“Soooo, how did Subaru do?”

It was at night—the sun had already set in the western sky, replaced by a waxing crescent moon—when a secret report was being made.

The room was large, and in the center of it was a couch and table for welcoming guests. At the back was an ebony desk and a leather chair for the master of the room.

The desk was strewn with papers and quills, a still-steaming cup beside them giving off a slight, soft aroma.

It was a room in the center of the upper floor of the manor that could be judged as being an office at first glance.

Sitting in a leather chair, the one who’d kicked things off was a soft-looking man with long indigo-colored hair and blue and yellow eyes—Roswaal.

Though he’d asked it with something akin to a whisper, there was no doubt that it had reached the other party. And why wouldn’t it have? The person he was having a secret conversation with was sitting close to him. She was sitting sideways on his lap, making her petite body even smaller as she did so.

“It has been five days since that spiel…no, four and a half days. Isn’t it about tiiime you saw something?” asked Roswaal.

“Let’s see. —He’s no good.”

The one whose ears were being whispered into and was submissively allowing her pink hair to be stroked was Ram. Only her and Roswaal were in the room. Her twin sister, who was like her other half, was not there.

That was simply because it wasn’t Rem, but Ram, who was Subaru’s instructor. Roswaal looked surprised by her unequivocal rebuke, then broke into a fit of giggles. He even coughed a little.

“Ahaaa, I see,” Roswaal said. “So he’s no good.”

“Barusu can’t really do anything,” replied Ram. “He can’t cook, makes a mockery of cleaning, and starts breathing heavily when I have him do the laundry. I can’t trust him with any of them.”

“That’s quite teeerrible for a servant, especially the last one.”

Guess it can’t be helped since he is of that age, Roswaal thought, smiling wryly. Ram looked up at her master as she thought about what happened over the past four days. Whenever she recalled those short, yet rich, moments, even an outsider would be able to tell that her beautiful face became strained as the mask of indifference fell away.

“It’s rare to see such an expression on you,” Roswaal commented. “Is he that bad?”

“He is absolutely no good,” Ram replied. “It isn’t that he is bad at them, it’s as if he doesn’t know how to do those things. He must have been brought up very well, but he lacks etiquette if that’s the case.”

“Oh, and I heard a bit about it that you gooot questioned a lot.”

“His questions were also puzzling. I don’t know what to do with him.”

Ram gave examples of some of the questions to Roswaal, who had raised an eyebrow. He paid close attention to each of them.

“Hmmm.” He put his hand on his chin, looking like he was pondering. “Indeed, the things Lady Emilia likes are a mystery.”

“Master Roswaal, Master Roswaal, that pose of yours resembles Barusu’s.”

“Mmmmm, thaaat’s embarrassing. It’s frustrating…to think that I have fallen behind in the arena of being a freak, pervert, and oddball.”

Ram sighed, trying not to be noticed by her frowning master, and was seriously thinking about what he had just said. She then changed her position in his arms and nuzzled herself closer. She fell deeper into his arms, then closed her eyes to savor his warmth, a large palm gently stroking her pink hair.

“Well then, Ram, let us get serious now. —So, what do you think about the possibility of him being a spy?” Roswaal continued without changing his tone, a smile still on his face. His question didn’t specify who, but Ram knew who he was talking about.

Ram kept her eyes shut and recalled the face of a man, though not of the one whose warmth she was feeling. “I can’t deny the possibility, but the chances of that are slim.”

“Hmmmm, why do you think so?”

“For good or for bad…more like for bad…he stands out a lot. The way he infiltrated this manor and the things he did after that…and in the first place, he himself stands out like a sore thumb.” Her answers came out in a stammering, yet coherent manner.

Despite Ram’s reply coming in the negative, Roswaal smiled gently, as if he was satisfied with it. It was the smile of a master that said: I understand. And though he hadn’t directed that smile at her, Ram felt her cheeks getting hot.

“Well, that makes sense. And if that’s the case, then he truly is a third party with good intentions.”

The chair creaked as he shifted his position on it. He had been facing his desk till now but was now facing the opposite side—towards the large window, where he could see the moon shining brightly.

He squinted his bicolored eyes, and the sight below made him smile as he spoke. “Buuut, it seems like he dooesn’t know when to give up.”

The view from the window was of the manor’s garden. It was surrounded by a slightly taller fence and trees. The garden was not visible from the outside, but it could clearly be seen from the manor’s window.

In a corner of the garden lit up by the moonlight, a silver-haired girl and a boy with black hair could be seen talking.

The boy was talking to the girl one-sidedly, as usual. But the girl listening to him didn’t look displeased at all.

“The sight makes me smile,” said Roswaal. “It’s the kind of passion I don’t have anymore.”

“It makes women happy to be approached that much,” replied Ram, even though it might have just been Roswaal talking to himself.

Upon opening her eyes, Ram noticed that her master was looking down at her from up-close.

Her lips quivered gently, her moist eyes meeting Roswaal’s. But he continued talking anyway. “Do you think highly of Subaru by any chance?”

“…He is no good, but I don’t think he’s bad. He’s not bad when it comes to learning household chores, since he’s simply not familiar with them.”

Ram’s eyes showed dissatisfaction. Roswaal laughed vaguely at her slightly cold answer, then gently brushed her cheek with the hand that had been combing through her hair.

Roswaal had answered the expectations of the girl whose eyes were fluttering in euphoria. He then quietly closed his eyes and thought about her answer.

It’s unusual for Ram to compliment someone. She did say that Subaru will improve if he gets the chance to learn things, though. It seems like the black-haired boy must be very much to their liking.

And that was making Roswaal happy.

“Considering my position, I neeed to be an obstacle for him,” muttered Roswaal while looking down at the garden with his yellow eye.

“Both of them are kids,” Ram replied, “so nothing will happen even if they are left on their own.”

“You are right about that.”

Faint laughter resonated in the office as the curtains of the window that overlooked the meeting of the girl and boy were drawn back.

—Not even the moon could see what happened in the office after that.

△▼△▼△▼△

It was at the time when the moon was proudly shining in the center of the sky and Subaru was in high spirits.

He smoothed out the wrinkles on the butler suit he was wearing and looked at the window to check his appearance again.

It’s been four days since I started wearing this—long enough for me to get used to it.

“Not too shabby, not too shabby at all, me. I’m fine, I can do this. They say people look fifty percent more handsome than usual in the mirror after taking a bath. I feel like I’m experiencing that phenomenon now.”

Whether I look 50% better objectively or not is a mystery, but telling that to yourself over and over is quite important.

With the aura of a good-looking guy, he took a deep breath and stepped forward.

Stepping on the low-cut grass of the garden, he walked towards a green corner of it—a place surrounded by tall trees, garnering most of the moonlight.

There sat a young girl, surrounded by a pale light, her silver hair shimmering in the moonlight.

A pale blue glow—a phenomenon similar to the light of fireflies—was surrounding the girl, and Subaru knew what they were: spirits.

Even taking that fact in consideration, the wondrous sight had a devilish charm that would not let go of the observer’s heart.

Subaru stopped and gasped. The girl, who had been whispering with her eyes closed, abruptly opened her eyes as if noticing his presence. The two amethyst jewels caught sight of him walking towards her.

Subaru’s heart slightly palpated after getting spotted before he was able to call out to her. He held his hand up, trying not to show how restless he felt.

“Su-Sup. What a coincidence! Who’da thunk that we’d meet up here like this?”

“You interrupt my routine every morning, so how can you say that? And how can this be a ‘coincidence’… Don’t we live under the same roof?”

The flow of the conversation went from Subaru not being able to hide his restlessness to Emilia replying with a sigh, which wasn’t unusual.

Subaru took a sharp breath in the face of her attitude and said, “You can do this!” to himself to raise his spirits again. “Hearing ‘we live under the same roof’ really makes me horny.”

“You say that sometimes, but what does ‘horny’ mean? It sounds really, really creepy.”

Emilia hugged her shoulders and shivered as if she had felt a chill. Seeing her reaction, Subaru grinned and casually sat right next to her. The distance between them was three fists, and that iffy distance between them was a sign of him being a wuss.

It seemed like Emilia had gotten used to Subaru sitting next to her like that, so she didn’t point it out. Given that he had been sitting next to her during her morning routine and at meals, it was no wonder she no longer had any energy to do so.

Subaru was pumping his fist inwardly at her unspoken acceptance. Therefore, his voice henceforth naturally oozed with uncontrollable joy. “So, so, what are you doing? What are you doing?”

“You are like a child… It’s just an extension of my morning routine. I can meet most of the spirits in the morning, but there are a few that I can only meet during Darksun.”

Understanding what she meant, Subaru responded with a nod. Darksun was an expression of time specific to this world, which went from approximately six in the evening to six in the morning for a total of 12 hours. On the contrary, the time from six in the morning to six in the evening was called Brightsun. They were used instead of the AM and PM used in Subaru’s world.

On a side note, a day was 24 hours and almost as long as it was in his world. The time when people were active was the same, so Subaru was relieved that his internal clock hadn’t gotten disturbed.

The time had further classifications, but Subaru hadn’t learned much about it yet. This was because his senior, who had a harsh training policy, had given more priority to teaching him about job-related skills than stuff like that. It seems like she really wants to make things easy for herself.

His bottled-up feelings about his grueling four days of training spilled out internally. But as he was doing so, Emilia continued to talk with the friends she could only talk to during Darksun.

A friend that you can only meet during the night has a bit of a bewitching ring to it.

Subaru felt weirdly embarrassed and rubbed his nose. As he continued to watch the quiet conversation between Emilia and the spirits, he muttered, “They look like will-o’-wisps.”

The spirits, who had been calm until then, began moving swiftly, surrounding Subaru’s face—soon after, he suddenly felt a sharp pain. “Buwah! Ow, ow, ow! It feels like I’m being poked with toothpicks!”

“Don’t make them angry by saying something insensitive like that!” Emilia exclaimed. “They aren’t listening to me anymore.”

Bearing an indifferent attitude towards Subaru as he was being attacked by the spirits, it seemed like Emilia shared their feelings. However, she showed her virtue when she said, “It can’t be helped,” and cast healing magic on him, still in pain after the spirits had ceased their assault.

A pale glow alleviated Subaru’s pain, and once he finished rolling around on the ground, he looked up at Emilia. As he laid there, she continued her wondrous meeting with the spirits right in front of him.

Suddenly, Subaru noticed that he was gazing at the beautiful girl and spirits in awe. This is what had made him feel embarrassed before, leading to him making a snide remark, but when he cleared his mind, it didn’t look all that special.

His embarrassment faded away into nothingness.

I just need to empty my mind and look at it nonchalantly.

“It isn’t a fun thing to watch, is it?” muttered Emilia, perhaps because it was so unusual to see Subaru being so quiet.

Subaru sat up and gently waved his hand in denial at the slightly sorry tone of the girl surrounded by spirits. “No, there’s no way I could get bored when I’m with you, Emilia-tan.”

“Wha-.”

His straightforward answer made Emilia blush and choke on her words. Subaru looked at her and recalled what he had just said, making him redden up to the tips of his ears.

He had spoken from the heart, so it just sort of came out, but he hadn’t been prepared for that.

A sudden silence fell between them. Subaru was embarrassed, so he deliberately made some noise. “Aah, aah,” he began. “And you see, we haven’t had a chance to sit down and have a laid-back chat in a few days, right?”

“Yes, that’s right. You were busy learning how to do chores around the manor. Yes, you were giving it your all… Yeah, you worked really…hard…”

“Your supportive words make me so happy and miserable. It makes me want to cry.”

He’d dug his own grave with the conversation he started to change the atmosphere, but now he was tweeting his sorrow.

Subaru started drawing circles on the ground after realizing how pitiful he was. Emilia’s hand wandered about in the air, an awkward look on her face as she wondered how she could comfort him.

Subaru’s reputation after starting his new life as a servant a few days ago was that of someone who was good for nothing. Even if there had been some sort of favoritism and they looked past his faults, or he had bribed his higher-ups with a lot of money, things wouldn’t have changed.

Cooking, laundry, and cleaning. Subaru had none of these domestic skills, which were essential for a servant at a manor, and had to acquire them.

At present, the three skills mentioned above were all C-grade.

“I only got an S when I put a button on a loose apron.”

“You really are dexterous when it comes to that one thing.”

“I wanted to grow up to be different and quirky rather than simple and boring.”

It’s the result of being brought up in a household where ‘anything goes.’ I think it’s crazy that I managed to develop my sewing skills in all that.

“Oh, but I am confident about my bed-making skills. I dreamed of being a hotel worker when I was in the first year of high school. I used up half of my summer vacation to practice.”

“Is that the reason why my bedsheets have been reaally tight for the past three days…?”

“I made your bed with all of the love and energy I could muster.”

What happened was that he had been so moved when he saw it that he put in a great deal of effort into making her bed, to the point where Ram got taken aback by it.

“This is the room where Emilia-tan sleeps and this is the bed she sleeps in. And these are the sheets and blanket she gets wrapped into! Muhaaa!”

The amount of energy he’d put into it was so extraordinary that Ram had to give him a time limit when it came to making Emilia’s bed.

“Oh, I see. I’m glad there’s something you can be confident in.”

Emilia smiled happily at the fact that there was a chore that Subaru could do with confidence, oblivious of what had happened during that.

Subaru kept quiet, not saying a word. He was crying tears of blood while his consciousness was being stabbed again and again. “Besides…” said Emilia to Subaru before continuing. “It’s admirable that you have been able to keep up with your other work without giving up. Ram and Rem were praising you in secret. Did you know that?”

“Are you for real! My seniors get all soft when I’m not looking at them, huh. They really are doing ‘Tsunderation’. But they aren’t doing it right if they don’t do it in front of me!”

If tsundering is done wrong, then it can be mistaken as someone being spiteful. It’s not really something I can recommend if the person on the receiving end is a noob. It would be a double-edged sword in that case.

However, Subaru wasn’t an amateur and knew what a tsundere was from his vast romantic experiences (in dating sims,) so no one stood a chance if they tsundered in front of him.

But the only thing they seem to be interested in is that perverted noble.

“Well, the only one I am interested in is Emilia-tan, so we’re even.”

He shrugged his shoulders and tried to act like it didn’t bother him, but since he was too embarrassed to say it out loud, it had only come out as a whisper. Thus, it seemed like it hadn’t reached Emilia, either. She tilted her head with a bit of a confused look on her face and then changed the topic.

“But isn’t it hard working that hard every day?”

“It’s super hard and is seriously painful. I want to choose between your arm, chest, and lap and sleep on them.”

“I see, I see.”

Emilia casually dismissed Subaru’s remarks and then proceeded to extend her slender arm, making the pale blue spirits gather around it.

It looked as if her white arm was the thing that was glowing. After witnessing that sight, Subaru was awestruck, letting out a dumb sound.

She smiled wryly at that and spoke. “You seem fine since you can still joke like that.”

“Please sleep with me if I’m about to break.”

“I’ll think about it… Saying that kind of thing scares me, so I’ll say no.”

“I failed at making you say it!!”

Subaru held his head and fell on the lawn. He sighed while feeling the coolness of the grass as he looked up at the starry sky. A sudden gust of wind shifted his short bangs, making him reflexively look up at the moon.

“—Isn’t the moon pretty?” he asked.

“Yeah, because it’s out of your reach,” Emilia replied.

“Guhah!”

“What happened!?”

Her unintentional comment shot down the expression of love he’d taken from classic literature. Emilia hastily rushed towards Subaru, who was holding his chest and moaning in pain. And then…

“Ah…” Emilia was shocked after she approached him. He was on the ground looking up at her. She looked at his chest with her amethyst eyes—and saw the hand placed there to express his pain.

His mistakes had kept piling up, and as a result, his left hand was covered in bandages.

“Oh, wait. This is lame. Effort is something you need to hide.” Subaru hid his hand behind him, trying to conceal his embarrassment. He touched his head with his right hand and stuck out his tongue as if saying: My bad. “Tee-hee.”

But Emilia’s expression stayed serious.

Subaru was wondering what to do as he waited for Emilia’s response, but then she lowered her gaze slightly and spoke. “Everyone, is really, working hard.”

To Subaru, it sounded like she was admonishing herself. Upon hearing her say that, he let out an “Aah,” understanding what she’d meant.

It wasn’t just Subaru who was learning things from scratch at Roswaal Manor. Emilia was also in the middle of learning various things that a candidate to be queen needed to know.

It was the difference between a mere servant and a Queen. The level and number of things that needed to be learned by a Queen were far greater. The pressure she was feeling from all that must have been so great that it would be rude to even compare the two.

It would get tiring sometimes to carry such a heavy burden. She may have problems she can’t share with others.

Emilia suddenly extended her hand towards Subaru before he was able to react. Her hand took hold of the hand of the arm he had hidden behind him and brought it in front of her eyes. She looked at his hands covered in wounds, then narrowed her eyes painfully after looking at it and asked, “Should I cast, a healing spell?”

Her question was so gentle. The warmth I felt during one of her treatments is something that can’t be described with words, Subaru thought, as his new, freshly born wounds were crying out for the first time. It feels like the wounds are complaining and giving off a faint, tingling heat when I focus on them, but…

“No, it’s fine. You don’t need to treat them.”

“Why though?”

“Hmmm, it’s hard to explain, but…it’s like, they are proof that I made an effort,” answered Subaru with a grin as he pulled his hand away.

He clenched his worn-out fist in front of the beauty whose eyes were wide open in surprise. “It sounds unusual, but I don’t dislike making an effort. If I didn’t like it, then I wouldn’t have trained every day. The feeling of being able to do something that you couldn’t do before is a pleasant sensation.”

He moved his hips with the rhythm, spun around, then stood up. Emilia panicked since it forced her to suddenly look up at him.

Then Subaru pointed his finger at her. “It’s really hard and super painful, you know? But it’s kinda enjoyable. Ram and Rem are really strict teachers, that loli gets mad at me, and Rosy doesn’t say much, so his presence is pretty much non-existent.”

