With the moon still lingering in the center of the night sky, Subaru was full of
optimism.
He stretched out the wrinkles visible through his manservant outfit's sleeves
and checked how he looked in the window. It'd already been four days since he
was wearing these clothes, so he thought it was about time he felt used to
them.
"Not bad, not bad at all. I can do this. Right out of the bath, I look fifty percent
sexier in the mirror. I feel like this is gonna work!"
Whether it was objectively 50 percent was another question, but it was
important to reassure himself.
Trying to at least surround himself with an attractive aura, Subaru took a long,
shallow breath and stepped forward. He was walking on the shortly mowed
grass of the garden, heading for a green-covered corner lined by high trees, a
place where the blessings of the moon were all the more remarkable.
There sat a girl, her silver hair twinkling in the moonlight as a pale light
surrounded her.
Subaru now knew that the firefly-like pale glow actually came from spirits.
That fact added to how watching the surreal scene bewitched his heart, like a
demoness that wouldn't let go. He unintentionally stopped in place, his breath
catching.
Perhaps sensing him, the girl's closed eyes abruptly opened. The two
amethyst jewels caught sight of Subaru approaching.
"Oh, hi. R-real coincidence bumping into you like this?"
"You come like this every day, you know. As for coincidence…don't we live
under the same roof?"
One glance from being spotted before he could speak threw Subaru off his
game; for her part, Emilia sighed at the already typical line from him.
Undeterred by his slip, Subaru smiled at Emilia.
"Hearing the words under the same roof really gives me a tingling…"
"The word tingling really sends a shudder up my spine. For some reason, I
don't like it."
With Emilia staring up at him, Subaru scratched his cheek and sat next to her
like it was perfectly normal. They were a mere three hands apart, proof that the
sense of distance between them had lessened.
Emilia, by now used to Subaru sitting next to her, did not bother to point out
the distance.
Between her daily morning ritual and mealtimes, his sitting beside her was
something she now took for granted.
It was unclear whether she was silently permitting it or simply giving up on
forbidding it, but either way, Subaru was happy to be so close.
"So, what are you doing?"
"Mm? An extension of the morning routine. I can meet most of them in the
morning, but I can meet some of them only at night, so…"
Subaru nodded in response, readily accepting Emilia's reply.
He was finally accustomed to living in a world where time was measured in
"day" and "night."
Incidentally, daily life over a twenty-four-hour period was largely as one
would expect. Living in accordance with the body's internal clock brought a
sense of tranquility like nothing else.
His four days of training as a manservant had also been four days acquiring
that world's common knowledge. That said, learning servant work came ahead
of academics, so his overall comprehension was still rather thin.
"Gives me new perspective looking back on my school days with the
weekends off…"
Subaru had often disparaged his Spartan instructor during the last four days.
But such one-sided comments from Subaru still furthered the friendly
conversations he had with Emilia at night.
Subaru silently watched the side of Emilia's face as if bewitched by the
dreamlike scene.
Emilia suddenly commented, perhaps finding it rare for Subaru to be lost for
words.
"It's no fun to watch, is it?"
How Emilia somehow sounded apologetic made Subaru sit up and shake his
head.
"Nah, I could never be bored being with you, Emilia-tan."
"Wh—"
The straight-hitting statement made Emilia's breath catch as her cheeks
reddened. Seeing Emilia's face flushed from the surprise attack made Subaru
redden up to his ears.
After all, the line he'd said just then had been the complete, literal truth.
Subaru rapid-fired his words as if trying to explain away his blushing.
"Ah, er, I mean, we hadn't had a chance to settle down and talk for days,
right?"
Emilia nodded in full agreement.
"Th-that's right. Seems you've had quite a time learning how to work at the
manor… You've been working your heart out, huh?"
"Hearing that makes me so happy I wanna cry…"
Glossing over the atmosphere, they buried that topic in a deep hole and
turned it into an unintentionally bittersweet moment.
Assessments of Subaru's work over those four days had been rather harsh,
and even if he managed to somehow bribe his superiors, it would not change
his score of "totally useless."
Subaru's first job, since he was lacking ability in the domestic fields of
cleaning, laundry, and cooking, was to acquire the skills required of a servant at
a manor. His current grade for all of the above was stuck at C.
"Shortening the sleeves of my uniform and putting buttons on an apron got
me top marks, but that's it."
"You really are exceptional in only one area."
"Well, I tried to grow up to be a guy with an edge instead of perfectly round
and flat…"
Subaru's skill at sewing was a product of how his parents had raised him, but
he, too, wondered what in the world they'd been thinking.
