected him was literally making her skin crawl. If she stayed with Subaru any longer she’d be tempted to rip her skin off.

“Sorry…” Subaru apologized. 

Petra sighed and looked at Subaru’s arm, now bleeding through the bandages. “What did you do?”

After an explanation, and a general agreement that Subaru wasn't truly to blame for this, Petra ended up teaching Subaru how to bandage his arm properly. It was a bit difficult without actually touching him but they were making progress quickly.

“Hm…” Petra mumbled curiously.

“What’s up?” Subaru said, unwrapping his other arm since the bandages had gotten dirty over time.

“I’m trying to figure out the details behind your… injuries.” 

“What do you mean?” 

“You’re not at full strength, yet. I don’t even think you’re at half yet. Magic was able to help you move, but from some of the bruises on you, I can tell you crashed into the trees on your way here from the Capital.”

“Guilty as charged…” Subaru groaned, wincing as Petra tightened the bandage around his arm and let go before he could tell she got close. “Good call.”

“Thank you… And one more thing, Felpa.” Petra snapped her fingers and the bandages wrapped around Subaru’s arms were tinted in a mild golden light. “I’d thought that you were going to be safe without it before but I was wrong.”

“Harsh…”

“Well, now you won’t be bleeding through the bandages, I hope. Just… be careful. And don’t stray too far, this is like Murak. There’s a range.”

Subaru smiled gratefully. “Got it, Healer Petra..”

Petra stuck out her tongue. “Dummy. But as I was saying. Your strength and general constitution is definitely weaker despite your gate not being broken anymore.”

“....”

Petra squinted her eyes, analyzing Subaru’s face. “What does that face mean?”

“Well… It was worse last time I remember checking my body.”

Petra’s face didn’t change much, now in a neutral expression which was somehow scarier than anything else she could have done short of actually touching Subaru “How bad…”

“My eye wasn’t in my body last I remember being in the prison, but I can’t exactly say that, Felix probably reattached it for my execution anyways,” Subaru speculated silently, “But genuinely, I wasn’t even able to walk normally after… The fourth day,  unless I contracted with a Yang Spirit.” 

 “Subaru?” Petra asked, now smiling impatiently. Nevermind, this was scarier. 

“The signs of imprisonment faded.” Subaru was blatantly stalling now.

“What exactly does that mean?”

“Cuts, bruises, wounds aren’t there anymore but that might just be because Felix healed me.” Subaru half-lied.

“We both know that’s not what you meant, why would they even be on you when you were healed for the execution?” Petra pointed out.

“Ok, but also things that can’t be healed.” Subaru stalled for time to organize his thoughts. “Besides, I don’t remember that execution.”

“I’m sorry, THAT execution?’

“Sorry, bad joke.” 

Petra scanned his face but he stared back with fake innocence. She sighed.

“Don’t make those kinds of jokes. Anyways, things that can’t be healed?”

“Irreperably broken bones, taken organs, incinerated skin, a toyed-with body,” Subaru thought but he decided not to say that, the last thing didn’t even heal anyways. “Mana poisoning symptoms, black eyebags, white hair.”

“Those things are still there. I could still sense some corrupted mana in your body when we applied the bandages the first time.”

“So that’s why I feel weird when I cast magic...”

“Subaru.”

“Sorry, I mean they’ve faded. They were worse before I came back somehow.”

“Huh… Any chance you're willing to share about what happened in that cell?” Petra asked. 

Subaru didn't say anything for a while, a distant look in his eyes, before shaking his head. He wasn't ready to relive those memories further than he did now. Even if he was, he wouldn't have told Petra. She's smart but she's still a normal kid.

“Alright, then… how about why you came back?”

“Huh?” Subaru gave an instinctive reaction to Petra’s question.

“You…  You've been through a lot and, while I'd rather not say how some of your wounds were made, it's strange for you to come back after… everything. Unless you're just going to leave afterwards.” Petra said jokingly but she was now clutching her skirt in her hands.

“I'm not planning to lea-”

“But WHY?” Petra interrupted, “Things weren't right without you around. People were upset, we should have noticed.”

“It makes sense that you didn't know.”

“NO IT DOESN'T!” Petra shouted, not even noticing Subaru immediately move away at the sound. “We missed you even before we knew your name. We should have investigated.”

“And it still wouldn't have mattered.”

“YOU DON’T KNOW- Oh…” Petra stopped, seeing Subaru’s sad smile and empty eyes. He did know. The fact that Subaru’s here pale, bloodied, bruised and afraid was proof that he knew. The state he was in now was BETTER than the best outcome he could find. Knowing that they couldn’t save him once made the knot in Petra’s heart tighten further. 

“You… You’re incredible,” Petra sighed, resigned.

“Excuse me?” Subaru asked, “I don’t think I heard that right.”

“You’re incredible. I can’t imagine existing through that. I know you won’t tell us about what happened there but… I’m really glad you survived. And, maybe selfishly, even more glad that you came back.” Petra closed her eyes and smiled.

Subaru tapped her forehead with his fist gently, surprising Petra. “Always.”

Petra scoffed. “I appreciate the effort, but I can see you rubbing your fist on your back.”

“Sorry… couldn’t help it.”

“Welcome back, Subaru. Let’s make this stay longer than the last.”

“What did you say about bad jokes?” Subaru chuckled as they walked out of the house. 

The village was almost finished setting up, as tables and chairs now adorned the village center. With food almost prepared. Suddenly a small girl, about 6 years old, ran up towards Subaru. Petra moved to block but there was no need as quickly stopped and snatched up by Frederica to prevent another 'incident' from occurring.

"Don’t do that. No touching Subaru-sama. He's been through a lot," she admonished the child.

"Hey, don't be too harsh with her," Subaru requested before turning to the girl, "You're Vena, right? I heard someone call you earlier. What's up?"

"How observant." Frederica thought.

"Subaru, Subaru! Before your welcome back feast, can you do- C-can we all the Radi-O Calithetic? Again"

"That's not-" Subaru started, but he suddenly realized something. He didn't remember how it was pronounced either, he actually had entirely forgotten his exercise existed until he learned the village and camp had used the final chant to celebrate. "Um..." 

Subaru looked to Frederica and Petra for advice, they gave him a slightly concerned smile. “Only if you’re up to it.”

Subaru took a deep breath and smiled at Vena. “I’ll do my best. Let’s do it!”

After a few minutes, Subaru and the villagers were all in a group to perform Subaru’s forgotten morning ritual. Frederica, Meili and Petra were going to join in but were having a private conversation first.

“Is this a good idea?” Meili questioned, “He’s out of practice. He’s surprisingly good considering that. last he remembers, he was in prison. But he’s out of sync with his body.”Petra shook her head. “That’s exactly why this needs to happen. He needs to get back into… a reasonable state somehow. Besides, this is a good way to tell how he’s doing.”

Meili hummed contemplatively. “If I found someone in Onii-san’s condition, I’d kill them to put them out of their misery. Making them move more would not be my top priority.”

Frederica and Petra stifled a laugh. 

“That’s a horrible thing to say, Meili.” Frederica scolds.

“This is bad,” Petra laughs, “It’s been less than a day and Subaru is already rubbing off on us.”

“Subaru-sama certainly has a strong presence.”

“We wouldn’t be in this position if Onii-san didn’t.”

They all sighed, moving towards the ready villagers.

“Alright everyone! Is everyone ready?” Subaru asked.

After an overwhelming cheer, Subaru’s Radio Calisthenics began. “Everyone should start by stretching their limbs! Get your limbs to loosen up. Don’t copy me, just do whatever feels best for you.” Subaru said, bending down on one leg and extending the other. Subaru suddenly froze and fell backwards onto his rear.

He was really out of practice and he hadn't noticed. Regardless, he picked himself and did stretches that took less movement. After that, the exercise went surprisingly well. Subaru had to pause a few times, trying to remember what he was supposed to do next. Not only that but a lot of his examples were rigid, to the point that even he had to point out that he was doing certain exercises wrong. Regardless, the villagers were more than satisfied, to the point of requesting an encore that Subaru was too nice to deny. It was almost time for the feast to begin.

Subaru quickly excused himself to wash up before the celebration. Frederica decided to follow secretly, now that she was practically done setting the table. Besides, Meili Petra and her were a bit concerned with how strangely stiff he was. Frederica opened the door to Petra's home, after watching Subaru go in, expecting him to be in the bathroom.

"SUBARU-SAMA!" Frederica whisper-shouted, dashing over to him.

No, he was hunched over a table breathing heavily with blood dripping from his mouth.

"Sorry... Sorry." Subaru murmurs through a mouth full of blood.

"I don't think I'm the one you need to apologize to... You bit your tongue to hide the pain? I'm warning you now, I'm moving you to the sink with magic, ok?"

"Mhm"

"Good. Pita."

Subaru's body was wrapped around with a blanket of wind and was gently lifted into the bathroom after Frederica opened the door. Subaru was now hunched over the sink and had regained some of his breath.

“Thanks.” Subaru uttered breathlessly

“You were running through the forest yesterday. What changed?”

“Murak…. adrenaline…. and breaks. I had more important things…anyways…”

“I can’t believe I’m saying this but your sense of responsibility is not to be envied,” Frederica left for a moment to collect a glass of water. “Rinse your mouth out first, then drink.”

Subaru obeyed, the glass was downed in seconds. 

“Thanks.”

“Does the ability to go back make you this self-destructive?”

“Nope, it’s all natural. Help me sit down?” Subaru had regained his breath but his body was still in pain, so he could talk but was still limited in his movement.

Frederica sighed but obliged. Soon Frederica and Subaru were sitting on the opposite sides of a table.

"I didn't know that you knew wind magic."

Frederica nodded. "I learned after carrying injured villagers without harming them became difficult. How are you feeling?"

“Aching pain like this is a rare one. I didn’t think it would hurt this much to move. All of Clind’s training, all gone to waste in 2 months.”

“Such superficial worries. What aching pain was common in prison?”

Subaru’s eyes went blank for a few seconds but he recovered quickly. “Can't tell you.”

“I’ve already seen you through the crystal if you haven’t noticed, it still itches to look at you suffering. How much worse could it be?”

“The crystal has an itching effect?” Subaru asked, “Anyways, it doesn’t reveal everything clearly. Otherwise, you’d know.”

“How concerning. I've seen your eye removed from you head and yet you're implying there was worse”

"You only saw the injuries from this loop."

Frederica was about to reply but her face quickly soured from realization, "...Pardon?"

Subaru realized his mistake and stayed quiet. "..."

"That was only from this attempt? Not from the times before you went back?"

"...."

"Natsuki Subaru..." Frederica had dropped the honorific and used his full name, her tidy hair now bristling and her teeth getting sharper. She was unconsciously using partial Beastification. 

Subaru was left with no choice but to respond lest Frederica lose control. "Yeah, it's only this attempt. The only time I got that far before going back."

"So this is the best outcome you achieved?" Frederica groaned, fist now clenched.

"It could have been worse?"

"Clearly! Od Laguna, why do you hate this boy?" Frederica asked.

"Well, I'm here right? So they can't hate me that much.” Subaru finally found the strength to stand up, “Let’s not keep the people waiting.”

“Please be careful Subaru-sama,” Frederica requested.

"What's the worst that could happen?" Subaru joked.

"I don't feel like the village hero, I feel like the Archbishop of Scum," Subaru mumbled as he threw up in the toilet again.

"This is my fault, I should have known this would happen," Frederica said, standing off to the side.

Meili sat on a nearby countertop looking at Subaru's pathetic state. "Onii-san didn't even eat that quickly, he didn't even finish his serving. I think even Petra ate more than him."

Petra just paced around silently behind Subaru.

As Meili said, Subaru hadn't even been able to eat an entire serving. He was simultaneously extremely hungry and also didn't have a particularly large appetite so he ate at a normal pace. Unfortunately, as part of his treatment in prison, he wasn't given much to eat. So when he was almost done with his serving, he hurled into his plate. 

The feast was now on-hold. Subaru was suffering from refeeding syndrome so he wasn't able to keep his food down and was now experiencing weakness and headaches, forcing Petra to reinforce his body with Yang magic and for Frederica to carry him to the bathroom. The only thing worse than the vomiting was Subaru’s sense of guilt.

“I ruined the whole event…” Subaru whined in self-pity.

“It was an unavoidable circumstance. No one can blame you for that,” Frederica consoled.

“I guess-”

“If you make a joke about having to blame yourself for everyone else, I’m siccing Guilty on you.” Meili threatened.