“Roswaal would fly into a rage if you said that to him.”

“Fly into a rage? Who says that in this day and age…”

In response to getting interrupted, Subaru bent backward and shot himself back into his original position like a spring-loaded toy with his hand held out in front of him, putting Emilia on hold. Then he spoke. “Well, solving problems one-by-one is the way to go. There’s no way I’d survive here otherwise… And if I have to do something, it’s better to have fun doing it, anyway.”

In my original world, it was fine if I could live an easy life, but a life of peace and calm isn’t something you can just wish for here.

If that were the case, then Subaru wished for it to be fun. It was him showing his stubbornness to the existence that had unreasonably thrown him into this world.

Upon hearing Subaru’s words of determination, Emilia froze in place, as if her time had stopped. She just kept opening and closing her eyes, and then her serious expression faded away. “Yeah, you are, right. I think so, too. Aah, Subaru, you idiot.”

“Hey, what? That wasn’t the reaction I was expecting! Isn’t this the part where you fall for me again!?”

“I haven’t fallen for you toooo begin with. You are such a dummy… I am, too.”

Subaru was using his body to form the Japanese kanji for ‘life’, and the last part of her sentence had not reached him.

Emilia was smiling as if some of the pressure she’d been feeling had been lifted. Subaru was enraptured as he gazed at her smile, unable to say a single word.

She’s turning into an existence that words like ‘cute’ and ‘pretty’ can’t even begin to describe. Yes, she’s an… “E.R.G (Emilia-tan’s Really a Goddess.)”

“I was thanking you, but you are joking around as usual.”

As if a little mad, Emilia gave Subaru’s forehead a little poke, making him take a few steps back with his hand held to his forehead. His gesture was somewhat passionate, and it wasn’t just her imagination. She burst into delightful laughter after seeing his reaction.

“Nevertheless… I know you are working hard, but what did you do to get your hand injured that badly?”

“Oh, this one is easy. This evening, I got bit by a small animal that was playing with the kids in the village when I was helping Ram out with the groceries.”

“Wasn’t it a result of your hard work!?”

“It’s more like the bigger wound is more eye-catching than the others…though I’m not the type to be hated by animals that much.”

In his world, he wasn’t the type of person that small animals would direct killing intent towards. He wouldn’t have called himself a pioneer of the Fluffists if that were the case.

However, his trait, which had manifested itself involuntarily back in his world and made kids either like him or treat him lightly, was still active here.

“Those brats… They kicked, punched, and wiped their runny noses on me. That was the worst, damn it. I’ll make them pay tomorrow, mark my words…”

“You look like you are good at taking care of kids, Subaru.”

“That’s a misunderstanding, Emilia-tan. I’m planning on taming them now and ‘plucking the fruit’ once they’ve ‘ripened’. This is my Hikaru Genjification Plan.”

“You don’t need to act mean; you can just be honest and accept it.”

Not taking him seriously, Emilia said, “Well then,” then looked up at the sky and straightened her posture. “I’ll be returning to my room. What are your plans?”

“I need to sleep next to you, so I’ll head back, too.”

“That part of your job can wait until your skills as a servant have improved.”

“Woooaah, my desires are expanding!” howled Subaru while raising both arms up in the air. Emilia looked at him with a wry smile. He then twisted his waist and turned back. “Oh, wait. If it’s fine with you, would you like to go with me to get revenge on the kids…no wait, on a date…no, to see a cute little animal?”

“You corrected yourself several times, didn’t you…? But yeah, I…” muttered Emilia, having trouble continuing her sentence.

Subaru tilted his head at her reaction. That’s not the reaction of someone who doesn’t want to go out. If that’s the case, then… “Cou-Could it be that you’re embarrassed about your friends starting rumors about us going out…or something like that?”

“I’m not going to turn someone down by saying something so horrible!” Emilia exclaimed, putting a hand on her hip to show that she was angry. It was almost as if steam was coming out of her ears. After finishing her gesture, she looked down once again. “I don’t mind, and I’m curious about small animals, too…”

“Then let’s go!”

“But I might cause you trouble if I go with you…”

“Alright then, let’s go!”

“…Are you even listening?”

“I am listening! Do you really think I’d miss a single word that comes out of your mouth!?”

“I hate you so much, Subaru!”

“Aaaaa! Aaaaa! What just happened!? IIIII caaaan’t heaaar yoouuu!!” Subaru covered his ears and ran around to block out the sound.

Emilia laughed, as if taken aback by Subaru’s boldness in immediately contradicting himself.

“Guess it can’t be helped then,” she said. “But only after I am done with my current studies and after you are done with your chores around the manor. That’s the condition.”

Having made Emilia promise to go on a date with him, Subaru clenched his fist and raised it in victory.

Seeing how easily Subaru’s mood could change, Emilia shrugged her shoulders and shook her head. “Speaking of which, why are you still dressed like that after finishing your work?”

“Oh, I just figured I hadn’t heard what you thought about it. So how is it? Doesn’t this suit me?”

“Yeah, let’s see. You seem like you are really good at your job.”

“I feel like I’ll get crushed by the burden of your expectations!”

I’ll note down here that there was a conversation like that.

△▼△▼△▼△

After picking a door at random, Subaru peered inside and casually spoke. “Yooo, loli, are you getting enough sleep? You’ll stunt your growth and forever be a pipsqueak if you stay up too late, you know.”

“…He has been breaking my Door Crossing like it’s nothing,” said Beatrice in a resentful tone.

He saw a girl sitting on a wooden step ladder in the back of the library, glaring at him. She was holding a thick, halfway-open book in her hands.

“You’ll end up wearing thick glasses that look like the bottom of a glass milk bottle if you read manga at night in the dark. And you’ll end up failing the entrance exam again and again of the university you want to go to.”

“This incomprehensible nonsense again… Shall I turn you into stone if you act stupid, I wonder?”

“Sure, sure. I got you, I got you. Well, then go to bed already, good night.” He waved his hand roughly and proceeded to close the door.

“Wait.” Hearing that before he closed the door, Subaru halted his hand and looked back. He saw Beatrice leaning over a bit.

“Were you here to ask for something, I suppose?” she asked.

“Nope, not really,” replied Subaru. “I figured I’d come say hi since I was on my way to bed. I was going to give up after opening three doors, but I got it right on the first try.”

“This boy… What kind of a hunch does he have?”

Beatrice seemed tired as she pulled on one of her vertical rolls. Once she let go of it, it sprang back like a spring. It made Subaru’s mischievous heart tingle a bit.

“Can I do that too?” he asked.

“Only Bubby is allowed to touch Betty, in fact. Betty has had enough, so go away already, I suppose.”

“What’s up with that attitude? You were the one who stopped me. Ha, I don’t mind it at all though! I’m in a good mood, so I’ll forgive you!”

After showing off how good he felt, he left the room, putting a scowl on Beatrice’s face. However, as the door was about to close, he felt like he heard a tinge of loneliness in her voice. “—That has nothing to do with Betty, I suppose.”

And that concerned him a bit.

“Eh, guess I gotta open the door again to ask her what’s the matter.”

The other side of the opened door was different; it had turned back into a simple guest room.

He felt slightly hesitant, but he didn’t feel like walking around searching for the right door. He needed to wake up early tomorrow and finish his chores as fast as he could.

“I need to go to the village and make up some excuses to get the kids out of the picture. Wait no, I need to do some research to find a place with a good view and figure out where the flower garden is… Preparation, that’s the most important thing when it comes to all kinds of war! They say your victory or defeat is decided before the fighting starts. I can do this,” said Subaru as he puffed his nostrils, his chest full of anticipation for the next day.

He skipped towards the room designated to him: a private room for servants. And then he took off and threw away the butler suit he was wearing and quickly changed into his tracksuit.

“This fits me the most when it comes to sleeping. The only thing that worries me is that it’s the only tracksuit I have… I wonder if Rosy will cast a duplication spell on it if I ask him to.”

Now it’s a rare, one-of-a-kind item in this world. It’s pretty important since it can be worn as casual clothing, but it needs to be treated with the utmost care.

If it starts falling apart, I can just get over it by saying that clothes can’t be worn forever. It’ll be sad to lose something that reminds me of my old world, but there’s no point in looking back at things.

“And that’s why I’ll live hoping for a better tomorrow, gee-hee-hee.”

Subaru grinned vulgarly and dove into the bed he had made. After being met with softness, he crawled under the covers, completely ready to hit the hay.

However, since he was too excited for the next day, he remained wide-awake, unable to fall asleep no matter what.

“Shit, you gotta be kidding me, body! Are you going to trample on my hopes for tomorrow!? Damn it, so my greatest foe was myself…”

Jesus. Subaru glared at the ceiling and sighed. But I have a trick for sleepless nights like this.

Subaru smiled provocatively at his restless body. “Take this, my secret trick—One fluffy Puck, two fluffy Pucks!”

A first-class Fluffist can imagine the furball he wants to pet and have a virtual petting session that feels like the real thing.

The gray, fluffy cat appeared inside Subaru’s head, and it increased in number with each passing second. Eventually, Subaru’s entire body was covered in furballs. His body was taken away to the far-off utopia, Avalon, a place of bliss and non-being.

“One hundred sixty…three…fluffy…Pucks…fluffy fluffy,” muttered Subaru as his consciousness drifted into the land of dreams.

While imagining Shangri-La, he petted within his consciousness until he could pet no further—and then the lights went out.

△▼△▼△▼△

It feels like my consciousness is rising to the surface from the ocean’s depths. This is the second time I’m saying this.

As Subaru opened his eyelids, the sunlight burnt his eyes. He then woke his slightly sluggish body up.

My head feels a bit groggy. Maybe I’m still a little tired. I did just start a brand-new job, so something like this had a possibility of happening…

…But today isn’t the day to be saying such weak things.

Upon waking up, Subaru, who was someone who’d wake up in a good mood, immediately began going over the promise he’d made with Emilia the night before.

“Yeah, Subaru Natsuki—you will be a man today!”

He gave a thumbs-up to no one in particular, flashed his teeth, and struck his usual pose.

It was the day of promised victory. Rising up from bed was supposed to be the beginning of his wonderful day, but its beginning was thrown on its head by the twins looking at him in surprise.

Subaru covered his face and pressed it against the blanket, then swung his body in embarrassment. “Whaat iiis uuup wiiiith youuu guuuys! Sooo you were there all along! It’s embarrassing! You guys should’ve at least let me know you were there! Woah, woah, woooah, it’s really embarrassing!”

He floundered around, trying to banish his embarrassment.

As usual, the twins’ expressions didn’t change much in response to Subaru.

Being pointed at and laughed at don’t feel all that good, but their reaction didn’t feel good, either. It’s like I failed at making a joke.

“No, wait a second. That reaction would hurt even a guy like me. You guys witnessed my delicate side, so can’t you be a bit more… You know what I’m trying to say, right!?”

The twins looked at each other after hearing Subaru’s desperate plea.

I was expecting to hear the usual cold, indifferent words from them… Well, that doesn’t sound so good, either.

It was the moment Subaru thought that when they spoke up:

“Sister, Sister, he greeted us in a very friendly manner.”

“Rem, Rem, he greeted us in quite a frank manner.”

Something’s off. Those were the words that crossed Subaru’s mind.

Their indifferent manner of speaking was the same as usual—but something felt off about it.

“Hmmm, what? Isn’t something weird? Bosses, what happened to you guys? Even if y’all are pulling a prank on me, this isn’t the right time to do it.”

While saying that, he started realizing what was off.

—It’s their eyes.

The gaze directed towards Subaru—had lost the frankness it had till last night. It was as if they were looking at a stranger.

And the nail in the coffin was…

“Sister, Sister, it seems like the guest is a little confused.”

“Rem, Rem, it seems like the guest has gone crazy.”

—Subaru was rendered speechless after being called a ‘guest’.

Despite the graceful ring it had, the words were sharp and fierce, and it tore deep into Subaru’s heart. Feeling as if the pain were real, he grabbed his chest.

I don’t get it. Their reactions are as if…

“Both of you…your joke isn’t funny. Don…’t…say…something…like…”

He wanted to block their gaze that looked at him like he was a stranger, so he immediately lifted his left hand up and covered his eyes. However, at that moment, he witnessed something decisive.

—The first bandage had disappeared from his left hand.

The tips of his fingers that had turned coarse due to doing the laundry and dishes, the back of his hand that he had cut because he wasn’t used to using knives, the bite mark on his hand left by a small animal while he was playing with the kids—all of them were gone without a trace.

Subaru had to accept reality after seeing all that. Suddenly feeling something hot deep inside his eyes, he pressed the blanket for a different reason than before.

He didn’t want anyone to see his current face no matter what. He didn’t want anyone else to see it.

He didn’t want to cry while being looked at like a stranger by the people he loved. People he could have loved. People that he would have definitely loved.

“Why…did I go back!?” he wailed. While pressing his face against the blanket and baring his fangs, he howled with rage at the incomprehensible unreasonableness.

—At that moment, the loop that had tormented Subaru greatly consumed him into its whirl once more.

For the second time, the first day began.

Chapter 14

Declaration of Rebellion

—I can hear something that sounds like a bell ringing from far away. The sound of the bell rushes fiercely towards me, then recedes like a wave, over and over again.

Subaru, who was wailing continuously, didn’t realize that the painful sound in his ears was a kind of tinnitus.

He felt a terrible ache in his temples and a burning sensation deep inside his nose. However, he bit his tongue and lip and used the taste of his blood to focus on that sharp pain.

He masked out all of it—the pain that made him feel like the contents of his chest were being scooped out, the sense of loss that didn’t feel real, and the rage that made him howl at the unreasonableness—with the taste of the blood in his mouth.

“Sir, you seem like you are in pain. Are you okay?”

“Sir, you seem like you have a stomachache. Did you defecate?”

I can hear two people nearby calling out to me with voices of concern. It hasn’t been long, but they were voices I’d gotten used to hearing. They are sometimes noisy, sometimes annoying, sometimes relieving, and sometimes it felt like I could trust them.

—But now they sounded completely different, ringing cruelly against Subaru’s eardrums.

“—Yeah, I’m fine,” he replied.

He gave a short answer while under their gaze, then raised his face while keeping his eyes shut.

The reason he’d pushed the blanket against his face was because the strong emotion that had been gushing out from within had somehow disappeared behind the curtains. If he opened his eyes, they might be slightly red, a remnant of his emotions.

But they won’t figure it out if I keep my eyes shut.

Subaru breathed quietly, again and again. He tried to keep his mind calm.

He had survived the initial shock of being forgotten and gradually gotten over the despair that had been tormenting him, but his heart was still crying out in pain at the sense of loss.

But even so, I can at least take my fate into my own hands and find a way to move forward.

“I’m sorry, about well, making you guys worried. It’s just that, I’m still half asleep.”

Subaru had a glib tongue that could spit words out like there was no tomorrow. His dry lips had produced a frivolous lie that didn’t reflect what was in his heart.

“Ha-ha.” Subaru faked a laugh in a husky voice. —Still, he couldn’t open his eyes.

I wish the world would go back to normal while I close my eyes and stare at the darkness. I’d be okay with it if this is all just a fleeting dream and none of this is happening, though.

Aah, how wonderful, annoying, and joyous is the thought that all of this is just Roswaal’s plan to trick me.

Such excuses seemed like great ideas to Subaru, and he thought they had a possibility of being true. He felt the thing blocking his chest disappearing.

Now feeling relieved thanks to his excuses, Subaru let out a small, clear sigh.

“—Yeah, that’s it.”

He opened his trembling eyelids, and the world in front of him that had been temporarily blurred expanded, making him see things as they were.

The twins were standing at both sides of the bed with their hands rested on it, looking at him. Ram and Rem’s familiar faces were looking at him with indifference just like before. Subaru couldn’t see any sort of emotion in them. Everything he’d built up with them until now had all but disappeared.

““Sir—?”” they said simultaneously with a confused tone of voice.

Their gaze moved and followed Subaru as he jumped out of the bed. He put some distance between them, hastened by the fear he was feeling.

“Sir, you must not move so suddenly. You still need to rest.”

“Sir, it is dangerous to move suddenly. You still need to rest properly.”

Subaru twisted reflexively and dodged the fingers that were being extended towards him. The twins’ eyes narrowed in pain, but he wasn’t in the right state of mind to notice that change.

It was an unbearable sensation.

The feeling of being treated like a stranger by someone you knew. He had experienced the same feeling just the other day, in a crowded street, in a back alley, in an abandoned house. But it was most certainly different from those times. The situation was different, the time was different, the experience was different.

It isn’t like doing it all over again with people I barely knew. This is like a one-sided do-over with the people I’d definitely formed a bond with.

He felt nauseous and wanted to puke due to how odd it felt for someone he once knew to become somebody else entirely.

The twin maids had begun to notice something peculiar about Subaru, who was staring at them with a feeling similar to fear in his trembling eyes.

A slight silence fell in the room. Neither party could act, waiting to see what the other party would do. So… “I’m sorry—I can’t do this right now.”

Subaru’s action was only a split second faster than the twins, who tried to stop him as he got ahold of the doorknob and rushed out into the hallway. While feeling the cold floor of the hallway under his feet, Subaru exhaled loudly and ran furiously, blindly rushing forward.

He didn’t know what he was running from. He didn’t know why he had to run. But he kept running. His instincts told him that they would catch up to him if he stopped.

There’s just no way I can stay in that place. An alarm is ringing loudly in my head. My heart, my instincts, and my soul are screaming that I shouldn’t stay there. I don’t know why, but they just keep screaming.

He ran past a number of similar doors, haphazardly running through the hallway as if he was going to fall miserably at any moment.

While gasping, he placed his hand on a door as if he had been led to it and opened it.

—He slipped into the forbidden library, where a large number of books were lined up on shelves.

△▼△▼△▼△

Once the door closes, the library will be completely cut off from the outside world. After which, people will have to open every door in the mansion to find the one that leads here.

