Chapter Text

Chapter 0: How We Got Our Mayonnaise

by McPhoenixDavid

Day 1: The Spark (Sept 23rd):

It all kicked off on September 23rd, when Cretviones dropped the idea of a collab. It started small—just the core four: Elsa_Tan, Halyne Volatnet, and Jacoder, plus the dynamic duo of VeiledLiar and Dr_Smooth keeping things running.

Soon, the guest list expanded, pulling in McPhoenixDavid (Nix) and Tahap. Tahap, being the MVP of organization, immediately whipped up our home base: a Discord server aptly named The Cluster Of Chaos.

The Name Game:

A few names were tossed around, but after Nix set up a poll (because, democracy!), VeiledLiar’s genius suggestion won by a landslide: "Pass Me The Mayonnaise, Please." A true masterpiece!

The Fic Plan:

More people kept piling in, but the main story was locked down: a peak FemBaru X Royal Candidate Otto pairing.

Coder volunteered (or was volunteered) to pen the first chapter. To keep the flow state, Nix—our brilliant mind—suggested everyone adopt a number and publish their chapter according to that number in their nickname. Everyone was chill with a two-week deadline per person.

The Great Draft Mishap:

Nix, also volunteering to be the poster, went through the huge hassle of setting up the draft post and inviting everyone. A few hours later... disaster struck! Someone accidentally posted the fic! 🤦‍♀️

Good thing Nix has the brainpower of a strategic genius. She had the presence of mind to set the draft in a dead fandom, not Re:Zero. Crisis averted! The fic was swiftly deleted, a new draft was made, and invitations were sent out again. By then, legends like [Redacted], Zero_Haven, and other respected authors had rolled into the server.

One crucial rule was laid down: No Smut. Keep it classy, folks. The vibe for Subaru was to be MimaGauIF Subaru—intense, but clean.

Day 2: The Art and the Femboy (Sept 24th):

The next day, Cardinal was invited to write. He initially gave the classic "too busy" excuse, but the chaos was too tempting, and he ended up joining the fun anyway!

Then, SOMEHOW, Tahap sweet-talked Sirius into the equation, and he became an author. Sirius, being a rockstar, promptly dropped two pieces of amazing artwork! (He drew Otto as a girl, though, because he hadn't fully caught up on the plot yet. Oops!)

This led to a crucial meeting of the minds: Is Otto a buff dude? A girl? The tension was real! Nix, bless her brilliant soul, dropped the ultimate solution: "femboy!Otto, too girly, so people mistake him as a girl."

Perfection! Accepted.

And just to clarify the record, Cretviones made sure everyone knew: this is NOT a crossover. Just pure, unadulterated Re:Zero chaos.

Also, Nix is gonna be the host throughout this whole journey. She will handle the end notes! Hehehehe.

Day 3: The Debut and the Intro (Sept 25th):

Cretviones had an important milestone: he didn't want his debut fanfic to be a collaboration. So, he published his own fic first: The Red String. It was an instant hit, showering him with well-deserved praise and love!

Day something (Lost count xD): The Draft (October 15th):

After waiting for over two weeks, Jacoder was finally able to send the draft to the beta readers. Phew.

The reading (October 18th):

After a lot of discussion, the writers decided to have a live reading event. About time! It was a big challenge to match the timezones since nobody wanted to read in midnight.

So Saturday (Sunady for me) was selected as the day. It was great fun! Unfortunately, some authors couldn’t participate T-T.

Oh, and here's the list in which the writers will write chronologically: Chapter Order: 

1. Jacoder23

2. Halyne

3. Nix

4. Tahap

5. Cret

6. VeiledLiar

7. Smooth criminal

8. Elsa_Tan

9. Volat

10. Totes

11. FreshyReshy

12. MeowCatMax

13. Sane/anatheous

14. Vain

15. Sawa

16. Angel

17. [?????]

18. Horus

19. Crispy 

20. Hellbringer 

21. Genoshock

22. Sirius

23. Astra

24. Cardinal

25. Zero_Haven

26. Berthauthor

27. Sir_Kuro/Croco Mom

28. ZG468

29. Pandoras_Cult/Satellu

30. TechnicallyAPerson/Magic

31. Hadest

Last Chapter: OtonashiRen

And can you imagine? This guys didn’t even think of a summary; Nix, again bless the FemBaru Deity, was able to come up with a summary just a few hours before publishing it— hehehe.

Here are some ground rules. They are very simple, do abide by them:

1. Specify which author you are talking about. Use username or nickname.
2. Be kind and do not spam.
3. Any hate speech will be swiftly deleted. 
4. User may be banned if seen harassing others.

Back in The Cluster, Nix ran another poll. The majority voted for a separate first chapter—a Chapter 0. This intro would basically explain the insanity before Chapter 1 drops the main plot bomb.

Guess what? All this cool intel you just read is the body text of Chapter 0!

Chapter 0 and Chapter 1 are being released back-to-back! Yosh!

Chapter Text

Chapter 01: Easy Homemade Recipe for Disaster

by Jacoder23

Otto Suwen was dead—dying. His head swam, his heart hiccuped, his throat burned. They really shouldn't have been doing any of that; he should've been thinking of a way out of this. Using every heartbeat, he had to inch his way out like he always has, and scream until he ran out of voice to give.

Instead, there he lied. Still and limp. Of the many parts of his body, only his ears were still working. And work they did. Too well. A wet, piercing roar suffocated any coherent thoughts in his mind, filling it with garbage. And yet, this was the only reason he was still conscious. Unpleasant as the noise was, he understood why he was hearing it.

Death is not a quiet affair. The body is machines stacked upon machines in a lattice: a tower of cards. And when one thing fails, the rest follow in a glorious, gurgling collapse. Bubbling liquids echoed—a pot boiling over. And Otto has heard the last cries of a thousand, thousand, thousand Zodda bugs, felines, common rats, birds and all creatures under the sun. It never sounded very fun to die.

And now I can speak from experience. This really sucks.

But the longer he lingered, the less he could feel it. No more heat, no more aches. And no more black-haired scam artists. Just ennui. Forever. Back to the dirt his body would go and back to the Od Laguna his soul. He didn't have to be Otto Suwen any longer.

That roaring grew louder—louder than the sounds of the Zodda bugs chittering outside, knocking their little bodies against the windowpane. Babbling and bubbling became indistinguishable as the sound grew and grew: a cascade of noise. For the first time in a very long time, Otto didn't hear even the littlest voice of any animal. It wasn't the silence he expected but it was different. And it was getting nearer. Louder. Greater. Great?

The Great Waterfall? He wondered, the thought coming to him unprompted. He couldn't be anywhere near there, almost certainly not, but the idea of things— people— unlike anything else in the world occurred to him. Why? He didn't know. He couldn't— not while his mind was so overwhelmed, his senses untrustworthy. But the non sequitur shook him from his spiraling and a more pressing question occurred to him. Where was he?

Struggling, his eyes opened. Just a peek at the end of the world. Instead, he saw a woman in the oddest clothing hold up a pot rolling with a white liquid that smelled of eggs and sounded like death. She screamed. Noise on noise multiplied and Otto felt even sicker.

"Get mayo-ed, suckers!" the woman cried as she threw the boiling pot of condiment at a ruffian at the other end of the room; it collided with a CLANG, subsequent third-degree burns, and a sticky smell as the substance spilled over. It sizzled upon reaching skin.

There were many things going through his mind in this slice of time, a single snapshot in his brain like that "photo" he had seen taken by the "camera" of... of... Subaru? Yes. Miss Natsuki. He had so many questions to ask her, so many concerns and little suspicions.

"What?" was the only thing Otto managed to put to words before he felt the back of his head warm and his fingers grow numb. The turn of head of the strange mayo-carrying girl towards him was the last thing he saw as she mouthed the words, "Oh crap."

Back to the lake of oblivion he went, that same place he always ended up in-between revelry and hangover. Small islands of lucidity teased at him from a distance. Always out of reach, no matter how hard he swam. So he didn't. It was so peaceful to just float, no worries about paying off tabs or following the market trends. There were no voices to follow, no secrets to keep. The numbers, conversion rates, and skittering gossip all seemed like nonsense from down here. Above, distant voices muttered, forming a squall of magic, iron, and more primal shouts.

Then, a storm.

Swirling and swirling, a vortex spun him broadwise, swallowing all the buoys. Rainbows formed just as quickly as they were torn away, false ends to the cyclone. Distant voices filled his ears, familiar and unfamiliar. It tore him from his lull and sent him spiraling into the sky, colliding with it. It tasted like floorboards.

He awoke to a splash of water, thankfully not the boiling condiment, and his face smooshed into the ground. The lake was replaced by wooden planks, dimly lit cobwebs, and an unfamiliar ceiling stained in broken dreams. No, wait, that was just him projecting. Either way, it felt like a place of desperation different to his usual haunts— a different flavor than alcohol.

His mind was still a jumble, but he recognized the voice that greeted him back to the world of the living (along with the thousands of other, tinier voices clamoring for his attention).

"You're awake! I'm so glad you're alright. I don't know what I would've done if..." Subaru observed before her words trailed off.

Otto blinked. "You are? I didn't think we were that close." It was all coming back to Otto in bits and pieces. His mind hadn't quite landed exactly on where he was yet, but he was pretty sure he knew the person in front of him: Natsuki Subaru. Beyond that though, he wasn't sure of much, just that he hadn't met the strange black-haired girl before today. And he couldn't have forgotten a previous meeting. Even while recovering from the mental deluge, he felt it difficult to imagine forgetting someone as... her as her.

"You were out for quite some time, Mr. Suwen. What do you recall?" A male voice asked. He didn't quite recognize it. But before he could try and place it, the events of today began to come to him.

He had been sitting in a bar earlier, just barely into the afternoon, mug in hand and beer foam on face, minding his own business— or lack thereof. Business in the capital was oddly quiet, so he went home (as much as a bar could be home) no richer than he started that day— that week. He didn't have that much in the way of spending money, enough to spare on a mug and bed for a month or two at most, but everyone had their vices and he figured he had done a reasonable amount of do-gooding to deserve to choose his own poison (his savings had recently gone to a girl in need by the name of Marone). Even if it was a bit lonely to be drinking alone. But that was all the more reason to send another down the hatch. Bit by bit, the rest of what he could spare was going into the barkeep's pockets, a fine enough arrangement, until an orange and black storm grabbed him by the shoulder and twisted him around his stool.

"Otto!" She said. There was something desperate in her eyes.

His mug swung unsteadily, his mind and body somewhere between a buzz and a haze, "Do I know you, miss?" He didn't but he wanted to give her the opportunity to introduce herself while he gathered the wits he left lying around.

