Chapter Text
What if...? Subaru had kept his promise to Emilia in Arc 3?
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[—Subaru—]
[Subaru: Ah, Rem-rin. Even after all this time, I can't compare to your skills~! How envious!]
[Rem: Subaru-Kun just needs a bit more practice. Rem is actually quite surprised that you've made so much progress as a butler. Rem finds Subaru-Kun's learning abilities very impressive].
[Subaru: Kyah~ N-Don't say that, Rem-rin! If you keep complimenting me like that, my heart will start beating harder than it should~!]
True!
Just hearing a few compliments from the lovely Rem-rin would be enough to make any man's heart flutter a little. How can she be so adorable in such a natural way?! It's a bit of an injustice, don't you think?
And as kind as her words are, I can't afford to relax.
We were in the kitchen, peeling some Appas - the apples of this world. Even though I'm actually doing a pretty good job, I'd say, comparing what I do to Rem-rin's work would be like comparing 10 to 100, no, 10 to 1000, or even higher.
If someone walked into the kitchen right now, they'd see two piles of peeled Appas. One pile perfectly and the other, mine, with a few irregularities.
But our differences also stemmed from our lifestyles.
After all... I'm not even from this world.
When I was returning home after another trip to the 24-hour grocery store to compare my daily supply of junk food, I was locked in my room... again. It was almost like that as part of my daily routine. Waking up, doing some exercise to keep my health to the bare minimum needed to live, talking to my parents, and then locking myself away doing nothing.
The life of a useless NEET who has abandoned all dignity and studies. A summary of who I've always been, a good-for-nothing who doesn't try any harder than necessary to keep his life relaxed.
At least until it happened...
I suffered an Isekai!
Not in the conventional way of being run over, which I'm grateful for, but I was randomly summoned on the streets of the Capital of Lugunica — the kingdom I'm in — on any given day. And several things happened on that single day; I was mugged, I met Emilia-tan and Puck, I helped them to the House of Loot, and I died... Yes, I died.
I possess a very terrifying and somewhat useless ability for an Isekai protagonist: Death Return. I die and I can go back to a point in time, like a Save Point, and redo my actions. All in all... I must have died a few times. Twice for Elsa, once for the trio of robbers, once by Mana poisoning, twice for Nee-Sama and Rem-rin, and once by suicide.
That's seven times. Which makes that phrase: You only live once silly.
Some might even find it strange that I'm here, now, in a kitchen doing housework with Rem-rin, considering that she killed me and tortured me to the point where her sister Ram, Nee-Sama, killed me by cutting my neck in the end. But I have my reasons for that. Since they suspected me at first of being a Witch Cult Cultist, I just had to show them that I wasn't. With a lot of effort!
With a lot of effort!
But I did it, and I even managed to help save their lives and the lives of the people of Arlam Village from the Majuuns' attack. Preventing the events of the mansion's fourth loop that led me to kill myself in the end.
It doesn't matter what happened before.
What matters now is that we're finally okay. Peeling some Appas for a new pie recipe that Rem-rin said he'd heard about and wanted to practice, and I couldn't help but want to try. Especially to show off one of the best qualities of Return by Death. For I am able to retain past memories and experiences, which included my skills as a butler at the Manor.
I can't let Rem-rin do all the hard work by herself! As amazing as she is as the best maid in the whole mansion!
[Rem: Subaru-Kun... are you still worried about Emilia-Sama?]
[——]
[Rem: There's no need to hide anything from Rem, Subaru-Kun. Rem knows how worried you must be about Emilia-Sama at the Royal Selection Candidates' meeting].
It's true, very true.
Emilia-Tan is a silver-haired half-elf, one of the prettiest, cutest and kindest girls I've ever met in my life. And she's a Royal Candidate! From what I hear, there are five of them; and the one who is chosen would become ruler of the entire kingdom of Lugunica.
An important role.