“Got it.”

Eventually, Subaru felt well enough to go back to the village and apologize unnecessarily. The feast still went on, just without Subaru eating which made him feel better. People still asked questions, Subaru learned more about what happened when he was gone as well as the general state of the royal candidates.

Vollachia was in some kind of trouble and couldn’t be reached nor could the problem plaguing it be observed. Many knights defected to the Witch Cult, Died or Resigned, Subaru knew that a few of them were already in the Witch Cult working under Lust. Although obviously he couldn’t reveal it and be believed, nor die. So he sadly doubted that those people were dead.

He was glad that the other camps were alive though. He had a bone to pick with Julius, Reinhard and Felix anyways and any other knights that were alive. Although… he did have some knights he needed to avoid until further notice.

The feast was considered a success and Subaru was wished good luck by the villagers. So Frederica, Meili, Petra Subaru walked towards the mansion. Subaru needed a healer asap so they left quicker than they would have otherwise.

“I thought Roswaal would have rebuilt the burnt down mansion by now,” Subaru said thoughtfully, “Then again, it makes sense that he couldn’t.”

Frederica smiled. “Roswaal-sama has gotten better. He’s mostly stopped with his plotting, although that may be because he can’t.” 

Meili snickered, “With you gone, he took the position of leader from you, Onii-san.”

Subaru rolled his eyes. “I was never the leader but I’m glad Roswaal is better. I can only hope the others are doing just as well”

Petra pointed at the mansion that wasn’t burned down. “Beatrice changed the space around the mansion, no one she hasn’t allowed in can get in. Unless they have a Yin affinity. Which is convenient for us. She’ll even know that you came.”

Subaru nodded and they entered the mansion’s vicinity. And in about one minute…

“DON’T TALK ABOUT HIM LIKE HE’S GONE!”

“Oh no…” Petra muttered.

Subaru grimaced in confusion. “What the…. Emilia?” 

The Quartet started running to the source of the noise.

“HE IS GONE, IN FACT! WE KILLED HIM, IN FACT!” 

Subaru’s eyes widened, he was starting to realize what this shouting match was about.

“SHUT UP! SHUT UP! SHUT UP! SHUT UP! SHUT UP!”

“Murak!” Subaru called out and practically disappeared; jumping away as a barrage of icicles and crystals were about to collide, negating the magic with his own as he rolled to a stop due to Murak being dispelled as well. There was a passing silence.

“That’s… that’s impossible, in fact. Only one other person knows that spell, in fact.”

“S-s-s”

“Hah… You couldn’t have come back at a better time.”

Subaru smiled. “...I’m back. Wait, EMILIA, BEATRICE, NO!”

Frederica, Meili and Petra came into view and saw Subaru go stiff as soon as he was caught on both sides by Beatrice and Emilia respectively, not fast enough to escape their group hug.

"Betty. Lia. You need to let go of him now." Puck warned.

"GET OFF SUBARU NOW!' Petra, Meili and Frederica all shouted.

"Huh?" Emilia said, not registering the order.

"What, I suppose?" Beatrice was much the same

"Get off..."

Beatrice and Emilia suddenly let go of Subaru and backed away in concern as Subaru started to shake.

"Get off. Get Off." 

"S-Subaru?" Emilia asked, backing away further out of a mixture of fear and concern.

"Get off. Get Off. Get off. Get Off. Get off. Get Off. Get off. Get Off." Subaru repeated over and over, gripping his white hair in his hands and crouching down. Beatrice tried to move towards him but didn't move any closer.

"What-?" Beatrice started before everyone around him was thrown back suddenly, tumbling to the ground once they were 20 metres away.

"What's happening?" Emilia asked, now panicking.

Beatrice tried to reach a hand out towards Subaru but was pushed back. "He's expanding the space around him, in fact!" 

"Onii-san can't be touched! He's traumatized." Meili grunted, trying to brute force her way to Subaru but ended up getting thrown back further.

"His heart's going to give out at this rate!" Puck warned.

Petra called out to Beatrice, "Beatrice! Negate his magic! DRAIN HIS MANA!"

Beatrice was feeling overwhelmed, her contractor was back and he was already in danger. "B-But then I'll have to-"

Frederica grit her teeth in annoyance. "IT'S BETTER THAN HIM DYING!"

"A-Alright." Beatrice negated the magic around herself, effectively giving her a bubble to walk through Subaru's expanding space and grip his wrist, Subaru desperately tried to get Beatrice off but she held her ground. 

"Get off. Get Off. Get off. Get Off. Get off. Get Off. Get off. Get Off. Get off. Get Off. Get off. Get Off. Get off. Get Off. Get off. Get Off. Get off. Get Off. Get off. Get Off. Get off. Get Off. Get off. Get Off. Get off. Get Off. Get off. Get Off. Get off. Get Off. Get off. Get Off. Get off. Get Off. Get off. Get Off. Get off. Get Off. Get off. Get Off. Get off. Get Off. Get off. Get Off. Get off. Get Off. Get off. Get Off. Get off. Get Off. "

"I-I... I hope you never forgive Betty for this." Beatrice drained Subaru's mana, knocking him out in an instant.

Everyone gathered around Subaru.  Beatrice immediately looked away from him and covered her mouth, collapsing to her knees. Emilia, still worried for Subaru managed to switch her attention to the spirit for a moment.

"Beatrice, are you-?"

"Blergh." Beatrice threw up purple crystals, Subaru's mana given form for the sole purpose of removing it from her body.

"What's happening now?" Meili asked. She and Frederica had now moved away from Beatrice when she threw up the crystals.

"Betty can read emotions when she drains mana..." Puck explained. "And Subaru...."

Subaru was asleep now, which would normally mean that Puck couldn't read his emotions to their full extent but... from his perspective, when he tried to read Subaru's emotions, his entire vision was obscured by a black cloud of horror. Puck couldn't read anything from it except 'bad.' If he couldn't read Subaru's emotions through sight when he was ASLEEP then what did Beatrice feel when he was AWAKE?

"What have we done..." Beatrice muttered, pulling her twintails out of stress. "What the fuck have we done?'

Chapter Text

After Subaru was knocked out

Tears spilled from Beatrice’s eyes and ran down her face before falling onto her dress. She’d been desperately trying to expel Subaru’s mana from her body, but her mental state had been damaged too thoroughly to actually formulate and cast spells. Leaving her with the painful and inefficient options of throwing up purple crystals.

Beatrice had spent 400 years waiting for a person that never came. A person that, at this point, she didn’t truly believe existed. She knew what abandonment felt like. Or she thought she had. She wasn’t truly abandoned. Even if he was entirely unrecognizable and broken, Roswaal had always been near her. He always ensured she had a mana supply, that no matter what atrocities he committed, leaving her alone was the line he never crossed. 

While he never found her ‘that person’, he still found people. Kind people, arrogant people, annoying people, intelligent people. She’d be lying if she said she actually liked them yet she’d also be lying if she said that she’d give them up. They were experiences that gave her company, something that kept her from fully shutting herself off from the world that she’d create with her contractor.

Then it was gone, she felt as though she had blinked. As if the two months she’d spent with Emilia and her brother were inexistent. And it might as well have been. The only reason that she’d found a reason to keep living was a simple hope, the single leaf from the olive branch that Roswaal had tried extending to her. To the entire camp. Well... when they had the chance to.

In The Mansion A Few Days After Subaru's Execution

 No one in the camp was in a good mood. The public had turned against them, the Royal Selection was all but officially cancelled and Subaru had died and they hadn’t even been able to bury the ashes that he’d left behind. But somehow, SOMEHOW that was the least of their worries. The biggest problem was that the THREE ARCHBISHOPS responsible for Subaru’s death were currently attacking the mansion. 

“El Huma! Ul Huma! Al Huma! El Huma! Al Huma! Huma! El Huma! Al Huma! Al Huma! Al Huma! Al Huma!”

“Lia… please calm down.”

A bead of sweat ran down Puck’s forehead, a literal impossibility for both cats and spirits but Puck did it simply due to the concern and confusion he was having at this moment. Emilia had become quite skilled at using ice magic while he was gone but even this was beyond her.

Emilia had frozen a significant part of the field around her from pure rage and was repeatedly and rapidly casting Huma spells. This was an impressive feat of mana and would be a considerably more impressive feat if most of them were casted successfully. Emilia’s mental state was only vaguely able to visualize her spells. Some ice pillars were being summoned and launched, each of varying sizes but most simply dissipated.

In Emilia’s current vengeful state, she casted ice spell after ice spell, all being either dodged, blocked by Sirius’ chains or melted by Sirius’ flames. And her Al Humas were being replaced over and over, Emilia not even realizing that the giant pillars of ice were simply making the surrounding area colder. If she had been near the other Archbishop fights then enemies and foes alike would be bombarded with hail. Unfortunately, Sirius’ flames melted the falling icicles as they fell. 

“You Slut of a half-devil! You cruel bitch!”

A vein on Puck’s forehead bulged in anger, but he managed to regain his composure for long enough to block an incoming chain hook from damaging Emilia with a wall of ice. Puck didn’t like it, but they weren’t really making any progress, and they wouldn’t be making any progress either. Emilia, despite her rage, was not aiming to kill… despite the hundreds of icicles that she was casting. Because of the 30 people that Wrath had brought through her soulwashing. 

Frederica was currently distracting them by scaring them in her leopard form but if Emilia landed a fatal or even damaging blow then not only would she damage Sirius but also the people she had under her authority. Which at that moment, included herself. What Emilia was really trying to do was pin the chains to the floor using ice magic or freeze Sirius entirely. That would certainly hurt the people around her but wouldn’t KILL them. Probably. Emilia was only vaguely aware of the people.

Puck had to warn her. “Lia, even if Sirius manages to block Al Huma. I don’t think that the others will survive it.” 

Puck didn’t REALLY care about their lives, not by themselves. But between Emilia’s already emotional state worsening and Emilia being connected to them, he couldn’t afford to let them be damaged by Emilia’s ice. 

Emilia couldn’t reply between chants. Even if she could, she would have been insulting Sirius right back. But she stopped chanting her Al spells and dissipated her Al Icicles. Emilia summoned a halberd into her hands and stabbed one of Wrath’s flaming chains into the ground and casted Huma to create a forcefield around herself. By reducing the temperature around her, she was not only resisting Sirius’ flames but also freezing the chain to the floor despite them.

The problem was that she was ONLY resisting the flames and not negating them fully. The chain was somehow both frozen to the floor and set the ice around it on fire. Emilia’s soft and pale skin was quickly darkening with burns.

“Lia, we need to get out of here!!” Puck warned, alarmed at his daughter WILLINGLY letting herself become burnt in Wrath’s flames

“1.” Emilia muttered, driving the halberd further into the floor and increasing its mass with even more ice magic.

“Huh?” Puck asked, confused.

 “2.” Emilia muttered again, now crouching down even closer to the flames and freezing the ground around her even further.

“Lia!”

“3.” Emilia dashed towards her forcefield before leaning back, sliding on the frozen ground as a chain hook sliced directly above her, almost hitting Puck. She had counted the seconds before Wrath could launch another attack and was now moving directly towards her, pushing off the frozen ground and running towards her. Puck summoned an ice shard, pinning part of the chain to the ground and preventing the chain from moving back.

And time slowed down.

Emilia was going to freeze Sirius in place, hopefully allowing her to be captured again. Or better yet, put down forever. But suddenly, she was moving considerably slower than she was a few moments ago even though she wasn’t quite at her top speed. But aside from herself and Puck, everything else seemed to be moving at their normal speed. Enough time for Sirius to free the chain that Puck had pinned and aim the hook for the back of Emilia’s neck.

But before it landed, Emilia and Puck were headbutted to the floor by a leopard. Frederica had barely managed to knock them both away from the attack, but with her no longer keeping the soulwashed citizens distracted, they were surrounded almost instantly.

“Urgh…” Emilia grumbled as she groggily got to her feet.

“Thanks for the save.” Puck said.

“Always.” Frederica growled back, not with anger but because she was currently an animal and talking was a bit difficult.

“Half-devil!”

“Maggot!”

“Whore!”

“Slut!”

“Murderer!”

“Abandoner!”

“Bitch!”

Puck was getting really aggravated as the Soulwashed foes were speaking at Emilia with cruel words. For some reason, despite Wrath being the person resulting in Subaru’s continued distrust, Wrath blamed Emilia for Subaru’s death. Even more than the soulwashing, that was frustrating Emilia and Puck the most.