"Huh? Ott- ohhhhh... right. Right!" She remarked, as if she had just remembered you were supposed to introduce yourself to new people.

"I'm Natsuki Subaru. First name's Subaru, last name's Natsuki!" She struck a pose pointing towards the sky. Or ceiling, rather. Coincidentally, her finger was aimed at some stain: equal chances it was either piss or drink, Otto wasn't sure. It seemed incongruent with the girl doing the aiming; her clothes were strange, clearly the fashion of a noble but a fashion he had never seen before. Her hair was black, so she couldn't have been Lugunican either. Was he getting approached by someone important?

She then turned her pointing to him, "And you're Otto Suwen. A merchant."

"You know me." Otto responded emptily, raising his glass. "This isn't exactly the ideal setting I'd conduct my business in."

His instincts as a merchant seemed to catch up to his mouth though, placing down the mug as he added, "But maybe I can still help you with something?"

He couldn't quite make out the look on Subaru's face when he said that. It almost looked like he had disappointed her. How come? He couldn't be sure. He was just merchant-ing as a merchant does; but it still hurt to see someone hurt over something he said.

She spoke in uncharacteristic low tones. "Yeah, you could say that."

The gloom passed and turned into a wry grin. The desperation in her eyes was replaced by something he should've feared— an energy that just screamed trouble. But he was on his fourth drink, and the day was new.

She pulled a stool up next to him, and leaned into the counter, and began her pitch. "What'd you say I tell you about this revolutionary new food product I have planned?"

This got his attention properly, and a distant regret formed: he shouldn't be drunk for this.

"What makes you think it's revolutionary?" he asked.

Her smile grew wider. "Trust me on this one. You'll be the first person in this world to try something like this."

One thing led to another, and one suspiciously generous offer led to him being led to her-

A hacking cough escaped Otto's lips, the saliva catching in his throat. Mere seconds had passed in silence since he had been asked: What do you recall? More and more of it was flowing in now, the initial question unstoppering the cork.

He had followed her and had a brief tangent to the nearby guard station— she had something to report and he chose to let her do that on her own (though his Zodda bugs told him that she had a chat with a certain famed purple-haired knight but that hopefully had nothing to do with him, other than proving she probably isn't a criminal)— before arriving at what she called home. He called it the slums.

"And this is where you've been living?" Otto asked. He really did not expect his new business partner to be roughing it. Was she a fallen noble who couldn't bear to part with her favorite clothes? It fit the picture she was painting so far. Someone way in over her head wearing a "tracksuit" as she called it. Why not "trackdress"? He couldn't say— nor really judged: at least beyond what was necessary towards figuring out what her deal was. The other option on the table was still some sort of criminal, even with the guard station and her general cluelessness against that. Maybe she was a patsy?

She pulled a loose brick from the dilapidated property they were waltzing into; behind the brick was a key. He saw her pump her fist and say "Yosh!" before grabbing it. That she didn't seem embarrassed doing that only further convinced Otto that she had fallen hard.

She unlocked the door and entered, beckoning Otto to follow. He sighed.

"What is it with you and charity cases?" Frufoo had asked earlier before he left; he wouldn't bring his carriage for a trip this short. In the past, his ground dragon teased and scolded him before, calling him knightly for giving away his money to someone in need. Now it sounded more like genuine curiosity.

One is a coincidence. Two is a pattern.

The dragon had warned him, "Try not to give away your savings this time."

"This is just a business opportunity." Otto whispered before following Subaru inside. Frufoo wasn't anywhere near there'; he was just reminding himself.

"Mi casa is su casa!" Subaru declared with open arms, spinning as she presented a derelict, if spacious, two-story building. Otto's steps stuttered when she switched to a strange language: another point in favor of her being a fallen noble from afar. The evidence was quickly becoming overwhelming.

"Miss Natsuki," Otto began, "I wanted to ask you something about yo-"

Subaru popped up from behind a counter coated in dust. "What'd you say? I was busy grabbing the pots and stuff." She held up said pots and stuff. The veneer of dust on it all did not fill Otto with confidence. But as she did, he also gave the place a look over. A wooden sign, probably taken off the front door, laid on a countertop— it read: The Cat's Paw. Or the Cat's Claw? The text was worn and underneath a sheet of dust and what must've been at least ten years of abandonment. It was a miracle it wasn't burnt to the ground or turned into a drug den. Not that its current state was anything to brag about. How his new business partner could live here, he couldn't discern.

It didn't look like the place was very lived in. Actually, between the sign, countertop, and tables and chairs, it looked like a closed down restaurant.

"That's because it is." Subaru answered.

"Oh, did I say that out loud?" Otto asked. He dragged a finger over a round table, leaving behind a streak— and a splinter. He cringed, blew on his hand, and shook it off. "I was just, uh, curious."

"So am I. Haven't gotten that many go arounds to explore it yet." She said while opening all of the cupboards at once, releasing a cloud of decay and a whole flurry of ACHOOs.

Between all the sneezing, Otto managed to ask, "Go- ACHOO- arounds?"

Subaru responded kindly, "Go- ACHOO- arounds!" And that was all he was getting out of her on that topic. Especially as her sneezing continued unbridled.

"So, about this mayonnaise," Otto asked, "You do have a recipe, right?"

Subaru's sneezing stopped suddenly.

"Uh." She paused. "I think there might be milk in it?"

Her sudden lack of confidence aside, Otto had other things to confirm beyond ingredient lists.

What do you recall? Sooner and sooner the memories grew. He could feel himself approaching the event horizon.

"Event horizon?" He had asked. The day was growing long but the sun was still up, illuminating trapped dust in the air, shimmering in beams of light. He could make out footfall outside. Odd. This didn't seem like the kind of general area that got business, except the illicit type. He hoped this didn't count.

Subaru nodded back furiously, "That's right. There's this thing in space, or I guess you'd just call it the sky, called a black hole. It's a supermassive object from which no light can escape."

"Some kind of Yang magic?" Otto wondered aloud.

"Yang magic?" Subaru asked before stopping herself, "Wait, wait! Hold on, I'm telling the story. Or factoid, I guess. You can tell me more about magic later."

Behind them, the surprisingly functional mana stone brazier boiled away as their pot of "mayonnaise" brewed. The smell wasn't that bad once they went out and picked up some fresh ingredients (paid for by Otto's wallet) but their first attempt was catastrophic. Noble indeed: she didn't know eggs went bad after sitting in a dusty failed restaurant for however many years this place went unused. He had thought to question her on her ownership of the place but stopped himself: he had a feeling that knowing the answer would be more inconvenient than just letting a (hopefully) little white lie sit pretty.

"Anyways, past a certain point, the gravity- er, that's a force that attracts things to heavier things- of the black hole is so great that light can't escape. That's why it's a black hole: we can only see things because of light so if the light is all trapped-"

"Then there's nothing to see." Otto finished.

"Exactly!"

Otto had to admit; this girl really could rile herself up. She had a knack for ranting, even if Otto didn't quite understand everything she said— and vice versa, as he had to explain to her what an appa was.

"And that point where light can no longer escape is called the event horizon. Where nothing can escape."

Otto had never heard about black holes before but with the sheer wonder he heard in Subaru's voice, he couldn't help but be drawn into the mythology she painted.

He wondered if he'd perhaps be drawn into Subaru's event horizon, doomed in this hopeless building to brew strange potions with a woman out of this world. And she was otherworldly, so much so that he briefly wondered if she came from beyond the waterfall. But he shook those fantasies from his mind. She was no black hole, and he was no light. And if things got bad, he'd need an exit plan. Just like with Picoutatte. If he had to run, he had to run.

"Picoutatte?" Subaru asked. Otto noted in his head, right as he felt his heart fall, to watch his words more carefully when around strange women.

"...Did I say that aloud?"

Subaru answered, "Just that part. Oh, and the exit plan."

Otto buried his head in his hands and felt his ears burn. What a rookie mistake. What an absolute bungling. That was him. Expert bungler: Otto Suwen. Been bungling since he was a kid: Mr. Otto "Keep Your Stupid Mouth Shut" Suwen.

"It's really no big deal." Subaru tried to reassure Otto. "I'm used to it, y'know? I've been around the block with outlandish plans— did plenty of pranks as a kid. I'll admit the outlandish part is oddly literal this time around though." This only made him feel worse.

"I'm sorry." He managed.

Subaru replied, "Don't be. Be sorry you let yourself get dragged around so easily. I mean, I like that. I prefer that since, y'know, you helped me out. But still! Stranger danger."

"Stranger what?" Otto balked. "And all I've done so far was pay for some groceries."

"You've done more than that." Subaru declared. Otto almost believed it, hearing the conviction in her voice. She doubled down. "You've done more than someone can repay with a life."

"Don't you mean, in a lifetime?"

"Oh, uh, yeah!" she scratched the back of her head, her voice trailing unsurely. "I guess so."

Otto went back to his worrying, his face entangled in frustrated fingers and his back hunched as he sat on one of the few dusty furnishings left in the building. The silence was filled with the sound of belching flame and bubbling brew.

"Say, Otto?" Subaru asked, breaking the pause as quickly as it came.

He fought his embarrassment and responded through his finger cage, "Yes?"

"Are you supposed to boil mayonnaise?"

From there it was a matter of trial and error— two dozen eggs, a quarter of that many attempts, and a whole lot of forgetting and remembering before triumph. The sun was setting but they had finally done it.

It took picking up a nice whisk (paid for, again, by Otto) and beating the ever-loving stuffing out of a mixture of eggs, oil, and the juice of a "lemon" (it was just lemom, he didn't know why Subaru seemed to hate it when he called it that though). It combined into a strange tangy concoction. Otto was a bit hesitant to try it at first, their past failures not exactly adding up to much confidence, but Subaru turned on the doe-eyes, and he turned on sunk cost fallacy. They didn't have anything to eat it on though so that meant spooning the wispy condiment into his mouth.

"Are you sure about this?" Otto asked, his throat growing tense. Their last few failures didn't even look edible. Was this iteration actually better or just better-looking? "Why don't you try it first, Miss Natsuki?"

"I promised you'd be the first person in this world to try it, right?" she countered, holding the spoon up as if feeding a child. "Now, bottoms up!"

She shoved the concoction into his mouth and he closed his eyes, ready for his taste buds to burn. And yet...

"Mhm, huh." he mumbled, the flavor sticking to the roof of his mouth as he savored it. "Huh! This is actually pretty good!"

A vision from another world for a moment passed through Otto's mind: a cold beer, fried potato wedges, and a cup filled with this mayonnaise for dipping. Beer, potato, mayo. It would be divine.

