"W-What in the hell just…" Ricardo couldn't summon a true end to this question. More so anyone from the people sitting around him in the theater. A placate sense of inability and confusion settled amongst those who were to rule the greatest kingdom someday. Even the so-called great knights and hands beside them were just looking at the darkened screen with a sense of helplessness at the previous scene.
"That is impossible!" A purple-haired young knight shouted in confusion, breaking the silence filling the room as the other royals voiced their own outrage over the past death of Natsuki Subaru.
"It should be impossible for him to be able to do such a thing! Defying death is one thing… but outright going through it and getting back is another power entirely." The glasses-wearing twin known as Tivey contemplated with fear etched on his face.
"It seems your little prediction was wrong, Crusch-sama." The soft-voiced merchant queen lamented rigidly, owning a soft glare towards the screen as she conversed with one of her far away rivals to the throne. "The boy seems to have more going on with him." Anastasia said with an enchanted widening of her eyes, gleaming from what was a small glare of focus into a look of pure curiosity and enlightenment. "This boy has something about 'em… Something to be wary of." She thought to herself in silence as her mind tried to make sense of the boy's sudden revival back to life before her eyes.
Her curious thoughts and question didn't seem to resonate with the royal Duchess she had invoked, as the green-haired lady clad in a blue-military uniform wasn't exactly as entranced by Subaru's death/revival state and was more so immediately making mental checks in her head to come to a passable conclusion…
"He… His death." Felix whispered beside her with a long look of horror that stretched from the screen to his own master sitting beside him.
"His death was too real not to be true, Crusch-sama." The knight spoke as if he was shivering, clearly disturbed from the scene.
"Not to mention that the boy seemed to have memorized things that happened to him before he was murdered." Wilhelm suddenly added in, his eyes narrowed to their highest form. The old man looking ahead towards the sleeping young man with sympathy and commiseration.
"There's no doubt about it," Crusch cut her two knights off with a completely self-indulged tone as if she was in her own world looking at her knees with clenched fists and a focused glare. "Natsuki Subaru is somehow returning through time with every instance of death he encounters." the duchess' words loomed over the room, making all glance at the boy in fear.
"This… Shouldn't be real… It can't be!" A gray-haired boy wearing green robes and clothing announced his own disturbance with a shout of disbelief, standing and turning to face the limp body of his own brother in arms, "Natsuki-san!" Otto called scrupulously with a look of expectation on his face. As if he was expecting a clear answer to suddenly come from his brother. "This cannot be it! We have been through so much together, he can't just have gone through that and not tell us about it!" As the usually cool-headed Otto turned towards the rest of his group, he was only looking more and more agitated as if he was on the edge of breaking. Fists by his side and teeth pursed, he was clearly losing control over the entire situation.
"S-Subaru-kun's death… It must've been real… his pain was too… real." A blue-haired girl clenched herself around the back seat to the one Subaru was laid on. Her head turned away from everything and facing a wall as her tears dried after a long cry. Her own voice whispered in grief. The state of the girl clearly indicating that she had lost faith in holding up any appearance or conversation with the people around her as she was lost in her own world, one where she was killing a certain cruel cold-blooded assassin over and over and make her scream.
"It was all real, I suppose." A rigid, emotionless person spoke from the collective audience.
The people of the theater all had their eyes on the loli-looking great spirit, sitting beside the boy everyone was so focused on with her small arms wrapped dearly around his own limp one. The expression of lifelessness made her melancholic voice seem more fitting since she was clearly in shock.
"Beako-chan?" Silver-bell voiced and completely broken, the other person sitting parallel with Beatrice on Subaru's other side. "Did you know about any of this?" Emilia, looking more shaken than all of the auditorium's occupants. Her eyes, red and streaming lines of miserable tears with bags beneath her amethyst oculi. "Did Subaru tell you about what happened to him?!" Emilia's hoarse voice grow loud as she leaned towards the silenced spirit girl sitting beside her knight. The half-elf now more agitated than distraught couldn't help but let go of her knight's side for one moment and start wiping away her tears to find them replaced as the memory of his cruel death repeated in her head. The thought of her constantly having to fail him all alone. "No…. No… I can't be someone he doesn't trust… He must've told me if it was real or not…". Clearly hyperventilating, somebody decided to take hold of the conversation for the still shocked half-elf.
"Beatrice-sama…" Otto called from his position at the front of the cushioned seats, his eyes fiercely focused on the girl. "If you know anything about this, please!" The merchant pleaded with the silent spirit.
An air of pressure built up around his general area, seething with oversizing heaviness and aura. Otto looked up to find that the blond twin tails Beatrice owned on her head were twirling chaotically with no direction and in all ways. As Otto focused he could see… Her bluish eyes were now fully narrowed with breathed hatred on the screen he was standing in front of.
"I SAID IT WAS ALL REAL I SUPPOSE!"
And before Otto could blink, he was almost grazed by a bolting magical attack that forced an entire force field of energy to explode where it had impacted on the glazed black glass behind him.
As the merchant fell on his front due to the aftershock of the great spirit's attack on the great black panel, Otto could hear Beatrice scream in fury things that sit his heart as cold as ice. "YOU'RE THE REASON WHY BETTY'S CONTRACTOR DID THAT TO HIMSELF! YOU ARE THE REASON HE CAN'T LOVE HIMSELF MORE, IN FACT! BETTY CAN'T HAVE FAILED HIM BEFORE HE'D REACHED HER…. He… He can't die… "
Finding that her attacks when landed… had no value on impact whatsoever and in fact made the screen shine only brighter instead of shattering to a million pieces because of the spirit's rage, Beatrice lowered her arm and stopped her charged-up state. Her head lowered down as her small shoulders slumped. The proud girl sniffled slightly.
The sniffling spirit kept silent to herself as she slowly sat down in her seat, balling up her knees and hiding her face.
"...What do you mean by that…?" Otto asked. Hand on his heart, breathing for his life. Determination making him feel forced to push the clearly broken girl to answer him. Maybe it was the entitlement he felt because she had almost killed him with her magic charge.
More importantly, he understood exactly what the girl was saying, and he wanted to learn more about the context. Had his friend really been suffering alone with dark memories such as these deaths all this time? Had he not told anyone even his trusted spirit about this trauma?
Otto's need to know everything made him quickly get up, and face the sniffling Beatrice with a look of bafflement, his hand roamed over the heavy pocket with the charred book of mystery that he had been obsessing over for months. Losing control over a situation was never good for him and right now he was losing all advantages. The candidates and their camps were all uncovering a completely frightening truth about his best friend and probably the heart of the Emilia camp. Not to count the horrifying meaning of this power. Subaru's been dying over and over again and they had no idea about this!
Otto's hand clenched and faced the girl with his heart open, he needed to FORCE AN ANSWER!
But a firm grip on his arm stopped him in his train of thought, "Ya won't getta answer. The gir' is damaged, man."
Otto faced Garfiel. The blonde boy faced him with a glum expression. "I don't think Cap'n told her anything… He didn't trust her either."
Garfiel's eyes dimmed slightly.
Otto's clenched fists shook in rage.
"Looks as if the boy has more to him after all." The fiery-haired lady in red tittered behind her fan, unbelievably bemused by the sights below her. In her eyes was nothing but red-filled curiosity and amusement. As if this entire display of tragedy was nothing but a step stone to leading her where she desired. "Mineself is most curious as to why you are all in shambles after watching the fool fail once again in such a pathetic way? Have you not seen how things have been going well for him since he came to our realm?"
As this statement had outraged most in the room including all of the other candidates even Emilia herself, a surprisingly much more swift tongue responded.
"Barusu's journey through the capital has been nothing but hardship after hardship and at the end, he got killed twice from what we saw… How could you describe this feature-poor luck as 'well' for him? It seems to me you must open your eyes some more and lose some of that clearly outdated eyeliner, Priscilla-sama!"
Fiery outraged scarlet eyes met with icy pink ones that didn't flinch back. Priscilla faced the brat that dared insult her in such a manner of speak even though her dress indicated clearly where she belonged. A peasant that had the audacity to question her. A belligerent maid dared to stare her down without a change of expression from her seat and talk to her with such insolent sarcasm.