“SHUT YOUR MOUTHS! HOW DARE YOU SPEAK THAT WAY ABOUT MY DAUGHTER!” Puck yelled, unleashing an outward blast of frost, freezing the soulwashed enemies to the ground and chilling them to the bone. But Wrath still spoke.

“You HALF-DEVIL! HANDS THAT HE REACHED OUT TO YOU FOR! EYES THAT HE DESIRED TO STARE LONGINGLY INTO FOR! HAIR THAT HE LONGED TO TOUCH! EARS THAT HE LONGED TO SPEAK INTO! AND YOU LET HIM DIE!”

“!” Emilia remained silent at her words and fidgeted with Puck’s glintstone, something she had recently begun doing to comfort herself.

Sirius continued. “YOU HAVE NOTHING TO SAY?! YOU KNOW IT’S TRUE! WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? DID YOU LET HIM DIE IF YOU LOVED HIM! LED HIM ON! YOU CRUEL BITCH! I LOVED HIM! I LOVED HIM! I LOVED HIM! I LOVED HIM!” 

Emilia clutched her chest, as if trying to rip out her heart from within herself. It hurt. It hurt so much. Emilia struggled to remain steady, Sirius’ soulwashing was still affecting her. That’s what she told herself. She was fine. She could… She would…. She… She needed to get rid of Wrath. That’s what she needed to do. She’d kill her, she’d make her pay, she’d avenge Subaru. 

“ICE BRAND SOLDIERS!” Emilia called out, as loudly as she could, trying to drown out the rest of the shouting. Emilia summoned 20 full soldiers, 13 more than what her limit was before. She wasn’t able to use her Ice-Brand magic after Subaru’s name was erased. In the death of Subaru, her memory of him had become so strong that she couldn’t close her eyes without seeing him. And she would use that pain now. 20 ice copies of Subaru all surrounded herself, Puck and Frederica.

Puck was shocked, the idea that Emilia could have an image with this clarity. This was no crush, no throwaway, no servant, not even a knight. The only person Puck ever imagined holding such a strong place in her heart was himself. Puck surprised himself with the emotion he felt at that moment, she expected to feel anger, jealousy, protectiveness. But Subaru had proved himself to Puck too, even in his absence. All he felt was an empathetic sorrow.

“You… you really love him, don’t you? I should have saved him. I should have protected you both. I’m sorry.”

Somehow despite living for 400 years and knowing the boy for less than a month. Puck missed him too.

“Attack.” Emilia commanded sternly, the soldiers obeyed.

“10 more minutes…. 10 more minutes.” Otto muttered, “10 more minutes and Beatrice can create a forcefield.”

“Oh? You think you’ll last that long?” Lye, the archbishop of Gluttony laughed, disappearing as he used his Leaper technique to appear behind the merchant. “You won’t last 30 seconds play this ga-”

Lye was interrupted as a black whip struck out from the side, wrapping around his neck and allowing Otto to move away.

“Do not forget about me. Offensive.” Clind sai. His whip was a bit heavier than Subaru’s Guiltywhip but also had a metal lining within it. Which allowed him to channel electricity through it easily. By stepping on his whip, pulling it to the ground and channeling electricity through the sole of his foot, destroying his shoe, an electric attack flowed through the whip but by the time that it would have reached the Glutton, he had wriggled out his body almost warping to loosen the whip around him. 

In the next instant, he had switched targets. Dashing towards Clind, he threw a dagger at him which was easily dodged but drew Clind's attention for a moment too long, allowing Lye to use Leaper again when Clind’s attention would have moved back to him. This effectively allowed Lye to disappear from his perception, grab his dagger and drive into the wall that suddenly appeared behind Clind.

“Tch-” Lye scoffed as Clind whip wrapped around the wall and flew directly at Lye who skillfully leaned back, letting the whip fly above him and allowing him to backflip away from Garfiel’s follow-up attack while simultaneously kicking him in the jaw. 

“Ack! Ya bitch…” Garfiel swore as he rubbed the point of impact, Lye had interrupted his attempt to make Lye one with the ground, using his own momentum to damage him. 

Clind frowned. “Language. Admonishment. But Yes. Agreement.”

“Don’t get close to him, if he manages to touch you then…” Otto trailed off.

“What? Are you still thinking about your Subaru?” Lye laughed heartily. “After you forgot him and got him killed?!”

Lye’s laughter was quickly interrupted by a trio of attacks Clind’s whip wrapped around the Gluttonous child as Otto threw a fire crystal and Garfiel created a dome of Earth around him, leaving only a hole for the whip. Electricity and Fire erupted inside of the dome, which concentrated it on their singular target.

“Did we get 'im?” Garfiel asked.

Otto shook his head. “Doubt it, he let himself get hit.” 

Hearing this Clind intensified his electric shock, releasing three shackles and crushing the ground beneath his foot and whip even further. Electric sparks surrounded Clind, burning away the grass around him. The electricity was starting to damage Otto and Garfiel so a wall was quickly constructed by Garfiel to prevent themselves from being electrocuted to death.

Eventually Clind’s whip retracted from the dome and he took a moment to regain his breath. More laughter suddenly erupted from the dome, and it burst apart, the control shifting from Garfiel’s Divine Spirits to Lye's Earth Magic.

"How the-?" Garfiel questioned.

Lye smiled widely, his jagged teeth showing and he spoke in a horrifyingly familiar tone. "With the help of the AMAZING spirit Beatrice, I've managed to create two brand new spells in only a year! Now as long i have mana and don't move, we can, as Beatrice phrased it, sidestep this plane of existence, nullifying all attacks"

Clind, Garfiel and Otto all stopped moving at that moment as Gluttony's laughter echoed through the air. Lye had stolen Subaru's name, let it go after he died and even worse he had Subaru's spells, making it even more difficult to damage him. 

Otto grit his teeth. "We're not going to be able to kill him... not with... 'his' spells. We'll have to stall for time." 

Clind nodded, trying to keep his poker face but still visibly annoyed.

Garfiel grit his teeth and smashed his twin shields together, causing sparks to fly. "Ain't gonna stop me from trying."

Rem growled, crushing a black and purple-striped quadruped into the ground with her mace, one of Lust's Demi-beasts.  

"Stinks. Like mud, blood and death," Rem grunts.

"I understand that they smell disgusting," Ram said, dissecting 3 beasts with a single wind blade. "But I can't quite say that I understand what you mean. I can only sense the Miasma through our Clairvoyance. Though I wish I could empathize with your pain, sister."

"I wouldn't wish that- HRAH!" Rem swung her mace around, prompting Ram to duck. 10 Demi-beasts around her were struck by the mace and ,through the momentum, swung into each other before being bunched into a pile after Rem pulled her mace back. "I wouldn't wish that upon you, Nee-sama."

"We do have our hands full with... this," Ram replied, cutting the pile of beasts into pieces. “But I wish you would confide in me more. I feel as though I’ve failed Bar-... I’ve failed Subaru on that front.”

“You need not blame yourself for Subaru-sama’s name being lost.”

“I don’t. But I wish I had more memories of him that weren’t fighting,’ Ram muttered, almost silently. Most of her memories of Subaru were either teasing him harshly or getting information about Rem. Which… hurt a part of her that she didn’t even know that she had.

“...” Rem didn’t have a real reply for Ram. Eventually she decided to simply brandish her mace dramatically, the meaning clear. “Let’s avenge him then.”

The reason that Rem and Ram were fighting Demi-beasts was to keep them off of Roswaal, who was fighting Lust. He wasn't making any ground against the Archbishop. In order to do so, he would have to force Capella into a singular form before blasting her away with a powerful spell, something he was not able to do, because of her extending her limbs wildly into different directions and transforming them into heads or even more limbs to attack. 

When Roswaal incinerated a significant part of her, Capella would transform from her own ashes. But not as a body ready to attack. But as RATS.

Now on one hand, Roswaal likes rats. Roswaal always liked rats, they were his favorite animal. They are deceptively clever despite their individual weakness, they are willing to sacrifice themselves to test food for other members of a pack they are in. They multiply quickly and are nearly impossible to exterminate and can muster superhuman determination with only the slightest amount of hope. Aside from the multiplication, Roswaal truly hoped to be like one of them.

His love of rats only became stronger when Subaru came into his life. He was the most rat-like person that Roswaal had ever met, in the best way possible. He was tenacious. He was weak but clever. He would literally throw himself into the flames for those he considered important and was superhumanly tenacious as long as he had someone by his side. In hindsight, Roswaal questioned why he had thought that his will needed further tempering

"Sorry, Subaru." Roswaal muttered under his breath.

But on the other hand, Capella abused her Rats Form in the most annoying way possible. Because Roswaal and Capella weren't fighting on the front yard of the mansion any longer. Roswaal had to incinerate every single rat for fear that Capella would escape to other Camp members and transform them. So after an hour of fighting, Roswaal had cratered the floor and were now on the same level of the basement that they had kept Meili in for a year.

Speaking of which... a dome of Earth surrounded the rats that tried to escape and immediately collapsed in on them. A Leader Wolgarm had been summoned from the forest by Meili and was restraining Capella's movements as best it could with Earth Magic. Roswaal was too busy trying to keep track of Capella to cast multiple magic types at once, it was... immensely frustrating. Meili was only helping because with the Witch Cult more active, even though they were currently being raided, it was safer to be with the Emilia Camp than anywhere else. So she couldn't let it fall.

The only reason that she felt even somewhat comfortable being near Lust was because she was with Petra... on the roof of the mansion. So naturally Lust wouldn't be able to reach her even if she noticed her. Not unless Roswaal let her. But in that case, she'd use her dying breath to call every Witchbeast in the forest to the mansion as a final spiteful action. Subaru's death be damned, she didn't have true loyalty to this camp, or at least she didn't right then.

Back to Roswaal, he was struggling mentally in a different way than simply keeping track of each individual Lust-filled rat. Because that was only the second most annoying part of Lust. Dodging her attacks was fine, as long as she was attacking then she wasn't fleeing or attacking other members. All Roswaal had to do was fly away and tread carefully, simply attacking when her attacks were controlling the battlefield too well. Meili's Wolgarm Magic and Petra's few and far between Jiwald attacks when Lust wasn't able to tell they were on the roof were a surprisingly big help to deflect Lust's attention from Roswaal.

No, what was truly annoying was the form Capella took when attacking. Against Roswaal, she was transforming into two people, the two people that he missed the most. Both Echidna and Subaru. It was so frustrating to see Lust use their forms to attack with extended parts and dangerous heads that would kill him if he touched them or worse. They're disgusting expressions were so frustrating. And Lust's voice, her damn voice. Using their voices to taunt him or her voice in their body. It was disgusting. 

Simply looking upon their forms made it difficult for Roswaal to control his temper. The only thing allowing him to keep his composure was casting silencing magic upon her ears, preventing him from hearing her voice any longer. It was a bit disorienting to fight without hearing but it was necessary for him. Another limb with a lion's head attached to it extended towards him. Roswaal prepared to dodge but a mace slammed into the head, causing the attack to veer off-course. Rem had attacked, quickly focusing on the magic around him, he could tell that Beatrice had created the spatial forcefield, pushing the soulwashed enemies and Demi-beast out, so why were the Archbishops still there? They must have had a back-up plan thanks to their Gospel. Even an incomplete book of Wisdom was still a book of Wisdom after all. 

Fortunately the Archbishops were disoriented for a moment thanks to the field . Clind wrapped his whip around Gluttony, allowing Garfiel and Otto to combine their Earth Magic and Divine Protection to lift them off the ground despite his temporary invulnerability. With Clind's strength and Authority, Gluttony was thrown several kilometers away. Petra blinded Wrath with a Jiwald, causing Emilia and Frederica to be blinded as well through soulwashing. But they had already pinned and frozen her chains to the floor, allowing Beatrice to reluctantly teleport her away. The only action she could take to remove Wrath quickly without harming Frederica and Emilia.

Now all that was left was... Where was Wrath? Roswaal turned off the silencing magic.

"-VE YOU!" Rem and Ram screamed at him.

"ve... Abo-!" Roswaal realized too late but Lust had thrown her head into the sky and transformed into a dragon. A dragon that was charging their breath.

"Al Quintet!" Roswaal called out, a bit too late. His hasty magic only cushioning the blow and still striking him into the crater that he had created.

He heard alarmed shouts but it was hard to hear through the dizziness, he almost certainly had a concussion. 