That day there would be a meeting of the Candidates in the Capital. She didn't want to bring me at first, until Rem-rin and Ros-Chi helped convince her to bring me.
And she left early to go.
I even thought about going... I really wanted to go to support her, thinking of the worst-case scenario that could happen to her. Like Elsa attacking and murdering her in those loops, or Rem-rin, me and the others dying to those beasts in the mansion. I couldn't help but think of the worst things that could happen without me around.
But... she made me promise not to go. Which really worries me, especially given how much I fear for her safety.
As I said, I even thought about going, breaking my promise, to make sure the worst didn't happen. Even Rem-rin hinted at letting me go, talking about Appas's pie recipe. Only... I gave up. When the time came, I realized it was foolish to go there.
[Subaru: Yes, I am. But there's no way. Everything must be sorted out by now, right? Emilia-Tan will be fine. Puck and Ros-Chi are with her, they can handle it. Besides, she's quite capable of handling everything. -- Really, I'm fine. Still worried, but optimistic that everything's going to be fine, okay?]
[Rem: Oo-okay.]
[Subaru: A for effort, Rem-rin~ -- And what would I do there? Just watch a performance? No. I think it'll be better to wait here, help you and we'll all have a delicious pie together when it's settled. It's for the best, don't you think?]
[Rem: I guess. Besides, most girls like it when a boy keeps his promises. And as a spirit user, for Emilia-Sama, those promises are even more important. Subaru-Kun will impress her with his conduct and control].
[Subaru: Again you're making my heart flutter, Rem-rin~!]
There's no way! How can someone so cute exist?! And how can she be so supportive of a NEET like me?! What a blessing!
And also... I'm sure everything is going well.
The important thing now is to help Rem-rin fulfill our main task: Appa's Pie. For all of us to share together when Emilia-Tan comes back, I bet she's already finishing everything and excited for when she arrives and sees us!
-{—Castle—}-
Marcos stared at the scene with surprise, disbelief and coldness. Not being indifferent to massacres or brutal attacks, he had seen enough to deal with everything to a certain extent. But he still had certain limits. This scene was one, not just because of what he was seeing; bodies pierced by thorns, others half-frozen, but all dead.
One of the Wise Men, Bordeaux, and several nobles.
They were all dead. A scene that shouldn't happen, especially in the place that was supposed to bring together all the Royal Candidates and Knights. Not when he was there too, to prevent such things from happening.
Everything went quickly. The five candidates introduced themselves, all stating their intentions, each one personal, but all as strong as their personalities allowed.
Among them was the figure most of them had been waiting to meet. Emilia, just Emilia. The silver-haired half-elf Candidate, similar in appearance to the Witch of Envy, who was considered the worst monster in the world and whom everyone hated. It generated a well-known prejudice against such a race, even more so against a young girl who had a similar appearance to this being.
Everything was going normally. Until it all started with Bordeaux's first words.
Offensive words against the girl. And from what Marcos could see, right from the start, he saw how she was being attacked from all sides by people, including the Candidates themselves - Priscilla in particular seemed to antagonize both the half-elf and the Candidate who was found by the Sword Saint.
A situation that, from some people's perspective, was to be expected. And none of the knights reacted.
The insults kept coming, getting worse and worse, more and more cruel and vicious, going beyond what would be considered the “ordinary” scene they were expecting. Until it happened. A pressure of mana, the room cooling down, everything seeming to happen in seconds, as the figure began its attack.
The Great Spirit of Fire, Puck, known as the Beast of the End to those who knew of his existence.
He hurled thorns of ice at the nobles and the Bordeaux Sage in his fit of rage. Killing them quickly, tearing their skins as well as freezing them. In such a short time that even the proud knights who were there couldn't interrupt him to save them, nor the Saint of the Sword himself.
[Puck: I won't allow you to continue antagonizing my daughter...!]