"How dare you?! Mineself will burn your very soul to ashes for this insolence!"
"Don't you touch my sister!" A frighting shout of fury sounded as A figure was shot out of their seat. And immediately before Ram's enemy.
Priscilla now faced Rem with a nasty foreboding snarl as fiery embers filled with air around her as she charged her magic to fulfill her whim and burn the hog-twins before her. The fiery princess in red kept her posture regal and relaxed on her seat while the entire atmosphere turned intoxicating for everyone as her mana charge overpowered the room.
"You filthy animals should be eradicated no matter how pitiful your existence is!" After the princess spoke this, someone immediately overturned her powerful mana charge that had been ready to unleash a fire hotter than the glowing sun a hundredfold.
"My apologies, Priscilla-sama. But we need each other to get through this." A voice smooth and confidant cut through the silence as Priscilla found her power had been canceled out for some reason. And that reason was immediately known once the furious matriarch settled her eyes on the figure standing between her and the two maids, appearing there in a second.
"Once more, you prove yourself a mere mongrel." Priscilla spat out her abuse, not relenting her glare but clearly stopping any more attacks since she knew it would be useless. The Sword Saint stood between her and the two filthy maids that had insulted her with their defiance.
"Priscilla-sama, please care to see the ramifications of such actions." Wilhelm spoke from his seat, meaning nothing but respect for the royal princess but still holding a reprimanding tone for her actions.
"You seem to have forgotten that we are still trapped together under the force of an entity we know nothing off. Ya better be careful where ya shoot that magic of ye'rs, Priscilla-san~." Anastasia ordained bemusedly while glancing up at the seating arrangement that held the fuming matriarch.
"You… !" Priscilla's lips were snarled as she was faced with the merchant princess' sarcasm.
"You've failed to consider the fact that your magic could've covered innocent lives inside of this room." Crusch entered the mini lashing of wits with a serious glare aimed at the red princess.
Priscilla simply clicked her tongue and rested her chin on her knuckle, looking completely miffed out. "Worthless trash. Mine divine flame only crisps those I deem a waste of life. It is a power only for those higher than the gods to use."
Crusch wasn't impressed one bit as she narrowed her own eyes towards the haughty-looking royal on the seats above.
"Wait a minute… how can you two use magic in here?!" Felix suddenly sprung out of his chair and looked between Priscilla and Beatrice. Those that were listening suddenly widened their eyes in recognition.
"Can anyone feel the link to their gates restored?" Crusch inquired hurriedly as she suddenly realized what this meant.
Felix quickly overturned his hands in front of him and closed his eyes with determination, with one simple flick of his soul, he suddenly felt the warm comfortable energy that was Mana covering his palms, making them shine with white light. "My magic is back!" The healer shouted in shock.
"How did we get our powers back?!" Mimi asked in confusion, not understanding what was happening but clearly feeling her powerful aura coming back to her.
"That means we can break outta 'ere!" Ricardo shouted, his beast mouth shaped in a massive grin.
"It won't work, Ricardo." Julius quickly intervened on the twins and the beastman's excited chatter.
"What do ya mean?" The mercenaries looked at the knight in confusion.
"The walls are still enchanted to keep us inside. Our magics are simply non-existent to them."
The cheerful twins lowered their waving arms with frowns of disappointment.
"Can't we at least try?" Frederica asked the forlorn knight, afraid to give up hope of escaping from this confusing theater.
"I'm afraaaaid our magic is less than useless." Everyone was caught on the eccentric speaker, glancing towards the makeup-wearing man sitting on his lonesome since the last death scene. His face was focused on a preconceived glumness that gave to his posture of defeat. Shoulder's slum and head resting on his upturned knuckle, the Margrave kept a bored glance to the crowd below him.
"Lord Roswaal-sama?" Reinhard questioned his tone hinting at his displeasure with speaking with the man.
The lord focused his eyes on the young man standing in front of the two maids. "Thank you for protecting my deeeear staff members, Sword Saint-samaaaa. I would've been able to quickly knock back any of miss Braille's fire without much trouble but your presence is more than comforting enouuuugh."
Reinhard's eyes narrowed suspiciously at the man. In terms of perspective, Reinhard had never liked being around the clown-faced lord. The weirdly dressed man always seemed to have a unique feel to him, an aura of disturbance covering him. Unusual and weird. But right now… something was more and more apparent to Reinhard's eyes as he faced the lord.
Roswaal's eyes seemed more empty than they had ever been before.
It's bizarre. The way this lord was more dead than alive before him.
"Is sooomething the matter, Sword-Saint-sama?"
"Nothing at all, Margrave L. Mathers-sama."
"Hm," Roswaal's eyes glanced from the knight's gaze towards the distant black ceiling, "These walls… they were maaaade with the expectation to hold us allll."
"What do you mean?" Crusch inquired, now invested along with everyone else in the room as to what the weird man was doing.
Pointing his finger up, extended arm, towards the ceiling of the theater he now stood in.
"There is no magic any of us possess that will break these walls." Saying it without his usual distorted accent in the coldest and most hopeless voice ever heard from a man, Roswaal's finger sparked on a moment with embers of pure blood… and then…
An explosion of high fire that burned so hot it was a constant stream of pure raging red as his attack collided with the theater itself. Filling the entire theater with burning hot air as the stream of fire blazed into the ceiling and emblazoning the walls with a radiant lava-like texture that provided just as much of a burning sensation as the glowing tower of blazing fire that the magic lord commanded.
"What the hell?!" Garfiel quickly jumped over to protect his sister and the scared little girl sitting beside her from any flames that might catch them.
"Stop this at once!" Crusch commanded while putting her arms in front of her to protect her from the surging heat coming off of the tower of flames.
As the entire theater glowed from walls to ceiling, the single line of luminescence that was the raging tower of flames immediately disrupted, and in its place was only a single man that did not look the tiniest bit affected by the sun fire he had produced.
Unlike the other occupants which were all sweating and breathing heavily because of the radiation-filled fumes of the magical Goa.
"My dearest apologieees. I needed to give it my all so that we can be suuuuure." With a dispassionate tone, the lord looked at the people below him with an expression that showed not a hint of remorse for almost turning the entire room into an oven.
"Oi! The hell ya think yer doin'?!" Garfiel's shout riled up the melting texture of the walls and echoed across the theater. Standing with his fists clenched, the blonde demi was more than ready to pummel the uncaring Margrave lord before him for endangering every one of his friends and his sister.
"Margrave L. Mathers. Do you realize the grave danger you caused the five royal dragon maidens to our throne?" Julius, standing right over his lady with his cloak covering both him and most of the camp he served in case the fire had reached them, called in a chivalrous voice.
Seeing the angry faces aimed at him, the clownish man finally showed a hint of caring on his face and smiled slyly while waving his arms around.
"Now, noooow… You just need to look at what I've done to understaaaand."
Confused as to why the infuriating makeup-wearing lord was pointing upwards, the candidates and their knights stared at the red glowing walls that had been touched by Roswaal's burning fire.
"What is… Oh no." Otto uttered softly under his breath as it became apparent to him exactly what had been the meaning of Roswaal's spectacle.
As Otto and the others watched, the decomposing walls of the room that had been meting like a candle's wax this whole time suddenly turned into hardened stone once more without a single scratch of the magic user's attack to be seen on them.
Roswaal's most powerful Goa or so he says had failed to break the Warden's walls.
"This is bad… very very bad." Tivey lipped as his own tactical mind was stumped in thinking for a way to escape now that it was proven that everyone's magical powers were next to useless.
"So unless we wanna kill each other, any form of magic is ineffective against this prison." Anastasia mused dryly, looking half disappointed and half relieved that she would still be able to watch these interesting viewings still because she was trapped by indomitable walls.
"I wonder who made such a place… Is this a form of magic?" Ricardo inquired to his friend Julius with a straight face, making the knight place a hand on his chin and thoughtfully glance away.
"It doesn't maaaatter what or who made this." Roswaal captured their attention once more as he sat down on his chair and comfortably enjoyed the new fresh air that suddenly filled up the theater after the walls were reversed back into a stable state. "It's very cleaaaar this prison was made to last us for a loooong time~" He maturely extended both arms with a gleeful expression. None of the people that were looking at him with rapt attention noticed the hint of sarcasm and spite in the man's tone so he was only left to look weird and creepier to them.