"Get up..." He tried to tell himself but he couldn't muster the strength Roswaal's world went black as he lay on the ground.

Then he heard a voice.

"Clown...."

"What?" Roswaal responded, still on the floor.

Subaru appeared in the darkness "You heard me, you're a clown."

"Hah... Am I dead? I suppose I've failed my goal." Roswaal said somberly. "I couldn't keep my most important pieces on the board."

"Is that all we are to you? Part of a chess set? Pieces on your damn board?"

"...No."

"What was that?" Subaru asked him

"No. I was wrong," Roswaal admitted, :I sacrificed too many people. Too many friends, too much family. This isn't the outcome my teacher would have wanted, not truly. Not the one that I remember."

Subaru grimaced. "So now what? Are you going to give up on the 'pieces' you left on the board?" 

"...You would have saved them."

"..."

Roswaal laughed slightly. "Even without your power, you would have tried until you reached your last breath. And then pushed even further. I'm not that kind of person."

"Why not?" 

"I'm a coward, my beliefs, my way of thinking, my flaws. The reason the Book of Wisdom failed me was because I believed that no one could change at their core. I didn't believe YOU could change thanks to someone else. So Otto was omitted from my book. I've lost."

"I think people can change, that's why you're still alive even with the curse on your chest, even though you tried to kill us. Even though you DID kill us. I still wanted to believe that you could be better. I still believe in that... so... please."

Roswaal fell silent. The Subaru of his mind kneeled to the floor and placed his forehead on the ground, the same position he was in when he begged Roswaal to call off the assassins.

"Please protect them while I'm gone." Subaru begged.

"...Stand up." Roswaal said, still on his back. "Groveling doesn't suit you. You've earned the right to stand above me... So please... use that right."

Subaru stood up, smiling slightly and sadly at Roswaal. "Get up, and protect the last pieces on your chessboard. And keep them safe for me.

Roswaal finally stood up. "Yes, Subaru-kun... No... Thank you, Subaru-sama."

"Two Clowns at the mercy of fate." 

"No... Two clowns that will defy our fates."

Roswaal gently tapped his fist against Subaru's just as they both faded away.

Roswaal flew up from the crater at light speed, flying above the clouds in an instant. The sound barrier breaking multiple times over. Now facing the dragon of Lust far above the mansion and with a determined look in his eyes. She laughed at his nearly fully broken body.

"What? You lust-filled sack of meat! You believe that you can defeat me? Or even get rid of me? You FOOL!" Capella shrill laughter resounded through the air, but the sound emanating from her throat showed that she was charging another attack, if Roswaal dodged, Capella would simply aim the breath downwards, killing the others in the mansion sincethey couldn't see them above the clouds. He had to stop it... but how?

"ROSWAAL! CATCH!" A chorus of voices below him called out. A small black object, flew up at rapid speeds towards him, Roswaal caught it.

Roswaal laughed and tossed it in front of Lust's draconic snout. "The original gospel." 

Despite the cult's insanity, it was doubtful that any member of them would even hesitate for those words. It was a clear lie.... But it wasn't. And only the member with observation keen enough to read someone perfectly would be able to tell that it wasn't a lie. Lust's dragon breath stopped, dying in her throat.

"AL QUINTET!" Roswaal yelled, louder than he had ever yelled before, and 5 orbs appeared in front of him in a circle. Red fire, Blue water, Green Wind, Yellow Earth and White Yang. Each orb shot out a differently colored beam of magic, converging into one. Directly in front of Roswaal. And a huge beam was fired, enveloping the entirety of Lust drowning any possible scream... and the book that Roswaal spent 400 years following. Burnt by him once again.

But this time by choice.

Once the beam disappeared, there was no sign of Lust. Roswaal doubted that would kill her, but it very well would send her far, far away and destroy whatever she had that let her remain in Beatrice's forcefield. Or at least Roswaal hoped. Roswaal, flew back to the ground. And to the camp, who were all waiting on the ground anxiously. Even Meili,

"Where's the book?" Otto asked.

"Destroyed... for good this time." Roswaal said, with a strange smile. The camp was shocked. "But..... before anything else is said. I have a confession to make... about Subaru."

After Subaru was knocked out via mana drainage

After Roswaal told them about Subaru's ability She held on to a hope. A fragile, foolish hope that one day, her contractor would return to her. And just when she was losing hope, and nearly killed one of the only people who shared her pain. He did... and she nearly killed him again.

She was forced to drain his mana to even somewhat fix her mistake. And she felt the emotions he had built up, each one so strong that Beatrice thought that it would overwhelm her and overwrite her will. She would have accepted it. But this was so much more cruel, and fit her punishment perfectly. 

Fear, the fear of being touched, the fear of being abused, the fear of being forgotten, the fear of dying, the fear of going back to the beginning.

Anger, at the world for hurting him, at his friends for forgetting him, at himself for his incompetence.

Sadness, for losing what he had, for the hopelessness of his situation, the sadness of his friends looking at him like a stranger.

But... she couldn't sense hopelessness. He hadn't given up... not once. He was still here, despite her worst efforts, he was still  here. And that hurt... because he had to shoulder it alone. And Beatrice wasn't there for any of it...

He didn't need her.

But even worse, he felt one more emotion, one more overpowering than all the others.

Concern.

Concern for a world with the Witch Cult.

Concern for the friends who were hurt in battle.

Concern for his friends that he left behind.

Concerned for the mistakes that he thought he made.

Concern for her, for Beatrice....

But not a single thought spared for himself

"Why do you not care about yourself? Why couldn't we save you? Why did you have to die? Why are you back for us?"

WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY?? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? 

"Why would you still care about such a useless spirit? That abandoned you in you time of need. That let you die. That you could live without. That you deserved to live without."

"Betty will let you go. There is another that wants to see you, someone who comforted you more than Betty ever could. Someone who might have been your friend for even longer than Betty. Betty's only wish... is that eventually, you take revenge against her.... and kill her."

Chapter Text

The Path To The Mansion

As Ram, Rem and Roswaal approached the mansion, Ram walked at Roswaal’s left and Rem at her left. Rem idly swung her bloody mace in circles, slamming it against the floor each time it got close to the floor. Roswaal absent-mindedly repaired the ground with earth magic to fix the holes that she was making, leaving Rem herself to regrow the grass with her water magic.

It would not have been difficult to simply NOT destroy the ground with her mace, as Roswaal had pointed out but Rem was feeling particularly content with her mace. Now stained with the blood of cultists, to the point that she was humming a song that Ram hadn’t heard before. 

“Sister?” Ram asked.

Out of respect, Rem temporarily stopped humming and slamming her mace on the floor. Roswaal reacted to this a bit slowly, resulting in a random mound of dirt now in the middle of the path behind them. Roswaal didn’t seem to notice though and simply continued thinking. It wasn't a big deal after all.

“Nee-sama? What seems to be the matter?” Rem asked, tilting her head slightly.

“What is the song that you are singing? I don’t seem to recall it from anywhere.”

Indeed, Rem was much more proficient in traditional songs and poetry, to the point that Ram had also been made to memorize a significant amount of them by proxy. However, she didn't recognize this song whatsoever. Rem had never mentioned it before and it didn't sound similar to any of the other songs that Rem had sung before.   

Rem smiled sadly, nostalgia filling her eyes. “It’s one of the songs I learned from him.”

Ram silently looked at the mansion, that slowly increased in size as they got closer melancholy written on her face. That made sense, it was a bit gruesome to think of her in this situation although fitting. 

“You’ll have to teach me that song.”

Rem smiled before glancing at the make-upless clown at Ram’s side. He had his eyes closed in deep thought. Following her sister’s gaze, Ram looked at Roswaal’s face. The sisters looked at each other with clear dissatisfaction on their faces. When Roswaal became like this, it would be more difficult to take him out of his trance the longer he was left alone. 

Fortunately, the sisters had a routine to snap Roswaal out of his trance. It also doubled as a way for Rem's hostility towards Roswaal to be relieved to a certain extent. Ram began by moving to Roswaal’s right, letting Rem get closer to Roswaal’s left.

Ram started. "Oh no, dear sister, master is in distress!"

Roswaal’s eyebrow unconsciously twitched, not listening to Ram truly but rather an instinctive action to Ram calling him ‘master.’ Which was something that Roswaal had requested Ram and Frederica along with the other former maids and butlers to do away with. Petra and Rem did not need convincing, however. Which is what made the next sentence even more shocking the Roswaal’s psyche.

Rem spoke. "Oh no, Nee-sama, whatever shall we do to remedy this curse that has afflicted our master?" 

The fog slowly lifted up from Roswaal’s eyes and his train of thought was nearly derailed despite not actually hearing the words that were being spoken. 

"I suppose we will have to identify whatever has affected our master." Ram said with faux concern.

"I agree, dear Nee-sama. What do you

“Perhaps our master is beginning to scheme again, my dear sister.” Ram quips.

“I do hope he does not burn a village again sister, I fear he may be truly irredeemable in this case.” Rem quipped back, fully snapping Roswaal out of his trance.

Roswaal grimaced slightly. “It concerns me how quickly you will allude to that event to attack me. I truly believed that you would have been more apprehensive about the event. You'd never mentioned it to me before.”

“Master needs to be reminded of his sins,” Ram countered, “Otherwise,  he will slip back into old habits and cause ruin again. Isn’t that correct, sister?”

Rem nodded. “Indeed, Nee-sama. Should he begin his schemes again, despite his curse, he should be executed   and his life should be snuffed out immediately by Master's own order. An order that Rem is not necessarily looking forward to but would not hesitate should master-.”

“I GET IT! I GET IT! ENOUGH WITH THE 'MASTER'.” Roswaal shouted, prompting the oni twins to giggle which in turn resulted in himself smiling slightly. “Goodness, I truly do not deserve you two.

“For once, I agree.” Rem remarked off-handedly.

“For once?” Roswaal raised an eyebrow slightly.

“Moving on,” Ram interrupted, “What is on your mind, Roswaal-san?”

“The Witch Cult.”

Rem tightened her grip on the chain of her mace as Ram raised an eyebrow. They both spoke at the same time. “I hope you are not feeling empathy for those villains.”

“What? No, you two were brutal-” Roswaal started, resulting in Rem’s mace being moved to a position that would allow Rem to swing it at Roswaal more easily. “However, I will be the last person to say they do not deserve it.”

Ram and Rem’s eyes narrowed, forcing Roswaal to clarify. “Besides you two.” 

Ram and Rem relaxed slightly. Ram spoke up again, “So what about the Witch Cult WERE you thinking of?” 

“The Witch Cult was repelled but I am wondering how such a thing occurred. I do not believe that their retreat crossing paths with us was planned but-”

“Even with inferior ‘Books of Wisdom', they should not have been thwarted so easily. Not unless this was also part of their plan, in which case we should not have crossed paths, or a new wildcard was introduced.” Ram finished his thoughts.

“In which case, said wildcard could be a threat to both the Witch Cult and someone else. After all, anyone who is willing to take the side of the ‘half-elf’ village would surely be prone to starting ‘engagement.’” Rem added.

Roswaal sighed “Much like him, I’d say.” 

Three beads of sweat ran down three foreheads.

Rem smiled with forced politeness for the sake of the person who wasn't present. “I wouldn't call that a bad thing, though. But... well....”

“It doesn’t exactly fit with the image of a time-traveler though, does it?” Roswaal commented, finishing Rem's thoughts.

Ram shrugged. “I suppose that is just part of Touto-su’s charm,”

Rem and Roswaal’s eyes widen slightly in surprise at Ram’s remark. Ram noticed quickly and squinted with suspicion.

“What is it?”

“You simply are not the person that I would imagine those words coming from.”

“I must sadly agree with Roswaal, Nee-sama.”

“Sadly?” Roswaal asked, responding to the entirely earned criticism.

Ram ignored the faux offended remark of Roswaal. “I simply mean that if someone experienced Touto-su’s... let's say 'experiences' even if he had taken the most forgiving possible path. I would be surprised if they weren’t a bit more cold and cautious, leaving behind whatever carefree nature that he had.” 

“Hm… I suppose so. Hm, we’re home...” Roswaal noted before looking at the mansion's gazebo, “Hm… how odd, Frederica is here.”