Breathing heavily, he rested his back against the door and sank down to the floor. Even though he had sat down, his knees were trembling. He extended his fingers towards them to stop them from shaking miserably, but even his fingers were trembling uncontrollably as if they belonged to a drunk who’d run out of alcohol.

“I might be able to perform well if I play paper sumo, ha-ha.”

His self-mockery lacked sharpness, and the dry laughter only accentuated the emptiness he was feeling.

The air in the tranquil library was filled with the smell of old paper, and it flooded Subaru’s tense heart with relief. The only comfort he could get now was by clinging to it, even though he knew it was something that wouldn’t last. He took deep breaths repeatedly, again and again. And then…

“—You are truly rude to enter without knocking.”

A taunting voice reached Subaru, who was repeatedly catching his breath like a fish out of water, from far behind the shelves.

Sitting on a wooden chair in the back of the dimly lit room was a young girl with cream-colored hair. It was Beatrice, the guardian of the Forbidden Library at Roswaal Manor—she never changed, never budged, and maintained her distance from Subaru. She closed the book in her hand with a plop. Then, with the book that was too large for her tiny body still in her hand, she asked, “How did you break the Door Crossing, I wonder… Back then, and now.”

“I’m sorry but let me stay for a bit. Please.”

He pleaded by joining both his hands and started meditating without waiting for her reply.

—I need to face reality and myself in a quiet place where nobody can disturb me.

I need to calm down. Accept reality. I am Subaru Natsuki. This is another world. I’m in Roswaal’s mansion. The names of the twins are Ram and Rem and the girl in front of me is Beatrice. And this is the forbidden library of this mansion. I can enter it quite easily due to my intuition that I’ve named ‘Door Breaker’. I don’t have a wound on my left hand. I don’t have proof of my effort. The promised morning won’t come. The promise I made. That I have to go somewhere with someone—

“Oh yeah, Emilia…”

He recalled her silver hair shimmering in the moonlight and her shy smile. He recalled the promise he’d made with the girl under the moon, with the girl that shone equally as bright as the stars in the sky.

“Beatrice.”

“…You aren’t adding any honorifics, I suppose.”

“What’s today’s month and date…? Do you know what the time is?”

Subaru, who had been quiet for a while, started asking questions one-sidedly without pausing. Beatrice seemed offended by it. She looked at his behavior with annoyance and then snorted. “Time, dates, and months are meaningless to Betty since she spends her time in a library with frozen time, I suppose.”

“What’s your point?” Subaru asked.

“It’s none of Betty’s business, I suppose.”

“Damn it! You are useless! I was an idiot to have expected anything from you!”

“This boy, saying whatever he wants to…”

Beatrice crinkled up her nose after hearing Subaru’s unfiltered words that lacked any sort of consideration for others.

“But,” Subaru continued talking to the girl who had a frown on her pretty face, “at least you didn’t treat me like a creep. And you mentioned how I broke the door back then. Shit, you are confusing!”

“What’s up with your noisy monologues… Betty doesn’t want you to be noisy in the library. It ruins the tranquil atmosphere, I suppose,” Beatrice replied with a sigh, looking fed up with his attitude as he glared at her in silence. “It was just three or four hours ago that I teased you for being ill-mannered.”

“What happened to the whole the library’s time is frozen thing…?”

Subaru didn’t forget to jump at her mistake even though he was completely spent. After acting upon his urge, he thought about what Beatrice had just said.

—Beatrice and Subaru’s encounter three or four hours ago.

What it means is that this is when I first woke up in the mansion. I had just broken the infinite hallway illusion and found the right door on my first try.

Back then, Beatrice pulled out a huge chunk of something like mental power against my will, leaving me unconscious.

When I woke up the next time, I was on the bed and Ram and Rem were there—

“So, in short, this is the second time I’ve woken up in the mansion.”

Things made sense after Subaru was able to remember the scenes in his vague memory. That was the only day when the twin maids came together to wake him up. On top of that, the first day was the only time he’d been in a position to use the guestroom bed.

So… “I went back four days from five days in the future. Is that what it means…?”

Subaru defined his current state after looking properly into the situation he was in. He had travelled back in time once again under the guidance of some mysterious power; in a way he didn’t want, on a time axis he didn’t wish to be in.

He could understand what had happened, but accepting it was a different story. Subaru held his head and started thinking of the reason why he had gone back like this. He had only been going back in time for a day, which happened to be the day he had been summoned to this world. Using the experience from his three deaths, he was able to save Emilia. He thought he had escaped the loop by doing so.

In fact, the phenomenon in which I travel back in time, which I named Return by Death, hasn’t happened until now, and my five days in the mansion went by very peacefully.

And now I travelled back in time out of the blue—there wasn’t any sort of a sign, either.

“The conditions are different from last time, huh? I just assumed I went back in time when I died, but does it actually occur after a week…? No, if that’s the case, then…”

It wouldn’t explain why it chose this day to return me to. I’m not sure what sort of theory is behind me going back in time, but if I think about the times I repeated things, then there must be some set of rules that it follows. And one of those deals with the place I return to.

If Subaru hadn’t escaped that loop, then he’d have woken up in front of that scar-faced grocer again.

“But in reality, the view in front of me went from a middle-aged guy with a scar to two angelic maids. But I, on the receiving end, experienced hell instead of heaven.”

While saying that, Subaru touched his body here and there, making sure everything was in order. If it was following the same rule till now, then the reason why he had travelled back in time was clear. Which is—Subaru had died.

But the problem with that is… “Suppose I did die, but then how did I die? Nothing was out of the ordinary before I fell asleep. Even after I fell asleep, I never felt like I was going to die or anything.”

Even if I was guided into a deep sleep, is it even possible to get killed without you knowing?

There was a possibility that he had been killed by a poisonous gas while he was asleep. But in that case, it would mean that he had been assassinated, and it didn’t make any sense if there was no reason for it.

I don’t think I’m worth that much at the moment at all.

“If that’s the case, then perhaps it’s a forced loop due to failing to meet the clear conditions.”

If we consider this a game, then it’s the effect of not triggering the necessary flags. But I don’t know who planted them, so I have no idea what the trigger is for this one. Beating a game with unclear triggers is hard. Without caring much, I’d always end up relying on strategy sites to beat games, which was a bad aspect of the internet.

“Talking with friends, exchanging information by word of mouth, sometimes getting false info, and then moving forward step-by-step… That’s how it’s supposed to be done.”

“I thought I heard you mumbling a while ago. Now the atmosphere has been ruined, in fact,” muttered Beatrice in an unamused tone as she watched Subaru sink into a sea of thoughts.

Subaru lifted his head up and saw the girl, her lips curled as if to say she was frustrated at him for ignoring her. “Life and Death—such dull, insignificant things are only measured in human terms. All that resulted from your incessant mumbling was a bunch of delusional ramblings. It is not even something worth discussing, in fact.”

The girl shrugged her shoulders and brushed him off dismissively. Subaru stood up, somewhat relieved by her unchanging hostility towards him.

He brushed the dust off his bottom and reached for the doorknob, but then heard a voice from behind. “You are going, I suppose?”

“I have something to confirm,” he replied. “I’ll do the sulking after I’m done with that. Thanks for the help.”

“I didn’t do anything… Hurry up and leave. I need to shift the door again.” Her tone had no sign of gentleness, but it felt quite pleasant for Subaru now.

Beatrice hadn’t intended on doing so, but Subaru felt like her words had given him the push he needed to take a step forward. He turned the doorknob and took a step into the cold breeze blowing his way. The wind jostled his short bangs, and his eyes hurt a little, so he shielded them with an arm. After the wind died down, he felt the grass under his bare feet—and the thing that came into his view was…

“Ah, she really is beautiful.”

My heart has been beating out of my chest ever since the silver-haired girl panting in the garden came into my view.

How very thoughtful of her, Subaru commented sarcastically at the cocky girl internally. And then…

“Subaru!”

Upon noticing him, the girl widened her amethyst eyes and rushed towards him without a second to lose. The word that spilled from her lips made up of three syllables and rang like a silver bell made Subaru’s heart tingle no matter how many times he heard it.

Naturally, Subaru’s legs gravitated towards the girl rushing his way. They were now facing each other, and the girl lowered her eyes in relief after looking his whole body up and down. However, she quickly regained her composure and straightened her posture.

“Hey, you made me worry. Rem and Ram were in a panic searching for you all over the manor, saying you had disappeared not too long after you woke up.”

“Mm, sorry. I got caught by Beatrice for a bit.”

“Again? I heard she pulled a prank on you not too long ago…”

Subaru almost reached his hand out at Emilia involuntarily at the sight of her beauty. She was leaning towards him in a concerned manner, but he restrained his weak heart.

If I do this here, it would be far too thoughtless of me. It would mean that me disturbing the tranquility of Beatrice’s room was meaningless. My objective wasn’t just to frame her.

Subaru could only respond to Emilia’s sorrowful face with a vague smile. Despite his uncharacteristic attitude, she was somewhat distant and didn’t press him.

It was obvious since there was no way a girl who had only spent less than an hour with Subaru would know that it was uncharacteristic of the current Subaru to do so.

There is an unfillable gap of four days between her and I. There are obviously four days that only I know of.

“It seems as if my thoughts are being influenced by extraterrestrials,” Subaru commented.

“Extra, terrestrials…?” Emilia asked. “What, what does that mean?”

“It just means the poet in me got a little too carried away. Leaving that aside, well, I’m glad you’re safe.”

A skirt above the knees and black knee socks. It was a sporty style with black as the base color; it was the same as the one that had delighted him on the first day.

Naturally, the body beneath her outfit made it through the whole loot house fiasco without getting a scratch on it.

“‘Body beneath her outfit’… The thought of that really gets me going, if you know what I mean.”

“Thank you for saving me… That’s what I wanted to say, but I reaaally don’t like those eyes.”

Being glared at by Emilia, Subaru was able to put on a natural wry smile.

His condition was returning to normal, albeit gradually.

I need to rev up the gears, lick my lips, and get off my ass and move forward. Come to think of it, I am a lucky guy. I didn’t start over from the grocer this time. There’s no dying a dog’s death flag by the hands of Ton-Chin-Kan, and neither is there starting from the point where Emilia’s likability for me is at its lowest because I said something stupid to her. Elsa’s gutting festival end is also out of the equation. After overcoming the battle in the loot house and sharing a life and death situation together, we must have developed a passionate, fiery bond that no one can interfere with. Though only a tiny flame now, it won’t take much for it to instantly burst into an enormous blaze.

“I am a positive thinker.”

And so, looking back at things with a positive outlook made the current situation feel like an opportunity.

Unlike last time, in that loot house where I had to make it through an absolute life or death crisis, there is nothing at stake this time until I come across the direct cause of this loop.

In other words, all Subaru had to do was calmly follow the route that he had already experienced and modify it so that it became his ideal route. By taking the same steps as before, he’d be able to make the promise of that moonlit night.

—If that’s the case, then how much more promising would the promise of the moonlit night be if I took a far better route?

“Ha, this time I am at the climax from the start,” Subaru said.

“Seems like you are getting pumped up, but is your body fine?” Emilia asked.

“Hm? Oh yeah, I am in my super dooper best condition. I am a little short on blood, my life force has been taken away from me, my mental power and physical strength were greatly drained when I woke up, and I feel like my mind was beaten with a bat, but I’m fine!”

“Isn’t that called being wounded all over?”

“A pinch is an opportunity, and a baseball game only really starts when there are two outs in the ninth inning and you’re the last one up to bat.”

Subaru snapped his fingers and gave a thumbs up. In the face of his attitude, Emilia relaxed her shoulders as if her worries had melted away.

“Anyway, it’s fine if you are well. Well, do you want to go back inside? I’ve got a bit of business to attend to here, so I’m staying.”

“Oh, talk time with the spirits, right? I won’t disturb you, so can I stay? Wake up Puck, too. I want to pet him in that state.”

“I don’t mind, but you really shouldn’t interrupt, alright? Since it isn’t a game.” Emilia tilted her head at Subaru as he wiggled his fingers, telling him not to interrupt her like she was speaking to a child.

Subaru found her elder sister-like gesture endearing—lighting the fire of determination up in his heart.

“Alright then, let’s go, let’s go. Time is limited and the world is vast. And mine and Emilia-tan’s has just begun.”

“That’s right… What? What did you just say? Where did ‘Emilia-tan’ come from?”

Although Emilia objected, she said, “It’s alright, it’s alright.” Subaru then pushed on her back and led her to the usual place. He knew she would lose her will to correct him after he called out to her like that. And even that was one of the bonds that had been formed during the four days that had been lost.

“—I’ll take it back,” Subaru murmured as he followed the back of the girl who was moving deeper into the garden with a disgruntled look. He stopped and looked at the silver-haired girl as she moved away, then gazed towards the sky.

—I can see the despicable sun rising, still low in the eastern sky.

I gotta do this all over again. And I don’t mind one bit as long as I can make it to the time of the promise. It’d be great if I could see the sunrise with the girl I made a promise with, with the girl that looks good under the moon.

—I have time, and I know the answer.

“I don’t know who’s harassing me, but I’ll take everything back and make you cry. Never underestimate a modern teenager’s temper.”

He clenched his fist against the sky and declared war on an unknown entity. It was a clear declaration of rebellion for the first time since he had come to this world, against the being that had thrown him into the loop and had summoned him here.

The second loop, and the battle to get past the week at Roswaal Manor and see where those days would take him, began. In order to fulfill the promise made that night—

“Fate, bring it on—!”

Chapter 15

The Second Misjudgment and a Betrayal of Expectations

The rising sun set things into motion and the second first day in Roswaal Manor began.

I just need to watch the sun rise and set for five days. And I obviously need to follow the flow of the previous loop as much as I can. That was the policy Subaru had taken.

True to his determination in the garden, Subaru intended on fulfilling the pre-loop promise he’d made with Emilia. In order to do so, he had to make it to that moonlit night again and make that promise with her.

There was one conclusion that could more or less be established as a general rule in loop-style stories: if you follow the same route, the story will end up in the same place. This was only natural since it would follow the same sequence of events as the previous one. The thoughts and actions of those involved would overlap, resulting in the same end result.

What Subaru cared about was changing the end result alone into a future he desired, as well as doing everything that happened in between again to create the same memories. In other words, his ultimate goal was to get the most out of the loop.

By making use of quick save and load, let’s make the conclusion more to my liking. Such was the noble, yet somewhat evil, plan Subaru had, but… “—It seems like, things took a turn for the worse for some reason,” he complained listlessly, blowing bubbles as he sank into the tub.

Everything had been going against Subaru’s expectations from day one.

△▼△▼△▼△

Subaru looked back on his day while floating in the tub with his arms and legs spread out.

The morning filled with determination and the great tragedy that followed with tremendous momentum.

Right after the morning routine with Emilia, Subaru had secretly made up his mind to follow the steps of the previous loop.

To be honest, I don’t think I was able to trace the details of what I had said in the spur of the moment, but the general flow of the conversation must have been the same as last time. The right to pet Puck, Emilia’s nickname, and the first interaction with Roswaal. And knowing the value of the insignia and Emilia’s status.

I’m not sure if I was able to present my reactions to them naturally in between, but I want to praise myself for doing it well. I feel like giving myself a star and saying, “You did a great job.”

“If I had to grade it, the result would be pretty pathetic though, so I’ll pass on that.”

Leaving aside the criticism of his acting, things were going according to Subaru’s plans, at least a little.

After that, the topic naturally shifted to Subaru’s reward, and just like last time, he changed his class from ‘Shut-in from Another World’ to ‘Apprentice Servant of a Perverted Nobleman.’

What followed was Ram being appointed as his instructor, and then his first day of work began after he was shown around the manor. —Things took a strange turn from here.

“I don’t know why, but it’s different from last time. I felt like I was already prepared for everything, too… I was totally gonna go all ‘I learned the answer to this question in my Shinken classes!’” muttered Subaru as he poked his head out of the bathtub, resting his chin on the edge of it.

While his entire body was getting warmed up, he could feel his joints aching as the memories came back to him. What made Subaru have second thoughts about his policy of following the actions he took in the previous loop as closely as possible was the nature of the work Ram had assigned him. He had to do things like kitchen work, basic room cleaning, and sometimes washing and folding clothes. The tasks were the same as the previous loop’s, but…

“The work content had become much more difficult…”

I should simply say that the amount and quality of work I was entrusted with had both increased. If I had to put it in a bad way, then the amount of work I had been forced to do had increased.

“I was exhausted with the work last time, but it was also hard this time… Damn it, I thought it’d be a bit easier to do since it was the same stuff as before.”

Subaru complained about the unexpectedly harsh situation while at the same time concluding inwardly that his situation wasn’t all that great.

This was the result of trying to follow the previous loop to a T. If the content had changed so much from day one, then there was no way he could match the flow of the second day onwards with the previous loop’s.

On one hand, he thought he didn’t need to worry about the small differences, but on the other, he feared the possibility of such small changes accumulating and creating a huge change at the end.

“Especially in this case since I don’t know why I went back…”

The situation this time was that I had gone to bed normally, but when I woke up, I realized I went back in time… Thinking of a countermeasure this time is a pain since, unlike the last time I died and went back, it’s not as clear since I don’t even know why I went back.

“I wonder if I can trust my memory if things are this different…?” Subaru couldn’t help but whine, then sank into the warm water to regain his composure.

He then recalled the immensely rich day when he first met Emilia in the royal capital. Although Subaru had taken a different path each time when it came to the finer details, the main events that occurred each time were the same.

I won’t be able to tell if I messed up until I miss a big event. One such event that had left a lasting impression on Subaru recently, besides his first day here, was his promise with Emilia.

As long as I can get to it, I’ll be able to do the same things as last time. And after I do that, all I have to do is figure out what happened after that.