"This isn't the time for yer jokes!" Garfiel's growl sounded like a tiger that was about to pounce on its prey.
"Garf!" Ram interrupted sternly not wanting the blonde boy to insult her master further.
Garfiel only growled, eyes sharp on the uncaring clown. He hated this man with all his being and he would rather not trust him enough to even have Frederica or his captain's friends sitting inside of the same room as this monster.
"Please calm down, Garf-sa-" As Otto held his friends' shoulder to stop him from bouncing away. As he reached him and grabbed onto his shoulder, Otto heard the sudden sound of a loud click from behind him.
As the darkness of the theater illuminated so suddenly and the clicking increased, the merchant and his blonde friend turned and looked at the enormous wall of glass that had been transcribing a world of darkness to them all that had suddenly activated once more.
The window started flashing again.
Images, memories, moments… It didn't matter. The screen started flashing and loading.
"It's going to show us more…" Beatrice whispered hoarsely. The little girl wore a glassy expression as she didn't know if this was her loyalty to Subaru or her mere curiosity that made her feel relieved that the screen is going to show her more of what her contractor has been through.
Opposite to the girl, the silver-haired half-elf was more in fear than anticipation. "I'm not trusted by him… Do I even deserve to watch any of this?" Emilia's whispers fell on deaf ears as the rest of the people around her had different reactions to the screen's reactivation.
"It's happenin' again?!" Garfiel shouted with displeasure as he looked up at the wall.
"It is. It's doing the same thing as last time." Otto answered helplessly with a growing anxious frown.
"Let us just… take our seats for now… This is all we have to do."
Anastasia raised a brow towards the steadfast duchess, "You seem pretty complaint, princess-sama~"
Crusch did not dignify the merchant queen with an answer, letting one of her own knights to answer for her. "If we watched more of this… We might find a lot more answers about Subaru-dono."
Anastasia shrugged, the old man sitting beside Crusch had a point. The shrewd princess wanted to know more about the boy now, it was too abnormal to let go now.
Her curiosity was peaked ever since her contacts and networks failed to find or understand him. Watching the evidence come to her without any effort is most pleasing.
Behind the duchess and the mercenary commanding merchant, the Sword Saint bowed respectfully to the lady in red. "Priscilla-sama, please remember that we are in this together."
The princess didn't even acknowledge the redhead with a glance as her eyes stuck on the flashing images thoughtfully.
Reinhard simply raised his head and nodded towards the two twins in respect before walking down the bleachers towards his own seat beside the lady he served.
"Are ya really jus' going to let him get away with tha'?!" Reinhard had already sat down beside the unresponsive Felt, Garfiel had stayed up the bleachers where his sister sat behind the first row and shouted in outrage at the Sword Saint.
Reinhard didn't know what to do in this situation, he clearly understood why the young man was furious but the knight couldn't do anything to punish the Margrave since he hadn't actually hurt anybody. Reinhard remained lamented on what his response should be for a moment until someone else cut into the conversation.
"Let's just sit down, Garf-san."
The blonde suddenly found his gray-haired brother walking him back down towards the front seats, a look of apprehensiveness filling his expression.
"But...".
"We have nothing to do now except to watch this again. We need to learn more about this entity and the nature of these viewings before causing a big fight… besides, Natsuki-san wouldn't like it if we ruined all of our plans for the camp by fighting with our sponsor."
The blonde relented after hearing the merchant's points and growled through his razor teeth, stomping towards his seat.
After the young men had taken their seats, Rem kept her eyes on the blazing princess for a moment longer, making sure everything was safe. With a nod to her dearest, Rem walked away to sit back in the second row behind the sleeping boy her heart ached for.
Ram was saddened that her sister left her but she felt a hand on hers that filled her with comfort. A gloved one that was steeply caressing hers.
"Roswaal-sama…"
Not acknowledging her, looking into the flashing images of the loading visionary window that loomed over them, Ram could tell many feelings were present on the man's seemingly expressionless face. But the one that made her heart soar the more, was the look of sadness and deep depression that stayed for one moment before becoming a fake smile to hide insurmountable pain, "Glad you're fine, Ram."
For one moment, Ram's face turned undeniably red as Roswaal whispered his words with a tone of truth he would never show to anyone but when he was in private.
Reinhard was contemplating all that he had seen here. He was watching everyone fall into different sides of an argument that should not exist. He could see it. Subaru's painful death and apparent revival were as shocking as the day his father stopped giving him proud smiles.
The young hero wasn't as naive as to believe that his friend wasn't going to be abused because of his power. Different excuses filled his head as soon as the idea of Subaru abusing this disgusting curse himself to get what he wants filled his head. Reinhard wanted his friend to be a good person. He could see it in Subaru's eyes! The black-haired boy was so much more a hero than Reinhard was to himself. He wanted to believe that Subaru wasn't using this dark power to twist their beliefs and ideals into something he wanted.
"It's a dangerous one… " Reinhard thought of the power itself… He made excuses.
Maybe it was a fluke?
Maybe Subaru found out how much Death hurts and he never did it again?
But the reason why the knight was really troubled, or the main one anyways…
"Maybe Subaru stopped using it because I helped him."
Reinhard wanted so badly for his meeting with Subaru to be a thing of destiny. Something poetic and not just something Subaru manufactured using this death returning ability that allowed him to control time. The thought that Reinhard might have met with Subaru many times where he didn't save him was just too cruel to bear. That Subaru may have needed to return through his death multiple times because their meeting wasn't correct enough.
Always selfish, always thinking of himself and how everything affected him.
That's what was going through Reinhard's head, as he kept his silence and watched the flashing images with a drowned expression.
Beside him… An ever silent Felt had been keeping her head down and her arms crossed into her chest this whole time. As if the little blonde was on the verge of breaking apart and she's been holding herself from shattering. Her face a sight to see as tear stains kept their tracks on her cheeks and her expression showed just how despaired she's become after watching the two failed attempts by someone she had considered a big brother and a hero to save her and Uncle Rom.
Seeing the old man die was one of the things she always believed wouldn't happen once in her lifetime. The man was a tough guy in all stretches of the term.
And yet, she saw it happen twice. And on top of that, she saw the kind boy who she respected and admired fall victim to a damn bitch's blade because of herself.
Dying on the ground of her loot house.
Bleeding and crying as Elsa laughed at him.
"What did ya mean by what you said?"
Everyone, every single individual turned to the speaker of the question. How could they not? Felt had delivered that question in such a tone so dark that even Roswaal's attention was demanded.
And more so because the little girl that had been dead silent this whole time, chose to speak in this serious demanding manner to the royal matriarch herself at the top row.
Priscilla looked down at the child that dared to attempt a hold on her throne with nothing but boredom and annoyance. "Learn how to refer to your betters, filth." Priscilla snarled haughtily towards the hardened-looking Felt as if speaking with a street mutt.
"I said, what did you mean when you spoke about big bro like that? Why did you think he was having it easy?" Felt reiterated her point coldly without hesitation or acknowledgment of Priscilla's bitchy attitude.
"Felt-sama, we may have to stop enraging other-"
"We need to do this, Rein!"
The redhead shut his mouth after his lady gave him the most commanding tone he'd ever received from her. It was clear that Felt had a fire in her eyes, but he didn't understand what she was doing by engaging with the princess in red above.
"You wish to understand a point so widely apparent? You truly are dumber than a child."
"You said that big bro 'had it easy' or well or whatever! What do you mean by that?! How the hell do you think that his pain and death were a good thing for him?!" Ignoring the insults, Felt caught straight on to her point against the matriarch and shot her the most serious glare she could.
It was a challenge between the little blonde and the fiery princess.
"If you wouldn't mind, Barielle. I have to agree with lady Felt that this point must be explained." Felt was surprised to find that the Duchess was suddenly pointing support to her side and in such a demanding manner as well.
"I believe all of us want to be involved here~" Anastasia cheekily smirked upwards to the bored-looking Priscilla.
Three to one. Emilia stayed silent in the back, not focusing on anything but the screen.