Emilia, not knowing of Subaru's introspection, gave honest praise for his self-
confidence.
"I see, is that so. I'm glad that you're confident in something, too."
Subaru made a rather conflicted smile at the sight of Emilia being happy for
him.
"Besides, it's not like you're awful at the other jobs. Ram and Rem keep this
quiet, but they have been praising you, you see…"
"Seriously? So I'm making ground even with my seniors here? So, what,
cutting myself with the knife, knocking over the bucket, and messing up the
laundry, it all raised my relationship points?!"
"I think you should reflect on that just a little."
Emilia made a pained smile at Subaru's stating his glaring failures. Her violet
eyes gently narrowed, looking at Subaru, examining him carefully at close
range.
"But work's hard every day, isn't it?"
"Super hard, totally tough. It makes me wanna borrow Emilia-tan's arms and
breasts and lap for some low-stress healing."
"Yes, yes. If you're making light of it, you must be all right."
Emilia reached with a fingertip and gave Subaru's forehead a light push.
Subaru, weak to the pressure, could not resist Emilia's fingertip, making a
showy tumble backward onto the grass.
He let out a pleasant sigh as he felt the soothing coolness of the grass and
gazed up at the star-filled sky. A world without city lights made Subaru
appreciate the beauty of the stars and the moon in the sky more than ever
before.
"—The moon's so pretty, isn't it?"
"There are some places you just can't reach, right?"
"I wasn't asking for it at all, and you hit me with something like that?!"
"What, did I say something bad?"
Subaru's attempt at dropping a romantic line fell flat due to cultural
differences in a different world. He pressed a hand over his heart to show he
was apologetic, startling Emilia.
"Ah…"
"Oh, darn it! I was tryin' to hide that…"
Subaru tried to hide his blushy smile as he moved the hand Emilia was staring
at behind his back… The left hand that had borne the brunt of his repeated
failures at work.
Subaru stuck out his tongue to try to gloss over it, but Emilia lowered her eyes
with a serious look.
"So, everyone else is working hard, too."
Emilia's murmur sounded like she was criticizing herself.
Subaru silently acknowledged what Emilia was thinking as she spoke to
herself like that.
Subaru wasn't the only one learning something at Roswaal Manor. Emilia was
in the middle of absorbing a wide variety of things that she had to learn as a
royal candidate.
Subaru and Emilia were after much different things. To compare the pressure
on the two of them was nearly outright rude.
Bearing such heavy burdens must have been exhausting. Perhaps Emilia
carried worries that she couldn't discuss with anyone.
Belatedly, Emilia asked a question.
"…How about I cast a healing spell?"
"Nah, it's fine. I'd rather not heal it and leave it like this."
"Why's that?"
"Mm, it's hard to put it into words… It's kinda a sign of how hard I've
worked?"
Subaru thought that they weren't typical words coming from him as he
strongly clenched his beat-up hand.
"I don't mind working hard as much as I thought I would. Being able to do
things I couldn't do before…it ain't bad. It's hard, it's really tough, but it's kinda
fun. I mean, Ram and Rem are surprisingly strict, that loli's annoying, seen less
of Rozchi than I thought I would, though…"
"Roswaal would probably get prickly if you told him that."
"Nobody uses prickly anymore…"
Subaru bent a hip to emphasize his bending the conversation. Then, rising to
his feet like a spring-loaded doll, he brought his right hand to his forehead in a
tidy salute toward Emilia.
"Well, just need to knock down the problems one by one. I mean, this is the
only place for me to live… Either way, it's fun, see?"
In his original world, living "easy" had been just fine with him. But he couldn't
expect that kind of peaceful daily life in this world. Hence, Subaru sought as
much "ease" as he could.
Having been senselessly tossed into that world, one could call it Subaru's
stubbornness toward his fate.
Subaru's display of determination made Emilia's expression freeze like time
had stopped. Only her eyes moved, blinking several times over, before a smile
suddenly came over her.
"That's right. Yeah, I think that, too… Goodness, Subaru, you're such an idiot."
"Wait, isn't that reaction weird?! Shouldn't we be falling back in love or
something?!"
"I wasn't in love to begin with! You really are such a… I'm an idiot, too."
Subaru looked hurt at the exaggerated reaction. Emilia's final murmur never
reached him.
Emilia's smile deepened. The softness of her charming smile was as if the
earlier pressure on her was long forgotten, like Subaru had unintentionally
bewitched her with his own spell.
He couldn't express how Emilia looked at that moment with mere words like
pretty or cute.