Frederica stood hastily up from the mansion gazebo to face the trio, hearing Roswaal call her name even while she was asleep. She could not have been more obviously drowsy if she had tried. She had used her sharp hearing to wake up but her black and white dress, reminiscent of her maid uniform albeit less formal and less revealing, was clearly ruffled. Her hair was messy, showing that she had neglected to take care of it in the morning, and she had hit her head on a pillar when she stood up. It was so utterly unlike Frederica, clearly something had happened. Ram tapped the side of her mouth, prompting Frederica to wipe off non-existent drool on her face, leaving Frederica confused and Ram smugly smirking at her little prank. 

“That wasn’t nice, Raaaaaaaam.” Roswaal remarked with his signature inflection, causing the three maids to gag. A harsh reminder that the speech patterns were not missed even by the person who cared about him the most. It was still a bitter taste in his mouth despite the effort he had put in to be done away with for the characteristic so Roswaal scowled. “Ok, it wasn’t THAT bad.”

“Ignoring the pathetic attempts at humor; is everything alright, Frederica?’ Rem asked, leaving an off-handed but scathing remark for Roswaal.

Frederica sighed. “We’ve… had… The most unlucky day in a while. But also, I have some good news… And they’re gone.”

"They are quite excited. Hasty. Although it's good that they're feeling excited." Clind remarked with a bit of humor in his eyes.

“I… suppose so.” Roswaal said, now feeling a bit lonely as he now stood alone. The Oni twins had already left him alone in a mad dash to the mansion.

Indeed, as soon as Frederica had said ‘unlucky day’ Ram had deduced out why Frederica was back at the mansion. There were only two people Ram knew that were unlucky enough to put Frederica in this state and Otto wasn’t there. It would also explain why the Witch Cult was repelled so quickly. Ram wasn’t certain but even with a 10% chance, Ram had deemed it a waste to spend even another second in anticipation. Hence, with a whisper to Rem, the twins were off to the front door.

“So just to confirm,” Roswaal said, forcing himself to bring his attention back to Frederica and Clind. “Subaru has returned, correct?”

“That is…” Frederica began before being quickly interrupted by a few faint yells from the mansion, not distinct enough to make out.

Roswaal, Clind and Frederica grimaced as they heard a multitude of impacts from the mansion. With Roswaal’s experience in magic and Frederica’s hearing, they were able to hear beams of light from Jiwald had suddenly struck both stone and metal, followed by a blade of wind striking the tiled floor.

Clind, noticing their expressions had a suggestion. "We should go to them. Haste."

After rushing to the door, Frederica, Clind and Roswaal would be shown an interesting view. Ram holding her wand in a defensive position with her clothes bloodied slightly. Next to her, Rem was holding her mace to her side, hands shaking slightly. Across the entrance room from them, Meili was with two Wolgarms to either side of her, ready to pounce. Behind Meili was Petra, who had a fearful look on her face, her hair was also now cut unevenly.

A wide gash on the ground along with a shattered plate and glass lay on the floor in front of Meili. A few holes were now in the wall above the stairs. A part of the railing from the stairs was now broken off and was to the side of Rem and Ram. 

The position was strange enough but the strangest thing was that despite clearly facing each other in a hostile position, they all looked absolutely confused.

“I think an explanation is in order,” Roswaal said, a look of annoyed confusion on his face.

After Subaru's Mana Drainage.

Clind and Sylphy exited the mansion after hearing the commotion and it was absolute chaos in the yard. Emilia was apologizing profusely, covering Beatrice with her body as Meili slammed her fist and feet into her, clearly enraged. It seemed like a childish tantrum but Meili was targeting the joints and sensitive body parts. Emilia wasn’t being injured but was clearly in pain, which her tears made clear. Possibly moreso due to the insults and harsh words that Meili spoke towards her.

Perhaps the most strange, Puck was floating off to the side rather than protecting Emilia. This was due to him coming to the conclusion that stopping Meili would likely hurt Emilia more than it would help her. What Puck was doing was trying to comfort Beatrice who was in the second worst state. The loli spirit’s eyes were red from crying, crying that she was desperately trying to stop. Her attempts to compose herself were in vain, however, as her face was covered with snot and tears and seemingly unable to stop or even breathe properly. If she wasn’t a spirit, Beatrice surely would have passed out from hyperventilation, making her situation even more cruel.

From Clind and Sylphy’s perspective, Frederica and Petra were having a conversation while crouched down to something that was lying on the floor. However, they were obscuring what they were talking next to. Upon closer inspection, it was a person. And upon even closer inspection.

“SUBARU?!” Sylphy and Clind exclaimed, the latter of which was so shocked that he did not add an idiom to the end of his sentence.

Petra and Frederica, who hadn’t noticed the two’s approach, looked up at them from their crouching position and gave two gentle waves with tired expressions on their faces. However, before Clind or Sylphy could continue their questioning, Frederica and Petra looked back at each other to continue their conversation.

“So, Subaru will awaken in about a day if we leave him and in a few minutes if I increase his mana intake with Yang magic.” Petra said to reconfirm.

Frederica nodded. “Correct. But I am a bit inclined to leave him to rest, he will need it.”

“But he’s barely eaten. And what he has eaten, he threw up. We need to reintroduce food to his system. I’m pretty sure he’s been running on adrenaline and willpower rather than actual energy. He can’t be sustained like that.”

“That’s tru- IP!” Frederica was interrupted and uttered a surprisingly cute exclamation in surprise.

Sylphy and Clind snapped their fingers next to Petra and Frederica’s ears, surprising them.

“Sy-Sylphy. Clind.” Petra muttered.

“So you really didn’t register our presence then.” Sylphy sighed.

“I suppose your day has been eventful then? Significant. I think we’ll need an account of events. Explanation.” Clind added. 

The explanation didn’t take particularly long to do. So it was now time to actually discuss what they were going to do with Subaru. The process of getting Beatrice and Emilia into a state that she could speak and the prying of Meili off of Emilia took more time than the explanation did. 

“...Should we leave my con- Should er leave Su-...” Beatrice tried to stammer out with some difficulty. She found herself unable to refer to Subaru by title or name without choking on the last remnants of his mana. “Should we really leave him on the floor?” 

Puck looked upon Subaru’s form with a mixture between disgust and concern. “…I hate to admit it but I’m a bit… No, I’m very afraid to touch him.” 

“What?” Emilia asked, clearly surprised. “Why would he scare you?”

Frederica and Meili looked at her with fairly harsh glares as Petra looked away. Petra would feel hypocritical for judging them, seeing Frederica was the only thing that had prevented a similar outcome when she saw Subaru. Emilia tried her best to ignore them, lest she be reduced to tears again. 

“His mental state is… well… ‘unstable’” Puck clarified.

“Well, that much is clear but that doesn’t quite explain why you’re afraid to touch him.’ Sylphy pointed out.

Puck gave a cute smile but it was clearly forced. “Ok, this is hard to explain but bear with me. When I read emotions, it’s more like seeing the aura around someone. Like maybe a shift in the air or a change in color. It’s like a sense between sight and touch. Regardless… the sense isn’t working on Subaru.” 

“So what? It’s like Onii-san doesn’t have any emotion?” Meili asked.

Puck shook his head. “Opposite. His emotions are so strong that I can’t get a read on him. All I can sense is that… it’s bad. He’s been through a lot. It’s a miracle he even chose to come back, I’m glad that he did but I’m not sure how good it will be for his mental health. In short, I’m afraid of setting him off.”

A few beats of silence passed over the group. If that was true then there was a genuine risk of Subaru abandoning them and for good reason. Or, even worse, have a mental break. The latter of which had to be avoided at all costs, making moving Subaru now a precarious subject.

Emilia closed her eyes in deep thought. “Hm… Ah! Mn…” Emilia exclaimed suddenly, opening her eyes, an idea coming to mind but then she closed her eyes again, a hopeless expression now adorned on her pretty face. She reluctantly turned towards the loli spirit. “Beako…”

“...!!!” Beatrice looked at Emilia with confusion at her calling. Then she realized what Emilia was asking of her and stepped away with a betrayed expression on her face. Beatrice gripped her twintails simply out of stress, a year of neglect had already cursed her hair with a messy look but they were getting even worse as she seemed to be attempting to pull them off of her hair.

Beatrice really did not want to go through the process of explaining Subaru’s current mental state for it would require her to relive the experience she had just experience.

“If this is Betty’s punishment, then she’ll go through with it, I suppose,” Beatrice thought, “I do not believe that Su- he will leave at least. There’s a sense of anger, fear and sadness directed towards us…”

“No thanks to us.” Was the silent sentence that Emilia could sense Beatrice say despite her clearly not saying that. Emilia barely kept her composure.

“There’s a stronger sense of… concern for us, in fact. It’s… cruel, in fact. Although, it certainly confirms his identity, I suppose.” Beatrice tried to end on a positive note but the look of despair on her face rendered the notion null.

The group suddenly felt twice as weighty as the weight of guilt hung heavy on their shoulders and minds alike. Frederica and Meili dug their fingers into their arms, an act that did not go unnoticed by Petra. She was beginning to suspect something significant had happened when they fainted near the village.

Sylphy spoke up. “Well, his mental state certainly needs to be attended to. He needs a few days of peace at least. His condition is… sub-par. Emilia, even if we can’t touch him, can you ask your water spirits to heal him?”

Emilia’s already pale face became almost entirely white at the prospect of touching Subaru, even indirectly once more. “Wha- But… If they touch- Then I- I can’t…”

“He is unconscious right now, in fact. Besides, we have reason to believe he’d be fine with… other spirits, I suppose.” Beatrice’s voice threatened to crack, much like her soul.

“Oh- Right.” Emilia replied, with a bit of sadness in her voice. She had her lesser water spirits heal Subaru’s wounds. His cuts, burns and bruises from previous fights faded but didn’t fully disappear. Emilia’s spirits came up to her afterwards and Emilia’s already sour expression soured further. “...Oh No.”

“What’s wrong?” Petra asked.

“His condition is terrible. Basically every part of his body is damaged. It won’t collapse, yet.  But… it sounds painful. And his body looks like it's trying to tear itself apart slowly. My spirits can’t heal it.” 

Puck was aghast. “What? But that would mean that... his body’s natural state has been… altered…"

“Ferris…” The entire group uttered with contempt in their voices. 

Getting back on track for his injuries, Sylphy spoke up. "Well, as for his injuries. The nutrition deficiency seems to be the only thing left that we can do anything about."

Petra raised a hand. "I can make something for him, as long as we don't wake up too quickly, he should be able to ingest some food without resistance in his sleep.... I hope" 

“I think we'll have to- bite the bullet?" Frederica said with confusion in her voice, "And carry him to a bed and keep his movements and stress to a minimum and his healing to a maximum." 

 With that, Frederica carried Subaru to his bedroom. Sylphy went to look over Subaru, Petra insisted on handling the kitchen by herself, Meili went to the basement to play with the 'pets' that she had left there and Frederica went to the Gazebo for a much needed rest with Clind's supervision.

Everything went well until Petra had finished her meal for Subaru. She felt content with her cooking and went to the stairs to bring him his meal. But was suddenly surprised by a flash of pink and moving up the stairs as fast as it could. Before Petra realized it, she had acted on instinct. To protect Subaru from whatever was moving to get to him, Petra immediately dropped the plate and glass and extended her hand towards the twins, who she only recognized after she had called out her spell.

"EL JIWALD!"

Five beams of light struck out in front of Ram and Rem, who had their momentum turned against them and would run into the beams of light. In a split second decision, Rem threw her mace to block the closest beams of light and slam through the stair railing. Thinking quickly, she wrapped the chain of her mace around her sister, the blood of the cultists staining her clothes.

"Fura."

Ram, who had not seen who had attacked them, casted a Fura spell with her wand. This sent a blade of wind toward Petra, who barely managed to duck away but had a non-insignificant part of her hair cut off. Rem landed on the ground, catching her sister who had Rem's chain wrapped around her. Hearing the commotion, Meili came running with two Wolgarms for back-up.

It had taken a few moments for the four girls to realize what had just happened on a surface but they were unaware of the circumstances leading up to this moment so they were all still utterly confused as to why it had happened so an air of distrust filled and each person took up defensive positions.

The Mansion

“Then… you appeared.” Meili admitted, now sweating in embarrassment now that she understood what had happened.

Roswaal sighed. “Well, that’s certainly one way for Subaru's first day back to go. And I should ask, do you know what happened with the village? We 'intercepted' some Witch Cultists on our way back hidden among an invasion force."

Roswaal said intercepted but judging by the blood stains on Rem's mace, it was unlikely that a single cultist survived.