"Hmm, I suppose this is a chance for you all to see how superior mineself's knowledge is comparing to yours~" Priscilla closed her fan and smirked down with a level of smugness so high it felt crushing to the others that were caught in her eyesight. Which was the entire room, so her commanding ego was literally over everyone else.
"That boy simply got lucky at every turn of his 'journey' here." As soon as she mouthed this out, there was fierce refusal.
"But he didn't have anything on him at all! You saw how much abuse he had to take because he knew nothing of the capital, and he got mugged right on the first day of his arrival had it not been for big sis over there! Not to mention the fact that he died!"
Priscilla simply let the little blonde shout her points with an expressionless face before finally seeing her chance once Felt stopped to take a deep breath.
"Are you done? Now listen like a good dog or else never dare speak in mineself's direction again." Priscilla took a moment to enjoy the growl from the girl and the slight frown on Reinhard's face before continuing without care, "The boy's start here could've been much worse. He could've been thrown in the middle of a mabeast hunting ground. A snake's pit. A battlefield of gladiators. The frozen wastes of Gusteko. The filthy fighting arenas in Vollachia. Yet all he got was a random street in the safe capital."
"B-But he got into a lot of trouble when he roamed around-" Priscilla cut Rem off with a chuckle.
"Fufufu~ A moment of embarrassment for a shameful pig like him is much better than a beast's claws sinking into his bawls, or am I wrong? A slap on his face for not being able to read a new language is simply better than starving in the middle of nowhere."
Rem's mouth had shut immediately, not believing that she was agreeing with the bitch sitting high above.
Otto took the stand this time, "It's not as if he was still safer! He was mugged immediately!"
Priscilla scoffed at this, "You're letting emotions fool you. Situations like this happen more commonly to peasants and mongrels and I'm not surprised this one managed to get himself in one so soon."
"But he could've been killed!"
At this, Priscilla smirked triumphantly, Otto's eyes widened as he lost yet another match in wits. He had realized what she was driving at.
The lady in red played him.
"Precisely, you peasant boy. He was almost killed… but all of a sudden, he was not." Priscilla settled her eyes at the silver-haired lady sitting below her at the front with a hint of disgust showing on her expression, "He was saved by her. A royal 'contender' to my throne."
"Are you saying he somehow planned such a thing?" Anastasia asked with amusement at the ridiculous idea.
Priscilla huffed in annoyance, "Mineself is saying that he was lucky. Everything that happened to him was just improving his chances of survival in our world since the start. I find it wasteful to feel so saddened for him."
"But he died!" Felix was the one to announce his fury with the princess' logic, unable to believe that everyone was playing over the fact that Subaru went through something so horrible and walked it off.
"And?" Was the princess' smug reply, enjoying the way everyone looked at her ludicrously.
"He… Died…" Julius couldn't help but emphasize the fact the princess was so egregiously skipping.
"And he came back, did he not? Not only this, but he also apparently turns back time with him. He's been blessed with a power that saves his life no matter what happens to him or the people around him." Priscilla scoffed the knight's emotional words away and hit the crowd hard with her point.
"He has to die to get this power working though!" Mimi couldn't handle the way this woman was meanly bullying the others over Subaru's death, and she hated how disrespecting she replied to Julius, so she interrupted as well.
"None of you know this. From what's been shown, the boy clearly doesn't even understand what's happening just like we do. He may not know how to control it, but he still didn't try other ways to use it other than dying." Priscilla was done talking with these gremlins below her and started fanning herself while glancing back at the screen again.
"Hmm, that is very true." Tivey held his chin as he thought about it statistically, "Maybe that power has other ways to activate other than death?"
Many people hated the way this kid spoke about the subject as if the owner of the power and what had already happened to him wasn't important. Especially the girl that looked just like him.
SMACK!
"Ouch! Mimi?!" Tivey cried out while holding his head in pain from his sister's punch.
"Don't forget that big bro died!" Mimi staunchly reprimanded her brother. But the boy looked fed up for a moment.
"Could've fooled me." He whispered which was caught by most of the demi-humans in the room.
"What the hell did ya say?!" Garfiel shouted in anger as he didn't like the tone this boy spoke about his captain's death.
"Tivey, man. What was that?" Ricardo inquired with a serious voice that scared the kid into talking.
"I-I mean… He didn't look in pain at all! He seemed to be over his demise really quickly… as if the pain was gone the moment he closed his eyes… Isn't it possible that this power erases pain or trauma or something?"
At this, a new voice timidly spoke in protest.
"He… He didn't have the time to cry… He's whole life played before him… and all he could think about was how much pain he was in…". The girl's audible small cries shattered the hearts of the most jaded men in the room. "How isn't that… How isn't that proof enough for you that his death meant something?!"
Petra heatedly glared at the pinnacle-wearing boy, and if she could've… She would've aimed it at the haughty princess sitting above her.
"Amusing." Priscilla could feel the girl's intent a mile away. It made her smirk.
Tivey simply looked down from the girl's eyes. He couldn't think clearly with so many emotions involved in the discussion.
But he was suddenly replaced with another soft-spoken speaker, "Subaru-kyun seemed more concerned with what was happening than his actual deaths though. He should be much more disturbed than shown. For a guy that died twice already… that's not normal. He might be uncaring towards death-" Felix's ramble was cut off.
As the disturbed healer rambled, before any of his outraged friends and comrades shout at him yells of protest, the sound of laughter filled the entire theater.
The laughter that stopped Julius and Reinhard from refuting their friend. One that had placed Crusch and Wilhelm's disappointment in their member on hold. Laughter so loud and hardened it set both Emilia and Beatrice out of their hypnotized state and made them both look at the background they've been so detached from.
Even Priscilla and Roswaal looked completely off settled by the man that was holding his stomach with his one arm as he guffawed.
"Are you okay man?" Felt asked with a tilt of her head, looking concerned for the helmet-wearing dude in the back as he stopped his hysterics.
"Aldebaran. Explain yourself." Priscilla ordered her knight immediately. Not liking the unexpected behavior from the usually apathetic man.
"I- hahaha- I'm so sorry, pal. *wheezes * Y-You just said something really funny to me."
Felix raised a brow at this man. A person that unsettled his nerves with how offish he was. "What was that?"
The helmeted knight went dead quiet at this. He seemed to be staring at the entire crowd from above through the slits of his helmet.
For a moment, the tension reached a high end as everyone felt intimidated by the man's silence. Priscilla continued to wave her fan while watching what her knight was going to do with all of this attention.
Al finally made a response after what seemed like long minutes to Emilia and the others when it was just a few seconds. He moved his arm up with one thump pointing upwards.
"Remember one important thing bros. Something so important it may just save you from looking this fucking dumb again." Suddenly hostile and agitated, some in the crowd couldn't help but blink at the man's complete turnaround in tone.
"Yeah? What's that big man?!" Garfiel immediately decided to respond to this jackass since he was getting on Garf's nerves.
Al lowered his arm and leaned down to the crowd, although his tone was cold and hardened, it was aimed with compassion and care which was confusing to everyone. As if he lived and breathed the next few words he spoke.
"Dying is something no one will forget. Never. No matter how many times it happens to you, no matter how painless it is… You never escape the darkness it brings. The nightmares. The voices.
It will never be something to grow 'uncaring' about, pal."
Felix had to flinch back as Al's confusing tone cleared up at the end when it was aimed toward him with clear seething and hatred.
Tivey and the rest of the crowd below Al were disturbed by the words but the message started being clear to them all.
"Be careful of your outbursts, Aldebaran. Don't forget that dogs are owned." Priscilla warned her knight with a dangerous narrow of her eyes, clearly seeing through his attempt to argue with her for saying what she did.
The one-armed man simply leaned back with his shoulders shaking for a moment, before inflating back to a calm posture that showed a man at peace instead of the spiteful rage-filled person one second ago.
"Sorry, princess. Just had to make it clear." Al shrugged and spoke in his normal uncaring tone as if the entire thing was behind him.
"Just remember not to do this again. You are lucky that I know why this conversation concerns you so much." Priscilla decided to let this go and continue to wave her fan as she watched the others muse over her knight's advice.
While also mulling over them herself…
It appears even she, his owner, didn't know what Al truly is thinking.