"E M D (Emilia-tan's Majorly Divine)!"
"I'm genuinely grateful and you joke about it like that…?"
Emilia tapered her lips in a slightly annoyed pout and pushed a finger into
Subaru's forehead again.
It was likely not Subaru's mere imagination that these occasional touches
carried more warmth than they had before.
"Having said all that…it's nice that you're trying hard, but how'd you get your
hand all beat up like that, anyway?"
"Oh, this one's simple. This afternoon, I tagged along when Rem went
shopping at the village close to the mansion. The kids were playing around with
me when this little dog-ish thing chomped on me."
"So it's not the product of hard work?!"
"Nah, it's so big you can't notice the traces of hard work… I didn't think I was
the type animals hated, though…"
Back in his own world, children and little animals loved him—that, or he just
looked like a pushover. That made the former result odder still. But his effect on
kids was still going strong.
"The village kids… They smacked me, kicked me, and blew snot on me, too.
That sucked, damn it."
"Somehow you seem good at looking after little kids, Subaru."
"That's taking it the wrong way, Emilia-tan. Winning them over now means I'll
reap the rewards when they grow up. I'm a long-term thinker, see."
"Yes, yes. I will admit you're honest about your petty stubbornness."
Emilia, accustomed to Subaru's silliness, let it roll over her as she stretched
and looked up at the sky.
"I'd best return to my room now. How about you?"
"I can't sleep by Emilia-tan's side, so I'll head back, too."
"You get that job only when you've polished your skills with your current
work."
"Now you said it. Just watch, they're gonna write legends about me…!"
Subaru took Emilia's words to heart, burning with enthusiasm. Emilia made a
strained smile as Subaru looked back and raised a finger.
"Ah, right. Would you come with me tomorrow when I give the village brats
some payba—er, a lovey-dovey da—er, go to watch the cute little animals?"
"Why did you correct yourself several times…? And, ah, I…"
Emilia lowered her eyes, seeming hesitant as she murmured, "I don't mind
going with you, and I'm curious about that small animal, so…"
"Okay, let's go, then!"
"But it might be troublesome for you to have me with you like…"
"Got it, let's go!"
"…Are you really listening?"
"I'm listening! I could never let a single word or phrase from Emilia-tan
escape!"
"Oh, Subaru, I just hate you!"
"Aaa! Aaa! Sorry, what was that?! I can't hear you!"
How Subaru covered his ears, spectacularly taking back what he'd said the
moment before, made Emilia break out in laughter, all ills forgotten. Then, she
wiped a teardrop from her eyes with a finger as she looked at Subaru.
"Goodness…but only after I finish my studying and you finish all your work,
Subaru?"
"Oh yeah! Roger that! I'll so totally get them done!"
With the date arranged, Subaru made a dramatic fist-pump pose.
Watching Subaru's self-satisfied look, a charming smile came over Emilia as
she let out a little sigh.
"I was thinking, watching you makes my worries seem so small, Subaru."
"No way?! I mean, you might become queen; worries and social stress like
that would turn my stomach inside out!"
Emilia, unable to hold back any more, burst out laughing, her mirthful voice
making Subaru laugh, too.
The two laughing like that announced that their rendezvous for that night had
come to an end.
Let it be noted that there was one final exchange.
"Come to think of it, why are you dressed like that after work?"
"Ah, I thought it'd make a good impression on you… So, what do you think?
Pretty handsome, huh?"
"Mm, I suppose so. It has that 'I'm a capable servant' look."
"Well, there you go crushing my hopes!"
2.12
Subaru had his hand on the door, peeking in as he spoke in a casual voice.
"Huh, do you actually sleep right, loli girl? If you stay up too late, you won't
grow as tall as you should and you'll end up as an adult that short."
Beatrice replied with resentment in her voice.
"…Do you breach the Passage as if it is a matter of course, I wonder?"
She sat on the wooden stool well within the archive as she glared at Subaru.
"Did you have a reason to come see me, I wonder?"
"Not really. I thought I'd say hi before I went to bed. I was gonna give up if I
didn't get it in three tries, but I got it in one, so…"
"Truly, what kind of intuition do you have…?"
Beatrice had a tired look as she pulled on one of her rolls. When her fingers
released it, the stretchy, elastic roll bounced the other way. The sight struck
Subaru profoundly.
"Can I try it, too?"
"Only Puckie may touch the likes of me… Would you go away already, I
wonder?"
"Not fair only you get to play. Oh well. I'm in a good mood, so I'll forgive you."