His thoughts, which he had been unable to formulate during his hectic workday, somehow managed to come together in the solitude of the bathroom, allowing him to create a firm course of action. Naturally, Subaru noticed how good he was feeling in the warm water, but due to running out of air, he emerged from its embrace. After emerging, he coughed out the water in his lungs and took a deep breath while feeling the cool air on his skin, but then regretted doing so since—

“—Hey, may I accompany you?”

Right in front of Subaru’s eyes was a naked nobleman with a hand on his hip. A cool breeze blew between his legs, reaching him. Naturally, since they were in the bathroom, the tall man was naked. Whether it was just how noblemen were, or because it was only natural to do in a bathroom, he was buck naked and wasn’t even trying to hide his Excalibur. He was standing there at an arm’s length, looking down at Subaru with his Excalibur swaying in the wind. It feels like a penis is looking down at me, which feels pretty damn humiliating.

“It’s all reserved. I refuse.”

“It’s a facility in my mansion, so is it not myyy property? I’ll dooo as I wish.”

“Then don’t ask. You can take a bath on your own.”

“Oh, that’s harsh. And youuu don’t seem to understand. This bath is indeeeed my property, but…” Roswaal knelt and got closer to Subaru, who was looking up at him with disgust from inside the tub, and then extended his arm and gently pulled the vulnerable Subaru’s chin up. “Would iiit not also be correct to say that you are my property too since you are my servant?”

Chomp

“You didn’t hesitate!”

Subaru took a big bite of the unpleasant fingertip holding his chin, making Roswaal yelp, then backstroked away from him.

The bathtub is half the size of a twenty-five-meter pool. The huge, pointless, and spacious bathtub is lame, and it shows off that nobleman’s taste for indulgence, but it’s a pretty cool place where you can feel like a king while soaking in the tub alone.

Thus, Subaru’s bath time after work had been a time of respite for him all throughout the previous loop, but… “An unexpected event again…” he muttered as he did a backward turn inside the tub. As his back drifted on the surface of the water, he curled himself into a small ball by pulling his knees in, executing a special technique he’d named the Warm Water Coconut Technique.

He let himself become one with the waves, as if he’d become an inorganic object, and started thinking as he stared into the hot water.

In the last four days, there hadn’t been a single occasion where I had to bathe with Roswaal. Above all, Roswaal was extremely busy during the last loop, and I almost never had a chance to interact with him while I was in the manor.

It seemed like Ram and Rem were meeting him on a regular basis, but as for Subaru, he could count the number of times he’d interacted with him after the first day on one hand, excluding meals.

I haven’t changed my routine of taking long baths to relax after a long day of work, so I guess that means he’s the one who’s changed.

“…Is thaaat, fun?” Roswaal asked.

“I’m pretending to be like the Coconut Boss, a tropical fruit and a lethal weapon. It’s also known as the drifting killer of the beach. Despite its idyllic appearance, it can fall straight down from above the heads of unwary tourists, right on the back of the head.”

“You really are good when it comes to babbling… Oh excuse me, I’ll be occupying the space next to you.”

Roswaal sat next to the floating Subaru, sank into the bathtub, and let out a long sigh. It went without saying that taking a hot bath was a universal pleasure. Subaru started putting some distance between him and the large, overly thin man that had drawn close to him, then stretched his body without a care in the world.

“Well then, Master. Isn’t it a bit late to be taking a bath?”

“I’ve been a little busy with work, you seeee. It got laaate while I was dealing with it. Buuut, I’m glad I got the chance to talk with you like this. How was your first day?”

“It was productive, if anything. The muscles all over my body wanna do pillow talk. Wanna listen? I’m sure they’ll whisper their woes into your ears until morning.”

“It’s a tempting proposal, buuuut my bed has already been reserved for the night. Maybe another time.”

He started talking about it like it was nothing. “Damn it,” Subaru cursed in frustration at his inability to do anything.

Even Subaru could guess that the relationship between the nobleman in front of his eyes and the twin maids was beyond shady, and it was an undeniable fact that they had such a relationship. Although Subaru was only interested in Emilia, and actually took it seriously by not showing interest in other women, he didn’t have some warped sense of pleasure at the sight of two pretty girls becoming someone else’s like, “Hee-hee, this kinda feels like being cuckholded!”

But he couldn’t even be mature about it and say, “Please make them happy no matter what!” All Subaru could do was envy him.

“Oh yeah, are Ram and Rem doooing well? They’ve been working at the manor for a long time, so I’m sure they know how to treat their juniors.”

Roswaal mentioned the names of the girls Subaru was thinking about, whether he was aware of Subaru’s inner thoughts or not.

I feel like Roswaal is playing me like a fiddle, but… “Yeah,” Subaru said with a nod before continuing. “Not so well with Remrin, but I’m getting along with Ramchi. Rather, isn’t Ramchi too unaware of social boundaries? She’s been treating me the same way since I was a guest.”

“It’s fiiine, Rem will assist her in the things she lacks. Sisters should help each other. Both of them are doing really well in that regard.”

“From what I have heard, Rem is the one who helps out with everything, and that Ram is the inferior version.”

There’s a clear distinction between the sisters when it comes to who was better in every household chore. The elder sister lags a step or two behind the younger sister in all of the skills. If you think about it normally, it’d totally end up making her develop a crazy inferiority complex, but… “But I asked her about it, and she immediately answered that she was the better one since she was older. That kind of brazenness scared me.”

“If we were to talk about brazenness, then you are also quiiite something… But I see. So, she answered like that. That’s really…”

Roswaal shook his head sentimentally and leered at Subaru. Being stared at by his emotionless, heterochromatic eyes made him feel like his thoughts were being read by them, so he turned his body away slightly. And then…

“Being nosy aaand unreserved. Thaaat’s a good thing.”

“This isn’t something I should be praised for, yet I’m being praised for it. It feels kinda strange! I take everything literally, so be careful if you’re being sarcastic, alright? I’m the kinda guy that goes home when the teacher shouts at me to go home.”

Subaru Natsuki was the kind of guy who would stir things up and then leave. He had a solitary nature and was born to be alone.

Roswaal let out a little chuckle at Subaru’s words. “School, I seeee,” he muttered, then closed one of his eyes. “I’m not being sarcastic or anything. I truly believe it to be a gooood thing. Siiince those two live in their own little world, something might change if someone stiiired things up a bit from the outside.”

“Is that sooo.”

“Thaaat’s how it is.”

There the two were, neck-deep in the bathtub, facing each other and exchanging sighs while feeling the warm, relaxing sensation, and sharing in their admiration for it. But then Subaru suddenly raised his eyebrows, as if he had just thought of something. “Hey, Rosy. I have a question. Can you reply with an answer?”

“I’m nooot used to nicknames, but it makes me happy to have one. And you have a question? Well, if it iiis something I can answer using my broad and deep knowledge, then I don’t mind answering it after giving it some deep thought.”

“It’s my first time hearing a guy say, ‘I know a lot’ in such a roundabout way… Leaving that aside, how does this bath work?”

Subaru knocked on the bottom of the bathtub and asked the question that had been on his mind for a long time. The tub that Subaru and Roswaal were in was made of stone. It was polished and smooth to the touch, and while it looked a little rough, it wasn’t. The bath was located in a part of the basement, and the bathing area was unisex.

However, the hot water gets exchanged each time someone uses the bath, so going in after Emilia and drinking the bathwater won’t give me any sort of satisfaction.

“It… It’s not like I actually drank it. I noticed it before drinking it.”

“Your adventurous nature neeever ceases to amaze me. Is iiit because you are young…? But then, I wonder if that idea would have occurred to me when I was young?”

Roswaal looked distant as he thought of the past, and after pondering for a few moments, he returned to reality. “Anyway, the answer is simple. There is a layer of magic crystals of the fire element beneath the tub. When it’s time to take a bath, mana activates the crystals, which heat the water. The same mechanism is used in the kitchen toooo, no?”

“Yeah, so the kettle and the other things follow the same principle. No, like there weren’t any gas stoves or induction heaters, so I was wondering how things were done from time to time.”

While Ram and Rem were handling things quickly, Subaru was in the background, timidly peeling a carrot-like vegetable.

But then I have no idea how the whole mana activation thing that he just casually explained to me works, and as long as I don’t know how it works, I won’t be able to help with the cooking or warming up the bath.

“Hey, can you do any of that mana hocus pocus if you aren’t a magic user?”

“Thaaat isn’t the case. Every living thing has a gate. Even animals and plants are no exceeeption. If this wasn’t the case, then our civilization that relies on magic crystals wouldn’t haaave developed to thiiis extent.”

Subaru silently showed his lack of understanding at the appearance of the new word. Roswaal laughed at his sulky childlike attitude and started explaining. “The way you interact with spirits and what you did at breakfast this morning make you a biiit mysteriously out of touch with what is considered normal. Ram was also complaining about it, you knooow?”

“Huuuh, whaaat, reaaally? She was talking behind my back? That’s really sinister. Oh nooo.”

“She waaas covering up for you as much as she was complaining, and that’s pretty rare.”

“I was thinking bad about her, but she was just being a tsundere! I’m sorry, Boss!”

It’s her growing soft on me, just like Emilia told me in the previous loop. But she’s like falling for me on the first day, so isn’t she a bit too easy to get as a heroine? I’m strangely concerned for her even though I never viewed her as a love interest to begin with.

“Hm.” Roswaal touched his jaw and sighed while looking at Subaru who was shouting. “Alright. I’ll give you a lecture heeere. You are a little ignorant, so let me teach you what it means to be a magic user.”

“Hold on there buddy, I can’t unhear that now. Are you saying that while knowing that I’m the guy who lived next door to Kawasaki, who was unrivaled when it came to fighting, and was no doubt the manliest of men, and whose knowledge and looks were in a different dimension, and who’d receive barrages of fancy words praising his greatness?”

“Who is this Kawasaki?”

“An old classmate of mine who’s four grades ahead of me. His fiancée left him recently, near their wedding date due to the pre-wedding blues, and now he’s heartbroken. Such a wonderful thing.”

Although Roswaal didn’t understand what Subaru meant, he must have sensed that it was something worthless, so he casually ignored what he was saying about Kawasaki and continued his lecture.

“Weeell then, leeet us start from the basics. You certainly know about Gates, don’t you?”

“No, even if you start off with something like that as if I’m supposed to know it, the natural response from a person who doesn’t know what it is would be like, ‘What’s that…?’”

“Your tooone dropped suddenly. So, you don’t even know about Gates… If I had to put it mildly, it would be like, ‘Huh? No cap?’”

“Did I use it correctly?” Roswaal asked Subaru to grade his usage of ‘No cap’ and Subaru replied with a thumbs up to show that he had scored an A, then they went for a high-five.

They pointed a finger at each other, as if saying ‘Eyyyy’, confirming that it had been used properly.

They then continued with the lecture.

“So, so, what is a Gate exactly? What happens if you have that, and everything is like ‘who are you now!?’ Shit, I’m getting high!”

“To put it simply, a Gate is a doorway that allows mana to pass in and out of your body. You absorb mana through the gate, and you release the mana through the gate. Whether you are going to utilize mana or store mana, it is essential.”

“Gotcha. So it’s like some kind of MP faucet…”

Roswaal’s simple explanation made sense to Subaru.

I’ve heard the word ‘Gate’ a couple of times before, and it was affirmed that it was approximately what I had imagined it to be, so that means—

“If everyone has a gate, it means I have one too, right?”

“Well, of cooourse you have one, as long as you are sure that you are a human being. Are you human?”

“I haven’t seen a more human-like human than me! —Puny and weak… An ordinary human.”

“Well isn’t thaaat a cool line? Thooough it doesn’t suit the situation.”

At least, it wasn’t something a man should say to another man in the bathroom while buck naked.

But Subaru didn’t care since this was possibly the second happiest he’d felt since getting summoned to this world after obtaining that information. He felt like his heart was going to burst due to the immense excitement he was feeling.

“Of course, meeting Emilia-tan was the happiest thing, but this one is also pretty amazing! So, I can finally become the magician I’d always dreamt about… I thought I had to wait 13 more years!”

“It’s true that you need time to get good, but…thirteen years is too much, dooon’t you think?”

“It’s just a figure of speech, and the magicians I know of turn into one automatically on their birthday. Though that title is within my reach!”

If I still felt the same as I did before getting summoned into this world, then that would have been my fate, but here I have a girl that I am interested in who I can approach with my passionate heart burning with love.

I can say this now: This is why I was summoned here.

“I’ll just go in and pew pew and graduate—that’s the ending!”

“I’m happy you can get that excited about the topic of magic users, but even if you have a Gate, talent still plays quite a big role, you seeee. Though I know I’m just boaaasting, not many people are blessed wiiith as much talent as I from birth, you know?”

Beep!

Subaru heard the sound of a flag being established.

Roswaal was speaking confidently, but little did he know that the buck-naked man floating in the tub in front of him was the ‘Invited One’ that got summoned from another world. Subaru was no good when it came to strength, no good when it came to knowledge, and his luck was zero, or rather, in the negative, but a new hope appeared for him now.

—And that’s, magic.

Subaru, feeling really sure about it for some reason, clenched his fists. And, unable to resist the urge, he swam towards Roswaal. “Hey, hey, Rosy. Magic, magic, let’s talk about magic. I can feel it in my bones. There’s no way I’m missing this big wave!”

“Is that sooo?” Let us continue then. Magic has four basic elements. Do youuu know what they are?”

“I dooon’t.”

“Ah-ha, pointless, purposeless, and innocent ignorance. How wonderful. I’m in a good mood, so I’ll explain. The four elements are: fire, water, wind, and earth. Did you get thaaat?”

“All clear! And now continue, pretty please.”

Though neither of them had drunk any alcohol, they were drunk on the mood and on a high. Roswaal, in a good mood due to being relied upon, nodded, then spoke. “The fire element is related to heat. The water element is related to life and healing. The wind element is related to the divine protections outside the bodies of living things. The divine protections within the body are related to the earth element. They are mostly divided into these four, aaaand on top of that, if a normal person has an affinity for one of them, it’s considered good. Oh, and as a side nooote, I have an affinity for all four, you seeee.”

“Woah, what a cocky bastard! But we won’t be able to move forward if I get bothered by that, so I’ll just pay you some lip service! Oh yeah baby, so amazing, fuck me, and that’s all she wrote, folks! Now bring on the rest of the lecture! So, is there a way to find out your element!?”

Roswaal nodded magnanimously. “Ha-haa,” he laughed and smiled gleefully at Subaru, who was splashing his hands in the water like he had some sort of plan in mind, then extended his palm. “Ooof course. When you are a magic user of my level, you can teeell with a mere touch. Well, in reality, I neeeed to enter the Gate itself to check.”

“You serious!? No cap!? Woah, it’s here! My expectations are through the roof! Come on, cop a feel and tell me all about it. Tell me about what, you say? About me!”

Subaru, forgetting that they were both naked, inched closer, wagging an invisible tail quickly enough to leave an afterimage. Roswaal looked at him as if he was looking at an untrained dog and smiled, then placed his palm on his forehead.

“Alright, now please give me a mooooment. Oh, and do tell me if you feel an itch somewhere.”

“My ass feels itchy! But I’ll scratch it myself! I’ll save you the effort, so just focus on finding out my element! Woaaah, my heart is shaking with excitement!”

I want to forget all my worries for the time being and think about the wonder that lies ahead. I have hope, I have a dream, and I have a sense of certainty.

—That magic is going to be my fangs in the world I’d gotten summoned into.

Subaru wore a twisted smile, his sanpaku eyes glowing and making him seem belligerent. He waited for the result as his eyes glowed brightly. And then…

“—Alllright, I gooot it.”

“Finally, I was waiting. What could it be, what could it be. Is it fire, reflecting my fiery passion? Or is it water, reflecting how cool and levelheaded I am? Or is it wind, which blows through a grassland in a cool and fresh manner like my temperament? No, no. Maybe my nice-guy nature that likes to take care of younger people and is easygoing and reliable came out, so my element might be earth, I guess?”

“Yeah, it’s Yin.”

“All rejected!?” Subaru reflexively exclaimed, as if he’d been diagnosed with a bad disease, not believing what he was hearing. And he wasn’t acting, either. He truly was disappointed.

Roswaal opened his mouth slowly and spoke. “I have no doubt that iiiit is indeed Yin. Your connection with the other four elements is raaather weak, though that is pretty raaare.”

“What the heck is Yin, anyways? Aren’t there only four classifications? This has gotta be a classification error or something!”

“I didn’t tell you this, but aside from the four main elements, there are the elements of Yang and Yin as well. Howeeever, as there aren’t many people who have affinities for them, I decided to omit them from my explanation.”

It seems like I’m one of the rare few, huh.

After hearing about it, his slightly panicking mind started to calm down.

Yeah, it’s a super rare element—which means… “I’m sure it’s a somewhat amazing element, right? Like it’s something that only appears once every 5000 years!? Like you can use magic that people with other magic affinities can’t use!?”

“Let’s seee, Yin Magic is famous for…blocking an opponent’s sight, cutting off sound, and slowing others down—those are the kind of spells that can be used, I suppoose.”

“It specializes in debuffs!?”

I was expecting to be able to use some super destructive magic, or to be able to drag my enemies into a realm of darkness and rip them to shreds, or something powerful like that.

Judging from the way Roswaal was talking, it seemed like he really was feeling bad for him since he was taking his time to explain interference and debuff skills to him.

I wasn’t given strength, intelligence, or any cheat skills… “And my element specializes in debuffs…”

“Byyy the way, you don’t seem to have any talent for magic at all. For instance, if I’m a 10, the highest you can reach is 4.”

“That’s the last thing I wanted to hear! There’s no God or Buddha in this world anymore!”

Subaru splashed the warm water violently and made a desperate pose. Roswaal looked at Subaru, who was floating on the surface of the water with his arms stretch out, with pity. However, Subaru, who was seriously disappointed, didn’t feel like coming up with a witty comeback.