"This could be big." Otto declared to himself. Then he turned to Subaru, looking her directly in her brown eyes, "This could be big!"

Subaru reached over and grabbed the same spoon (Otto would blush if he wasn't all riled up himself) and took a taste for herself.

"This is... perfection! Perfectly tangy and savory, a clean taste that is neither too oily nor too lemony. This is the mayo suited to a mayo lover, suited to being drunk out of a jar straight out of the refrigerator like a salary man coming home from work looking for a beer— and yet so much better!"

"Uh," Otto tried.

"This'll go on fried chicken, on bread, on salads, on gyoza, on fries, on spaghetti, on ice cream, on everything! We did it Otto, we made the perfect condiment!"

"Ice cream?!" Otto broke into disbelieving laughter and so did Subaru.

As they celebrated, that same dreaded pot from earlier still continued to bubble. They didn't dare touch it however, foam ever so close to overflowing and burning them if they so dare approach. Nor could they turn off the brazier, as the heat was sweltering. They chose instead to continue their attempts in another corner of the restaurant, which was fine by Otto. It wasn't unexpected from a metia meant to create heat to well, create heat, but it was far more powerful than they had anticipated. Perhaps it was left behind despite its functioning state because it functioned too well and went from fire producer to fire hazard. They would just have to wait for it to die down on its own.

Still, a success was a success and Subaru brought out a strange, colorful metia to commemorate.

She unfolded it to reveal a dizzying array of nubs with foreign symbols painted on them along with a tiny mirror with an evening glow. She turned it around, facing its backside to her and Otto who stared at a dark eye round of glass on the metia.

"Say 'mayo'!"

"What- ACK!" cried Otto as a flash of light burst from it, blinding him. He could see sunspots on the back of his eyelids. "What was that for?"

"Oh, sorry." Subaru apologized. "This is a camera! It takes photos. See?"

Otto muttered, eyes still closed. "No, I can't."

The "camera" was not doing wonders for his head, a ghost of a migraine coming in. He could hear worried muttering in his ear, Subaru's hand on his shoulder, but he couldn't make anything out over all those Zodda bugs telling him someone's coming.

Wait, repeat that: someone's coming?

He shook himself best he could, pushing the burning sensation in his eyes into the back of his head. He could tell the noontime drinks weren't making this any easier, but he'd bear with it. Even if 'bearing with' wasn't quite enough to open his eyes again, it was enough for him to listen for more details from his winged lookouts.

"Miss Natsuki, someone's coming." he muttered, rubbing his eyelids. "A half-dozen of them. Thuggish types."

If Otto's vision wasn't out of commission, he would've recognized the shock on Subaru's face as particularly suspicious— not that of someone who wasn't expecting company but someone who inexplicably was. And underneath that, the look of someone who hadn't known anyone else could've known what was coming.

With uncharacteristic gravity, she asked Otto, "Do you remember the last go-around?"

Otto, for his part, had no idea what she was talking about. "What?"

"Uh, nevermind." Subaru sighed, putting the unstated question of how he knew that aside. "Must be the kidnappers."

"Kidnappers?"

"Yeah, chased us, er, me down last ti- mhm. Before. Chased me down before." She settled. "Real assholes, not even good at kidnapping cause they just get their victims killed."

Otto didn't like the level of detail she seemed to know these people. He tried to get his grips once more, this time successfully opened his eyes. Subaru looked not nearly as panicked as he would've otherwise expected and for a moment, he felt a tinge of doubt. Maybe he was getting tossed in a cell again and she was just the hook for their line.

"I think I can manage to take one of them out if I use the mayonnaise pot."

Of course, he immediately let that doubt go, it being replaced by a magnitude more of disbelief. He was ready to respond but all that came out was: "...Okay."

"You do that, I'll find us an escape route." Otto said as he went for the door. But Subaru held his shoulder, turning him, and shook her head.

"They'll be able to grab you if you leave. They know this place too well."

Now this and that eerily detailed testimony as to what they did with their victims really, really worried Otto.

"Miss Natsuki," He gently placed his hand on hers, "have they been stalking your home?"

"My home?" She blinked twice before slapping her forehead. "Oh! Uhm confession time: this isn't mine."

Otto looked around at the cobwebs and gray residue. "I don't think this is anyone's. Not anymore. But you do live here, don't you?"

"Yeeeeees..." said Subaru uncertainly.

Otto recognized that tone; it didn't sit well with him. "Yes, but?"

"Yes, since... today."

"Today? Today! This was your first time in here?!" Otto whisper-shouted, trying to be heard over the chorus of tiny voices outside that were still shouting warnings. Subaru nodded, unable to hear said voices anyway. "How did you even know there was a key?"

"I, uh, saw someone go in?"

"Who?"

"Well, technically they haven't gone in yet." Subaru scratched her chin. "This time at least."

"What does that even mean?!"

"It means this will be the kidnapper's place. Or well, it's where they plan on setting up shop."

Otto had many things to disbelieve today but this had to top them all. "Why, pray tell, are we working inside of a human trafficking den then!"

"It isn't yet, and these guys aren't really big enough to deserve that kind of name. But they were going to target someone and I figured here would be a good place to intercept them."

"Who's this someone?" Otto crossed his arms.

She just stared at him. Otto felt like he was the butt of a joke he didn't understand. Maybe he was.

She said, as if they'd already had this conversation before, "You won't believe me."

"I can't believe it if you don't explain it to me." Otto pinched the bridge of his nose. "And that goes for a lot of things, Miss Natsuki. Who exactly are you?"

Subaru looked genuinely confused. "Me? I'm just your average girl."

"Nothing about you is average." Otto insisted. "All I know is your name, that you know weird things, and led us to a kidnapper's den!"

Subaru sighed. "Believe it or not but I was improvising. Had to make sure they couldn't find us and, well, I figured this was the last place they'd check."

"Great plan," he said, his voice dripping with insincerity, "Except you forgot that they'd check it eventually, as they are now."

"Don't worry, Otto, you didn't think I wouldn't do something right? They don't know the guards are coming in circa... uh how long until Water Time?"

"Long enough for us to clean house." One of the thugs leaned into the doorframe, a lockpick set in hand, and a club in the other raised up high. It was then that Otto realized his conversation with Subaru distracted him from actually listening to what the creatures around him were saying. The kidnappers weren't getting nearer; they were already here.

"Oh crap." Subaru muttered. Otto would've said the same, but a flying club soon met his forehead and Otto's face met ground.

And from there his memories caught up with the present. In between was only a flash of pain that made his eyes go white and knocked his hat off, Subaru's mayo-ing of one of the kidnappers, and the arrival of a brilliant iridescent light.

"Mr. Suwen?" The voice repeated once more, breaking Otto from his lull into memory land. "Are you alright? Do you remember what happened?"

"That's the fourth time you asked." Subaru remarked, tension in her frame. "I don't think he does."

"I..." Otto began, ready to repeat what he remembered back out loud, before realization hit him and he clamped a hand over his own mouth. "Wh th hck r y?"

"Pardon?" said the yet-to-identify-himself voice.

He uncovered his mouth then repeated, "Who the heck are you? I remember Miss Natsuki but that's all!" At that, Subaru's shoulders dropped, and she let out a sigh of relief.

"Well, he seems to remember you at least, Miss Natsuki." Otto wondered briefly if this was one of the kidnappers Subaru was shouting about during her mayo altercation.

The owner of the voice stepped out into the light, and it was then that Otto realized that wherever he was, it was dark outside and dark inside. But the soft glow of candlelight illuminated just enough for Otto to make out Subaru standing next to a knight.

And one more unidentified figure, crouched in the dark, wound up. With fear or with readied violence? Otto didn't give it much thought before calling out in a language neither Subaru nor the knight recognized. With his command, a cacophony of creatures, rats, bugs, and birds swooped down on the intruder in a frenzied attack.

The knight turned and so did Subaru to see the last of the kidnappers.

"You can do that!?" Subaru cried.

"My Divine Protection," Otto managed to slowly croak out, "of Soul Language."

"As decisive as you described, Miss Natsuki." remarked the knight. Otto didn't agree with the assessment but wasn't much in the mood for fighting a compliment. "Now let's test your other theory."

Now seen in better view, he recognized who he was looking at. The greatest of knights: Julius Juukulius, the man in the guard station. And he was holding up some kind of badge- no, an insignia. He tossed it underhand towards Otto, who caught it. It began to softly glow.

"Right again, Miss Natsuki. How do you do it?" Julius said with small wonder in his tone. Subaru scratched the back of her head smiling modestly. "And I suppose, I've done you a great disrespect by not calling you by your title, Lady Suwen?"

Otto would have been looking at Julius mirthlessly but instead, turned to that scam artist at his side, stifling a giggle. Oh boy.

"What the heck did you tell him?" Otto shouted.

"Trust me, this was important. Even more important than the kidnappers." Subaru explained. "I talked with Julius earlier and let him know about your situation. The whole royal shebang."

"My what? Shebang?" Otto felt less explained to than before. He felt like the opposite just happened, as if he now knew less about himself than she did. How did she even know what she knew? "And I'm not a lady!"

Julius looked to Subaru for confirmation. She nodded, a smirk still poking through.

Julius turned back to Otto and coughed. "Of course, I understand. But you are a royal candidate: a Dragon Maiden. If you are male, these are now unprecedented circumstances. Allow me to explain."

He launched into an explanation of the Royal Selection, clearly a state secret if even Otto hadn't overheard anything about it. He explained the will of Volcanica and what the glowing of the insignia meant. He talked about there being other candidates (of course, he shared no specific names) and how Otto was the fourth of five to be discovered. And he explained how each had a knight.

"Unfortunately, I've pledged myself to a royal candidate already. Otherwise, I would've gladly asked to be of service to you."

Subaru looked shocked at this, a touch of heartbreak in her brows. Was it a crush or was she looking for someone to exploit? Otto didn't know her well enough yet to tell. Julius, on the other hand, was plenty famous enough for him to have some idea of how to read.

"Your candidate is Anastasia Hoshin of the Hoshin Company, right?" he remarked.

Now it was Julius' turn to look shocked. Though it was a much more muted reaction than Subaru's.

"You are certainly a discerning person." Julius said, impressed. "Was it obvious?"

It's obvious if you've got a hundred thousand pairs of eyes always on the lookout for news.

"In any case, your... temporary base of operations might not be suited to housing a royal candidate."

A plank from the roof, coated in the residue of either stray fire or water magic, fell to the ground at this exact moment. A plume of dust drifted slowly upwards.

"It's not really our base... yet?" Otto looked to Subaru, who just shrugged.