The helmeted knight himself just kept his eyes focused on the screen, his face expressionless under his helmet and his lips thin.
His eyes would flicker once in a while to the mop of black hair at the front and he would frown when he would notice the slight bangs that had manifested beneath Subaru's eyes. They were from stress and trauma not from tiredness. Al knew this very well.
He kept his silence. He already said way too much.
Hm , Al… helped.
The entire crowd looked up as the voice of the person that captured them played once more in their minds.
"You're back?!" Ram yelled as she felt disgusted that this man was speaking inside of her head.
Sorry I've been gone for so long. I had to -Cough- take care of a few troubles h-here.
"What is happening?" Julius clearly questioned, confused why this entity sounded so… tired. Exhausted.
"He's nothing like when we first spoke with him." Anastasia mused her thoughts in suspicion. She remembered how outright scary this Warden seemed when he introduced himself… Now though.
"He sounds beaten up," Ricardo noted to his mistress. Anastasia nodded her head.
Everyone in the room held similar whispers and thoughts as Warden's tired voice confirmed to them that he was struggling with something from the outside.
It's nothing to worry about you lot.
Just get pas
t this one and we will rest easy. And please, don't try to argue with me to get out. It's not happening.
Otto looked disappointed at this.
Hm. You are all… waiting?
As if most of you genuinely want to continue watching this.
At this, the merchant looked shocked. Otto looked back and scanned everyone with his stare. He noticed how many of them were just staring at the screen with patience as if they were okay with watching now.
"Oh no… They are all curious." He cursed under his breath. The fear in his heart expanding.
This may be easier than I thought! Alright, gotta go.
Watch.
And the screen stopped flashing random images for a moment, glowing white before turning into one coherent image that was paused in time.
And then the image started moving.
[ Season 1 Episode 2 Director's Cut
Begin.
The scene shows a confused Subaru standing in the middle of a huddled crowd, with an angry Emilia glaring at him. ]
"We are starting right where the previous one stopped?" Anastasia whispered dryly with an uncomfortable look on her face. Just because she was anticipating more out of these viewings it didn't mean that she wanted to see the poor boy's embarrassing situation that happened to him only because of his demise.
"It seems like so," Crusch noted with her focus fully placed on the show before her now.
[ Felt is shown to be looking at the scene from the rooftops. She looked like she was waiting for something as she watched Subaru and Emilia from above.]
"Felt-sama is watching them?" Petra innocently asked as these events were all confusing to her.
"It seems I haven't made my move to steal from Big sis yet." Felt muttered with a dry look.
["I'll ask once more. Why did you call me by the name of the jealous witch?" glaring at the boy, Emilia asked.
Subaru just looked at her with a baffled look.
"Because you told me to," Subaru answered in a confused tone.]
"Ah," Ricardo flinched in distaste at the situation, "The fella is in a real bad spot here."
"Who's fault is that, I wonder," Anastasia muttered again in the same dry tone.
"Oh, Subaru… No." Emilia whispered passionately as she recognized the hurt and confusion on the boy's face. Watching the crowd surround him and stare at him like some sort of deviant when he was completely innocent. This harsh treatment by her and the crowd around them was only because he was trying to be nicer to her.
"I didn't need to lie to him! Stupid, stupid, idiot!" The half-elf hid her face in her palms and muttered insults towards her previous self's insecurity and the situation she unwittingly placed Subaru in.
Beatrice simply glanced at the guilt-ridden girl with a little bit of spite clear in her eyes for what Emilia's mistake forced on her contractor.
"You can't blame yourself for this, Emilia-sama." Crusch spoke in a soft yet stern tone.
The half-elf wasn't convinced as she lured her eyes on the screen once more, severely disliking the look of fear on Subaru's face as he stared at her angry variant on the screen. She wished so much to replace herself and give the poor boy the tightest of hugs and tell him that he'll be alright.
"How will he get out of this one?" Rem questioned tiredly, eyes looking grieved and holding an expression of pity for the boy. She too was imaging herself in place of Emilia here. Thinking about all of the sweet things she would say to him as he cried over and over again.
The blue-haired Oni wanted nothing more than to erase that look of pure confusion on the lost boy's face. The man she loved never looks like that, he never should!
["I don't know who told you that, but they have terrible taste! The Jealous Witch is the epitome of taboo and you call me by her name which most dare not even say!" Emilia is shaking with anger as she stared angrily at him.
Around the befuddled Subaru, the crowds began nodding along with Emilia and glaring at the boy.
"That's right!"
"That's going too far, boy!"
Emilia looked away from the shaking Subaru with an upset look.
"If you have nothing to say, I'm leaving. I have things to do."
Emilia turned to leave and ignored Subaru as he tried to speak. ]
"I really feel bad for him here." Ricardo grimaced at the raging crowd surrounding Subaru.
Mimi and Tivey nodded their heads at watched the scene with grimaces of pity.
"They don't know who Cap'n even is!" Garfiel growled to himself while glaring fiercely at the screen.
"I get what you mean. But you can't blame them nonetheless. They don't know what we do." Julius answered the blonde demi's growls with a small frown painting his lips.
"Sounds like you have somethin' to say," Garfiel asked pointedly, not liking the knight's attitude even if he admired everything about them.
Julius kept his gaze on the screen an expression of thoughtfulness covering his face. "I'm just thinking why he hadn't used such power after what I did to him… He could've saved himself so much humiliation."
The knight didn't reply to the blonde's query out loud. These were the thoughts that plagued his mind as he thought about Subaru's position in their world and how he got to them.
'Could it have been a plan… to earn everybody's trust at the end?'
Garfiel knew something was up with this purple-haired guy just from the distasteful thinking expression on the knight's face.
[Felt is shown, smirking as she jumped down and ran into the now resentful crowd that was busy glaring at Subaru.
Subaru noticed the girl and immediately set on stopping her. "Felt!" ]
"Ooooh, no!" Felt exhaled, deeply ashamed of her next move since she realized what her thief-self is doing using Subaru's commotion as bait to steal the jewel.
"Please don't make him come over there again…" Even though the blonde candidate wanted nothing but for the boy to be safe from another death, she still held the memories of her Uncle Rom dying twice in her mind. She knew that if it wasn't for Subaru's intervention, she wouldn't be alive much less the overprotective giant.
[Subaru watched as the blonde girl ran through the crowds and passed right by Emilia.
Emilia gasped as the little girl passed by her and ran away. She checked her pocket and looked for something.
Only to find nothing in her dress.
Upset, she turned to glare at Subaru. "Were you stalking me? Are you working with her?" ]
"So he was an accessory to your crime in this one." Anastasia found herself chortling in fascination. This chain of events is so different than the last one it was surreal to her.
Felt flinched as she saw what her other self did. "I guess it was a perfect opening to steal it." She agreed as she herself would have done the same back then.
"There's a contrast between how this Emilia is taking her meeting with Subaru because of his flawed beginning with her," Wilhelm mumbled to himself, finding the whole interaction unbelievable from what he's seen of the boy and the lady in white so far himself. They would never treat each other in such a manner.
"That's the power of going back in time. You can get many differences if you do things a certain way." Felix… grumbled? As he stared emotionlessly towards the screen.
The duchess between them looked conflicted with focus pulled on what she was watching on the screen. "There must be something else at play here. No such power exists." She muttered stubbornly while keeping her wits about her.
["N-No!" Subaru tried to speak through his confusion and defend himself. But Emilia was already running after Felt.
"H-Hey wait a minute! You've got it all wrong! I'm…" as he tried calling out for her, he stopped and noticed the glaring crowd around him.
"Damn it!" Knowing he couldn't stay here; Subaru ran after the two. ]
"Subaru-kun's been having it so hard…!" Rem squeezed her skirt in frustration, wishing to be there for her hero after seeing him struggle so much.
"I find it commendable that he still tries to help you after the embarrassing position you've put him in," Priscilla noted to Emilia with a bored tone.
Which surprised most people since that's not normal fucking behavior from this cunt.
Emilia took it as an insult to make her feel bad more than a complement to her sleeping knight.
But everyone's focus on the screen was broken for a moment, as it went dark.
"What's going on?" Otto asked in confusion while staring up at the giant inactive window.
"Is it malfunctioning? I thought this was a magical device." Tivey mused with interest.