Roswaal still tried to cheer Subaru up, nonetheless.

“There, there. Yin-type magic can be handy, too. You can turn off people’s sense of sight when you don’t want to be seen, and you can stop sound from getting out if you don’t want something to be heard.”

“I see, so it’s meant for holding secret talks, or rather, secret meetings. This is good, ha-ha-ha!” Subaru replied as he got up and started patting Roswaal’s shoulder. And… “…Is that…cool?”

“Leaving aside it being cool or lame, girls who want to hold a secret meeting would suuurely find it useful. It all depeeends on how you use it. Either way, you are cuuuurently unable to wield it.”

“That’s right. Magic, magic I see… Even if debuffs are its specialty, not using it would be a waste. Shit, what should I do?”

Although thinking about it was making Subaru feel troubled, Roswaal made it sound as if it was no problem at all. “If you want to use it, then you can leaaarn it from someone. Luckily for you, we have a specialist of Yin Magic here.”

“Oh yeah! That was an option! I don’t even care about the type of magic and such anymore! As long as I have an excuse to learn magic, I don’t care if I’ll be able to use it or not! In other words!”

He emerged from the water, splitting it as he pointed one hand towards the ceiling and placed the other on his hip. He then jumped out in the nude, splashing water everywhere, and while Roswaal was looking at him, he struck a pose.

“I’ll learn magic from the girl I like, yo. She can hold my hands, yo, feel my legs, yo, and grab my waist during the lesson, yo. It’ll be a lesson with many such amazing options after I get off work, yo. And then we can sail towards the future together and eventually get visited by a stork, yo! Yippee ki-yay, yo!”

He decided his future plans with an impromptu rap.

If this is the case, then it’s already decided. It’s time to immediately act upon it.

His original goal of doing the previous loop over again had already somehow disappeared into the recesses of his mind. However, a wrench was soon thrown into his plans.

“I think you’ve misunderstood me, so I’m going to correct you. The specialist in Yin Magic iiisn’t Lady Emilia, alright?”

“What-the-hell-yo? Do you have a grudge against me, yo!? Do you like playing with people’s hearts that much, yo!? Yo!” Subaru exclaimed, still in rap-mode, as he pointed his finger at Roswaal. “So, who is then? Is it you!? The respected court magician!? Yeah, since you have an affinity for all the elements, right! I’m disappointed!”

“It’s Beatrice.”

“That’s more disappointing!!”

The loudest scream of the night exploded from his mouth with a massive splash of water.

△▼△▼△▼△

“Ah shit. The hot water made me feverish. Curse that Rosy. He kept lifting me up and dropping me. It was like he was the Buddha’s palm,” Subaru blurted out in the changing room as he passed his arms through the sleeves of the clothing he’d been provided.

Subaru had just come out of the bath after taking a short break upon concluding their disappointing conversation, leaving Roswaal there.

Subaru was never a fan of taking long baths, but nowadays, he often took them due to being tired and needing a place to think. However, getting in and out quickly was how he originally did things. Thus, he was feeling lightheaded because of it. He felt that way today especially since he had yet to recover and was still low on blood.

There was a slight, peculiar difference between what his mind and body wanted. It felt like the gears were a little out of sync, which created a discord that made him feel uncomfortable.

“On top of that, I think my muscles might be sore tomorrow. Damn it, Ramchi. Just you wait. You’re only working me like a horse because I’m a little better at doing things compared to the last loop…”

“She shall kindly wait, just like you wished.”

“Woooooah!!”

While Subaru was heading out with the basket filled with his dirty clothes, someone responded to his complaint, startling him enough to make him jump in surprise. And just like that, his underwear flew from his hand and landed at the feet of Ram, who was standing in the hallway outside the changing room.

“Haa, you are no good.”

She bent down and picked up Subaru’s underwear, which was soaked with the sweat from his hard day of work, and tossed it into the trashcan right next to her.

“There’s a dude right in front of you holding a basket who intends on doing his laundry, ya know!?”

“Ram is sorry. The moment she lifted it up, she felt an instinctual disgust for it. Ram wanted to get rid of it as soon as possible, so it ended up that way.”

“Despite that, your movements looked refined!”

Subaru reluctantly retrieved his underwear from the trashcan and put it into the basket, then faced Ram again. The maid was leaning against the wall of the changing room, waiting quietly.

I wonder what she wants? Subaru tilted his head. And, as if reading his mind, Ram spoke. “It’s unfortunate for you, but Ram has already taken a bath, so she won’t start undressing even if you wait there.”

“You didn’t get me at all!? Isn’t that fatal for a maid!?”

“Ram is only kidding. She’s here to help Master Roswaal get dressed. It is Ram and Rem’s duty to wait on Master Roswaal when he takes a bath.”

“Aren’t you spoiling him too much? I think he can change on his own.”

But then there are people out there who have their socks put on by a maid and have never put them on themselves. Considering how vast the world is, Roswaal might be one of them, which really is an eye-opener for me.

“That just opened my Roswaal Trust Bottle, too, which didn’t have much in it to begin with, but now there’s even less in there.”

“Kindly refrain from making any disrespectful remarks about Master Roswaal in front of Ram. Ram will use force after the second warning.”

It sounds like a gentle suggestion, but she means it, so I’ll keep that in mind. In fact, she teaches things in a polite and respectful manner the first time, but if I ask her the same question again, she looks at me like I’m just some pig in a pig farm.

Subaru thought that it would bring unnecessary trouble if he stayed there any longer, so he decided to leave immediately.

“Alright then, excuse me, Boss,” said Subaru as he tried to leave, but…

“Barusu, do you have any plans after this?”

“Other than going to bed, nope. It should be obvious since I have to wake up early tomorrow, damn it. Boss, mornings are such a pain.”

“I see.” Ram gave a short response to Subaru’s words, which made him sound like he was both complaining and expressing an attitude of defiance.

Subaru kept looking at her as she stood there without saying a word, then… “Alright,” Ram said, as if she had decided on something. “Then Ram will come to your room later, so wait for her.”

And that’s all she had said.

“—Huh?”

Chapter 16

The Confusion of the Second Loop

I’ll keep declaring over and over again that I, Subaru Natsuki, am an advocate of only being into Emilia.

Ever since he came to this world, he has had the opportunity to encounter many beautiful women one after another, but she stood out from the rest.

It was partly because of her beauty, but the real reason was simple: it’s because he fell in love with her. As long as he continued to feel that way, his attraction to her would only increase.

Therefore, no matter what kind of beauty was in front of him, there was no way that Subaru’s heart would fall for anyone else.

It’s just not possible.

“So, this perfect bedmaking doesn’t mean anything more than me wanting to sleep soundly,” he said, making an enthusiastic excuse to himself as he poked his finger into the bed with lightning speed.

After taking a bath, Subaru had gone back to his room and spent all his time making the bed, which he was currently looking at. He even left the basket of laundry unattended. He’d put a lot of effort into it, sweat dripping off his forehead like a waterfall, even though he had just taken a bath.

It’s been a while since I’ve done such a satisfactory job.

“It doesn’t have any deep meaning behind it. It isn’t anything like that. I need to calm myself and empty my mind. One Emilia-tan, two Emilia-tans, three Emilia-tans… Is this Heaven!”

“You are making too much noise, Barusu. It’s night already, so keep quiet.”

“Faaar awaaay!” (Gackt: Faraway) he sung as he leapt back towards the wall. He could see Ram, who had opened the door without making a sound, standing at the room’s entrance.

After entering the room with a knock, she scolded him. “You do this right after Ram told you to keep quiet. You are no good.”

“What’s up with you making your own rules!? It makes me feel nervous since your rules make me question my common sense! What and how do you want me to do things!?”

In response to Subaru shouting, Ram abruptly sneered. “Hah.” Even Subaru could do nothing after being struck with the contempt that hadn’t even put into words.

Ram crossed in front of such a Subaru with crisp noises and headed towards the bed—no, she headed towards a small wooden desk in front of the bed. Each room had a space of its own for reading and writing, but for Subaru, it was useless since he could not read or write in this world. Of course, he could write in Japanese though.

“Maybe I should do that at least. Even though I can’t carry it to another loop, it might make it easy for me to remember things if I write things down…”

“What are you mumbling on about? Come here, Barusu,” Ram said in a tepid manner, as if she were disciplining her dog.

Blue veins appeared on Subaru’s forehead after hearing that. But it would only be a loss for him if he let her take control of things. Subaru could only show his true ability when he had the other person in the palm of his hand to begin with.

Anyway, I’ll train my unyielding heart so that it won’t be shaken by anything she says, no matter how surprising it may be.

He stood in front of Ram with a battle-ready mindset.

“Now what? What kind of recklessness have you brought this time?”

“What are you talking about? Ram is telling you to sit down so that Ram can teach you how to read and write.”

“That’s my first time hearing of it!?”

His unyielding heart shook immediately.

He felt like his hardened heart instantly became soft and broken, and then, unable to hide his unrest, he looked at his desk and gasped when he saw a notebook with a white page, a quill, and a book with a reddish-brown cover. It seemed like she wasn’t joking or playing a prank on him but was genuinely trying to teach him how to read and write.

“But then, why all of a sudden…”

“Barusu, you can’t read or write, right? I know that from watching you work today. If you can’t read or write, then you can’t note down things that you have to buy or write down the things that you are told to do.”

Ram gave a perfectly reasonable answer to the confused Subaru’s query. Subaru’s mouth reflexively kept opening and closing slovenly like a fish.

However, seeming indifferent to his reaction, Ram pointed her finger at the book with a red cover. “We’ll start with an easy collection of children’s fairytales. Ram and Rem will help you out every night, so study hard from now on.”

It’s a good offer, but frankly, I’m more confused by it than anything.

This situation was the same as the one in the bathroom, a situation that never happened in the previous loop. And according to Subaru’s own estimation, the distance between him and the twins was still much greater compared to the fourth day of the previous loop.

In spite of that, why is there a bona fide study session happening?

“It’s obvious. —It’s because Ram wants to work less.”

“You don’t change, do you?”

“Of course. The more work Barusu is able to do, the less work Ram has to do. If Ram’s workload is lessened, then Rem’s work inevitably gets reduced, too. It’s a win-win situation.”

“Wouldn’t I be overwhelmed with work instead, though!?”

“…?”

And now she’s tilting her head as if she didn’t understand what I am complaining about.

Subaru lost the energy to talk back since she responded in a way that made it seem like she didn’t get his point. On one hand, he was baffled by it, but on the other, he was happy about it.

“Ok, alright, understood. Let’s staaart studying then.”

“Barusu, in your case, your conversational grammar is fine, so it shouldn’t be too difficult. The language skills you were born with shouldn’t be blamed.”

“Aren’t you insulting me by making it seem like you are praising me?” Subaru said as he sat in front of the desk and grabbed the quill, fully prepared to get started.

Subaru never had the chance to hold a quill before, but it was light, and when you slid it over the paper, it produced beautifully written words.

It was the memorable first stroke in this world. Subaru faced the cover of the book and started writing with a large stroke of his quill. “Subaru Natsuki has arrived… Alright.”

“Sorry to interrupt you, but we don’t have time to play around drawing things like that. You need to wake up early tomorrow, so time is limited.”

“No, this is my native language… I knew you wouldn’t get it.”

I was hoping that the things I write down would be translated too since I can have conversations normally, but I guess things aren’t that convenient. To me, the script of this world looks like hieroglyphs, so to them, Japanese probably looks like fancy-looking scribbles.

And so, Subaru couldn’t go on a rampage with his knowledge of idioms that he loved so much.

“But on the other hand, it means that nobody will notice it no matter what kind of obscene fantasies I put into writing. That kind of situation is useful…libido-wise!”

“First, we’ll start with the basic letters, which are E letters. You can move on to Ro letters and Ha letters after you master E letters.”

“There are three types? Just hearing about them makes me want to give up.”

It’s so painful that my heart feels like it’s about to break before learning a new language. I can relate a bit with the feelings of the foreigners trying to learn Japanese. There are three types: Hiragana, Katakana and Kanji, so they would be bewildered once they realized how long it would take them to learn.

“We’ll move on to the fairytales after you get the hang of E letters. We can study until 1 AM Darksun since we also have to do this tomorrow, and Ram is sleepy, too.”

“Showing a glimpse of your true feelings at the end there… I don’t dislike that, boss.”

“Ram likes that about Ram,” she replied without hesitation, thus making it harder to determine whether she was joking around or being serious. Subaru felt that the former had a higher probability, and his alphabet learning lesson began.

When learning a new language, the first thing you need to do is to figure out what kinds of letters it uses. In the case of hiragana, there are 46 characters, and just like that, there are basic characters in other languages, too, and the meanings are formed by combining those basic letters.

Therefore, learning a language begins with writing the letters, but…

“It’s more painful than I imagined… It’s like the time I was learning how to write in cursive.”

Subaru wrote down the basic letters that Ram had written for him at the rate of around 400 letters per page. The accumulation of it was something that could cause Gestaltzerfall, but he accepted that working steadily was the necessary way to get the job done, so he devoted himself to that.

To be honest, my eyelids are heavy due to fatigue and drowsiness, but I can’t fall asleep since Ram’s been keeping me company. That she is being friendly from day one of the second loop is really important to begin with, too. I can’t let the chance slip out of my hands.

“I know that you said that you were doing it to make things easy for you, but it still made me happy,” Subaru admitted, conveying his honest feelings while holding back his embarrassment, to Ram, who was behind him.

When he wasn’t writing the same letter over and over again, producing a soft sound as the quill ran over the pages, Subaru recalled the four days from his previous loop.

Come to think of it, I spent my days chasing Emilia’s ass whenever I had time, but the person I spent the most time with was Ram when I wasn’t doing that.

It must have taken a lot of effort to train Subaru, who was an amateur in all the work around the manor—such as cooking, doing laundry, and cleaning. It was tougher for her since that wasn’t her only job, she did it while performing her regular work.

Obviously, the burden would have fallen upon Rem as well, but the time he spent with her in the four days of the previous loop wasn’t much. Ram and the others said that Rem, who was excellent at everything, did the work that didn’t get done, but Subaru felt bad for indirectly burdening her.

“To be honest, I wasn’t liked much.”

She was as busy as she was, and then a useless newbie came in. She had to teach him various things, utilizing her time after she was done with her work. Just thinking about it was painful for someone like Subaru, who had little experience in dealing with people. To be thought of that way was something he was used to, too.

Thus, Subaru was happy with the current situation where he wasn’t being rejected.

“I know I’m going to keep causing trouble, but please take care of me,” he told Ram, who was silently observing him, as his chair creaked when he gently turned back.

He had suddenly bared his heart and true feelings to her, but Ram silently responded with “Zzz.”

She was sleeping soundly in the bed that had been neatly made. She had taken her shoes and apron off, her headdress was put on the side of the bed, and the covers were pulled up to her shoulders. It was a proper sleeping position.

The quill snapped with a crack.

△▼△▼△▼△

Following the sudden urge, Subaru opened his mouth wide and yawned. He couldn’t hold back his sleepiness. It appeared as tears formed at the corners of his eyes, so he violently rubbed them and straightened his posture. The evening sky was dyed orange with the parting gift of the sun, and the clouds were flowing slowly, welcoming the end of the day. Subaru looked up at all of that and moved the joints in his body to check its condition. He still felt the effects of overworking, but it wasn’t as bad as before.

“But even so, the strength of my body remains the same even after I go back in time… I guess it means that I learned how to move my body, so it doesn’t get as tired.”

It wasn’t that his body was getting used to it, but rather that he was getting used to the work, which improved his efficiency. He predicted that it would lead to a slight reduction in fatigue.

If there’s a possibility that the loop will occur again, then I can’t expect to strengthen my body through repeating things. The only thing I can do is revise the events that are going to occur and practice household chores.

I can’t continue with this if I don’t think like that. Since…

“Subaru, sorry for making you wait. —Are you fine?”

“Hm, yeah, I’m fine, I’m fine. Remrin, are you done with your shopping now?”

“Yes, it went without a hitch. You looked like you were having a lot of trouble, Subaru.”

The blue-haired girl holding a handbag with goods inside in front of him—Rem—tilted her head and appreciated Subaru’s effort.

She was in her usual maid outfit, her hair swaying in the wind as she looked at Subaru with a slightly relaxed expression. At Subaru, who had stained his butler’s uniform with mud, dust, snot, and tears.

“You were quite popular,” she said.

“I don’t know why, but I’ve always been a kid magnet. Maybe it’s because there’s a maternal instinct inside me that can’t be suppressed and is irresistible to kids, so it keeps attracting them to me.”

“Children are like animals in that they assign ranks to humans. They know instinctively whether they should take a person lightly or not.”

“You aren’t complimenting me, are you!?” Subaru exclaimed, putting a hand on his chin to show his dissatisfaction, but Rem didn’t respond.

Subaru nodded his head thinking that Ram and Rem were indeed sisters after getting such a harsh comment. With Ram, who was direct, and Rem, who said things in a reserved manner, one needed to be tough mentally to keep up with them. Of course, he needed to be physically tough too or else he wouldn’t be able to keep up with the work in the first place.

With a wry smile, Subaru turned his hips and looked around while moving his neck. The high-pitched voices of the children could be heard from the square behind him. He had been in the group of children a few moments ago, struggling against their blows and drool. Everyone had been relentless, and it was a lonely battle without any allies.

Currently, Subaru and Rem were in the village closest to the manor. Roswaal, even if he was like that, had the status of Margrave, so naturally he was a nobleman that ruled over quite a bit of territory in his fiefdom.

This village near his house is no exception, and the people who live here know us as a matter of course. The two maids in particular since they probably go out to buy groceries often, and that’s why the rate of people greeting them was high as they passed by.

On the other hand, it seemed like the villagers knew about Subaru’s existence. Although it was actually his first time going there, he was welcomed amicably, and it made him feel uneasy yet happy at the time.