Julius offered his hand, "Might I extend an invitation for you two to the Juukuulius manor? You're welcome to stay before you get back on your feet."

At this, Subaru rushed to Otto's side, wrapping an arm twixt his and helping him up from the ground. Though not without a bit of a struggle from the still weary merchant.

"What are you doing?" Otto asked.

Subaru just smiled and turned back towards Julius saying, "Give us a second."

"Of course." Julius replied.

She then scurried over to the corner, still supporting Otto's weight, and spoke quietly.

"I don't know if we should go with him. He's supporting another candidate right? What if he..." She mimicked the sound of a sword slicing a neck with her mouth. And her finger. Otto thought it was very unsubtle for someone who apparently wanted to keep this conversation's contents secret.

"That's very unlikely. But you have point. Anastasia is a competitor," Otto began. "Both as a merchant and candidate. And she outclasses us in both."

"Us?" Subaru seemed a little taken aback.

"You are not dumping all of this on me after roping me into this royal candidate business." Otto didn't speak the unspoken question despite the accusation: Did Subaru approach him specifically to get him into candidacy? And how did she know he's a candidate without the insignia?

"No, no I just thought you wouldn't want me around after all the trouble I've caused you." she clarified. Her eyes didn't meet his.

"Well, you've brought me a whole lot of trouble, got my head bashed in by a group of kidnappers, and told me a whole lot about anything and everything except yourself." He listed off. Subaru wilted.

"But I trust you."

Subaru's eyes widened. "Just like that?"

Otto nodded. "You meant well, and it seems to have worked out, hasn't it? But still, tell me beforehand if you're going to plan something so insane."

She chuckled and their conversation drew silent for a moment. Otto seemed content to leave it at that. He still had his suspicions as to Subaru's origins and how she knew all that she knew, but he had none towards her intentions.

"He never changes..." Subaru muttered. Who he was, Otto wasn't sure.

"Have you two made your decision?" asked Julius.

Otto looked at Subaru and she smiled.

"If you trust me, then I'll trust you too. It's your decision." She told him.

He returned the smile and told Julius his answer.

Chapter Text

Chapter 02: The Storm, the Maid and the Mayonnaise

by Halyne

Cutting into her, the pain quickly spreading from her shoulder and spiking down like a rose’s thorns sparking the red from inside of her. The slightly rusty blade giving it a particular clawing sensation that she couldn’t endure.

The shock that reverberates throughout her body pins her knees to the floor, a paralysis taking over to force her to the ground. Her body unmovable as her own red seeps into the crevices in the old dusty wood of a floor.

Her vision foggy as she sees the man, the one who dared to be nice to her. The man who was willing to help when she was in need. The man who accepted all her random ideas and energetic eccentrics.

The man who is now looking at her directly in the eyes, his own shade of crimson painting the floor along with hers. Pieces of sharp white shards and grey clumps scattered about above him. A unique canvas that shall forever stain the world and wood.

One of these two crimson bound people’s eyes are wide and frightened, embracing a new experience of decay attaching itself to their very being. The essence of life draining from their soul, Od leaking like a broken faucet as it is slowly and cruelly siphoned by the world, back to Od Laguna.

The other staring blank, a never ending abyss of death portraying through their entire being. Like a grim reaper stole their soul before the afterlife could even arrive, preventing even the tiniest sliver of life.

Though, to say which one of the two was which, is hard to tell. The girl’s repeated failed attempts to save this one man always ending up in failure. But as death slowly carries her away, she can’t help but look into his eyes. Lifeless as they are, she can’t help but still see him. Memories stacked on top of each other to strengthen her determination to wrestle victory over these murderous captors.

A familiar and always equally haunting cold starts to permeate through her body. Her grit and determination were never factors when it comes facing the all encompassing abyss. Like the creaking of Charon’s boat as he arrives for your one coin. Though Subaru has never had that coin, being forced back into the world of the living yet again. The dim alleyway being a constant reminder of her inevitable stride forward, surely this time she shall reach the finish line.

It has been two weeks since then. The phantom sensation of dying and dying all over again are still coldly scrapping their way into her head, surfacing from the depths of her memories as if to mock her futile efforts to forget.

Even if the memories clinging to her were forever haunting her from the graves, she at the very least made it out.

She shouldn’t think about those things right now though! Today is a special day!

Today, they’re going out, exploring the market district for more product ideas. They were going to see the capital more, to garner ideas for his royal candidacy, and maybe even find allies they could recruit to their camp.

Oh! And she’s going with none other than said royal candidate. The person who helped her when no one else would. The merchant that has already started building their company to a great degree with just mayo alone, and of course the wonderful person chosen as dragon maiden.

And she gets the whole day to constantly tease him about being a dragon maiden–emphasis on the maiden part. Quite embarrassing for a guy, and perfect ammo to shoot his face into a shade of red, darker than a tomato!

She has the feeling that today is going to be the most exciting day for the past two weeks. Staying inside making mayonnaise day in and day out isn’t the best for her health, nor her sanity.

Don’t get her wrong, mayo is the best thing in the world! If she were to choose between the world or mayo it would definitely be mayo every time.

It’s just…

…

Stagnating.

She was suddenly put into this world, given a horrible starting position, and forced to constantly be vigilant at every twist and turn. Of course suddenly being put into a moment of peace is jarring.

She knows Otto said that what she’s been doing is enough, but Otto has been so swamped with work. Creating a company from scratch is hard work as it is, but to prepare for the royal selection on top of that.

Subaru can help with more! She can do more, he would just need to ask. And she has been doing more, any time she had she’d help Otto. She doesn’t need to sleep if she can study more. She can do his paperwork as long as she makes the mayo faster each day. If they sell out she can make more, do more tasks. Multitasking however she needs to and drowning herself in the work as long as she’s helping!

Yet, a familiar stagnant feeling settles over her, hovering just out of her reach. A useless girl just like before.

Her thoughts quickly coming to a halt, suspended by the sound of a knock on her open door, “Miss Natsuki,” the voice so familiar now that she could find it even if it was a needle in a hay field.

The man standing at the door wearing a familiar yet different outfit to the merchant focused one he had on when they first met.

A dark green cloak with its yellow triangle patterns like usual, though instead of its hood it used to have, it goes up like a suit’s collar, lined with small versions of the pattern at the top. A red cravat ties the cloak at the collar, a reminder of the bow he had before. A light green vest under the cloak, reminiscent of his less fancy shirt from his previous outfit. A belt wraps around high rising pants, buttons going up his waist, a show to the world that he’s taking his candidacy seriously. Yet his nature as a merchant is still captured in the two satchels on either side of his belt, surely containing something important. His iconic hat seeming to be the only thing completely untouched. Despite the eccentricities of the new outfit, there is no doubt that this is

Otto Suwen, the dragon maiden that she has chosen to follow.

While he doesn’t like dressing up fully like this, he knows what image he needs to maintain as both a merchant and candidate for the throne.

The same candidate for the throne she shall be bullying and teasing the entire day today.

She decided to start off the day strong, saying, “oh! What will the people think when they learn their candidate walked into a lady’s room!” She falls back dramatically, placing the back of her hand on her forehead, truly the epiphany of the perfect damsel in distress.

“Hey! That’s not what I was doing!” Otto shouts out while waving his hands in front of him, panicking over this situation the dramatic damsel introduced.

“And to be so shameless as to not admit your mistakes, is this what they mean by never meet your hero’s,” Subaru collapses onto the bed, trying to hide her poorly concealed smile with a blanket.

Tears fall out the sides of her eyes, though Otto doesn’t know they’re of held back laughter. “I-! I hope you can forgive me Miss Natsuki! I didn’t mean to!” Otto bows down deep, a perfect ninety degree angle just as he has practiced before.

Silence falls over them, tension stacking on Otto’s shoulders. What will he do without his only supporter, and companion. He just hopes this apology will suffice for her to not abandon him. Stray thoughts barrel on, charging through his mind in a stampede of desperation.

Though, all of a sudden they come to a halt when, “pfft, hahahahahahahaha!”

Laughter finally escapes Subaru, filling the room. It burns away all of Otto’s barreling thoughts in a warmth that makes it to his cheeks.

He quickly looks up at her, embarrassed and bewildered, “aah! Miss Natsuki! You almost gave me a heart attack, why do you have to bully me so much!” He shouts out in desperation, lifting his hands up to express how he’s feeling.

Yet he’s only met with laughter in response, Subaru wiping her eyes, unable to stop the bellowing. “You- hahaha!”

“Aaaah! You keep making fun of me like this!” Otto shouts out in retaliation.

Subaru fights back the laughter in a harsh battle, but eventually she reigns victorious. “Y-you’re just so fun to tease! I’ll never get sick of it!” She smiles widely as she looks at the embarrassed candidate.

“Huh?! But if you keep teasing me, then what do I do with these feelings of anger!” Otto hurriedly says back.

“Hahaha, well Otto, we should get going. We don’t have all day” Subaru pats Otto on the head, ruffling his hat in the process.

Otto quickly adjusts his hat back, trying to keep up his professional look. “Sigh, I guess you’re right.” He grumbles not wanting to end the conversation there, but not wanting to delay any further either.

Subaru drags her candidate along with enthusiasm to get out of that suffocatingly familiar atmosphere. Promptly leaving the temporary abode that Julius lent them.

Subaru charges into the bustling crowd of the market, Otto hurriedly following behind in order to keep up with her pace.

Today they’re going to be doing a lot of things. Some of which include, looking for accessible ways to make more of Subaru’s inventions, Subaru introducing and selling a few recipes from her homeland, trying to determine who the other candidates are based on the general people’s thoughts, and the reason why they chose this day in particular, Otto’s appointment at the guard station to get more information about the selection.

And since they’re heading to the main market area of the capital, invention ideas and recipe selling comes up first.

Dragging Otto through the market, Subaru stops at a very familiar Appa stand.

Seeing the man she has seen so many times, she smiles and waves. While Otto actively struggles to take his hand away from her grip, though it seems he’s too weak to escape even a woman who isn’t trying.

“Hey Kadomon! How’s my favorite Apple- I mean, Appa seller doing?” She says to the man as if they have met before.

Yet, the man looks at her confused, responding, “I feel like I would recognize a young lady as unique as you,” he rubs the back of his neck while looking apologetic for not remembering her.

“Nope, we’ve never met before. You could say I went through a death defying experience to find the best Appas in town!” Subaru points to the Appas dramatically, to emphasize how great they must be.

Kadomon gives a fatherly smile in response, “well I won’t be denying such an enthusiastic customer. How many you want?” He says as he grabs a bag from the side.