Still buoyant from the promised date, Subaru headed out as Beatrice
glowered at him. But the moment before the door closed, he thought he heard
a voice speak with a lonely echo.
"—That has nothing to do with me."
The voice tugged at him.
"Huh, gotta open the door so I can give her a good comeback."
The once-open door to the secret archive now led to a simple guest room
once more.
He tried opening and closing the door in front of him to see if he could catch it
connecting to the archive again.
Rem looked beside herself as she watched Subaru there, opening and closing
the door.
"…What have you been doing? Checking the condition of the lock?"
"Oh yeah, I thought I heard a creak in the hall the last few nights… So that was
you, Rem?"
Rem was carrying a silver tray with nothing on it in one hand as she watched
Subaru feel up the door.
"Is something bothering you?"
"Nah, this led to the archive of forbidden books with the loli girl till just now;
it's gone, though."
"Did you want something from Lady Beatrice? You could ask me if you
prefer…?"
"Just saying hi before going to sleep. Nothing…big."
The phrase he heard from Beatrice just before the door closed was on
Subaru's mind, but he shook his head—it wasn't something he needed to press
her about at the moment.
"What, you're still working, Rem? Better turn in. Morning's coming quickly."
"I'll sleep after I do the dishes. At the moment, Sister is serving tea to Master
Roswaal, you see."
"What the heck are those two doing at a time— Ah, well, that's fine."
It was almost past midnight; he didn't much care for Roswaal and Ram having
a private chat, discussing some lively topic between just the two of them.
Not my business to say, though, Subaru reflected. He suddenly realized that
Rem was watching him. Her pale blue eyes were staring in the direction of his
head.
"Don't suppose chances like this come up much. Doesn't look like it bothers
you any, though."
"…No, until now it has not bothered me that much, or somewhat, or even a
little bit."
"Geez, downplaying a bunch of times back-to-back makes it sound like it
really bothers you!"
The sharpness and intensity of Rem's gaze increased to the point that his
capacity for speech faltered.
Subaru wrapped up work rather late and Rem had been constantly busy, so
few opportunities presented themselves. What the heck, thought Subaru with a
grimace when Rem raised her hand a bit.
"If you like, how about I do it now?"
"What… Now? It's pretty late, isn't it?"
"A quick cut and wash will not take very long. If I do not, I cannot fulfill the
cherished desire you confided in me from your own lips, Subaru."
"Cherished desire is a little much!"
For such a neutral expression, Subaru saw Rem's eyes brimming with fierce
determination. Subaru scratched his face, realizing it must have annoyed her
quite a bit over the last four days.
He wanted to do something about that annoyance if he could, but—
"Sorry, Rem. I've made a promise to go out with Emilia tomorrow. I've gotta
get up early and take care of work quickly, so I really can't do it tonight…"
"Is that so… No, I was being unreasonable. I'm sorry."
Using the just-made promise as his reason for putting off the promise he'd
made to Rem before, at his own suggestion, weighed on his conscience. But
Rem was a practical girl and tried to take Subaru's circumstances into account.
Feeling guilty about Rem's position, Subaru felt his words left a bitter taste in
his own mouth when suddenly, "How about tomorrow night?"
"…At night, you say?"
"My condition for the promise with Emilia is getting all my work wrapped up.
There's no special work scheduled for tomorrow afternoon, so after that, since
it's still on your mind…"
As he spoke, he was truly shocked with himself for arranging dates with two
girls on the same day. Not that his feelings toward Emilia and Rem were in the
same vein to begin with…
With Rem, he felt fondness toward a fellow coworker. He still didn't really
know how he felt toward Emilia.
Faced with Subaru's suggestion, Rem closed her eyes and made a small nod.
"Understood. Tomorrow night it is. This is a firm promise, you understand?"
"I don't know why it bothers you that much, but yeah, a promise it is.
Tomorrow night, then."
He thought about making it a pinkie promise, but he hesitated, not knowing if
such a thing existed in that world's customs. As he hesitated, Rem made a polite
bow, turning around with a small flutter of her skirt.
She departed with quiet, gliding steps. Subaru watched her go before heading
back to his room, biting down a yawn as he mentally went over his schedule for
the coming day.
"I have to thank the kids for creating the reason for a date all the way to the
village tomorrow. Oh, before I do that, got to find out where the best flower
gardens are…"
As he entered his room, he held his nose high and puffed out his chest, full of
hopes and dreams for the coming day. Subaru stripped off his butler uniform,
giving himself a makeover with the tracksuit as he crawled into bed.
As his head hit the pillow, his eyes were open, thoughts racing about the next
day, not conducive to sleep at all.