Slowly… the screen emitted loud noises that sounded almost rhythmic in nature.
"Is… that music, I suppose?" Beatrice asked, finally kicked out of her depressed state and into one of bewilderment as the sound beats grow louder through the darkness. Wondering what the change was for and what did this weird form of composition had to do with her contractor.
[Opening Theme 1: Redo]
"Wh't?" Asked Garf as he looked at the merchant beside him for an answer to this confusing change of pace.
"What's this weird music?" Julius asked, really upset that his entire thought process was broken by the melody. Which he hated.
"Hey, I like it," Petra called as she focused her mind on something other than the previous events that will for sure haunt her for life. The little girl bobbed her head softly enjoying how coercing.
[Droplets of blood are shown as the scene changes abruptly.
The blood in black and white begins to move on its own along with a familiar plastic bag. Flying through the air.]
"What is this?!" Felix yelled in frustration as the music and the sight of blood got on his nerves.
"Natsuki Subaru's bag."
"Wha… that's true!" Emilia noticed what Crusch noted immediately as soon as she looked at the screen more clearly. That was indeed Subaru's bag.
[Subaru's body is shown laying on the ground with his stomach cut open. He was dead.]
Emilia's eyes widened in disbelief while the rest of her camp watched in horror.
"What the hell?!"
"No…" Petra whispered in despair, no longer infatuated with the music.
"This is sickening! Who plays songs over such a scene?!" Felix shouted, not understanding the tension-breaking change but not loving any of it either. His confusion clearly added to his agitation.
"I think this is showing us something else!" Felt shouted over the panicking crowd with her eyes hardened on the wound Subaru's corpse held.
[Suddenly, like the blood and the bag, his body flies in the air and the screen shows how his blood is returning into his wounded stomach.]
"Do you think that's what happens when he…" Anastasia left the question incomplete as he watched with interest.
[His bag flew and returned to his palm as he was standing up after his stomach was seemingly returned to normal.]
"I'm more worried about why the story seems to have stopped and now we're watching this… weird music show?" Otto asked bewildered yet relieved that Subaru wasn't actually dead and it was just… some weird manipulation of reality that played music over his friend being in precarious positions.
[Subaru is shown walking in a dark mist with his face glitching around him.]
"This looks a lot more akin to that distortion that happened during his transportation." Ram rattled, her sharp gaze catching every glimpse inside of the glitching effect easily since her clairvoyance had these same distorted effects when she uses it, so she's very used to this.
"So it's the making of whoever took Subaru from his home, ya reckon?" Ricardo asked the maid above him, interested as everyone else.
Ram simply shrugged. "Possibly."
[Emilia is shown with the same sequence.]
The half-elf in question refused to stare at the screen longer than a second as soon as she came up so closely. She didn't like seeing herself in the webs of the dark glitches for some reason. And she hated the fact that her knight was dealing with most of them by himself.
"If only he had trusted me enough with this," Emilia whispered to herself with a frown as she gazed at the floor.
[Felt is shown with the same sequence as well.]
"This is so weird." Felt didn't break her focused glare on the window above her but she did grimace at the way her face broke off into chunks and came back in seconds, the glitching effect hurt the girl's eyes since they were unexpected for her.
[Elsa's face is shown over all of them.]
"Why is she in there?" The red-headed grand knight asked himself with a small glare pointing at the assassin.
[Beatrice is shown flying in the mist with her face glitching.
Rem and Ram are shown standing together with the same effect. Roswaal's face is shown over the two.
A scene where Emilia and Subaru are standing in front of each other with many lesser spirits around them is shown.]
"I'm with him now…?" Emilia's confusion would be followed by horror as she watched the next scene.
[A dark hand attacks and Emilia's body pops out of existence. Subaru recoils in fear and looks around in confusion.]
"It's definitely a hostile entity. We know that for sure!" Tivey shouted and recoiled in surprise as soon as the familiar black hand showed up.
"It's still not attacking the boy… hm." Wilhelm muttered as he noticed how the shadowy hand lunged only for Emilia… as if it was jealous of her.
"You noticed that as well." Crusch nodded her head while keeping her focus on the playing scenes as well.
[Another Subaru taps him on the shoulder and smiles.]
"This is just weird…" Al commented curiously, surprised by the sight of two Subaru's at once as everyone watching.
"This is annoying!" Felix commented with a small huff, his confusion increasing every second since this started playing.
"Why are there two now?" Petra asked in shock.
"I don't know, this is all just too fast." Frederica answered the small maid with a pat on the head.
[The smiling Subaru continues walking, leaving the first one behind him to pop like Emilia.
A scene where Emilia is standing in a white mist while multiple Subaru's are walking around her. Everything disappeared out of existence and only one Subaru remained screaming in frustration.]
"That's fucking creepy." Al shivered at the sight.
[The music begins building up as Emilia and Subaru are facing their backs to one another while they spun around. The screen shows the many characters in the story and then stopping at the title as the music builds up.]
"Hmm, it seems it's an introduction, I suppose."
Rem looked at Beatrice. "To what?"
"To Barusu's story." Ram answered her sister.
[Subaru is shown running away from the dark fog and trying to reach another smiling version of himself.
Another Subaru is shown running behind him and trying to reach the happy ending before the first one.]
"So he just keeps running and dying for a happy ending?" Reinhard asked in a glum voice as he watched Subaru trying as hard as he can to step into the light.
[Subaru runs through the black foggy mist and closes his eyes from the shining light.
Standing in the light are the figures of Beatrice, Rem, Ram, Felt, and Emilia, standing on a ship.]
Most of the girls blushed at being objectified like this.
"Pervert, Barusu."
[Subaru smiles and begins walking towards his happy ending, but a dark hand stops him by penetrating his back.]
"Who is that?" Petra asked in fright as Subaru screamed on the screen.
"A witch cultist… maybe." Anastasia shrugged as she knew that the question will be answered sometime during this story.
[Subaru stands between the mist world and the happy ending filled with light, screaming as the hand kills him. The screen spins around him as he tries to fight through the pain.]
"It's hostile to Natsuki Subaru as well." Crusch widened her eyes to Wilhelm beside her, the old man gave her a look of disillusion.
[The final shot is of him having his guts cut open and falling on the ground with his blood all over the floor and his bag right beside him.]
"… This is morbid." Felix looked away from the sight as the music died down.
[The screen showed the same droplets of black and white blood from the beginning and the music stops.
End of the opening.]
As the screen turned completely dark, Emilia couldn't help but stare at the face of her sleeping knight for the one-minute darkness that took reign over the room.
[The scene changes to show Emilia running after Felt through the same alleyway from the first episode. Subaru is running tiredly after her, exhausted.]
"It continued where we left off!" Al sounded relieved for some reason. Something caught by the fiery-haired lady that raised a brow at him.
He shrugged to her, "What? I wanted to see what happened after that."
"Here we go…" Felt whispered encouragingly to herself. Trying to make sure nothing else is going to shock her into tears again. She needed to be strong here.
["Could someone just treat me a little nicer? Why was I even… summoned to this world?" Subaru asks exasperated while trying to catch his breath.]
"Good question." Anastasia mused shrewdly; her lips thin.
Crusch found herself pondering the specific reason why Subaru Natsuki was chosen… she found herself amazed at the fact that she had no knowledge about the boy's talents or strengths… She was more than impressed that such an average kid made it so far.
And then the duchess' eyes went wide open, "The power…!"
As the green-haired lady in blue fought a downhill battle with her mind, wanting to believe that Natsuki Subaru hadn't been fooling all of them while using such a dark power just to gain glory and power. Those eyes, the ones that showed her pure determination and constant perseverance must not belong to someone she was suspicious of.
"Jeez, big bro really hasn't had a break since he came to our world… Feels really weird to say that." Felt tried to calm her nerves by lightening the very damp mood a bit.
Emilia and Rem frowned when they heard what he said about his treatment. Feeling incompetent in a sense.
"You all are useless, I suppose." Beatrice mumbled hatefully while watching the next scene with a glare.
[Subaru turns around finding that Emilia and Felt had jumped over the alley's dead end, planning on rerouting around the house but he was stopped by…]
"Th's is pissing mine amazin' selfs off!"