Otto finally gives up trying to escape his companion’s grasp, forfeiting his escape in order to talk.

“What exactly are you planning to make with Appa’s?” He says as he straightens out his hat once again to get into merchant mode. “A recipe we could sell? Or perhaps a new condiment?”

Subaru looks over to him for a moment before staring off into space while tapping her finger to her chin, thinking.

In the mean time, Kadomon responds to something Otto said, “condiment?” He raises an eyebrow, perhaps he’s found new customer potential.

Otto stands up straight, understanding exactly what he meant right away, “yes, we’re a newly up and coming merchant company. Our initial product has already taken over the condiment industry as a new and widely popular product. We’re currently looking to make another new product.”

“New condiment huh?” Kadomon comments while rubbing his chin, “you two wouldn’t happen to be the makers of mayonnaise would you?”

This makes Otto smile, successfully hooking him in to perhaps become a customer or even partner in the future.

“Yes, Mr. Kadomon was it?” Upon getting a thoughtful nod, Otto continues, “my partner and I were the creators of the condiment mayonnaise.”

“Oh, that’s great, I may not get why so many people like it, but my daughter’s obsessed with it. She can’t have a meal without it.” He says, his fatherly smile back in full, thinking of his little girl.

“Oh yes, many people seem to have become obsessed with our product, and since it’s a product from my companion here’s homeland, that’s just the first of many.” Otto says, setting up his proposal, “and since she led us to this stand first, perhaps a product with appa’s will be our next best seller.”

Kadomon looks fully interested now, wondering if he just gained a greatly profitable customer. He responds, “wel-

But gets cut off by, “ahah!!” Subaru shouts out, “I got it!” Finally done thinking, she faces the two, a few ideas in mind.

They both turn to her, the maiden happily intrigued for what he’ll need to sell, and the Appa merchant newly interested in her ideas thanks to what Otto said so far.

“We could do apple pie! Or cider, or candy apples! Uh, I mean, appas.” She says bringing both her hands up in front of her and consequently Otto’s hand with it. Her eyes shining stars staring into Otto’s.

“Miss Natsuki, could you please explain what those are?” Otto smiles back, her enthusiasm already leaking onto him.

“Oh! Appl- appa pie is a pastry that’s really good! And ap-appa cider is a drink that has, um, how did people make it again? Well anyway, candy apples are a-appa’s that are covered in caramel!” She rambles on, excited that she can steer away from making only mayo every minute of every day.

Otto thinks for a moment before responding, “caramel appas already exist in Kararagi, though if your two other ideas are even half as profitable as those, then they’ll sure to sell well.” Otto smiles up at her, happy for the profit potential.

Then he quickly turns to Kadomon, back to business discussions with him. He talks about having Kadomon and potentially other appa salesman sell their appa pie recipe, sharing the profits. Along with the appa merchants being providers for their cider.

As Otto goes on about business with Kadomon, Subaru stares at him, enraptured by his professionalism. Sure she’s seen him like this before, but for some reason she can’t help but be mesmerized by it every time.

But eventually, Otto and Kadomon finish talking. The future business set up as much as it can be at the moment and appas bought so that they can start trying to make it.

They head off into the market again, searching for any other products they could eventually make after the appa products. Though they don’t have much luck on foods nor inventions this time.

For food items all Subaru can think about at the moment is things to make with appas, which is a great thing considering the connections Otto has just started to form. Though at the moment where they’re looking through the market for new ideas it’s not the best timing.

On the invention front though, Subaru is able to come up with a bunch of things. Though, he’s never able to quite remember how they are made, so perhaps those will have to wait until they grow their company a bit more. When they have a team dedicated to fleshing out Subaru’s ideas and making them a reality.

Their journey through the market eventually leads them to the guard station. They make it there about an hour or so before the sun would go down, and also just a little too early for Otto’s appointment.

Them arriving early leaves time for another topic they were planning to talk about while they were out and about.

“Hm, it doesn’t seem that Julius is here today,” Subaru says slightly disappointed, as she wasn’t able to see one of her only friends in this world like she thought she would have today.

“He’s probably just with his candidate, he is her knight after all,” Otto says, trying to assuage her disappointment. Though it seems his attempt is to no avail as she hasn’t seen her friend at all these 2 weeks, or perhaps it’s deeper than that. Her not seeing her parents so suddenly and then not seeing her friend so suddenly just after that.

So Otto tries a different method, distraction, “speaking of candidates, who do you think the other candidates are?” The distraction being what they were going to talk about anyway.

“Oh! Yeah Anastasia is a big merchant right? And Juli said that before you they only knew of three of the candidates right? And that’s out of five, so there’s one missing still” Subaru takes up the new topic with stride, just glad that she doesn’t have to think about losing anyone anymore.

Otto responds, “it would be good if they find the fifth candidate soon, that way we could start the selection. Perhaps it will boost the amount of customers we get too. It would be good to start on some of those inventions you came up with.” Otto looks down in thought. “Though with another candidate being a merchant, we may have a hard time, especially from what I’ve heard of how Miss Hoshin works.”

“If she’s a big merchant, then does that mean the other candidates could be merchants too?” She asks, wanting to learn more about this world and their competition.

“That could be the case, but I doubt it, would the dragon really choose more than 2 merchants? And there’s the fact that the Hoshin company is the biggest, and one of the only ones with a female head.” Otto says analytically, yet another thing Subaru admires about him.

“Then if the other candidates are influential and have to have the maiden requirement, who else could it be?” She says, making sure to throw in a light tease that Otto doesn’t seem to notice yet. She’ll have to try harder.

“Well if we’re thinking influential women, then Crusch Karsten would have to be included. With her past achievements and her relation to the royals before they died, it’s almost a given. She also has Blue on her side along with the Sword Demon who has seemed to ally with her already.” Otto’s analysis stuns Subaru for a moment, yet again surprising her by how good he is at it.

It’s quite jarring for him to switch from embarrassed, socially awkward, cute guy, to professional merchant that deserved the spot of dragon maiden. This must be gape moe, and she’s just loving it!

Deciding to switch him to the other side of his gap moe she mixes a tease into her compliment, “well even if she’s so great I know my maiden is the best maiden there is. My maiden is definitely gonna win the throne,” a smirk lays her face, making her teasing very obvious to him.

“Eh?!” Otto lets out a yelp, her plan to switch his gap moe worked perfectly, “do you really have to call me that?” He says with tears on the sides of his eyes.

“Call you what my glorious dragon maiden,” she dramatically bows, trying to mimic how Julius did it, but a bit more exaggerated.

“Ugh, why do you have to keep bullying me like thi-“ but Otto’s words are cut off, a guard coming out of the guard station to tell him the appointment is ready.

Leaving Subaru to herself to watch the sun on the horizon just starting its sunset. A long uneventful wait, as a cool air breezes by.

This time though, her thoughts don’t spiral while she’s alone. Instead they’re occupied by thoughts of the day. How they’ll go forward in the future, the new appa recipes they’re going to make, and Otto’s candidacy. For once in these last two weeks, she’s fully distracted from the thoughts of death and loss.

Perhaps things are looking up for them. She’ll never have to die again, and she can protect her candidate.

By the time Otto is done, Subaru is rubbing her arms from the cold chill. Maybe it’s the start of winter season for Lugunica, because she can see flakes of white falling down already.

Though just as Otto is about to say something, his face shifts into one of horror. This face somehow worse than the lifeless dead body she has seen multiple times before.

She tries to turn around, look away from that face. Maybe catch glimpse of what’s causing it, but instead, her vision tilts.

A jagged crunch as she hits the powder covered floor, the cold unbearable as it starts gnawing away at her nerves freezing them completely.

Though this time, the cold doesn’t come slowly, it comes like a jagged storm, the thunder striking through her body as the ground shakes.

Is that the other side of her face?

Bustling market and sounds of people talking all around. The sun shining brightly overhead, searing her vision that just got used to the sunset lighting. And an appa stand right in front of her.

Otto stands at her side briefly glancing over to see why she’s squeezing his hand so tightly. Yet he keeps his professional demeanor, talking business with the shop owner, Kadomon.

Subaru though, was staring off into space. Just when she finally calmed down, thinking that tomorrow was gonna be a great day, she died. Resetting most of the day to never have happened.

Again.

Death shouldn’t be this common of an occurrence, yet she has already died 6 times. This now being her 7th death in less than a month!

No, she needs to calm down before Otto notices, she doesn’t want … grabbing her chest, directly over her heart as a shiver crawls down her spine … that to happen again.

“Ahah!” She shouts out, “we could make appa cider! Oh, and appa pie!” She lifts Otto’s hand with hers, same as before, the stars in her eyes now dim compared to before.

Otto looks at her confused and slightly worried, “miss Natsuki, you’ve already said that,” some of the most horrifying words to the woman has ever heard. Like a dagger stabbing through her brain to her heart, piercing both with quick ease.

Yet Subaru must not show it, the dagger will be useless if she doesn’t beet the storm anyway.

“Hey, you know what, I think we should bring the Appas back right now! Get a head start on the market!” She shouts out a little too hurriedly.

Before either of the two can react, she haphazardly grabs the bag out of Kadomon’s hands and shoves some random appas in, not caring which ones she gets.

“Miss Natsuki-iiiiii,” Otto tries to get her attention to at least understand the situation, but it’s to no avail. Instead, she drags Otto along again. This time not being gentle, her grip on his arm ever tight, enough to leave red marks.

“Miss Natsuki!” Otto shouts out as the venture vastly through the market, “Miss Natsuki!!!” He yells out, yet again failing to gain her attention. So in a desperate plea to find out what is wrong, he suddenly stops in his tracks and drops all formalities, “SUBARU!!!”

This time, Subaru stops as well, looking down, her back turned to him. Though that’s only for a moment, all of a sudden she spins around. A wide smile plastering her face, “I’m just so excited to start making things with appas! There’s just so many you can do with them!”

Otto lets out a sigh of relief upon hearing this, he can tell this time at least, she’s being genuine.

Even if there was a lie hidden beneath, something he didn’t quite catch. Much to the relief of Subaru, if he did see through it…

If he did, he’d follow her around, and If she doesn’t find what happened and prevent it in one loop…

She’d have to see him die again, those lifeless eyes so piercing cold, straight through her soul. If she sees it one more time, her soul may shatter.

Otto, inspired by her excitement, takes the lead, dragging her along this time. Surely this is to get back at her for all her teasing. He truly is a wonderful person, the world shouldn’t lose him again. She can’t lose him again.

They make it back to the temporary abode fairly quickly, having ran the whole way there. Otto pants heavily, being the only one fully out of breath.