However… “What’s up with those kids being over-familiar… Can’t they recognize my hard-boiledick aura that can burn them if they touch me?” Subaru blurted out the title that he wanted to say in a deep voice while lighting a cig. (Totally imagining it)

Hard-boiledick, short for hard-boiled and adultic.

Rem, who was walking in front of him, gave him a sideways glance. “You said you had a maternal instinct, and now you are pretending to be an adult. You are a busy person, Subaru.”

“If I was busy, then I wouldn’t be in such a bad situation. Shit, I should’ve gone shopping with you, Remrin.”

Even if Subaru had gone shopping with her, he would have been useless since he didn’t know how to distinguish between ingredients or even know what they were called. So, he had stepped back from that to not bother her. But then the children from the village found him and kidnapped him, which was something he hadn’t expected.

“I don’t have any complaints in general, but… I can’t accept that.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Never mind, it’s something that has to do with me. I’m glad that I can have a conversation with you without being cautious. In Ramchi’s case, I can’t predict the angle from which she’d look down at me.”

“Isn’t my sister wonderful?”

The conversation was slightly out of sync.

Rem looked slightly proud as she bragged about her elder sister. Subaru assumed that they were honest words without a hint of deceit in them, but…

“To be frank, aren’t there a lot of problems with Ramchi’s personality? It seems like it would often cause conflicts.”

“It isn’t as bad as you, Subaru, who is still new to being a servant.”

“That’s, what, I, thought.”

Learn wisdom from the follies of others.

It was obvious that Subaru’s critique of Ram’s ability and personality would be mocked since his current contribution was half that of Ram’s. The person hearing it was the upgraded version of said Ram as well.

The destructiveness of her sarcasm was also a few steps higher than Ram’s, making up for it not being direct.

Subaru scratched his head and pondered as he followed behind Rem as she walked ahead of him. —I’m sure I was accompanying Ram during the village shopping trip in the previous loop.

“Speaking of which, Subaru, how is your study progressing?”

“Steadily…is what I want to say, but things aren’t that easy. Everything must be nurtured slowly, over time. It’s the same as love!”

“I hope it doesn’t wither halfway.”

“Remrin, the love in your comment just now is withered!” Subaru screamed, changing Rem’s expression into a slight smile that made him smile too.

—Four days have passed already since Ram volunteered for the private lessons at night. She said that she would take turns with Rem while teaching me letters, but in all that time, Rem has never been the instructor. From the standpoint of the situation, it probably means that Rem couldn’t afford to leave her work, and it seems like she was feeling guilty about it.

Subaru continued smiling at Rem, who couldn’t even come up with a response like she usually did, and then…

“Youuu dooon’t neeed tooo worrrry about it. It isn’t like I’m being neglected, and I am not complaining about Ramchi being the instructor. No, wait, it definitely demotivates me when she falls asleep on the bed while teaching me, but still.”

“Sister is acting like that on purpose to raise your motivation.”

“That’s some positive thinking that far exceeds mine. The way you worship your sister is out of this world. You really are possessed by a demon.”

“Possessed, by a demon…?” Rem tilted her head at the word that was trending inside Subaru lately.

“It’s the demon version of being possessed by a god, being possessed by a demon. Doesn’t it sound nice?”

“Do you like demons?”

“I like them more than God. Since God usually does nothing, but I’ve heard that a demon laughs with you when you tell them about your vision of the future.”

They get especially excited when they hear the things about the coming year.

Subaru thought of the scene where the Blue and Red Demon had their arms wrapped around each other’s shoulders and were laughing loudly, and then, suddenly, he saw a definite smile on Rem’s face.

“Oh…”

He had seen her smile faintly several times before, but it was the first time she had shown an expression that could be described as a proper smile.

Subaru didn’t know if it had struck a chord with her, but he snapped his fingers and said, “That smile is as bright as Pikachu’s million-volt thunderbolt.”

“I’ll tell Lady Emilia.”

“It wasn’t like I was hitting on you!?”

He straightened his posture, thrust out his hands and did the pose of meekly begging for forgiveness.

Suddenly, Rem raised her eyebrows slightly, looking at Subaru taking that pose. “What happened to that hand?”

“Hm? Oh, the dog that the kids were playing with took a big bite out of it.”

The wound on my left hand has a prominent bitemark on it. It bled a little, but it stopped already. I remember that this happened to me in the last loop, so it means that I have gotten to the weird part of the loop.

By the way, someone blew their nose on the back of his butler’s uniform, so it had a ton of snot on it, but the time he would notice it would be the same as the previous loop, which was after he returned to the manor.

“Shall I heal your wound?”

“Huh? What, Remrin, are you the type who can use healing magic?”

“I can do easy things, like simple treatments. Or do you want Lady Emilia to do it?”

“Mm, it’s an attractive offer that can’t be denied. Bu…but…I’ll pass.”

Subaru denied her offer while looking at the toothmark of the canine on the back of his hand. It was because he had decided that the scar was, in a sense, a good mark to know where he was in the loop. It was the disappearance of the scar that made him the most aware of the fact that a new loop had begun the moment he had started a new one.

Whether there is a scar or not is a good indicator. If I hadn’t been bit coincidentally by the dog, then I would’ve ended up hurting myself with a quill or a random knife.

“Hah, I grew out of the phase of wanting a sword scar on my cheek when I was in middle school. Now that I think about it, I was covered in scars, so that makes me…”

I miss the days where I longed to have scars on my face, and I worked hard to leave scratch marks on it. One scar was not enough for me, so I made a lot of them, and it was bad luck that the scars got filled with pus since it landed me in a disastrous situation where I was called the bandage-man. I was the only mummy-man in the graduation album of middle school.

“Oh my, I am, cute…!”

“It’s said that a scar is a man’s badge of honor. Come to think of it, Master Roswaal also brags about a scar that he doesn’t erase. —Around his chest.”

“This seems like the topic is going to be graphic, so can I pass?”

The topic was going to stray towards the suspicious relationship between the maid and her master without Subaru noticing it, so he hurriedly put a stop to it.

Rem tilted her head curiously as if she didn’t understand what he was talking about, and Subaru pushed her on the back. “Never mind, never mind,” he said, then hurried on home.

Subaru wasn’t confident that he could keep up with a graphic topic like that and was also a bit nervous.

—Since he was on the fourth day of his second loop in another world.

“I’ll see if I can make it to tomorrow morning in one piece. But before that.”

Whether I’ll be able to make that promise with Emilia or not is just as important.

“…Anyway, I’m worried about Ramchi and Remrin’s sexual knowledge. I’m worried that they are being tricked by that master into doing things while being none the wiser.”

These questions have begun to creep into my mind as I have begun to know things in more detail than the previous week of the previous loop. I’ll make a little inquiry after I’m done with taking care of my situation.

Subaru secretly made up his mind to do so.

△▼△▼△▼△

Subaru Natsuki’s second first week at Roswaal Manor was now facing its greatest problem. He wasn’t able to follow the steps of the previous loop that he had revised, so it wasn’t smooth sailing to begin with, but now it was facing its greatest crisis.

Which was…

“I can’t go meet Emilia-tan because I have to study.”

Whispering their love to one another in the moonlit garden and making a pinky promise; Subaru held such hopes for the second night, so this situation that interfered with his promise event was the worst thing that could happen to him.

 

It was only the fourth day of study, and before dinner, I casually asked the twins directly, “Wouldn’t it be ok if I took a break today?” But…

“Sister, Sister. A spineless guy called Subaru has given up already.”

“Rem, Rem. A pathetic dog that’s inferior to humans and animals is saying something in dog language.”

And thus, I was dismissed with an unprecedented blank stare.

 

He wanted to rush to Emilia’s side even if he had to skip the lesson, but…

“If Emilia-tan finds out that I have skipped the lessons through Ram or Rem, then, knowing her personality, she will definitely cancel our promise!”

It would be useless even if I’m able to make the promise if it gets reneged upon later. The promised couple’s rendezvous. And the two burn passionately in the flower garden and disappear into the nightlife district.

It would be a Happy End, according to Subaru, if it reached that point.

“But then, if I study properly, then Emilia-tan will fall asleep before I can meet her.”

Therefore, there was only one best answer for Subaru.

Which is: Finish the assignments as quickly as possible and go down to the garden before the moon disappears behind the clouds.

This is it.

“Or I can lure Ram into falling asleep with my ultimate bedmaking skills and make the promise while she’s sleeping and then come back and finish the assignment… I’d be able to kill two birds with one stone!”

In other words, you could say he was stuck between a rock and a hard place. It was a sad man’s heart wavering between the assignment and the promise.

I’ve prepared plan B and have already adjusted my bed. The bedding is in great shape, having soaked up the sunlight, and the warmth you feel just by touching it is powerful enough to make you fall into dreamland in no time.

There, Subaru concentrated all of his hidden hotelier abilities into it, and the masterpiece of bedmaking was complete.

“I don’t think I’ll ever be able to make a better bed than this…”

It was literally a masterpiece in which he put in everything he had.

It’s really captivating workmanship even though I’m the one who did this. I usually hate Ram for lying on my bed without my permission, but now I can’t wait for her to come into my room.

“I feel as if I’m waiting for a cockroach to enter my newly purchased roach trap as fast as possible—I’m the worst!”

I’m not gonna rephrase it since that’s how it is.

However, the fact that he was waiting for his opponent with such dutifulness could be said to be a sign of his Japanese temperament, which was the reason why he couldn’t be ruthless.

He stood in front of the desk, tapping on his knee with his finger, and waited for her. But…

“Why does she have to be late today? If it begins late, then consequently, it will end late too. Unlike lessons in school, there’s no bell that rings when it’s over.”

In schools, if the teacher is late, then it would be a ‘I was waiting for this!’ situation, but in the current situation, it’s a pure waste of time that keeps me stuck here longer. It’s not like I don’t like the idea of putting extra time into revising stuff, but I have to say that keeping my mind calm and going for the letters in this state of mind is pretty harsh.

Subaru himself didn’t realize that it was a ridiculous resolve to try to finish his assignments early with such feelings.

As the time was ticking by, he became more and more impatient, so he rushed towards the door and violently opened it the moment he heard a knock. And then, he lashed out. “You’re late! Every second of this may have been nothing to you, but to me, it was equivalent to chipping away at whatever sanity I had left!”

“…I didn’t know that you were waiting that much, I’m sorry? I was late because I haven’t been on this floor much.”

He felt like his face had turned as white as a sheet when Emilia, who was waiting outside the door, said that.

Chapter 17

The Sound of a Chain

“So, since Ram or Rem can’t come see you tonight… I took over the role of supervising your studies.”

“I see! Wow, I’m glad, a real surprise! Oh, please, sit. You want tea or something, right? Oh, I snuck out some special tea snacks.”

Subaru invited Emilia into the room, and started to prepare to welcome her in a rush. He rushed through the hall, went into what seemed like an employees-only hot water supply room, prepared tea and tea snacks, and then dashed back. This feat of agility was done in a matter of two minutes.

Perfectly displaying the skills he had learned while living in the mansion as an employee, Subaru showed a working attitude he had not even shown to Roswaal himself.

“Thanks for waiting! I’m back! Brought special tea leaves and tea snacks, we can feed each other!”

“I feel like you may have forgotten the main reason I’m here… Do you mind?”

Subaru, still holding the tray, tilted his head with question marks at Emilia, who had been standing there in the room like she was out of place.

She slowly pointed towards the bed and asked Subaru, “Is it just me, or is it way too neatly arranged?”

“Ah! Nah! It’s not like I had a plan or anything, just thought I’d let Ramchi sleep there! It’s not suspicious!”

“What were you going to do having Ram sleep in your bed?”

“I feel like the misunderstanding suddenly made a quick turn!?”

He put the tray down on the table, and dove onto his bed under Emilia’s suspicious gaze. He took his time to mess up the bed all he could.

“Seee, now it’s all wrecked. Right! A naughty girl like Ramchi deserves to sleep in a messy bed!”

“So you still intend for her to sleep here.”

“I can’t win this by myself! Puck, come ouuuuut!”

“It’s already his bedtime so don’t wake him up… I mean, it doesn’t matter.”

Emilia crossed her arms as she watched Subaru turn to the gray cat for help, and looked away. “It’s fine that you’re friendly with Ram and Rem, but you need to do it in moderation. Not to mention those two are still young…”

“I personally like that you have strong virtues. I mean, isn’t there a more suitable person to receive that comment in this mansion? I’ll give ya a hint, he’s a pervert with long hair.”

“Ah, whatever… I’ve given up on trying to fix that.”

“So much so that you look super gloomy, Emilia-tan! It’s kinda giving me goosebumps!”

With resignation in her eyes, her behavior was like an abandoned puppy, which activated Subaru’s protective instincts. To cut a long story short, Emilia was cute to him, whatever expression she was making. In short…

“E. M. T. (Emilia-tan is seriously an angel!)”

“Your face tells me you’re reaaally speaking nonsense. Maybe I’ve finally come to understand you, Subaru.”

“Aw, that’s a delight to hear. But don’t think you can see through me so easily. Oh, here’s some tea.”

“Oh, thanks.” Emilia took the tea from his hands and softly moistened her throat with it. Offering her the chair in front of the desk, Subaru sipped tea while sitting on his bed.

Sharing the treasured tea snacks, they enjoyed a calm and peaceful time together. Maybe this is what they call happiness.

“This is, how, I feel,” said Subaru.

“You’re saying something very ordinary but it kind of resonates with the heart,” Emilia admitted.

“It’s a word trick. The trick is to pronounce them like they’re katakana. It’s just saying normal things like they are normal.”

Emilia reacted naturally, probably because she had gotten used to Subaru talking nonsense.

She was also somehow glad that he was enjoying their peaceful time together.

“A-Actually, I didn’t come here to fool around,” Emilia declared, “so you shouldn’t be relaxing.”

“Who comes to a man’s room alone at night and doesn’t expect some happenings! Don’t you know it’s dangerous!?”

“You know that I can use magic even without Puck, right?”

The air started to crack apart with a dry sound, and the temperature in the room decreased drastically.

Seeing the steam from the tea becoming more forceful and thick, Subaru came to the conclusion that further delaying this study session would be impossible. “Ok ok, got it. Let’s study, it’s study time. A heart-racing lesson in a private room at night with Emilia-tan… I got excited just saying that!”

“Fine, fine, I got it. Anyways, what do you usually do?” asked Emilia from the side with her hands on the back of the seat after Subaru had moved to the chair. Feeling her breath on him, Subaru nervously opened his notebook and textbook.

“I’m currently learning the basic E letters,” he replied. “It seems like the fairytales are mostly a collection of stories written with E letters, so my goal at the moment is to be able to read them.”

“Huh, a collection of fairytales.”

Emilia took the book with the reddish-brown spine and flipped through the pages to check its contents. She suddenly stopped turning them, and Subaru looked up at her. “Huh? Was there a story that caught your attention?”

“Hmm not really, but kinda. Well, once you’re able to read this, you’ll come to understand.”

Emilia closed the book with a sound, then walked to the bed and sat down. Looking at her sitting on the bed that he had messed up made Subaru slightly excited and restless.

However, she stretched her body as though not noticing Subaru’s animalistic urges.

“I was actually supposed to meet with the ones I can only meet during Darksun but then I was requested by Ram and Rem. So I’ll prioritize you for today. You should thank me.”

“I’m super thankful! Truly is Buddha’s guidance!”

“Th-That’s a bit much, you’re making me blush.”

“Thank you! Ramchi! Remrin! I’ll never let your considerations go to waste! I, Subaru Natsuki, will become a man!”

“Huh!? What about me!?”

He shouted out his thanks to the twins who had created this situation for him, then turned back to the dissatisfied Emilia and put out both hands. “Of course, I’m blown away by your kindness and deeply moved, Emilia-tan. When we finish studying and stuff, would you like a massage or something? With my cherished gratitude towards you, I’ll relieve your daily fatigue real attentively. Ge-he-he.”

“That sounds kind of dirty, so I’m good.”

“Shit, why am I so honest! Though I don’t hate that part of me!”

Emilia sighed at Subaru, who was leaning on the desk fake crying. She then clapped her hands to change the direction of the conversation. “Now, don’t be playing around forever. We have work tomorrow too, so let’s finish this before it gets too late. Okay, let’s continue.”

“Ok, got it. Oh, Emilia-tan, you can have the rest of the tea snacks, ok?”

“Whatever, thanks…hm, but it’s a snack.”

I guess it’s even common in this world for girls to refrain from eating snacks between meals, huh.

Gaining such useless knowledge, Subaru began his daily practice of writing letters with Emilia behind him.

Once he threw himself into it, Subaru could focus on studying. While he was conscious of Emilia’s existence, as long as he felt that he could still make that promise, it was something he could ignore. So there was no need to be anxious.

From that peace of mind, Subaru calmly copied the letters. After a while of silence, Emilia suddenly called out from the back. “I see. You don’t get sidetracked as much as I imagined.”

“Cuz I’m focusing. I’m the type of guy who hyper-focuses once he gets into it. That’s why I’m so devoted to the girl I love!”

“I hope so. Though maybe not when you’re making eyes at me.”

Subaru was a little overwhelmed by Emilia’s teasing. It seemed likely that his past attempts hadn’t been taken seriously.

Perhaps she could believe him a little bit since he was saying it so straightforwardly.

“But like, with my skill, it’s impossible to flirt without teasing. The shame would literally give me an unnatural death. Shortening my life as I fall in love with love, just like Heian nobles!”

“Whatever, no fooling around… You should be as serious as this on a regular basis. Ram and Rem are going to give up on you.”

Emilia, on the bed with her arms around her knees, mumbled to the troubled Subaru. Her skirt was short and suggestive, but she seemed to be subtly unaware of how unguarded she was.

Subaru focused on the edge of his vision as he tilted his body slightly. She would obviously notice if he turned his head, so he only secretly looked.

“This, indeed, is the Yin family of magic’s art of concealment!”