"You gotta be kidding!" Felix facepalmed.
"Aahhhhhh!" Petra groaned loudly in frustration.
["What're you blabbering on about?"
"If you don't wanna get hurt, cough up whatever you've got!"
Subaru finds the same three thieves blocking his way.
"Would you stop it already?! No one is this damn persistent!" Subaru shouted at the three clearly tired of them.
"You think you can mouth off to us?" the leader of the group brought out his blade as he glared at Subaru.
"You're in my way! I have somewhere I need to go!" Subaru is upset and, in a hurry, as he walks past the blade-wielding thief.]
"He won't beat them up like last time?" Tivey asked, secretly disappointed.
"He's confused about what's been happening with all these dreams or previous lives, not to mention he needs to catch up to miss 'I'm a Witch but don't call me that' over there, so he doesn't have the time or the right mind to think clearly," Anastasia said the last part in a snide tone aimed at the half-elf girl.
Emilia just looked down and accepted this.
"I advise you not to start hostile interactions with the candidate sponsored by Roswaal-sama." Ram glared at the greedy girl.
"Know your place, maid. You are not allowed to speak such wisdom after what you said to Priscilla-sama." Julius reprimanded sternly. He will not accept anyone bad-mouthing his lady.
"Emilia-sama won't be insulted for something she never did. Even if it happened in Barusu's previous lives or not. So please take care how you all speak with her in the future." Emilia looked surprised as Ram defended her.
"Hmph!" Anastasia just looks at the screen with a small scowl on her face.
[Subaru suddenly stops with his eyes wide in shock as he falls over with the three thieves looking at him with wide eyes.]
"Oh shit!" Ricardo yelled out as he understood what happened.
"E-Eh?" Otto looked with shock.
"Surely not!" Julius grumbled in disdain.
"W-What's wrong with Subaru?" Emilia asked in fear, not understanding the disturbing look on the boy's face all of a sudden. She wasn't as fast-paced as the other candidates and knights around her.
"Damn it!" Felt shouted, immediately remembering hundreds of other situations like this.
["Man, now you've done it."
Subaru's back is shown and it appears that he's been stabbed in the kidney by the blade.
Subaru looks at his bleeding back in shock as he struggles to breathe.
"You stabbed him?"
"N-No! He walked right into my blade!"
You've got to be kidding me!
It hurts… it hurts…]
"..."
Emilia and everyone around her watched with wide-open eyes. Her hands covered her opened mouth as every word she heard him speak in his dying breaths forced a painful feeling in her chest.
"Poor kid…" Ricardo shook his head again, "He just keeps losing." The mercenary said in sympathy for the dying boy, knowing the fear of death that was overcoming the kid very well himself.
Beside him, Mimi and Tivey nodded their heads with their palms together. They wished they had their favorite third twin with them.
[As Subaru is dying on the ground, the thieves were arguing above him. The shorter thief pulls the blade out of Subaru's body, making him spit blood.
"What're you doing?" the larger thief asks the shorter one.
"No sense in wasting it," the short guy replied as he pocketed the blade with Subaru's blood on it.
Subaru is shown with blood coming out of his mouth and bleeding a pool of blood.]
"Do they have no honor?!" Crusch seethed in her seat. A dangerous expression honed on the screen dictating exactly who the royal duchess was going to hunt down as soon as she was out of this prison to take revenge for the innocent boy. Her gloved hands were twisting on her armrests.
"Hooligans like these should be kept out of everyone's sight!" Frederica couldn't help herself from commenting with passion and anger. She too felt disgusted at the sheer inhumanity these three treated Subaru with.
["Take anything on him worth selling."]
"Otto-bro… I'm going to be killing those three once we are outta 'ere."
Otto turned to his tough friend with an empty expression, "Alright." was all he answered with.
Garfiel nodded his head calmly and glared towards the screen with a border-on bloody glare aimed towards the screen, his entire body tensing and showing blood vessels and veins about to pop out from how much strength he was putting to stop himself from turning into a raging beast and attack the screen with all that he had.
"Don't…Try to stop me when I get t'ere, bro. I'm going to KILL THEM ALL!"
"Go for it," was all the merchant had replied with after seeing the three kill Subaru and having his brother fuming with explosive anger beside him. "I'll even help you. For Natsuki-san." Otto coldly whispered; his eyes filled with hatred towards the three. Yet there were still a few tears in the corners for his fallen friend.
["Whoa! Wait, guards will arrive here soon."]
"They should've arrived sooner!" Julius slammed his armrest as hard as he could.
"If only I could be there to heal him!" Felix grumbled in frustration, feeling useless and hating the fact.
The redhead that was silently watching the scene with a mix of emotions finally decided to lower his head in shame at his late arrival.
"Subaru died." Reinhard said this in an empty, haunted voice once again. Never able to believe this fact and the hand he had in achieving it. The knight was more than aware of his failure to save his friend here.
The blonde sitting next to him had another expression on her face entirely, one of furiousness and brutal promise. Like she was holding over the gates of hell and waiting to unleash whatever was behind them onto the thieves in front of her.
"Rein," the youngest candidate called whisperingly, her voice cracking from so much anger. "Make sure these three never show themselves to me again. I don' care about their existence anymore."
Reinhard could only bow his head and register his lady's command in his head for later. Felt's entire aura was dark he feared this may change something in her. He couldn't really place blame for she was doing this to herself out of anger and compassion for her friend. One he failed.
[Subaru is struggling to stay awake as he looks up from the amounting blood around him and to his dropped plastic bag.
He looked at the bag in confusion as he cried tears of pain.
Huh?
The screen aimed closer to the small package of chips. Unopened. New.
But… Old Man Rom ate those.
How… C-Could… this be…
"Oh? He has yet to understand what his power did?" Priscilla found herself unable to contain her silence as the sheer shock and surprise the boy showed over the evidence of his time hopping was truly worthy of study to her. "How foolish must one be as to not understand they had returned through time?" she asked with clear mockery and disgust in her voice.
Beatrice was the only one that delivered one twisted burning glare to the red princess above, her tears slowly fading as her eyes shined purple with her mana charge. The small spirit was the only one that hadn't ignored the candidate's words about her dying contractor, and she was more than pissed towards the haughty girl sitting cross-legged above everybody.
Before she could do anything, however, Al suddenly interjected. "See that's the thing…"
Priscilla turned to her knight with a look of unpleasant surprise on her face as she found him speaking out of turn once more.
The knight carried on speaking in his usual uncaring tone without seeing the burning anger in his lady's glare.
"See, poor pal over there had been so focused on saving the silver hairs life, he had completely forgotten about his death and experience."
"That's… That's mad!" Julius coerced his shock into a slight gasp that sounded like a growl.
"N-No! Subaru mustn't forget about himself for my sake! We talked about this a lot!" Emilia shouted in refute, not believing that the boy would forget something like death just because she had walked past him.
Crusch looked more than horrified at this prospect and stared at the two as they held their grounds.
Al simply shrugged Emilia's words off and replied coldly, "You all thought that the boy's painful death got forgotten easily because of an assumption about his power you don't even know was true. I'm out here telling you that this kid was so messed up in the head, he actively made himself busy with something or someone else to forget about his own trauma and not think about what happened. He's only forced to confront this issue now because he is dying a hopeless, painful, pathetic death in a simple alley with no one that he could hold on to and worry about this time. It's why he started seeing things more clearly and instantly made the time travel connection when we had done it twice as fast as he did. Because we weren't running away from thinking about the pain."
Everyone looked at Al with astonishment and horror, a mix of both as his words explained why this idea about Subaru somehow getting through his deaths without issue was wrong and misguided.
Even Priscilla found herself accepting this explanation.
"Of course, Betty's Subaru would care about someone else's farewell rather than his own deaths, in fact." Beatrice grumbled heatedly. Hatred for his habit filling her.
"B-But… I told him… I-" Emilia's panicked rambling was broken once the soft-voiced Rem countered sadly.
"Emilia-sama… This Subaru didn't have those conversations with you. This Subaru is the one who doesn't even know your name… That doesn't even know Rem's name."
By the maid's broken words, Emilia sat down in her seat and watched with a haunted face whiter than the snowy color usually paling her skin.