Faced with his mind betraying his body, Subaru immediately switched mental
gears and resorted to his secret weapon. Namely…
"One Puck, two Pucks…"
In the back of his mind, little gray kitty cats were running around and
frolicking as he counted them one by one. Subaru linked his fantasy Puck to the
real one, letting his memory of the fluffy feline lead him to a happy place. His
mind slowly sank, pulled into dreamland.
"One…hundred and four Pucks…"
Picturing a fluffy paradise, warmth enveloped his mind—and finally vanished.
2.13
As Subaru awoke, he felt like his consciousness was rising as if poking his head
through the water's surface.
Suddenly released from the suffocating feeling, his eyes opened, waiting
several seconds to take in the world. He felt like he'd woken up in a different
place than where he'd gone to bed.
He felt sunlight burning his eyes. Subaru sat up his slightly sluggish body and
shook his head.
His head was a bit heavy. Perhaps he was tired from not being entirely used
to his new life yet.
But this was not the day for such weak thoughts.
Wide-awake, Subaru went over the date promise he'd made with Emilia the
night before. "That's right, Subaru Natsuki—today's the time to leap into
action!"
The day was a day with a happy future. A day he'd awakened to crisply, a day
of promised victory. But…
"—"
Pink-haired and blue-haired twin sisters looked upon Subaru's determined
face in surprise.
Subaru, blushing to the tips of his ears, buried his face in the pillow to hide it.
"What! You were there?! Then you should've said something! Aw man, I'm
so, so embarrassed!"
The fact that they'd stopped rousing him awake two days before made him
careless. To think that both of them would visit on that particular morning…
As usual, the twins' expressions did not change much as Subaru groaned on
top of the bedding. Though it did seem like they were fighting the temptation to
point at him and break out laughing.
"Er, hold on, you two. I mean, that reaction kinda hurts. I'm a delicate soul
here. There are other reactions, right?!"
He was looking forward to their at least engaging in the cold verbal abuse to
which he was accustomed.
—Subaru realized afterward that it was quite awful for him to actually be
looking forward to the verbal abuse.
"Sister, Sister. He's greeting us as if he knows us somehow."
"Rem, Rem. He's greeting us in a very chummy fashion."
It didn't feel right. Their murmurs brushed against something in the back of
Subaru's mind.
"Er, ah? Something weird? My seniors coming to wake me up is one thing, but
playing pranks on me is bad taste, you know?"
Certainly the two were always blunt, but—something felt off.
As Subaru spoke, he began to realize why he felt that something was off with
them.
—Their eyes.
The way they looked at Subaru. The familiarity from the previous night was
gone; they'd gone back to treating him like a complete stranger. Then, decisive
proof came flying at him.
"Sister, Sister. Our Dear Guest seems to be a little confused?"
"Rem, Rem. Our Dear Guest seems to be a little touched in the head."
—Subaru was aghast at being called "Dear Guest."
The polite echo made Subaru feel like something sharp had gouged out the
back of his stomach.
Subaru pressed a hand to his chest to hold back the phantom pain.
He didn't know what it all meant. Their reactions, it was as if—
"You two… Ha-ha, this really isn't…funny…"
With both of them still looking at him like a complete stranger, Subaru
abruptly brought up his left hand to block them from his view. But Subaru
instantly regretted doing so…
…because he saw that the bandage on his left hand was gone.
The rough fingertips from kitchen work, the callouses from handling knives in
ways he wasn't used to, the bite marks from the puppy that had bitten him
while the children toyed with him—they, too, were gone.
—Somewhere distant, he heard what sounded like a bell tolling.
The ringing came over him in a rush, crashing against him over and over again
like a wave.
Subaru didn't realize that the pain that came with the sound was from him
pulling out his own hair.
The temple of his head really hurt; he felt a hot, nauseous feeling in his nose.
But Subaru's mind focused instead on the sharp pain and taste of blood from
biting his own lip, as if he were using it to drown out the sense of loss that felt
like someone had carved out his internal organs.
The facts at hand forced Subaru to accept reality.
Feeling his eyes grow hot inside, Subaru buried his face in the pillow for an
entirely different reason than before.
—For he absolutely, absolutely did not want anyone to see his face at that
moment.
Not the people he'd grown so fond of.
Not the people who'd seemed to grow so fond of him.
He absolutely didn't want to cry in front of people looking at him like he was a
stranger.
"Why'd I…go back?!"
—And so, Subaru was dragged back into the loop anomaly that had brought
him so much suffering.
For the second time, his first day at Roswaal Manor began—