They were words full of pure anger, hatred, cruelty and coldness with the ice of their attacks. Words directed at everyone, apart from his contractor, his “daughter”, Emilia, who in that scene seemed just as terrified and surprised as everyone else at that moment, if not more so.
The girl managed to calm him down and put him back in his Crystal, but he didn't move until his collaborator, Roswaal, helped her.
Marcos saw something that day that he hadn't expected. An unexpected massacre of several nobles at the “hands” of a Great Spirit, who was not only linked to a Candidate, but acted to exterminate those who had insulted her.
[Mark: Now even if she says he acted on his own, it wouldn't be safe. No one would believe a Spiritual Arts user losing control of his Spirit. And if it was because of a lack of control, who would trust someone unable to keep the Great Spirit under control so as not to hurt other people?].
He looked at the bodies.
[Mark: Such an attack will be viewed with very bad eyes. They'll think she wanted to eliminate those who disagreed with her and mocked her appearance, and used the Great Spirit as a way to do it without getting her hands dirty, to have an excuse and intimidate anyone who tried to antagonize her. -- Your candidacy will fall to unimaginable levels. So why...? Why did he look so pleased...?]
The Commander wondered at the scene after the attack. Emilia was unable to move, looking catatonic from what had happened, while her collaborator, Roswaal, looked pleased to see the state of everything. This led Marcos to have great suspicions about the Court Magician, but he could do nothing about it for the time being.
Roswaal and Emilia were being escorted by the Knights and the Sword Saint himself to be questioned about what had happened, to confirm whether Emilia had really premeditated such an attack on the people in the room.
Marcos had stayed with the other knights in that room. As Commander, the one who was supposed to be the leader and take charge of the situation when it got worse, he was there to help his subordinates clear the room. Break up the ice, collect the bodies, then take the bodies of the nobles back to their families so that they could at least have a proper burial. And among those helping him was Julius Juukulius.
The Knight of Knights also seemed to have a hard expression, but more mortified.
Like Mark and the other knights, for him this scene was a blow to the pride and honor of those who fought so hard for the kingdom and proclaimed themselves its sacred defenders. And for Julius, as a Spirit Knight, an attack carried out by a Spirit of the highest level was another attack on his pride and honor, on an even more personal level than Marcos could comprehend.
[Marcos: For now... what we can do is clean up the damage... But... I think that damage is permanent...]
He wasn't one to believe in things like faith or anything like that.
Only this time, Marcos wished that someone had come along and stopped it from happening. Would such a thing be possible...? He couldn't answer that, but he wished it were.
Even if he knew it was impossible.
—————
Why would that be a possibility? Simple: Roswaal.
Before that event in Arc 3, Roswaal had made a deal with Puck to attack people who offended Emilia if Subaru didn't show up to defend her. Why?
-First: Because of the Gospel that was still commanding him in that Arc.
-Second: To test and force Subaru to use his ability (which Roswaal didn't know was through Death) to reverse the situation and go through what he went through in the original.
And the consequences?
-Could Subaru probably try to use his power? Maybe. But his Return by Death could end up having a Save Point at a moment that didn't help him prevent such an event, which would condemn everyone to keep what happened at the Royal Selection Meeting.
-What would happen if it failed? Roswaal would go crazy because everything had gone off the rails, and he might even reveal himself to Subaru and attack him. Even drive Subaru up the wall with his threats. Since, for Roswaal, from his point of view, Subaru is in total control and has only not returned by his own choice, which would be bad for Roswaal for deviating from the Gospel.
In short: Subaru and Emilia would go through hell because of Roswaal's manipulations, all because Subatu didn't go all the way and was “ashamed” in front of everyone.
Is it strange that, in this particular part of Arc 3, I don't really feel angry or ashamed of Subaru, but more sorry? Because, honestly, I see what he did in a really sympathetic way. Even, putting myself in his shoes, I think I'd react that way towards one of my friends. Maybe even worse, knowing my personal personality.