Subaru burned with an odd sense of mission. Not knowing his objective, Emilia had a cloudy expression on her face, as she lowered her gaze in her sensational position. Then she muttered, “Hey Subaru. I don’t really want to ask you this but…why aren’t you usually more serious like this?”

“It’s my policy to seriously be unserious and…guess that kind of answer is not what you want to hear right now, huh. Um?”

“Yeah, I’m serious. —Ram was also complaining a little bit. That you seem like, hmm, like you’re cutting corners here and there in your work.”

Maybe because it seemed like she was telling on him, Emilia spoke hesitantly. However, all Subaru could do was internally frown in pain that she was right on point.

I gotta admit that it’s a totally accurate evaluation to say that I’ve been cutting corners here and there while on the job.

In fact, Subaru was not seriously devoting himself to his work. Rather, you could say he was making adjustments to gain the same results as before.

Compared to when he hardly understood his work, Subaru now more or less had gotten used to it. You could say that if he had an employee skill of all Cs, he currently had all C+s.

In reality, he had just begun to climb the tall tall hill of an employee, but maybe that slight difference didn’t manage to deceive the eyes of those senior to him.

Naturally, the sense of guilt slowed down Subaru’s mouth.

Seeing Subaru who could not utter another word, Emilia murmured “I thought so,” before continuing. “Well, it’s not like you don’t feel guilty. You’re faithful at strange moments, Subaru. Like how you aren’t slacking off while studying.”

“Well, I guess I have my reasons, studying benefits me… I realized it when I said it, but I kinda act in my own self-interest, huh.”

Thinking back, that was a terrible thing to say.

He had been causing trouble for the twins due to his own circumstances, working hard for the things that would only benefit himself, and cutting corners even outside of that. I messed up big time, huh.

“Ah, I will attend to it with a renewed attitude starting tomorrow, please forgive me, my queen.”

“Hmm, that’s alright… Wait a second.” Emilia tilted her head, as though she’d felt something was off about her response.

While feeling at ease at her softened attitude, Subaru promised himself that he would make his words reality starting tomorrow.

At any rate, it was a good place to restart. After that, he wouldn’t have to retrace his previous work, and he wouldn’t have to intentionally cut corners at his work either.

He would be able to return the debt of gratitude to both Ram and Rem.

Of course, just because I stop cutting corners doesn’t mean that my level of ability is gonna immediately rise either.

“Your mentality is important for these things. My dilligentness has a value that can’t be bought. Indeed, it’s priceless.”

“You fool around at your convenience again… Did you finish studying?”

“Yeah, today’s share! Oh ya, I have a favor to ask you, Emilia-tan, can you hear me out?” Fiddling with his fingers, he glanced up at Emilia using his secret technique: puppy-dog eyes. It was a gesture targeting her maternal instincts, but she looked slightly disturbed.

“No, I have a reaaally bad feeling about this one.”

“Such a negative impression that you are disgusted!? It’s nothing like that! I just wanted a reward for working hard starting tomorrow.”

“A reward! Just to let you know, I don’t have any spare money, alright?”

“I was also completely and utterly broke till I received my salary. Ju-Ju-Ju-Just hear me out. So since I’m gonna work seriously starting tomorrow… Let’s go on a date!”

Putting his thumb up with shining teeth, he made his signature pose, content with the results.

Emilia blinked her eyes at Subaru’s usual posing and said, “A da-te, what do we do?”

“Ha, simply, if a man and woman go out alone, that is a date. Only the goddess of romance knows what happens during that time.”

“So, you went on a da-te with Rem today, Subaru.”

“My date-virginity has been taken!? I lost my chastity!”

Emilia wryly laughed with an “Ok, ok” at Subaru, who had broken down into tears with his arms wrapped around himself. Waving her hand, she said, “I get that you want to go out together, but where do you want to go?”

“Eh, there’s actually a super lovely dog right near this mansion. There’s also a field of flowers and it’s really pretty. I wanna forever commemorate our co-starred scene amongst the blooming flowers with my magical item.”

His initial equipment had also been collected after the battle in the loot house and stored in the corner of the room.

The contents in the plastic bag were untouched, and not to mention the cell phone, the snacks and instant ramen were also in good condition.

“If I had a charger and an outlet, I would fill up the storage with pictures of Emilia-tan…and change my phone wallpaper everyday. Aargh, I really wanna do that. Why was I summoned to another world, Thomas!”

Calling the name of the great inventor, all he could do was lament the gap in the level of civilization of this world. His cell phone battery showed one less bar, and it was only a matter of time.

Eventually, I may have to bet on charging it with lightning magic or something.

“That’s like a solution in a children’s manga…”

“Hmm, so a village.”

Emilia looked deep in thought with a hand on her cheek, while Subaru talked to himself. That reminds me how she was troubled like that before, he recalled.

Based on his memory that it was not something negative like not wanting to go out with him, he tried to recreate his memory of how he had pushed through in that situation. Right…

“The dog is super cute, let’s go!”

“But I might cause you trouble, Subaru, and to the village people…”

“The kids are also innocent and like an army of real angels, let’s go!”

“…Uh, Ok. I got it. I’ll go with you.”

“The field of flowers is really colorful and wonderful, let’s go… Wait, r-really?”

He almost felt tricked, as there was less pushback than last time.

“If that’s going to make you motivated from tomorrow, I’ll hang out with you. You can’t fool around, alright?”

“I won’t, I won’t! I’m super speedy! If anything, I have the energy to abandon the dog and the kids and the field of flowers so that it can just be the two of us!”

“That defeats the whole purpose of the da-te!” Emilia skillfully countered Subaru’s comment.

After that, the two continued to exchange joking comments, then as she realized it was getting late, Emilia stood up and said, “Well then,”

“If you’re tired,” Subaru interjected, “you can just sleep in that bed?”

“You seem to be panting and the sheets are messy so no thanks.”

“Shit! Why is it so messy… It’s Ramchi, getting in the way even when she’s not even here.”

It seemed as though Ram’s face, who had been the number one person he was thankful for a moment ago, was floating in the night sky, looking down at him in disdain.

Next to Subaru, who was imagining a scene of him being a corpse under a sky full of stars, Emilia walked towards the window and also looked up at the sky. “Yes, the stars are pretty tonight… I’m sure the weather will be nice tomorrow.”

“—Yeah, and it will be an unforgettable day.”

“Can’t believe it…” Turning around with her back facing the windowsill, Emilia was about to reprimand Subaru for his jokes yet again. However, her lips stopped moving when she saw him.

It was probably because she saw that his expression was unusually serious.

Noticing Emilia who suddenly went quiet, Subaru blinked. “Huh, what happened? If you take your time too much, sleepy me will irrationally make you a body pillow, Emilia-tan.”

“After all, you are a weird boy, Subaru.”

“A sudden and outrageous assessment!? Did I do something!?”

Subaru was surprised by the unexpected comment. Leaving the window behind, Emilia crossed the room and passed by Subaru’s side with an adorable “Nothiiing,” before looking back at him with her hand on the doorknob. “Well then, Butler Subaru. Work hard tomorrow. Rewards are rewards because they are given to only those who worked hard.”

She raised her hand like she was saluting, and flipped her silver hair, leaving a wry smile behind. Her shadow disappeared outside the door before hearing his response.

Even if he reached out his hand, he couldn’t reach her anymore. The door shut with a light sound, leaving Subaru alone in the room.

However—

“Hey-hey-hey-hey, are you kidding. I’m so motivated now. Like really.”

The promise he wanted to make was again made.

And Subaru could face the night again.

Will I be able to get through the fourth night and pick her up on the morning of the fifth day?

The duration of the battle would be approximately six hours.

“Well, let’s get on with it, dear destiny—”

△▼△▼△▼△

Subaru sat on the floor with his bed against his back, instead of sitting on the bed, waiting with hope that the night would gradually turn into morning.

The cool floor had become warm with Subaru’s body heat after sitting there for over two hours, which did not help with keeping him awake.

However, his drowsiness had yet to catch up to him. In fact, he was as alert as could be.

The reason is obvious.

“Who could sleep with their heart beating this fast?”

His heart was pounding quickly, loudly, and sharply, with the sound ringing in his ears. He could keenly feel the blood rushing through his body, and his fingertips felt slightly numb.

“I’m like this because I am impatiently waiting for my promised plan with Emilia-tan. Whoa, whoa, am I an elementary schooler who can’t sleep before his field trip? Don’t remember oversleeping on the day of my graduation trip.”

Surely the whole family overslept. They must’ve been so excited that they forgot to wake up. The sadness of being the only one who brought a convenience-store lunch box still haunts me at the back of my mind.

Reflecting on the painful memory in his mind, Subaru looked up at the sky as he distracted himself.

The stars shined like always, and only the placement of the moon moved gradually to the west.

Could it be around four hours before the sun rises from the east? thought Subaru. It’s a long time indeed.

Although not sleepy at all, he had to continue to be alert as he didn’t know what could happen. It was hard to kill time thinking of the possibility of an attack, so all Subaru could do in that moment was listen to his body’s pounding sound while he kept on thinking.

He reflected on the past four days, or rather, the second round of four days.

Being out of shape at the beginning, and the difference with the first week. The impact that had on tonight must have been pretty big.

However, on the other hand, he thought that he was able to get past some of the memorable events. There were also subevents added to the second week.

If I assume that the reason for going back was due to failing to trigger a flag, is there a possibility that an event like this study session would count as that?

“I can’t deny it as a possibility, but…”

Hypothetically, if there was an existence that was leading Subaru to a loop, it would be difficult to draw the conclusion that this study session was an important thing.

Having said that, there didn’t seem to be a big change outside of that. His relationship with Emilia did not change, and he felt like his relationship with Ram and Rem was better than before.

“If I were to have a regret…”

It would be that I wasn’t able to meet Beatrice this evening.

In the previous world, Subaru had trespassed Beatrice’s room by “door breaking” right after making the promise with Emilia.

He didn’t remember talking about anything significant, and he would have to say that the possibility of it being the flag was very low, but compared to last time, he had had an even worse relationship with her.

As a result of his crammed schedule, Subaru barely had any opportunities to encounter her in these past four days.

“Although we were just throwing insults back and forth last time we met.”

Though he complained, there was something that Subaru couldn’t get off his mind.

It was true that he didn’t recall talking to Beatrice, but what had unmistakingly saved his heart in the last loop was her attitude.

It’s because her hostile yet straightforward attitude towards me helped me get back on my feet.

“I should have thanked her at least.”

It probably won’t ring a bell for her in this world, and I can already guess what she’d say if I said it, too.

Although they would insult each other when they met, Subaru’s face loosened up when he thought of Beatrice.

Even the same old exchanges were memories that made him laugh when he remembered them like this.

If he could see tomorrow, the next morning, he could do much more of what he wanted to do.

Not just to Beatrice, he also had much to say to Ram and Rem, and even Roswaal.

Of course, they’ll have to forgive me since I’ll have to shower Emilia with ten thousand words first. “Wait, maybe ten thousand words won’t be enough to express my feelings for her. I’ll express the rest with actions then…”

In his daydream, he hugged the shy Emilia in his arms, and his lips met hers as she looked up with rosy cheeks. He got worked up upon imagining that game-like scene.

He laughed out loud when looking back on last time and this time—a total of eight days.

As if being taken in by his inner peace, his eyelids started to become heavy, even though there were still more than three hours till morning.

“It seriously wouldn’t be a joke if I fall asleep now. It’s not like I’m just playing an online game…”

He rubbed his eyelids as he said that, chasing away the sleepiness that was bubbling up. However, his sleepiness was accompanied with a slight chill, and he laughed at himself as it made him shiver.

He crossed his arms around his shoulders and tried to warm up his body. Yet, no matter how much he did that, the chills did not go away. Rather, there was no sign that they were going away.

—This is weird.

Subaru realized the change in his once optimistic situation.

—Cold is an understatement, it’s more like pain.

When he looked under his sleeves, he saw goosebumps rising on his arms, and it was apparent to him that he was shivering internally.

This was abnormal. This other world had warm weather, and he could usually maintain the perfect temperature by rolling up his sleeves.

Then why is it so cold that my teeth are chattering now?

“This is bad, no way, could it be…!”

He began shaking, though from terror rather than the chills, and fell to the floor. He tried to brace himself with his arms, but the chills could already be felt throughout his whole body, and no matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t find the strength in his arms to get up.

After trying for nearly 30 seconds, he somehow managed to finally stand up. But both his knees were shaking, and he felt that he could fall to the ground any time if his attention wavered.

He could feel himself growing weak. He felt a sense of fatigue in his hands and feet. His once-loud heartbeat weakened, and he slowly felt his thinking becoming dull.

He could find no strength left in his entire body, and he could even forget to breathe if he didn’t focus on it.

Lips shaking as he tried to gasp, Subaru crawled out into the hallway to call for help—dragging his feet behind him.

“…S-Someone.” He tried to shout for help, but his voice trembled, as if something was blocking his throat.

His throat dried out, only allowing air to pass through, and his breathing slowed, as if his lungs had been overcome with fatigue.

This is bad. That single thought overtook Subaru’s mind.

He could not think of a single solution, and he could not understand what was being done to him.

The only thing he knew was the fact that the current situation was threatening his life.

Groaning, he aimed for the stairs with uncertainty. Even though it was a path he was used to walking and the distance wasn’t very far, his destination seemed so distant.

His breathing became hoarse, and walking from there to the upper floor was mortifying as each step wore down his soul.

“Aaah… Aaah…”

Subaru finally made it up to the top floor crawling one step at a time using his arms and legs. He headed further back into the hallway—to where the person who he longed for was.

He felt like the inside of his body was melting, and there was a discomfort as though everything was being mixed together. He dragged his feet onward as he failed to contain the nausea and tears that swelled up.

I have to go to Emilia, to where Emilia is.

A sense of mission, of obligation, of an emotion he could not spell out was driving Subaru.

There was nothing like the desire to be saved, which would only reaffirm the misery that was his life, but while ungraceful, there was simply a pressing sense of absoluteness that he had to go there.

Emilia’s room was at the end of the hall on the upper floor of Roswaal Manor’s west wing.

When he arrived at that floor, Subaru was only faintly breathing. If there was someone looking at him from the side, they may have looked away due to how pathetic he looked.

Leaning against the wall, dripping feces and urine, face dirty with tears and vomit, his figure failed to maintain its basic human form.

His whole body felt exhausted, and none of his muscles obeyed his commands. To Subaru, the place he was approaching seemed as far away as the clouds.

“───”

He was breathing heavily, and his ears were ringing with high-pitched and loud noises.

Therefore, it was simply a coincidence that he noticed that odd sound.

It seemed like the clinking of a chain.

The strange sound stopped Subaru’s step. At that moment, his body leaning on the wall began to slide down. He stood firmly. But, unable to resist, he fell to the floor and…

“—Huh?”

The next second, the impact struck Subaru.

He completely lost his balance and was blown away instead of just falling down.

Subaru only realized that he had taken a big blow after he had bounced off the ground several times and wiped the floor with his face.

But there was no pain.

There was just a lingering discomfort running from the tip of his hands and feet to his stomach. A sense of fatigue was controlling his body, similar to that of the numbing sensation when your blood flow got interrupted.

“What, ha…”

Happened, he murmured as tried to lift himself up while lying on his stomach. However, his shaking arms held no strength in them. No, that’s odd. I cannot balance myself. First of all, why doesn’t my left arm appear while my right arm is working so hard?

The hallway was already dim, but it felt like it was refusing to help by not even giving any light. In his blurred and distorted vision, Subaru looked at his right arm struggling in vain, then shifted his eyes to his left arm that had stopped listening to him and…

…realized that the left side of his body had been torn off.

“—Aaa?”

After pushing his lying body to the side and positioning the left half upward, Subaru was stunned with shock.

He needed both of his arms to get up, but the left half simply didn’t exist. His left arm had been blown away from the shoulder, and you could see his flesh and bone sticking out of the wound. The peach-colored inside was vibrant as ever in the night air, and vivid red blood was gushing out of it.

The wound was not limited to the left shoulder but continued around to the ribs on his left side, and some internal organs were peeking out where flesh had been ripped apart. How many times have I seen my own intestines now? He thought half fascinated, until it was promptly followed by pain coursing through his body once he realized the damage.

It could neither be described as painful nor hot, and it blocked Subaru’s throat like a fish on land, taking away the opportunity to scream at the top of his lungs.

“Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah—”

His vision started to flicker, and red and yellow lights flashed before his eyes.

It crossed out the familiar view of the mansion, and took Subaru’s consciousness to a different place not of this world.

I wanna die.

I wanna die I wanna die I wanna die I wanna die I wanna die I wanna die I wanna die I wanna die I wanna die I wanna die I wanna die I wanna die I wanna die I wanna die I wanna die I wanna die I wanna die I wanna die I wanna die I wanna die I wanna die I wanna die I wanna die I wanna die I wanna die I wanna die I wanna die I wanna die I wanna die I wanna die I wanna die I wanna die I wanna die I wanna die I wanna die I wanna die I wanna die I wanna die I wanna die I wanna die I wanna die.

I don’t know the meaning of life.

I can’t call this living.

I’m just not dead yet. I will only die soon. I will die soon.

I don’t know anything. Everything is far away.

I can’t remember what I was trying to do. I can’t remember what I was. Nothing matters. I don’t care, I just wanna die.

The wish Subaru made with the entirety of his being…

“The sound of… a chain…”

…came true as his skull was crushed, that whisper being the last thing he heard.

Chapter 18

The Third Reunion

1

“…!” Waking to the sound of your own screaming is one of the worst things you can experience. Subaru sent the blanket flying as his hand immediately shot up. He gasped haggardly as he absorbed the shock. “My left arm…is still there…right?”

His left hand was raised in the air as if reaching out for something. His previously obliterated left side was again intact. Despite having lost a limb for only a short time, the feeling of loss hit Subaru like nothing else.