Frederica nodded. "Subaru had left early in the morning to search the forest. There was a bit of a panic in the village when we realized he was gone but he returned… relatively safely.”

“The village was notified of his return before us?” Ram said, contempt clear at not being told sooner.

“Ram, please…” Roswaal pleaded with Ram to calm down.

“He went into the forest without Meili?” Rem asked, “He’d be attacked immediately by Witchbeasts.”

“Onii-san did yes, but he managed to outmaneuver them long enough to find the Witch Cult and return.” Meili clarified.

“That certainly suggests that Subaru had gone back in time. If not to avoid the Witchbeasts then to find the Witch Cult before the attack.” Roswaal noted.

Petra shook her head in response to Roswaal’s theory. “Subaru said that we’d know if he went back. He gets a mental backlash from the influx of memories. Even if we didn’t see the backlash, the way he said it implies that he didn’t go back. At least not when he met us.”

Meili caught on to Petra's implication. “But you’re saying the Witch Cultists in the capital might have forced his hand?”

Petra nodded. “If Subaru believes his ability still works despite it clearly being… unusable in some way in his imprisonment, he might have used it.”

“What else did he say about his ability?” Ram asked, now calmer.

Frederica answered with a complicated expression on her face. “He had a restriction that, in his words, ‘crushed his heart’ when he used it.”

“!!!” Rem gasped in shock, causing all heads in the room to turn to her. “So that’s why…”

“Sister, please elaborate.”

“Subaru has the Witch’s Scent, I believe I’ve already mentioned that; same with Beatrice. But what I didn’t mention is that it spikes at random times. At first, when I learned about his ability, I thought that he was going back but that didn’t align with his behavior, although I’m also sure that the scent also increases when he does go back.” Rem said, thinking back to when Subaru tried to run away with her before the Sloth attack.

Ram grit her teeth. “But the restriction also increases the Witch’s Scent, doesn’t it? That’s how he drew the witchbeasts away from us.”

Rem added on. “He used it against the White Whale too, we would have lost without it. Although, it doesn’t feel right that he was hurting himself so badly to use it. I’m glad it’s gone.”

“So Subaru used to regularly have his heart damaged to protect others. Why did I think his resolve needed tempering? What was wrong with me?” Roswaal thought, despite knowing the answer. 

Roswaal then spoke aloud. “To be in mutual understanding, I’m going to list off Subaru’s conditions. The good news is that his restriction is gone, his gate is functioning properly and that he’s… well alive. The bad news is that his body is injured and healing magic is less effective on him, his body is in a bad state and is attempting to tear apart, his stamina and lung capacity is reduced,” 

Petra raised a hand, timidly. “One more thing, his body has remnants of miasma due to mana poisoning in prison. And it doesn’t seem to be draining.”

“Oh joy.” Ram remarked sarcastically.

“Onii-san’s alive, though right?” Meili tried.

“We should count our blessings. Affirmative,” Clind added on now finished with cleaning the floor, “We should get food from Subaru though.”

“Oh right!” Petra whisper-shouted, dashing off to the kitchen.

“Now how to fix the wall, floor and railing?” Roswaal muttered before turning to his side. “Ram and Re-”

“They’re gone again.” Frederica pointed out. 

“I suppose, they are off to see their returned loved one.” Roswaal sighed.

“Are you not going to see Onii-san as well?” Meili asked.

“No, I think I should wait until he’s better. I have things to talk to him about. But… I’m glad he’s returned. Home feels a bit brighter now he’s back.”

“It does. Happiness.”

Chapter Text

“I don’t recognize this surface.” Subaru thought. He had awoken but had yet to open his eyes, sensing his surroundings first. Learning how to sense his surroundings without a sense becomes pretty important when any one of your senses can be removed on a whim. It’s possible that he spent more time without either of his two eyes than having both.

Subaru almost shivered as he recalled the process of his eyes being removed. First he had to be restrained so he couldn't stop it. He had to hold himself back from moving otherwise he'd damage the eye. The process of Felix slowly slicing the skin and muscle around the eye with a small knife before the vein and nerves connecting it to the rest of his head were….

“Let’s not focus on things like that,” Subaru scolded himself mentally, snapping out of the memory. “First of all, why am I here? I remember seeing Beatrice and Emilia about to attack each other. I don’t remember what happened from there but I imagine I jumped in. Then, they probably ran up to me and hugged me. Since I can’t remember anything I must have had a breakdown. And since I was asleep, I must have had my mana drained. But I think I’ve been fed in my sleep seeing as I’m not very hungry.”

That was the kind of deductive reasoning that Return By Death had forced upon him and managed to get him past even a week in his cell. As far as Subaru could tell, his mana storage was at a normal level, so he must have been out for at least a day. Physically he felt fine, his body probably isn’t in a good state but he’d already forgotten what it felt like to be ‘normal.’ After all the only times when he was in a decent state in prison, he was enduring the feeling of his last state before returning.

“What is that called? Phantom Pain?” Subaru asked himself, “Anyways, I’m alive so I should drop it for now, I have more important things to do than mourn my past self. I was probably moved to a different room. I wonder if they kept my room from before intact.“ 

Opening his eyes slightly, he could see the ceiling. He didn’t recognize that ceiling, his memories had faded over time, which was a bit sad. But he knew it was his room, his whip was hanging above him on the wall. He was almost certainly out of practice but it made him really happy to see it.

Subaru had the strength to get up but he didn’t. He had a bit of time to get up so he would give himself about a minute. It would be a waste of everyone’s time if he stayed in bed, people surely missed him. Regardless of the truth of the circumstance, those were his genuine thoughts.

Wriggling his ears slightly, he began listening for any interesting noises. A subtle, almost unnoticeable sound came to his awareness. Breathing. Awake breathing. Someone was watching him. Subaru’s heart started beating faster out of instinct but he stifled the feeling. He was sure this was someone he knew. So it was unforgivably selfish to waste their time and let them look over his sorry state.

“H-Hi.” Subaru said, picking himself up and trying to ignore the everlasting pain in his healed but still damaged body, despite his ‘noble’ efforts to seem fine, the pain causing his vision to spin, preventing him from recognizing the person watching him. He wasn’t exactly fine yesterday but pain under his skin felt so much worse for some reason.

“S-Subaru-sama,” the person muttered, shocked. That was… that was… He didn’t recognize that voice. But he heard her stand up from a chair with a start, pushing it back as he stood up. He quickly pulled back as she did, instinctively avoiding physical contact the girl moved back in kind with concern weighing heavy on her voice. “Please lie back down, you’re injured pretty badly.”

Subaru didn’t lie down, rather he tried to sit up straighter and face the girl through his blurry eyes. He rubbed one of his eyes but stopped quickly. It hurt. Why did it hurt? “Um… I’m really sorry but I don’t recognize you…”

“Ah.” The girl seemed to be stunned momentarily but regained her composure quickly. “ No worries, we’ve actually never met officially. I’m Sylphy, one of Re- Greed’s former wives. You and Emilia saved me and I’ve been working in this mansion as a maid ever since. Just don’t tell anyone!” 

Subaru’s vision hadn’t fully cleared but he could pretty clearly visualize Sylphy with a teasing smile at the last sentence. But hearing the statement about being Regulus’ former wife bothered her. Something more than Sylphy being involved with the Witch Cult in the past. 

Subaru’s fist instinctively clenched as a theory formed in his mind. “Ah. Sorry, my memory has been pretty foggy…”

“You have nothing to apologize for. But please lay back down, your body needs rest.” Sylphy insisted, seemingly determined to keep Subaru down.

Subaru would oblige for a bit, laying back down, but also had to ask, “May I ask why?”

“Quite frankly, your body is in a deplorable state.”

Subaru already knew that his body was not in a great state but the words stung. “Thanks…”

Sylphy looked at him, slightly annoyed, and sighed. “That’s not what I meant. Aside from your injuries, which on their own would be manageable, and your hair, which will get better with time provided that the wounds on your mind heal; your body is broken beyond repair. It’s literally tearing itself apart slowly.”

“That makes sense, even if I’m better than I was in the prison, the wounds and crack still exist.”

“This is an improved state?”

“I’m going to have to explain this to each person I know. Or just hide it.”

“No no no, I’ll explain that to them. I should have expected this but goodness, Subaru-sama.”

Subaru slightly furrowed his eyebrows. “Please let go of the honorific, I haven’t done anything for you to require you to treat me as such after so long. If anything, you're above me since I’ve just returned. I’d much rather you be casual with me.”

Sylphy took a moment to register what Subaru had just told her, he couldn’t be serious. Could he? But looking at his embarrassed and, quite frankly, foolish expression she was forced to confront the fact that Subaru truly did not understand the position he currently held in the world and had even forgotten the role he had in the past. Unacceptable. 

Sylphy rudely scoffed at Subaru’s words and her polite tone was immediately done away with. “What a bastardous thing to say. It makes me feel sorry for the others.”

“Eh? I just asked if you could refer to me casually.” 

Sylphy’s eyes twitched, looking upon the dumbfounded Subaru. She had heard stories from his friends from before he was gone and had heard what he had achieved on his brief return. Sylphy was certain that Subaru was not stupid but she was also certain that Subaru was an idiot. And from her momentary interaction with him, she was certain that their understanding of him was neither wrong nor outdated. In short, this was most certainly Subaru at its core.

Sylphy sighed with a small smile upon this realization. “That’s not what I meant. To belittle our struggles in your absence and our history within your presence is… well it’s unkind.”

“Right, that does exist now doesn’t it?” Subaru said with a mix of snark and spite, before wincing at his own tone. “Sorry.”

“No, please do speak like that. It's less jarring than to see you put yourself down.”

“...I don’t really know how to respond to that.” Subaru muttered, “But really, I’d prefer that you speak to me casually.”

Sylphy hesitated but eventually complied,  “Understood Subaru.”

“Thank you. So, Sylphy, how’s everythin- how’s everyone in the mansion?” Subaru said. He was going to ask how everything has been but decided that it might be best to speak with everyone individually to make up for lost time and to get a better idea of his situation. 

“Well, you’re awake at about 3 fire time.” Sylphy said, Subaru barely managed to translate that to 9 A.M. so he really was out for a bit less than a day. “Clind, Rem and Ram stopped by earlier and are now doing chores in the mansion but will be sure to see you once they have realized that you are awake.”

“What about Emilia and Beatrice?” Subaru asked. He had them as top priority since he all but knew for certain that they had resulted in his panic attack.

“Beatrice is hidden somewhere with door crossing. Reading your emotions through your mana was… Well, I didn’t know that spirits could get sick.” 

“Crap.” Subaru said, almost getting out of bed to check on her but was quickly stopped by Sylphy pointing a finger towards him as if to poke him. “No fair.”

Sylphy lowered her hand after making sure that Subaru would remain in bed for the time being. “Emilia and Puck said that they intended to speak with you later.”

“Oh! Puck’s back? That’s great!” Subaru smiled with relief before becoming serious once more. “Um, you mentioned Clind. But what about… Clind’s master? Annerose, I think.”

Sylphy’s eyebrow raised, his memory was good or maybe he really wasn’t in the prison for that long. “She’s not currently in the mansion, it’s a bit of a precarious position but she’s at a different Noble’s house trying to manage control.”

“A bit much for a child to do.”

“I agree, but if we don’t make use of every resource then things will get worse for us.”

“True. What about Petra, Frederica and Meili? DId they go back to the village?”

“No, I believe that they’re currently in the basement with some Wolgarms that Meili is keeping as pets.”

“Huh, they’ve been getting along well.”

“Hm…” Sylphy pondered, “I suppose so.”

“How’s Roswaal been?”

“He’s been busy but claims that he’s been trying to be better since you left.”

“Did he ditch the clown make-up?” Subaru asked.

Sylphy paused. “...Did he wear make-up?” 

Subaru’s eyes widened slightly before laughing. “That’s great. I’m glad everyone’s been good without me.”

“Hm… You know, it’s alright to be upset about being forgotten,you’re fully in the right to be angry at us for forgetting you.” Sylphy couldn’t detect anything on Subaru’s face that stated that his sentence was a lie but the phrasing bothered her. ‘Good without me.’ Such are the words of a selfless but hurting person.

“I… I’m not ready to be upset yet.”

“Then I’ll leave it at that. I shall inform the others that you have awakened.” Sylphy said, turning towards the door, before being stopped by Suabru’s words

“Wait,” Subaru said with a serious expression on his face.

“How have you been, Sylphy?”