“You, hah, run, haa, really fast,” Otto says between struggling breaths.

Subaru makes a thinking pose rubbing her chin, before promptly coming back with, “I think you just run slow. Quite a maiden you are.” A smirk reaches her lips, the teasing helping her calm down from her contained panic.

“Hey! Hah, making fun, haa, of a title, hah, isn’t funny!” He attempts to shout out between breaths.

“Making fun of? Nooooo, I would never. Being a dragon maiden is something to be proud of, I’m just stating how well you fit that role,” Subaru says, pinning Otto under the weight of reality and embarrassment, “of being a maiden,” and the final strike to the embarrassment coffin hits, sealing his fate to being a tomato.

And now, he is also perfectly distracted.

She watches from behind as he covers his reddened face. His walking into their abode as she stays at the door. Hopefully the next time she sees him, it isn’t at the appa stand again.

“Oh! I just remembered! I need to get some stuff for the recipes! I’ll be back!” She shouts out, setting up her lie, the end of her perfect scheme to trap the mouse in the house. “You can go to the meeting without me!” And even though she tried to sound enthusiastic, she couldn’t hide the fear itching underneath.

She quickly slams the door shut, a concerned Otto the last thing she saw before charging off onto death’s doorstep.

Charging being the literal term, as she runs back into the streets. A desperate escape from seeing her candidate’s lifeless or horrified eyes ever again.

Though, in her rush to get away, she doesn’t pay attention to what’s in front of her. Not noticing the other girl that isn’t paying attention either.

And so, consequently, they cause a head first collision. knocking each other over. The woman, being sturdier than Subaru only stumbles onto her butt. While Subaru on the other hand, falls directly onto the floor, her hands scraping against the dirt to halt her fall. Only Subaru sustaining a forehead injury enough to bleed.

Blood drips down her eyebrow as the scary eyed girl looks over to the one she bumped into.

Silver bells chime out as she looks up, “are you ok?” If Subaru isn’t hallucinating, that must be a halo over her head.

No, that’s just the sun shining off of her silver locks. Purple amethysts stare down at her in concern, like she’s the only thing that matters at the moment. Her outfit, a familiar black and white outfit, one she has seen so many times in anime.

“Maids exist in this world?” Subaru mumbles under her breath, the fantastical feature of this world calming her down slightly.

The girl holds out her hand offering assistance up. A guilty expression layering her face as if she was the one running haphazardly.

Subaru slowly reaches out and takes her hand. Her hands colder than normal, but not uncomfortably so. Though what is surprising is how easily the girl pulls her up, for one so thin Subaru wouldn’t have guessed her to be this strong.

The girl raises her hands and is about to say something, but pauses, seemingly unsure of herself. She quickly steals her expression, though it feels more childlike than serious with the way her cheeks puff out when she does.

“I apologize, but I’m going to heal you,” She says hurriedly before placing glowing hands onto Subaru’s bleeding forehead. Though the way she said it, seemed as if she wasn’t sure Subaru would want her to heal her. Why wouldn’t someone accept healing?

Only then does Subaru notice people whispering all around, looking at the two. She can’t quite understand what they’re saying, but she does see the judging and fearful? gazes.

Subaru looks back to the girl, her worried eyes turning to ones full of guilt as she sees Subaru looking around at the people talking about the two.

“Maybe we could go somewhere quieter?” The woman proposes, before waving her hands out saying, “only so that I can heal your scraps! Only healing, then you won’t have to deal with me anymore,” Subaru easily catches the self deprecation, this girl says it as if she doesn’t matter.

Subaru’s brow furrows, frustrated that she put herself down like that. She follows the girl into an alley anyway, also wanting to get away from the frightened and gossiping crowd.

“Hey miss, sorry about that,” Subaru says while rubbing the back of her head and looking down, “I should’ve been looking where I was going.”

“No, no! I wasn’t looking either! And you were the one who got injured, so it’s my fault,” the girl says, her being in the wrong already cemented in her mind.

“Sigh, we how about we say we’re both at fault then?” Subaru makes a counter proposition, wanting her to stop being self deprecative … even if that’s hypocritical.

The girl hesitates, then with a slight smile nods her head, “yes we can say that,” she says before glancing at Subaru’s scraps, “now, can you please sit down, so I can heal you?”

Subaru dramatically salutes, shouting out, “yes ma’am!” Before promptly sitting as she was told. Hopefully that cheers the girl up a little bit.

The girl covers her mouth, a small laugh escaping. Victory to Subaru! Cheer the maid up achieved. The girl bends down to start healing Subaru’s scrapes.

“Sooooo, I know why I was running all over the place, but why were you not paying attention?” Subaru asks, trying to pass the time.

The girl glances up briefly before looking back down at what she’s healing, and ashamed face forming, “I lost the person I came to the capital with … and I was looking for them” the girl says, knowing it’s her fault. Distracted by all the new things that the capital had to offer, she never even seen this many people before.

“Oh! Well I’mmmm,” Subaru’s syllable lengthens out as she thinks of a way to put it, “looking for something too.” That should be a good enough explanation, while not sparking the chilling hold on her heart. A shiver strikes her body as she yet again remembers that horrifying moment.

The glow fades as she finally finishes healing her. A relieved expression overtakes the guilty one that she had before, the girl happy that at least one thing she caused is solved.

Subaru hops up onto her feet with newfound enthusiasm. “Well, how about I tell you what I’m looking for and you tell me who you’re looking for. We can both look for each other’s while we search for ours?”

The maid is surprised, standing up as she stumbles for something to say. Not expecting that Subaru would want her help, or even the potential to see her again. Usually people steer away from those things when applied to her.

Though a happy smile quickly forms on her face, glad that someone would be willing to be like this with her. She even proposed something that would benefit them equally. Maybe they could become friends someday.

Ah, but she shouldn’t get ahead of herself, no one would want to become friends with someone resembling the witch. “But, I’m a half-elf,” she says, not wanting Subaru to have to deal with her any longer.

Subaru’s eyes widen just a tad, before she smiles back, “no wonder you’re so pretty! I was wondering what your skincare routine was, genetics really are something,” Subaru praises with full enthusiasm still present.

Of course Subaru knows about the witch of envy, she’s been learning how to read and write for two weeks now. Although, Subaru believes she knows where that witch is, or at least what the witch will do if she says something. This kind girl that insisted on healing her couldn’t possibly be the one that clutched her heart to horrifyingly.

“Huh?” The girl looks extremely surprised, never having been in a situation like this before. “But I’m a half-elf, a silver haired half-elf!” She shouts out in frustration, a situation like this couldn’t be possible, even in her dreams.

“Yeah! And if we’re gonna be stating things about ourselves, I’m an isekaied Japanese person,” Subaru states matter a factly.

“I’m being serious! I’m a silver haired half-elf. Aren’t you .. scared of me?” She looks down, discouraged from saying more. Sad to know that her potential for a friend has just left her.

“And I’m being serious too!” Subaru shouts out, causing the girl to look back up, met with the widest smile she’s ever seen. A smile that’s even pointed towards her.

Having acquired the girl’s attention Subaru prepares her signature move. Stomping the ground so the world to see, she juts her hip out and points towards the sky.

“My name Natsuki Subaru! Not only will I go to any length for my maiden, but I’m also the creator of mayo in this world so I’m not quite broke beyond compare anymore!” She shouts, bringing her thumb to her chest she continues, “and this girl wants to be friends with you!” She points directly at the girl, not wanting her to mistake that she’s talking about her, “nice to meet you!”

The girl is stunned, unable to respond to such a passionate introduction. As well as being thoroughly surprised that this girl is willing to be her friend.

“Well, I introduced myself. What’s your name?” Subaru pushes the conversation forwards, glad that she was able to stop the girl from talking bad about herself.

“Oh, um,” the girl finally snaps out of the stun lock, a smile forming on her face as she answers, “Emilia, just Emilia.” Her eyes shine while looking at her new friend, something she didn’t think possible.

“Well Emilia, times going by and the day could come to any end sooner than we think. How about we tell each other what we’re looking for?” Subaru says while looking to the sky, the sun leaning out of noon.

Only 6-7 hours until all of this would become useless and she’d find herself back at the appa stand.

“Well who I lost,” Emilia taps her chin in thought, thinking how to explain the person she’s looking for, “he’s my employer. He always has a lot of make up on and very weird clothes. He would really stand out,” wow, this person must be really weird, and her employer? Hopefully this guy isn’t gross.

“Okay, he seems easy to spot out in a crowd! We’ll find him in no time, I’m sure!” Subaru says, moving forward Emilia’s cheery and hopeful mood.

“What I’m looking for is,” Subaru pauses, a hand to her chest. How can she say this without that happening. She looks to Emilia, seeing her paying full attention to her. Well if Emilia’s this determined to help, Subaru can just push through. “Someone … or something that has ice powers. Like very strong ice powers though.”

Subaru lets out a breath, a weight leaving her heart as she successfully fails to activate the taboo.

Though on the other side, Emilia’s determination to help quivers. Shaken by how close that is to her, and if someone is looking for something like that, it must mean she must’ve done something wrong. She shouldn’t have gotten her hopes up.

But, she’ll still help Subaru nonetheless, “Subaru…” She says discouraged, gaining Subaru’s attention.

“Yes? Do you know anything!” Subaru says, maybe she can solve this one in just one loop. Though, upon seeing the maid’s expression her hope dies down, a snuffed out ember.

“I have ice magic,” Emilia says while looking down, guilt coming back at full force, “I apologize if I’ve done something wrong to you.” She says, assuming that the worse is the only possibility.

…

Silence overcomes the alleyway, Subaru’s attempts at enthusiasm and cheer gone like it was never there. But no, this girl couldn’t possibly be the one who killed her. She even went out of her way to heal her while she was already busy looking for someone.

“Emilia,” Subaru says, a low tone of voice permitting them. Emilia steels herself, looking up to what will inevitably be hate, like it always is. Yet what she finds isn’t what she expects, Subaru with a warm smile comforting to the cool alley. “That’s great! If you’re an ice magic user, maybe you could help me find the one I’m looking for? You know, like you’d be more likely to recognize someone like that?”

Once again stunned, Emilia can’t help but be infected with the smile Subaru is putting out. “Then Subaru, I will help you in any way I can,” Subaru’s smile widens, successfully bringing back the friendly atmosphere.

“We better get looking then! Oh-kay!” Subaru pronounciates the ok, holding onto one of Emilia’s hands and bringing it up with hers into the air.

“O-ok?” Emilia responds, confused by the unfamiliar word.

“Ok!” Subaru repeats, gaining back her enthusiasm in full, raising their arms higher.