She could not believe how utterly broken Subaru was. He didn't even care about his own death just because he wanted to make sure his friend was alright first! This… This was more than him being kind… Subaru has a real problem and she was now just learning of it.
["Run!"
"We're in trouble!"
The thieves run away from the scene as the screen zooms on Subaru's eyes as he freaked out in pain.
His wide shocked eye suddenly lost the light.
And so did the screen.
Darkness….]
Emilia just silently hugged Subaru's chest to hear his heartbeat.
She just needed this. Nothing but his warmth and his rising chest.
He's okay. He's okay. He's okay.
Subaru's jacket was getting wet.
From her tears.
Rem simply hugged Subaru's sleeping neck and rubbed her face in his hair as she breathed heavily, trying to calm her nerves and not get angry.
"My hero… My love." she whispered through her tears as she smelled his scent.
"Once we're back, I want you to give them the cruelest punishment you can think of and keep them employed so I can make them suffer for the rest of their lives!" Felt growled out as she felt disgusted with herself for ever helping these three find a better life.
Reinhard nodded solemnly. Oh, he will see this through. They were orders after all.
"Dying in an alley all alone and by a simple wound… Subaru-kyun's weakness knows no bounds huh?" Felix was starting to get really agitated the more blood and horrific deaths he saw.
"It's not weakness Felix-dono."
The cat boy looked up at the butler of the Karsten house.
"Old man Wil?"
"He is strong." The old man nodded solemnly at the screen. He saw the boy's defeat with his own eyes. The fact that he proved himself and remained firm against the world that mocked him was a testament to this kid's well.
"Strength…"
A whisper came from someone way in the back. Someone that had their fingers intertwined dearly and their heads down, wallowing.
"Does he really have so much strength to escape all of my sins?" Makeup-covered lips uttered as the tone of the speaker mirrored the dead glass reflected in the usually bright pupils. A man sent into a vortex of a thousand guilts. A man with nothing to say for his judgment had already been concealed for him.
"I-I didn't think it was like this… Teacher's book wasn't clear about the intentions…"
"She wasn't wrong. She wasn't wrong. She wasn't wrong. My teacher was not wrong!"
A man that was already shattered.
[A faint voice. A blurry image.
"Well, boy? You want this appa?"]
"I'm tired of this guy!" Mimi shouted.
Many of the emotionally tired nodded with her.
They wished that it would be the last time they see him. Not that he was hated, but because that would mean Subaru is safe.
[Subaru found himself right back where he was, in front of the salesmen.
The boy appeared calm as he stared into space. "Hey, mister… "
"Huh?"
"How many times have you seen me now?"
"What do you mean? I've never seen you before. Well? Are you buying it or not?"]
"How many times will he be stuck at this moment?" Frederica looked genuinely upset and sympathetic for the poor boy.
Emilia, Beatrice, and Rem all had frowned as they all noticed in their own ways how much Subaru was getting used to this.
[Subaru appears to be disturbed for a second but then smiles and holds some excitement in. He points to himself and smirks proudly at the salesmen.
"Sorry, but I'm broke beyond compare!"
"Get the hell outta here!"
The scene changes to Subaru sitting somewhere looking at his bag filled with noodles and chips while he held his wallet and phone.
"Wallet, cell phone, corn potage snack, cup noodles. My tracksuit and sneakers are intact, too. And naturally…"
Subaru raises his shirt to inspect his back where he was stabbed finding nothing but flawless skin.
"Thank god. A wound to the back is a warrior's greatest shame."]
"He doesn't seem fazed by his death… it's disturbing." Otto voiced out, which made everyone a little unsettled as they all looked at the sleeping boy that was being hugged by a tired Emilia.
"He's clearly hiding it. Look at the shrunk pupils in his eyes." Reinhard pointed out what any normal person with no divine protection can see.
"Subaru's not caring for himself at all, I suppose." Beatrice growled.
Otto nodded with the spirit's statement, tone and all. He wanted nothing more than to come down there and punch him to break this weird act he puts on to hide his pain.
Garfiel was the one who was shocked most… He never noticed it. His captain's eye bangs. He wasn't looking at the on-screen Subaru but the Cap'n that was currently closer to him in the theater sound asleep. Those were bangs that hid abnormal amounts of stress and suffering.
[Subaru looks up at the royal castle with conviction.
"Well, with so much circumstantial evidence, there's no denying it. It's hard to believe but this has to be… a time leap. And each time, I return to my initial state. I'll call it…."
The screen showed his face with a disturbing grim look.
"… Return by Death."]
"Is that what he calls it?" Anastasia asked the Emilia camp if they ever heard that phrase before.
"Barusu has never said that phrase before." Ram firmly denied, not liking that she had nothing to say for the boy's sake.
Rem's eyes widened. She did hear that phrase before. No one noticed the shaken Oni.
Except for the man sitting above her, rows away. Roswaal just went thin-lipped at this development.
"Rem knows something… No one was supposed to know anything about him…"
[A seller was looking at Subaru with a look of revolt as the boy spoke like a nonsensical madman.
"I actually got a time-leap ability, and it only activates when I die. The precondition being pitiful is so typical."]
"He's speaking about it as if it was one of his games, In fact!" Beatrice shouted in even more frustration aimed towards her contractor.
"This is so wrong! He needs to show a little bit of empathy about his deaths!" Felix yelled out in anger.
"Looks like he just wants to ignore it for now. I think Al-kun's words are true tah form since the boy clearly lost a lot of his early cheer of being in another world now." Anastasia mused above them with her eyes still watching intently on the screen. Voicing her opinion without glancing at anyone.
The audience learned to hear the merchant lady's words out so most of those disgusted with Subaru's nonchalant attitude towards death kept it to themselves.
[The merchant just looks away from Subaru.
If I've gone back in time, Satella hasn't helped me in this fourth life.
Meaning the debt, I owed her for saving me is gone.
In that case, I should forget everything, sell this, save some funds and use my knowledge of the modern world to live in luxury!]
"That's a good plan and I would have loved to make him work for me, I would have provided workshops and funds for all his projects." Anastasia started coming up with plans to make a contract with the boy when he wakes up. If he truly came from a place of pure convenience and luxury then he must be a political mine.
"Sadly… This didn't happen, did it."
Amethyst eyes quickly sprung on the blonde demi woman sitting in the second row, "What do you mean by that Frederica-chan?! Why would you be sad that Subaru didn't live another life away from us?"
The maid couldn't answer Emilia's accusing question as it was too controversial for her position in all of this, especially with the betrayed-looking Petra that was staring at her with tears in her eyes.
But luckily for the blonde, there was someone who considered themselves above such controversy as they cut in, "It's because he would've been far off better than being with your ungrateful selves, in fact!"
Emilia looked hurt for a moment as she received the harsh response from a very furious-looking Beatrice.
"B-Beako…?!"
"Betty's Subaru would've ended up a wealthy merchant or a restaurant owner with his smarts and amazing knowledge from his world, in fact," the spirit's points were not exaggerated or made to just compliment needlessly. Beatrice truly did believe in what she was saying because she knows what none of these people do about the boy. "He would've been far off better living his own life than wasting away for nothin-"
"That's faaaar enough, Beatrice-saaaaan."
The enraged blonde turned to the far away clown lord in the back, her frown clear.
Roswaal met her glare with a look no one expected out of him… A look of anger and disgust.
"Please sit down and let us watch what haaaappens next, Beatrice-san." Roswaal didn't sound amused one bit, it unnerved everyone in the room.
Beatrice gave him one glance and sat back down with her hand on Subaru's.
Emilia was still frozen in her seat registering what the spirit was saying to her.
"Subaru would've had a better life… without me?"
"Yes."
Beatrice replied without glancing at the elf. Just keeping her tiny head up to look at the screen.
[Subaru smiles at the sky like a fool while the merchant just looked like he wanted to be anywhere but where he was at currently.
"My dream is taking shape before my eyes! Right mister?" Subaru smiles at the surprised seller.
Not knowing why he was dragged into this, the man looked away from the boy. "Why are you asking me? I have no idea what you're talking about."
"Aw. that's cold…"
"I don't wanna get caught up in other people's problems. Don't talk to me."]