That surprised her, Subaru really didn’t know her so it was strange to her that he’d prioritize her over seeing the other even a fraction of a second sooner. The entire conversation seemed strange to her for that matter. In that case, Sylphy had no choice but to consider Subaru a truly kind person. She understood why they had gotten together so well.

“I’ve been good, the mansion has been very accommodating.” Sylpy said with a smile

“Yeah, I’d expect nothing less from them,” Despite this, Subaru's expression didn’t change. “And the other wives’?”

Sylphy pinched the palm of her hand, trying to maintain her composure. Remembering the other wives sent a shiver down her spine. She had to remain calm though. “I… haven’t remained in contact with them.”

“Alright, let me ask again.” Subaru said, scowling now. ”How have you been, Sylphy?”

“I… I’m afraid that I don’t understand the question.” Sylphy stammered.

Subaru clarified. ”Now that Regulus is back.”

“Huh?”

“....”

“Eh!?”

“....”

“uh??”

“....”

“Ah..”

Sylphy tried to open her mouth to speak but she couldn’t make out any more than surprised grunts. 

Sylphy felt weak. It was just his name. Subaru had only said his name. But she felt weak. She stumbled back to her chair, like a zombie. She was breathing too quickly. She needed to slow down. She needed to stop.

Her vision blurred as her legs started to buckle. Her husband. She swung her hand back trying to find the chair and sit down. That man. Visions of blood and death filled the back of her mind. Fear. So much fear. The day... the day that Regulus had managed to get through Beatrice's barrier somehow.

"Kill Me." 

Those words, words she never thought that she'd utter again. She had asked the blood-soaked Emilia to end her life before Regulus could. Just before they were about to find them. Remnants of Greed's Authority still clung to them, all of his wives'. Except Emilia, who had the attachment removed manually. The only wife free from his greed.

Sylphy didn't want to die, but even more than that she didn’t want to die by that monster’s hand. Reliving that day, Sylphy could only speak one phrase. 

"Kill Me. Kill Me. Kill Me. Kill Me. Kill Me. Kill Me. Kill Me. Kill Me. Kill Me. Kill Me. Kill M- Ugh."

Sylphy’s madness mantra was interrupted. A feeling of pain in her side. She would have fallen to the ground right there if Subaru didn’t push the chair into the back of her legs, forcing her to sit down in it. Getting a glance at Subaru’s whip in-between breaths, Sylphy figured out what Subaru had done.

‘In her delirium, Subaru had struck her liver with the handle of the whip. The liver was a painful place to hit but it was effective to snap her out of the flashback. Sylphy clutched her side in pain but smiled slightly.

“Thanks.”

“Please don’t thank me for hitting you.” Subaru said, slightly embarrassed. “Do-Do you want to talk about it?”

Sylphy shook her head and stood up, still clutching her side in pain. “I… think I’m going to throw up.”

“You can use the bathroom in this room.”

“It-It’s fi- Oolp~” Sylphy tried to deny the offer but nearly threw up immediately. Subaru opened the door and Sylphy rushed through it, leaving Subaru on the other side.

Subaru moved back to bed with a contemplative expression on his face.

“So… he’s back, huh?” Subaru mumbled… “This ought to be- Ack!”

Subaru suddenly jumped back feeling a sudden warmth on his cheek. Subaru was surprised but quickly realized something quickly… He didn’t move away from fear of being touched… but from surprise.  His phobia didn’t trigger. Looking at the person that had touched him, he saw a small glowing purple orb. 

“...Cancri?”

Beta Cancri - The brightest star in the constellation, Cancer.

Cancer - The dimmest of the zodiacal constellations.

Chapter Text

Chapter Text

The Hallway

That was a stupid move, Ram would be the first to admit. In fact, now that she’d begun doing it, she couldn’t actually have thought of a worse thing to do. If she wanted to actually do anything productive, she should have done anything else. Knowing Subaru, killing him right there would have been less painful, regardless of his Authority activated in death or not.

So obviously, the obvious thing to do would be to turn back now and discard her pride. Actually, that would probably preserve more of her pride than it would be to run away from her sister and self-appointed brother. But she didn’t, her feet continued to carry her down the hallway.

“You shouldn't think of me as family,”

How ironic, how FUCK~ING ironic. Because he was right, he was right. She shouldn’t think of him as family. Actually, she shouldn’t have a family at all. Because she forgot both of them and let one of them die. It’s almost funny. She might have actually laughed if she didn’t have her mouth closed to restrain her sobs. Ignoring her runny nose, tearful eyes and bleeding forehead. 

Pathetic. ‘Reincarnation of the Oni God’. What a joke. Forgot her sister and only kept her in her life because of Subaru. Then forgot them too and left them in a prison to be tortured before their execution. Left someone who could go back in time in a prison so they could suffer for longer. It’s pathetic.

The only reason Subaru’s here is because Meili found him; that and he was nice enough to go back. Back to this forsaken mansion and stuck in this cesspool of a kingdom. Back in the hell that she’d been cruel enough to want him to sink back into. 

She didn’t. She should be happy, she should be worried but happy. Worried about Subaru’s state, happy that he was back. 

But she couldn’t. 

Not if he couldn’t be happy to be back. 

But how was he supposed to be happy to be back? His memories of their time together had faded.

Not that Ram had made any good memories with him anyways.

…Wait,

No good memories.

The realization hit her like a ground dragon. She tumbled to the ground like a ragdoll, body going limp and hitting the floor like a wet rag after tripping on the carpet. She’d said that she wished that she’d made more good memories with Subaru. But did they have a memory that was inherently good? 

Anything that could just be them laughing or smiling or something, anything. The snow festival? They barely interacted then, and even the contest hadn’t been particularly memorable. Not in a good way anyways. The year Rem was gone? Ram didn’t want to remember it but she was desperate now. 

Banter, arguments, taunting. Fun in context but that had long been stripped away, even she couldn’t find the humor in them now. In fact, after what Subaru had said, she actually held those moments in contempt. Ram felt sick. But she picked herself off the floor and was about to start gaining distance again but stopped. 

“Wait…” 

Looking back through the hallway, she’d barely moved from the door. She probably should have noticed sooner now that she’d been running for a while. Looking back at the hallway, it seemed to be extending infinitely. With an endlessly extending trail of tears, blood and snot, all from her.

“Infinite Corridor…” Ram breathlessly whispered.

At those words, the endlessly stretching corridor began to fade, leaving a jarring end to the trail she’d left and a man with a very concerned expression standing only a few feet away. Roswaal.

If Ram still had a hopeless crush on him, she would have made a feeble attempt to save face, remain shellshocked or collapse. But she didn’t, all she saw was a father figure(?) a very concerned mage looking down upon her feeble state. She didn't even address him, just trying to run past as fast as she could, releasing 2 shackles to do so before he could stop her.

"Not a chance."

"Urk-"

Ram was stopped simply by Roswaal holding out a hand and letting her ram (no pun intended) her bleeding forehead into his hand, forcing her to stumble back. Instead, before Ram could react, Roswaal quickly extended his now bloodied hand towards Ram's face. Flinching back instinctively, Ram raised her arms to block but was too slow.

Roswaal firmly gripped her forehead and gently transferred mana to Ram, who hadn't even recognized how exhausted she was. However, even though her physical pain was relieved and she felt like she could lose strength in her legs, Ram pulled away from Roswaal's grip, causing him to raise an eyebrow. 

"That... wasn't necessary. But thank you."

"Now what could have you of all people worked up to the point of releasing shackles?" Roswaal probed.

"You can ask Subaru-sama," Ram said dismissively, even if the words felt heavy in her mouth. "Now if you'll excuse me."

"'Subaru-sama'? You've never once in the past year of Subaru being gone referred to him as anything other than 'him' or Touto-su. Did he do something wrong?"

"No! I-" Ram quickly shut her mouth as Roswaal frowned.

"Ram, please. If this isn't about Subaru, then it's about you. It's quite literally that simple. There might be more to you than I initially gave you credit for but you certainly are not such a complicated person."

Ram remained silent for a few seconds, breaking eye contact. "I... am... fine."

Roswaal didn't say anything.

"I... just... I just need to breathe for a minute. I-”

Roswaal pulled Ram into his chest for a hug. Ram stopped moving for a moment, then started trembling. “Wh-what is this-?”

“Please…”

“...” 

Ram remained silent.

Then she choked on her tears.

Then she resumed crying into Roswaal’s chest as he pat her head gently.

Subaru’s Room

Subaru and Rem were able to mostly regain their composure after some time. But honestly, they were just reduced to pained trembling.

Subaru was eventually the one to break the silence. “It hurts, right?” 

“It does.”

“Do you hate me for that? For forgetting our time together?”

“I could never.”

“Why?”

“Rem could never hate Subaru-kun. Not while she knows who he is. And even if I wanted to… Rem supposes the blame would fall on us.”

“...Please don’t blame yourselves.”

“It’s hard to let go of guilt. You know that, right? That’s why you always seemed so tormented back then too. As if you couldn’t let go of your failures?”

“....”

“Rem knows it’s hard. It was impossible for Rem to broaden her world view after her sister lost her horn. That’s why Rem fell in love with Subaru-kun; he helped her time move again. Rem will always love Subaru for that.”

“...” Subaru frowned slightly.

“I’m not asking for reciprocation.”

“I know but… I want to. I sense it, the feeling is still there. It’s just… not fair.”

“If you want to, then take all the time you need. Rem will always be waiting for you. Emilia will too.”

“I’m a mess.”

“I know.”

“I’m tired. I’m bruised and I’m broken.”

“But you're here, that’s all we wished for. That’s all we wanted for the past year. We couldn’t be happier that you returned, even if the circumstances are bad.”

“...Can you tell me about what happened before? Back when we first met?”

Rem smiled. “Rem will do her best” 

After a while, Subaru and Rem had recapped all the way back to the Capital when Subaru had an outburst in front of the entirety of the Royal Selection. That was something Subaru could actually remember. Not only because it was a memorable event but because Meili attributed it as a major driving force behind the current civil war. 

“I think we should stop for now. You should check on Ram.”

“Even now, you’re still thinking about others.” Rem thought. “Understood, I-”

Rem tried to stand up but immediately collapsed on the ground. She was still suffering from the after-effects of getting hit by Subaru’s shamak after all the stress, both Subaru and Rem had forgotten why Rem had to be carried into the room in the first place 

“Rem!” Subaru shouted, kneeling down about a meter away from her body.

“Rem…. can’t summon any strength to her legs. How did Subaru-kun move like this?”

“....You won’t like the answer to that.”

“Help… please.”

“Cancri!”

The purple spirit materialized and casted Murak on Rem, making her weightless. Rem’s arms still worked so she could move by pulling herself along the wall as her legs hung limply.

“Cancri, help Rem get to where she needs to go.”

The spirit followed Rem as she dragged herself from the room. Leaving Subaru in the room.

“Out of all the injuries I had, her legs went limp? No, she knows. Almost certainly.”

Subaru’s heart started beating faster, out of an instinctive fear. But his expression didn’t change much. His rational mind won over his fear.

“That’s fine, I won’t die just because they know. Not this time anyways. With any luck, Lust’s molesters children will have died. Unlikely but not impossible. Even if they’re alive. Rem and Sylphy aren’t the type to gossip, not as far as I could tell anyways. But I’ll have to apologize to them later.”

Deep in thought, Subaru didn’t realize that the door opened and someone entered.

“Subaru?”

“Ah, hello Roswaal, finally ditched the make-up?”

“Very funny.” Roswaal said, tone saying he was unimpressed but smile betraying otherwise. “Regardless, I won’t be taking up much of your time, I just have a few confessions and an apology.”.

Chapter Text

Su- You know what? No. You know where we are. We- It hasn't changed. Alright? It's his room, let's just get on with this. Roswaal’s here, Subaru’s here. Let’s go.

Roswaal’s clothes caught Subaru's eye. Still about as regal as always, if a bit more casual. Well, there’s one small thing that Subaru noticed, wiped off blood and dried snot stained Roswaal’s shirt at the chest. He’d run into Ram and lent a chest to cry on. So he really has changed for the better. And nothing showed that better than- 

“Finally ditched the make-up, huh?” Subaru taunted.

Roswaal's eyes, now without the make-up, were already fairly welcoming but softened further at the familiar tone. "I wonder if I should be offended by the fact that the make-up is the thing you remember most about me."

"It was horrible. I remembered it every time someone stared even slightly harshly. It's the one of the only things that stuck with me."