“O-OK!” Emilia tries to match the enthusiasm, lifting her other arm as well.

Subaru quickly drags Emilia off, two newfound friends looking for different things. Hopefully Subaru can keep this friendship by succeeding this loop, so much progress that could be lost.

Though unfortunately, time seems to go by fast. Too fast for comfort as neither of the are able to find what they’re looking for. Subaru’s enthusiasm slowly turning to panic, her needing to find the frozen needle in this haystack of a capital.

If she can’t even find even a hint about what happened this loop, how many attempts will it take? Let alone how many attempts it will take to prevent it. What if she can’t even prevent it? What if she’s going to be trapped in an infinite loop forever, dying and watching others die being the only thing she’ll ever kno-

“Subaru?” A chiming bell sounds out, her name softly ringing out, bringing her away from her spiral.

Emilia looks on concerned, Subaru’s panic being easily seen through. Seeing this, Emilia’s expression turns determined, the bells chime again, “Puck, could you help us?” She asks to the air, something that confuses Subaru.

Though Subaru’s confusion transforms into a different kind as she sees a cat appear, floating in the air right next to Emilia’s head.

“Fu fu fu! Finally asking your father for help. I’ve been wanting to meet your friend here,” Puck says looking smug, a smile forming on his feline face.

Subaru blinks rapidly, wondering if she’s seeing right. Well this is a fantasy world, and coming back from the dead is more out there than a floating cat.

Shaking her head, she prepares her grand introduction yet again. Jutting her hip out and pointing to the sky, saying, “my name is-“

“Natsuki Subaru,” Puck interrupts, his smug smile growing wider, “I was listening in the first time you did your grand entrance,” he floats to her nose, tapping it with his tiny paw.

Subaru pauses briefly, before trying to bring back the momentum, “Well! Nice to meet you!” She does the last part of her introduction, dramatically bringing her arm back down to point directly at Puck.

“Niiiiiice to meet you too!” Puck says as he flies to her finger and holds it like a handshake.

“So how are you able to help us?” Subaru asks, still wanting to push the conversation forward in a hurry.

“You see, I’m an ice magic user too, and detecting magic is one of my specialties,” Puck says while turning his nose up, full of smug confidence. “I could help you find your ice magic, and since Roswaal is a magic user, I can look for him too.”

Stars shine in Subaru’s eyes, the solution right here in front of her. If they can find what she’s looking for fast, she won’t even have to loop again. Though, the fact that a floating cat that can detect magic exists in this world is part of the reason her eyes are shining so bright.

She pauses at the name Roswaal, it being familiar, so close to the tip of her tongue, but not quite making it. Perhaps Otto has mentioned him before, she’ll have to ask him.

Through Subaru’s thinking, Puck was concentrating, slowly becoming more frustrated. He pauses to look down at Emilia, her eyes widening just a bit as she does. Her expression looks confused, before glancing at Subaru and then back at Puck. It’s almost like they’re having a conversation all by themselves.

Emilia finally steels herself, looking over to Subaru and saying, “I’m sorry, but he can’t seem to find anything … for either of us,” she looks down, her face filled with concerned thinking.

Subaru barely hears it, but is able to make out Puck say something quietly under his breath, “-as if he doesn’t want to-,“ though that’s all she could make out.

Subaru’s panic starts to come back. If he can’t find anything at all, does that mean she’s already failed? And failing without leading a single thing.

“Ah, Lia,” Puck suddenly says. Interrupting both of Subaru and Emilia’s thinking. The small cat looks up to the sky, this also bringing Subaru’s attention there.

The sun, it’s starting to set. Almost exactly the time she died last.

“It’s time for me to leave,” he says, floating down to her, “I’m sorry I couldn’t help.”

“It’s ok Puck, we’ll be fine from here, I’m sure we can find them!” Emilia says hopefully.

“If anything happens, remember to call to me, even if you have to use the Od,” he says, before starting to fade into glowing particles, extremely similar to the spirits Julius had.

Subaru slowly watches her only lead fade away. Her only hope at surviving this loop disappearing right in front of her eyes. As usual, she’s hopeless to stop it.

Emilia looks over to Subaru concerned, as Subaru’s eyes drift into the horizon, watching the time for death approach nearer and nearer. She might even have only a few minutes left until the frozen landscape arrives to freeze her hope into shattering glass.

And as expected, the first crack appears. Just as Emilia’s about to say something, she lets out a yelp, backing away from something.

Subaru looks down, ready to be horrified at the icy terrain arriving once again.

…

Yet, instead, she sees a dog. No, a puppy. With a bald spot on the top of its head.

That’s, strange. Quite surprising when what she was expecting was ice. A harmless puppy is quite a dramatic shift of her expectations that she can’t help but just stare.

Though she quickly shakes her head, looking over to Emilia. She’s currently bent down healing her ankle, where the puppy must’ve bit her. Perhaps it isn’t as harmful as she first thought.

Subaru bends down next to Emilia, saying, “do you need any help? That puppy really but into you.” She looks down at the wound, already almost fully healed, Emilia being an expert at this healing thing.

Emilia shakes her head, “No I’m fine Subaru, but I’m sure that puppy was just lost and panicked? Maybe we can help find its owner,” she says while looking at the one who bit her.

She truly is very kind, if she was a candidate and Subaru wasn’t already supporting her maiden, she would definitely support Emilia.

Wait, they’re still looking for the final candidate aren’t they? Otto even said something about the final candidate last loop. Could she possibly be the final candidate? Or maybe she’s already one of their competitors.

“I’m sorry about that,” a girl comes out from around an alleyway, picking the small puppy up after she jogs over.

The girl, who can’t be any older than 12-13 year old. Wearing a cloak over a black dress. Her braided blue hair falling down to her side, a flower hair clip at the top. Her emerald eyes pierce into theirs, the truth hidden deep under many layers.

“You just have to make sure to watch her better,” Emilia says, lightly scolding.

“She just gets so,” Her innocent and apologetic little girl demeanor suddenly shift. A played up confidence layering on top, like a new mask to be shown, “hungry~.”

Right as she says that word, Emilia starts to stumble. She falls into Subaru, knocking them both onto the floor.

Subaru tries to lift her up, looking at her face. A face fully of nausea and discomfort, growing paler than even the porcelain that it was before.

Subaru looks back up, but is only able to catch a glimpse of the girl’s hair leading back into the same alley she came from.

She quickly looks down at Emilia, still lifting her up, more and more of her weight leaning into Subaru.
As if Emilia’s strength is slowly being drained. Subaru tries shaking her, shouting out, “Emilia! Emilia!”

No, no, no, not again, she can’t see someone else die. She just made a friend, they should’ve found her employer. If they found him, he could’ve prevented this, surely. Just being around her is a curse.

Not wanting to see her lifeless eyes as well, Subaru closes hers. Enveloped by darkness as holds Emilia tight, cold tears starting to fall.

This is her fault, it has to be her fault. If she didn’t insist they go together, Emilia would’ve never been here. She wouldn’t have died, and especially not in this slow way. Her cold skin becoming colder and colder.

And colder, and colder, and colder.

No, not just her skin. A cold breeze also flies by, her finally noticing her own shivering cold body as well.

She slowly opens her eyes, fearful for what she’ll see, but ready to accept death. She won’t live in a world without this newfound friend of hers.

Puck, floating above her is the first thing she sees. A glaring glint in his eyes as he looks down at her like a disgusting rodent.

The next thing she notices is the snow, starting to fall all around her. The cold more prevalent here than it ever was in the previous loop.

“My daughter is dead,” Puck says to Subaru, pinning the full blame on her. But he doesn’t even think about her enough to care about explaining her sins.

Instead he transforms, taking on a massive beastly form, taller than all the frozen buildings already spreading through the capital.

Subaru can’t do anything but stare helplessly at her end, the Beast of the End saying one last thing to her. “As per my contract, I shall now destroy the world.”

Though he stays to watch Subaru quickly freezing away, not wanting to crush his daughter’s body along with Subaru. The last thing Subaru sees before the end’s arrival, the beasts glowing eyes shattering the glass of her hope into dust.

Puck…

It was Puck. The cause of her first death this loop. And now. Her second.

But what was that last part? That he was going to destroy the world? The entire world, just because Emilia died. Emilia doesn’t know about that does she? Of course she doesn’t, she can’t possibly know about it. Someone as kind as her would never let something like that happen.

The sounds of the crowd start to swirl in on her, nauseous spinning as her balance wobbles. A sickness attaching to her like a parasite, determined to gouge out her guts into an unruly mess on the floor.

Yet she keeps it in, she can’t let Otto know how she’s feeling. If he knew the dog could get him too, and that-

No, that will never happen, Otto won’t ever die again.

She’ll make sure of it.

With a deep breath while she faces away from Otto, she’s finally able to put up a smile. No matter how fake the smile may be, she turns back to Otto saying, “Otto! I just remembered something! We have to go,” she turns to the appa seller, “sorry about that! Here, we’ll just take some of your best appas for now and we’ll come back when we have the recipes finished!”

“Heh, alright kid, as long as you keep being good customers, you’re welcome any time!” Kadomon says, carefully, but quickly selecting some of the freshest appas he has.

Subaru bows when she grabs the bag of appas, stopping Otto from saying anything as she makes him bow to. Otto lets out a yelp like ten maiden he is when she shoves the bag of appas into his arms.

She once again starts dragging him through the market, ignoring his protests completely, smile never leaving her face. Though, this time she brings him to a familiar alley.

The specific alley where she met a recurring trio she met on her first day here. Hopefully they can be helpful to her today, and they have pretty harmless personalities. They could never hurt someone badly, they probably couldn’t even kill a fly if they tried. If a girl like her can beat them up multiple times, surely Otto won’t get thaaat hurt, only a little roughed up.

Finally, Subaru turns around, the weak stamina of Otto once again showing in his panting breaths.

“Sorry about that, I was just thinking about someone and I got a great idea!” Subaru shouts out, wanting to speed up the conversation so that she can get the insignia from him before the trio arrives.

If she gets the insignia, she can have Emilia hold it. If it glows then maybe the reason why these death loops are happening is related to the candidates. Emilia is sure to be a candidate, with that Ros person she’s definitely heard of before probably being her sponsor. Her kindness would shine through as a candidate, so she’s surely to be one.

And when the insignia glows, they can go to the guard station and get help! If they see that she’s a candidate, they have to help. Though it’s frustrating how little they care about things if a candidate or nobility isn’t involved. With Julius not being there today, they will most certainly need the proof.