He raised himself up and rotated his left shoulder to make sure it still functioned as normal. No trace of damage remained on his left side, and there was no sign of the dog bite on his reattached left hand. If my scars were still there, I could’ve passed off this terrible feeling as a nightmare after passing out, but…

“I came back… No, I made it back.”

That’s what the missing scars mean. Fate got the better of me and I was forced back in time. In that case, it’s better to say I lost but was given another go at it.

With all that squared away, Subaru realized he needed the day and time. According to his experience with Return by Death, he should have returned to his first day at Roswaal Manor. But it was possible he’d been sent back to a different point in time, so he first had to confirm this detail.

“Ah, sorry. Good morning.”

It was at that moment he noticed the presence of the twins holding each other’s hands off to the side of the room. An unconscious man had suddenly awoken screaming; of course they’d be scared. Even with his relaxed greeting, the twins didn’t respond. They remained huddled together like small animals protecting each other.

Scratching his head, Subaru wondered what he should do. The twins probably forgot all about me, huh? The thought pierced his heart, but he suppressed the pain and formed a smile. He’d have to first show goodwill in order to get along with them. Even if they had forgotten him, he remembered them clearly.

“Sorry for the trouble I’ve caused. Natsuki Subaru, ready to go!”

Subaru leaped up from the bed and raised his arms and leg into a flying crane pose. It intimated the twins, but he remained like that as he asked, “By the way, could ya tell me the day and time?”

And so began his first day at Roswaal Manor for the third time.

2

Subaru thought back to what happened on the night of the fourth day. It was after I made my promise with Emilia, and it was most likely in the dead of night. Suddenly I got hit by chills and my strength totally drained away. The effect was potent enough to rapidly trigger asthenia. And that was while I was awake. Meaning…

“The first death was from asthenia while I was sleeping…”

Like a thread slowly curling around your neck, it was a slow but certain method of killing. If that’s what had happened while asleep and defenseless, then his consciousness would be swallowed up and he’d never wake again.

But still…

“The sound of a chain…”

The possibility of asthenia is merely conjecture for now, but this new mystery is far more important. The peculiar sound of a long chain clanking about. He clearly remembered that dreadful sound reverberating in his ears. It was immediately after he heard this that he was attacked and lost half his torso.

Just remembering that scene caused his left side to throb. Though his present body hadn’t experienced it, his soul fought against that painful memory.

Without knowing, he grabbed his left arm. “Meaning that there was an attacker. I don’t know if they were the same person who weakened me, but they’re probably working together at least.”

Subaru reasoned that there was at least one person involved during an attack on the mansion on the fourth night, and he just happened to be another victim. There’s no proof that the other inhabitants of the mansion were targets, but…

“If I was targeted, then everyone was probably a target. This is probably related to Emilia-tan’s royal selection, like with the loot house.”

I don’t know if the surrounding nobles have developed a grudge against Roswaal, so I should ignore that for now. If I’m going to get involved, I’d rather be involved in a cute girl’s business.

Subaru clutched his head as he gathered his thoughts. I’ve figured out there’ll be an attack and that Emilia will be targeted. That should be a big step forward. But…

“Even knowing that, I have no proof to explain it with and no real way to prevent it either.”

One problem with Return by Death was that it couldn’t be explained to others. That was the same for this attack on the mansion. If I desperately plead with Roswaal and get him to prepare for the attack, will the attacker see the preparations and just call it off? Where would my proof be in this case?

In the worst case, he was prepared to be branded the boy who cried wolf if it meant protecting Emilia and the others.

And facing the attacker himself was definitely not an option. Firstly, Subaru knew that he didn’t have that sort of power, and on top of that, he didn’t know anything about his attacker.

It would probably end with him crying like a baby while being brutally killed. A poor way to go.

“And I didn’t even see their face or their weapon. A completely meaningless death.”

If he didn’t know anything about his attacker, then there was no way to even begin a counterplan.

He folded his arms, tilted his neck, rotated his hips, and began to moonwalk around in a circle.

At the center of the room, in the middle of Subaru’s moonwalking circle, a young girl spoke up in irritation. “You’re irritating Betty to death, so either leave or Betty will kill you.”

Subaru turned towards the volatile girl and said, “Sorry, sorry. When I get things moving around other than my head, for some reason makes my brain works better. So let it slide, okay? We’re friends, aren’t we?”

“Betty doesn’t recall creating that relationship with you, I suppose. This is only the second time we’ve met.”

“Actions speak louder than words, and you did just let me in here.”

“You just broke through the Door Crossing on your own. What’s going on here, I suppose? Unbelievable.”

As always, Beatrice did nothing to hide her animosity towards Subaru. He initially came to the forbidden library because of this, in fact. He felt he would find some safety and solace in her reliably cold demeanor.

Part of the reason was to clear things up and organize his thoughts, but he also found it difficult to handle Ram and Rem keeping their distance from him like strangers. Unlike before, he properly excused himself before leaving the room this time and came to the only place he felt he could rely on.

“Well, I’m not here to cause any trouble. Just serve some tea and let me chill here.”

“Betty will do no such thing. You are truly irritating, in fact.” Playing with one of the curls in her hair, Beatrice’s lips curled up in annoyance.

A thought occurred to Subaru. “Come to think of it, you’re a magic user, right? Even though you don’t look it.”

“What do you think magic users are? And being compared to those second-rate users is troubling, I suppose.” Beatrice pouted with her nose pointed upwards.

She must have real confidence in herself. Based on that haughty attitude… “You don’t have many friends, do you?”

“Where did that come from?!”

“Well, I don’t have any friends either so I can tell, but that’s not good for you. Being so high and mighty at that age is gonna cause all kinds of trouble going forward.”

Beatrice just sighed at Subaru’s constant teasing. Seeing that reaction out of her made him cut off that topic and switch to the main issue at hand. Right, what I wanted to ask a magic user to begin with…

“Is there magic that can weaken someone until they die?”

Subaru’s sudden asthenia. He wanted to confirm whether it was by poison or disease, or perhaps by magic. My current theory is that the cause for my sudden chills and fatigue was magic. After all, there was no obvious source for a disease to spread that quickly, and the effects were too delayed for me to have ingested poison. Especially in the case of poison, I can’t think of a time I could have ingested it. Dinner was served communally; for example, the soup was served in one bowl and split between all of us. The other possibility is that it was laced in the tea and snacks I had with Emilia.

“In that case, the perpetrator can’t predict when I’ll have the snacks or the tea. ”

That method can be crossed out by running a probability check. Taking the existence of the intruder during the second loop into account, they’d have to have known about my weakened state, so there’d be no reason for them to use poison.

Beatrice frowned at Subaru’s question. She most likely wondered about the reason behind such a question. But seeing the rare seriousness in his expression, she sighed slightly and replied, “If it was a question of whether it exists, then it does.”

“So it does.”

“It is closer to a curse than magic, I suppose. There are more shamans that are familiar with it than magic users. It is a more nefarious method, I suppose.”

Subaru became confused by the appearance of this new job by the name of shaman. In response, Beatrice raised a finger as if presenting a lecture. “Curse-users, or shamans, come from the northern country of Gusteko. It is a subvariant of magic and spirit arts. However, it is full of defective techniques and not something to take seriously, I suppose.”

“But they can still curse someone to death, right?”

“That’s the defective part. There are many paths, but all they can do is cause harm to others. Out of all the mana users, they are the most irritating, I suppose.”

The hatred Beatrice showed towards the curse arts was so deeply ingrained that she showed no signs of willingness to compromise her point. Subaru held no appreciation for curses either. Right now he just needed more information.

“Anyway, so with that curse art thing, you can do what I said before?”

“You can, I believe. But rather than learning a curse, there’s a much simpler method, I suppose.”

Subaru furrowed his brows, at which Beatrice smiled amusingly. She then opened up her small palm and covered Subaru’s eyes. The next moment…

“…Gah!?”

Subaru’s upper body quivered and collapsed at the sudden feeling of loss. He fell down to one knee, dangerously close to losing consciousness. His eyes fluttered as he felt the fatigue coursing through his body.

“How was it? Feeling it with your own body?”

Beatrice looked down at Subaru, giggling condescendingly. The back of her hand was elegantly placed at her lips, but Subaru couldn’t laugh it off and call her pose adorable with her actions still fresh in his mind.

“Dammit, what did you…”

“Simply put, Betty just drained the mana from your body. Simply drain some more and you would reach the same condition, I suppose. Rather than relying on some curse, this way is much easier.”

Subaru could do nothing more than look up maliciously at the triumphant Beatrice. This triggered a sudden thought for him. In the current timeline, I received my first mana-drain from Beatrice right before I passed out. Meaning I was mana-drained right before sleeping, then mana-drained right after waking up.

“Are you trying to kill me?!”

“Betty held back. If you were to turn into a husk here, then Betty would have to deal with your husk every time she wants a book.”

“Husk? What am I, a bug?”

When seeing her expression that seemed to confirm this, Subaru began to question why he thought this was a safe place. Confirming that he still had feeling in his arms and legs, he mustered his strength, stood up, and lightly tapped his foot against the floor. “Don’t tell me that you’re the one who killed me.”

“If you died then we wouldn’t be having this conversation, and it would be more peaceful. Unfortunately, Betty is busy and doesn’t have time to kill you.” She folded her arms behind her and moved away from Subaru to a bookshelf. Her gothic lolita dress fluttered as she struggled to grasp a book just barely out of reach. And so…

“This one?”

“…The one next to it. Hurry and hand it over, in fact.”

“Yeah, yeah.”

He grabbed the surprisingly thick book off the shelf and passed it to the sulking girl. Remaining displeased as she took it from him, she again moved away from him and towards a stepladder. Her small stature looked more suited to sitting on that stepladder than on a chair, and without fail, whenever Subaru wandered into the Forbidden Library she was sitting in that same spot with a book in hand.

“What book are you reading there?”

“A book that mentions how to get rid of bugs.”

“You have bugs in the library? That’s the worst. What kind?”

“It’s big and black, with a foul expression and mouth. And it thinks highly of itself, I suppose.”

“That’s a very peculiar bug there.”

Something you’d wanna check for and get rid of as quickly as possible. Most of the books here are probably way beyond me, but as a book lover, I can’t forgive anything that damages books.

That’s what Subaru truly thought.

Upon seeing that, Beatrice sighed lightly. “Do you have any other business, I suppose? If not then please leave.”

“Ah, um…right. So that thing where you slurp out someone’s mana, can anyone do that?”

“That term feels inappropriate, I suppose… In this mansion, only Betty and Bubby can use that. Roswaal doesn’t have the talent for it, I suppose.”

“Really? I heard he was all-powerful.” Maybe he was just putting on a show? Subaru formed a rude thought about the manor’s lord. He gave himself a pass, however, since he technically hadn’t met him in this timeline, yet. “Anyway, about that. Could you not just take so much when you do that mana-drain? Both you and Puck.”

“…I suppose Bubby has extracted mana from you as well?”

“Yeah, that bastard. He said I was full of mana, and he just kept asking and asking and forcefully… What’s wrong?”

As Subaru continued his rant, a bit of crimson appeared beneath Beatrice’s eyes. She placed both hands on her cheeks and muttered, “Ah, what a thing, I suppose. Betty and Bubby had an indirect mana-drain.”

“What’s with that bittersweet, indirect kiss-like reaction!” Stop that! I feel like a can that’s been passed around!”

“With that in mind, it was quite a rich flavor… Can Betty do it again, I suppose?”

“I’ll shrivel up like a prune! I don’t have much blood right now!”

“Ah, right. Everything important was put back, but your blood wasn’t returned, I suppose. Well, even Betty isn’t that all-powerful.”

Beatrice sighed in disappointment, but Subaru could only tilt his head in confusion. Her statement didn’t match up with his memory.

“That makes it sound like it was you who patched me up. It’s not good to try and steal credit from Emilia-tan.”

“That half-blooded girl doesn’t have the power to fix fatal wounds yet, in fact. She and Bubby closed the wound, and Betty healed it… What’s wrong, I suppose?”

“I just don’t know how to feel.”

A hidden side of what happened back then had just unexpectedly come to light.

He assumed that Emilia had healed him, just like she did back in the alleyway. He glared at the girl in front of him suspiciously; she didn’t falter and eyed him back just the same. Unless she’s a big fat liar, her words can be taken as truth. That means that Beatrice is…

“You big fat liar. You have the worst personality!”

“Says the one who can’t take kindness from another person!”

The verbal battle began and quickly escalated to the verge of a physical one. But before Subaru could grab her, he found himself flying through the air by Beatrice’s magic. She played with one of her curls as he found himself hitting the now upside-down door.

“It’s about time for you to leave, I suppose. The shaking in your hands has stopped, so your fear must’ve left you.”

“…You noticed it?”

“You were trying to hide it, I suppose? It’s vexing to be treated so conveniently.”

Beatrice turned her nose up and waved her hand as if to shoo away a bug. Subaru accepted this gesture, righted himself, and stood up. He then brought his hand up to his face—the shaking had indeed stopped.

It may have been his fifth death, but it wasn’t something that he could get used to. In fact, as the number rose and his experiences increased, he could feel his legs shaking at the thought of feeling that terror again.

On top of that was the way he died this last time. Who could blame him for feeling terror deep in his soul—so deep that no trace of courage remained in his body once he returned?

“I guess the time for excuses is over. Jeez, you’re not kind at all.” He smiled bitterly. With that last excuse over, Subaru raised his head. Placing his hand on the doorknob, he turned back to the girl one last time. “Sorry. But thanks. I’ll come again.”

“Your payment was the indirect mana-drain. Next time Betty will drain the rest of it, I suppose. So don’t come here again.”

Beatrice cut him off with that curt line as she dropped her eyes back to her book. Smiling so that she wouldn’t see it, Subaru turned the doorknob and passed through the Door Crossing.

“Wait, was that bug you were talking about me!?”

“Hurry up and leave! You wish to be blown away, I suppose!”

And thus he was blown past the Door Crossing.

3

“Umm, can I ask if you’re okay?”

“Damn, that kindness is my only solaaace. This is so great.”

Meeting the silver-haired girl in the garden, Subaru relaxed. He had been struck by Beatrice’s magic and launched out the door. From there, his body kept going past the second-floor terrace until finally landing in a flower bed below. Luckily the ground was soft enough to cushion his fall, but depending on how he fell he could have easily had to restart for the third time. The reason? His smart mouth.

“It keeps seeming more likely that she’s the one who killed me…”

“Can you stand? Is your tummy ok?”

“For now my stomach doesn’t appear to have reopened. It wouldn’t be very funny if the one who closed it up just opened it again. Man, sorry, but could you give me a hand getting up?”

“That’s the flower bed that Rem spread manure over yesterday, isn’t it…?”

“Aaaaaah! Abnormal Play!!”

He quickly withdrew the half of his body that had been dug into the flower bed and rolled out. Emilia, strangely far away, came closer as Subaru frantically wiped the mud and what might not be mud from his clothing.

“That doesn’t count! That doesn’t count, right!? It was yesterday, so it’s just dirt by now, right!?”

“Um, well, Subaru… Good soil grows good plants, so maybe you can take this as a sign of good luck…”

“Emilia-tan has already shifted into consideration mode!?”

Meaning it definitely counts.

Subaru wanted to cry at his pitiful state as he wrung out his sleeve. Meanwhile, Emilia watched that figure with a pained smile before reaching up to her chest. “Puck, wake up.”

In the palm of her hand lay a brightly shining green crystal. The light coming from the crystal formed a shape, and soon after the light solidified, a small gray cat appeared on top of her hand. The cat stretched, yawning widely. “Umm, morning, Lia. Ah, Subaru, you’re awake.”

“Morning, Puck. Sorry to ask this of you when you just woke up, but could you wash Subaru for me?” Emilia asked as she raised Puck in front of her face, one eye closed.

Subaru found himself enchanted by her demeanor. Puck nonchalantly turned around, noticed Subaru’s state, and nodded in understanding. “Alright, I’ll wash him. Here!”

“Wash me? What does that—ughr!?”

Puck turned both of his palms towards Subaru. From his palms appeared a magic circle, from which a continuous burst of water erupted. The water blasted Subaru’s right side with enough force that it seemed like Puck was trying to wipe all filth in the world from existence.

“Is this a flash flood!!” cried Subaru, as the force of the water caused his body to spin.

“Oh sorry, I should balance it,” Puck said, before changing the direction of the water. With the water now hitting his left side, Subaru began to spin in the opposite direction.

Puck fine-tuned the direction from there.

“There, now you’re all clean,” declared Puck.

“Right to left…my heart…goes round and round…” Falling to his knees and arms on the water-soaked ground, the overwhelming urge to vomit came over Subaru. But with an empty stomach, all that came out was spit.

Despite the torturous treatment, he did feel a little better. Wiping away the spit from his mouth, he slowly got up. “My first flash flood was dangerous… I thought my arm was going to come off. Hey, you aren’t actually the culprit here, are you?”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about, but do I look like someone who would do such an evil thing? That hurts,” Puck pouted in defiance, his hands on his hips, despite having just nearly drowned Subaru.

In response, Subaru just flicked him on the forehead and turned back to Emilia. It was the worst reunion yet, but his negotiating power going forward depended on how well he could recover from this. Despite everything, he had managed to make it work the first and second times, so he decided to push forward based on that. But as he was thinking about how to make the first step…

“Puh.”

“Heh?”

“Ahaha! Sorry, no, ahahaha! What are you two doing… Ahaha! Ah, I’m dying.”

In the face of such laughter, his resolve went flying away. Pointing towards Subaru’s soaked figure, Emilia burst into uncontrollable laughter. If they weren’t outside she’d be rolling on the floor.

Subaru could only stand there dumbfounded. Then he faced Puck, who had at some point started flying. “Anyway, first contact: success! Thanks for the assist, Father!”

“Who are you calling Father? I won’t hand over my daughter so easily,” Puck declared, puffing out his chest.

Upon hearing that, Emilia burst out into laughter once again.

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