Roswaal opened his mouth slightly, seemingly to defend himself, but closed it quickly, scoffing. "Well, no one misses the clown. I'll certainly admit that."

"Hah."

Roswaal leaned on the chair near to Subaru. "Yet, you still recognized me, I'm surprised."

"I didn't think I would either," Subaru touched his heart. "All the feelings I had are muted now but I'm glad I was able to at least feel something besides forced apathy."

"Honestly, I'm a bit surprised you came. I would have done almost anything to get you back."

"I'm still a valuable piece, right? Not completely broken?"

Roswaal's smile faded. "...That's.... a bit of a concerning question. How do you feel?"

Subaru paused for a moment, but for some reason he felt like being more transparent. "Like a lesser version of myself. Like a part of me died in that prison."

"I can relate to that feeling."

"I felt that you might."

Roswaal smiled slightly "Well, if it's any consolation, you're here now. And despite everything, you're still recognizable as Subaru."

"I'm glad." Subaru said. "I only wish I could recognize myself." 

"So, about my confession."

"I suppose that I'll be the first or last to know, huh?"

"Last in the camp, I guess. You're the last person I need to tell, at least for now."

"How ominous.”

“It gets worse,” Roswaal said, sitting in the chair that he was leaning on.

And it did.

It started off slow, how Roswaal had met the Witch of Greed. How she had saved him, how he had fallen in love with her. How he had become friends with Beatrice and Ryuzu. How he had lost against Hector. 

When Echidna died.

How Roswaal dedicated his life to getting her back. It started small, inaction. Letting others do their jobs, not protecting people that needed to be protected. Influencing people to become enemies to his enemies or allies to his allies. Letting someone die to take their place.

Things to get rid of inhibitions, things to set him up for the future. Laying down dominoes so subtly and meticulously that eventually, not toppling the tower would prove more catastrophic than it would to leave the fragile thing to topple on its own. At least Roswaal would let the pieces fall where he wanted them.

That was his rationalization; that he could not stop yet. Not while events were still in motion 

Destroying the souls of his family to extend his life. Orchestrating tragedies or simply letting them happen, just because a book told him that this was the way of achieving his goal. All coalescing in the eventual massacre of Rem and Ram’s village. 

Then what would have been Emilia’s assassination. Then Subaru’s gate being damaged due to the Wolgarm’s. Then ignorance to Sloth that could have killed the entirety of the village under Emilia’s, but truly Roswaal’s, protection. 

Then the assassination of Rem, Ram, Petra and Frederica by the bowel hunter. Roswaal didn’t want to make excuses, if he did then he wouldn’t have bothered telling Subaru of his sins in the first place. In fact, he would not have told anyone in the camp. But he did. 

However, that event in particular had no excuses. Roswaal had long since accepted that his belief that people could not change at their core had influenced the book’s writ to exclude people such as Otto. But he still was unsure what the events were meant to bring about. Perhaps there was something elsewhere that he was unaware of.

In the distance, a witch sneezed.

Regardless, Roswaal’s sins were laid out plainly for Subaru. Morbid curiosity, which he had likely inherited from his teacher, filled Roswaal. How would Subaru react? 

Rem still had feelings of resentment towards him. Even though by her own admission, she cared about the village about as much as Ram did but his sins against Subaru could not be forgiven.

Otto and Garfiel grew even more distrustful of him although the book had been burnt. To the point that Roswaal will often find insects from Otto’s information chain observing him closely.

Frederica and Petra did their best to distance themselves from him. Retaining an air of politeness but Frederica maintained an air of judgement and apprehension around him while Petra’s hostility grew.

For Otto, Garfiel, Petra and Frederica, Roswaal hadn’t caused them to grow apart from the camp but resulted in them trying to spend as little time in the mansion that Roswaal called home.

Meili, Ram, Beatrice and Clind didn’t change much. The assassin child didn’t have any qualms about morality while Ram, Beatrice and Clind already knew the gist of his wrongdoings.

Strangely Emilia and Puck also didn’t have much of a reaction towards him. Emilia was already kept in the dark of what happened during her Sanctuary visit so he had figured that she would absolutely despise him. But no, she had no intention of condemning him. Hence, neither did her spirit.

Subaru had a strong sense of justice, that was still true. If it wasn’t, then even if he had eventually searched out this camp, Subaru would have gone to get revenge on the knights that had tortured him immediately.

He also had a sense of protectiveness and allegiance to the camp, otherwise he wouldn’t be here in the camp. So naturally, especially now that he had returned, Roswaal would likely be added to the list of Subaru’s enemies. That was fine, as long as he played his part, he could likely avoid death for some time. Enough to help the camp and hopefully find a way to revive his teacher.

But Subaru’s response was absolutely baffling to him

“Huh… that’s pretty bad.” Subaru’s response wasn’t really devoid of emotion, he clearly felt bad about what happened. But… it was as if the perpetrator for the crimes was not in front of him

“....” Roswaal remained silent for a few seconds, then a minute, then two. In total, Subaru and Roswaal sat in silence for 5 minutes. “Is…. is that all you have to say?”

“I mean, are you still planning to revive the Witch?”

Roswaal normally would have hesitated to answer the question but he was so baffled that the truth came out naturally. “Yes. I do not know how to execute such a plan but I desire to find a way.”

“I hate Echidna, or at least I did. So I can’t really be on your side for that. But you described Echidna differently from how she talked to me so there’s clearly a difference.”

“....I don’t understand. You don’t have anything to say about what I’ve done?”

Subaru tilted his head in confusion. “I said that it’s pretty bad. It’s practically a war crime, it’s not forgivable in the slightest.”

“...And yet you still look at me the same way.” Roswaal muttered, dumfounded

“Would you like me to blame you?”

“Y-yes? I would feel much less confused if you did. I would deserve it after all.”

“Maybe so… But I can’t judge you for it/”

Roswaal stood up in utter confusion. “What do you mean you can’t judge me for it? I did those things, those are my sins.”

“Well, you’re not the same person to me.”

Roswaal’s eyes betrayed absolute confusion “...Explain.”

“...I can’t, sorry. It would be bad.”

“You aren’t referring to a restriction this time, are you?”

“It’s not. It’s just…”

“Are you worried that I’ll disclose information?”

“A bit, maybe. But if I tell you then things might become… difficult.”

Roswaal sighed and unbuttoned the chest of his shirt, revealing a light blue sigil. “Do you remember this?”

“The oathbound curse.”

“We can add terms to the contract. Whatever you’re worried about, if it can ease the burden on your mind and let me understand, I’m willing to swear to secrecy.”

“....” Subaru hesitated, eyes drawn not to the curse mark but to the stain on Roswaal’s clothes. For some reason, the remnants of Ram’s outburst meant much more to him. “Fine, I’ll tell you. No need for the curse, I’m trusting you just this once.”

“Already?” 

“Call it a test of character or something.”

Roswaal buttoned his shirt back and sat back down, placing his ankle over his knee. “I can accept that.”

“Alright, ready?” Subaru asked, Roswaal nodded. “It’s a bit hard to explain but basically I can’t judge ‘New Roswaal’ and ‘Gospel Roswaal’ as the same person.”

“That… that... But we ARE the same person.”

“You got past the Book of Wisdom though.”

“I…” Roswaal was short-circuiting. What was the point of the apprehension? He also still didn’t understand what Subaru was advocating for.

“Make no mistake, you still did those things but I specifically can’t judge you. I can’t help you with others or whatever punishment you or the people you told think you deserve… But I can’t really hate you for it.”

“I would actually much prefer if you did hate me, I was prepared but now I find myself in a similar position as when Ram confessed her love for me.”

“She what? …Actually, nevermind that somehow makes sense.”

“I would prefer if it didn-”

“I don’t think you’re going to get what you want from me.”

“...” Roswaal scowled before sighing. “Ok, why? Wunhy can’t you hate me?”

“Well first of all, I would have started with the rabbit”

“What? …Oh-!” Roswaal exclaimed, realizing what Subaru meant. Subaru didn’t mention the Rabbit to Roswaal so Roswaal had thought that Subaru only experienced it once, where he vanquished it. But no, Subaru had experienced it already. 

“Yeah, getting eaten alive isn’t fun.”

“IT ATE YOU?” Roswaal leaned forward towards Subaru and Subaru flinched back in turn.

“D-don’t. Don’t do that.” 

“Sorry.” Roswaal apologized, leaning back.

“Twice.” Subaru said absentmindedly, now clutching his heart. 

“What?”

“Nothing.” 

“You got eaten by the great rabbit twice?”

“I said nothing. Moving on, those are the kind of things that I’ve chosen to overlook, because those decisions were made under circumstances that I’m trying to avoid.”

“Wh- I still made the decision.”

“You didn’t know about the rabbit though.”

“You are making excuses for someone who does not want nor deserve.”

“Look, you are asking me to judge you for something that didn’t happen.”

“They happened to YOU! How can you be so willfully ignorant about this?”

“I wouldn’t have many friends in this world if I wasn’t.”

Roswaal pressed two fingers to his forehead and rubbed them in a circle against it. “Somehow that is the most concerning thing you have said thus far. What do you mean?”

Subaru sucked his teeth. “So, this is the part where I really need you to keep quiet about.”

“That was a prologue?” Roswaal asked but seeing Subaru look at him with a pleading expression. Roswaal. “I’m sworn to secrecy.”

“Rem thought I was a cultist in almost every loop before this one since going back gives me the Witch’s scent for some time. So she was… a difficult person to get along with if I wasn’t trustworthy enough.”

“That’s why he overworked himself in the first week.”

“And as you know, Ram is more loyal to her sister than anyone else…”

“So she would have turned a blind eye if things got bad enough.”

“That wasn’t what I was referring to but yes, that did happen.”

Roswaal felt like bashing his head against a wall but managed to keep his composure at Subaru’s casualness by clenching his fist.. “What do you mean?”

“Rem died from the Wolgarm curse once…”

“...”

“I used to get scared when Ram glared at me for a while after that.”

“....What about Emilia and Beatrice?”

“...Um. Let’s see… I guess they taught me that I need to support people before they can support me?” 

“So they were in such a bad mental state in some loops that they couldn’t help you properly?"

“You’re sharp.”

Roswaal clasped his hands in front of his face as Subaru chuckled slightly. This person surely could not be real. Surely no one could be this forgiving. No one would willingly go through this kind of torture and return to them. It wasn’t possible. Even Roswaal, who had spent 400 years following the Book of Wisdom, would have had doubts of trusting people that could harm him so easily. “Otto.”

“Otto has been pretty benign ... Oh-.Although the White Whale could apparently give orders if you can hear them. Including the order to leave me behind. That wasn’t his fault though, he did try to send his ground dragon back to "

Roswaal’s jaw clenched. “Garfiel.”

“He can’t control his Beast Form when angry and suspicious of me. No matter who's in the way.”

“Clind? Frederica? Petra? Meili?”

“Nothing actually happened with the first three actually. Meili didn’t do much more than she’s already done though.”

“This is wonderful, the Witchbeast Assassin has done less to hurt you than most members of our camp.” Roswaal said sarcastically. “What about the other camps?”

“Abandoned the first time I tried to bring allies for Sloth. Did get it the second time with help from Rem though.”

“That’s honestly quite impressive.”

“Well, I’m pretty sure you gave me permission to use… something as a bargaining chip?”

“Mining rights.”

“That right, and I figured out where the White Whale was in a previous attempt so I just used info for Crusch and rights for Anastasia? That doesn’t sound right, I’m forgetting something.”

“It’s a miracle that you remember that much.”

“I know, I’m lucky.”

“Not in the slightest. How can you just… forgive us? Forgive me?”

“You were worth the pain, I think.”

Roswaal’s breath caught in his throat. ‘Worth the pain.’ If anyone else heard that, they would strongly disagree. 

 “You’re the best of all of us, Subaru. That brings me to my last question. Why tell me? You said it was a test of character. I can’t really believe that after what you told me. You indulged me. Why/”

"I thought I could trust you, I needed to vent." Subaru grinned. “Also, you seemed like you needed it.”

Roswaal’s breath caught again, before smiling. Then laughing. “You-  You played me.”

“Now we’re even.”

Roswaal scoffed. “I owe you more than I can ever repay. Thank you, Subaru. But now…” Roswaal produced a Conversation Mirror from his pockets. “I think you have a few friends that will be quite surprised to see you. Otto didn’t believe me when I said you could come back.”

“This will be fun.”

“Indeed.”