Then there’s the fact that Otto will probably be there at that time. That way she can keep both of them safe by using the guards as a shield. No dogs, little girls, or unexpected things can do anything if she successfully pulls off this plan. Hopefully they won’t even think about attacking with the guards there.

Otto finally catching his breath, cautiously asks, “great idea?” He braces himself, teasing sure to come with whatever this idea is.

But Subaru doesn’t have time for teasing at the moment, “yeah!” She says, “I know who one of the candidates could be!” She leans forward, making sure to emphasize her excitement.

Otto looks surprised, this wasn’t even close to what he was expecting. He was expecting anything from relentless bullying to a random invention name that they wouldn’t be able to make. “You do?” He asks with newfound intrigue.

“Yeah, she’s a really nice friend of mine that would be a great candidate, so if we can give her the insignia and it glows!” Subaru says, trying to push excitement onto Otto by urging for him to finish her statement.

Though, this doesn’t seem to work, as he focuses on a different part of what she said, “great candidate,” his expression clearly leaning towards discouragement.

“Well she might be a great candidate! But you’re the best candidate!” Otto looks up, happy and relieved to hear that from his companion, “I was just thinking, if she’s the last candidate then you winning the throne can come so much quicker!”

With this new found relief, Otto is able to think thoroughly, focusing on the technical aspects, “and if we are the ones to reveal her as a candidate. Along with you already being her friend, we could make an alliance between our camps!”

Otto’s idea sparks throughout the alleyway, a lightning strike of energy filling him. If he can get an alliance right of the bat, they may no longer be too far behind in the election than they already are.

“Then I’ll give her the insignia! Ok?” Subaru shouts out. Her eyes bouncing between the alley’s entrance and Otto, expecting the trio to be here any second.

Otto is briefly paused, also confused by the unfamiliar word. Though, only for a moment, he’s already starting to get used to all of her eccentricities and weird ‘out of this world’ as Subaru would say it, phrases.

Him being caught up in Subaru’s momentum also being the reason why he doesn’t question her much about why she needs the insignia instead of just him giving it to Subaru’s friend.

Subaru takes the glowing insignia from his hands right as the trio arrives with perfect timing. Good, at least she won’t have to stall.

“Hey rich boy, weird girl,” Chin says, “if you don’t wanna get hurt, hand over all you got.” He walks like a gangster from a mafia manga. What is this guy? A chuuni? At least try to look intimidating, she won’t be able to leave Otto behind if they’re not able to.

Well, they’ll have to do. She sucks in a big breath preparing for her greatest acting role yet again, the damsel in distress, “ah! Don’t hurt me! He’s the one with all the money! Just look at his fancy outfit! Rob him! Not me!” Her shout bounces through the alley, for the whole world to hear. If anyone outside heard her, maybe they’ll help Otto. Though he’ll be fine either way, considering how weak this trio is.

Otto looks to her bewildered and betrayed, his last glimpse of her before she runs away being her mouthing the words, ‘sorry, explain later.’

Sorry Otto! She’ll have to explain why she left him when they meet next. And to make up for it, she’ll even stop bullying and teasing him for a month! … well maybe a month is too much. She’ll even stop bullying and teasing him for a week!

She runs out into the streets haphazardly, attempting to mimic how she found Emilia before. This time though, making sure to look at her surroundings.

And just like before, whether to her detriment or benefit, she only sees the shining halo of hair right as she’s about to bump into her. This time, Subaru is prepared, she stops most of her momentum and only bumps into her slightly.

“Ah! Sorry about tha-“ Subaru’s words pause, blonde hair is what she sees. Not Emilia, though, they do have remarkably similar hair styles. Though with Emilia’s face always very emotive, this girl’s face seems completely blank no emotions ever to be let through.

The girl merely bows silently before moving on her way, now seeming to completely ignore Subaru.

Subaru stares for only a moment before shaking her head and running off to find Emilia again.

Silver hair, silver hair, silver hair. Shouldn’t silver hair stand out in a crowd?! This is probably one of the only times she’ll say she doesn’t like that fantasy hair colors are so eccentric. If everyone’s hair color is unique and vibrant, no one’s will be.

She keeps searching and searching, running through crowds to find her. After a while, she starts to do it methodically. Searching each place that her and Emilia went last loop one by one.

Until finally, at the exact place she dreaded to come, she finally sees the glowing bright silver hair. The place where both of them died previously, now holding Emilia in place of the frozen waste.

This time both of them are here a lot earlier than before, about an hour until the frozen sunset arrives.

Subaru walks into the alley, past the badly stacked barrels, to see the maid talking to the air. Subaru however knows this isn’t insanity, Emilia must be talking to … Puck. If Puck was able to hear when Subaru introduced herself, surely he can hear Emilia talking to the air.

Now, how to go about saving her. Subaru will need to use every bit of information to make this work. With a deep breath to stable herself, she walks up to her former friend.

“Hi miss, do you happen to be Emilia?” Subaru asks, trying to sound curious, as if she doesn’t already know the answer.

Emilia is startled, both by someone willing to talk to someone like her, and that they knew her name. After what Subaru perceives as someone he cannot hear telling her something, she responds with a kind smile, saying, “yes, I am Emilia, just Emilia.”

Her smile causes Subaru’s own face to grin as well, happy that her friend isn’t self deprecating right away this time.

“Thank goodness, Roswaal .. -sama was looking for you everywhere,” she says, remembering the name of the one she was searching for. Hopefully this strategy will be enough to convince her that they should go to the guard station and get protection.

“Oh, he must have been worried,” Emilia’s eyebrows furrow as her guilty face once again arrives. It seems to consume her expression way too often for someone as kind as her.

“He sent a few people to look for you, can’t having one of his maids get lost right?” Subaru continues.

“Oh, yes. I tried looking for him,” she says quietly.

Subaru smiles brightly, trying to infect her with enthusiasm, “well how about I bring you to him! We could even talk the whole way there! It’d be great to make a new friend!” And same as before, she’s surprised by Subaru’s use of the word ‘friend’ to address her.

“Oh! Though before that!” Subaru interrupts any diminishment she may say about herself before they could even start. “Roswaal-sama wanted me to hand you this! When it glows, it’ll just show you how amazing you are!”

A light embarrassed blush arrives on Emilia’s cheeks, praise not often being given to her. She takes the insignia without protest, assuming it’s something that her employer said to do.

The insignia now in Emilia’s hands, Subaru stares at it intently. She stares, and stares, and stares, yet all she sees is the gem, not a light in sight. In fact it’s as if the entire world dims, her plan starting to fall off its tracks, and when it was going so well too.

Emilia seeing Subaru’s disappointment, slowly hands back the insignia, saying, “I’m sorry that it didn’t glow.” She states, fully confident that it is entirely her fault.

A moment passes, the darkness of the alley suffocating Subaru throughout the short lapse of words.

“That’s … ok. We, should probably get going,” Subaru says, trying to stifle down her confusion. Frustration mixing in with it, creating a suffocating grime that she can only push down to the recesses of her mind.

Emilia stays quiet as she follows, only talking with her spirit through their contract. Assuming that Subaru wouldn’t wish to speak with her anymore.

Just as they start to walk away from the place of their frozen deathbeds, they hear footsteps rapidly approaching. Though these footsteps are coming from in front of them instead, growing louder very quickly.

And in an instant, a small yellow haired bolt crashed into Subaru. The yellow bolt having been too distracted by looking behind her every two seconds.

She stumbles back, not quite falling to the floor. Though due to her thieving habits a small triangular insignia arrived in her hand. A glow filling the dimly lit alley, like a single star in the night sky.

Subaru’s expectations have been throughly shattered. The kind person she knew would fit the role well and thought would be the final candidate wasn’t, and now a random girl that bumped into her and stole it is?! None of this is making sense.

The girl not leading her lesson and glancing behind her right as she’s about to sprint off becomes an easy target for capture. Subaru grabs her by the scruff of her scarf’s collar. She’s not about to let this girl run off with her maiden’s insignia.

“Hey! Let me go!” The girl shouts out, not fully paying attention as she keeps glancing back from where she came from.

“Then give me back the insignia you stole!” Subaru shouts back. Frustrated that this girl isn’t even paying attention.

“I may be a thief, but I don’t care about some glowing gem right now! You can have it!” The speedy girl yells out, shoving the insignia into Subaru’s chest, “a crazy lady that wants my guts or something is chasing me! Now let me go before she kills you too!” She tries to squirm out of Subaru’s grasp, the glowing of the gem in her hand becoming more prominent as she struggles.

Though, right as Subaru is about to let her go. A chilling, sultry voice plays out, echoing through the alley’s walls.

“Ara~ how kind of you to bring your friends~ your bowels will look lovely right next to each other~”

Chapter Text

Chapter 03:Thread Which Connects Everything 

by McPhoenixDavid

The Early Fragment

Her earliest memory was of maids looking after her. Their hands were soft, their smiles practiced, their voices? Sweet as honey. They tied her ribbons, brushed her hair until it glowed like snow under moon light. When she cried, they dabbed her eyes with scented cloth. When she laughed, they clapped their hands as if she was the sun itself.

Her mother told her that she should always smile. A noble lady must smile, for her face is her crown. She was small then, her legs barely reaching the edge of the dining chair as her mother adjusted her posture.

Chin up, shoulders straight, lips soft. 

Her mother’s hand, heavy with rings, lifted her chin again and again until she stopped slouching. 

Smile. Always smile. Even when it hurts.

Her father told her to be elegant. 

A noble’s grace, he said, was proof of good breeding.

He spoke little otherwise, but when he did, everyone listened. His words were law. He didn’t raise his voice. He didn’t need to. The air around him obeyed.

She learned that silence pleased him more than chatter. That stillness pleased him more than laughter. That looking perfect mattered more than being happy.

And her lessons? She had tutors for that.

The tutors came one by one, each with their own scent of dust and ink. History first. Then literature. Then Od Laguna. The sacred history of the kingdom. She read her lines till her lips went dry. Then came magic lessons: gentle sparks between her palms, controlled breathing, willpower forced through pain. 

She danced until her toes bled, painted until her wrist ached, cooked until she scorched her fingers.

She asked, one day, why she needed to learn all this.

“To be ready,” said her mother.

“For what?”

“For your future.”

At the long dining table, she sat between her mother and father. It was a table made for twenty guests but served only three. 

The space between her and her parents was filled with silence and silverware. She cut her steak into small, perfect cubes. Then she asked, in a timid voice, if they wanted her to be a scholar or something.

Her father lowered his glass. “Don’t be ridiculous. You’ll become the duchess.”

She blinked. The duchess.

Ah. That was… honorable. Very important.

But how?

“By marrying Duke ✘✘✘✘✘✘,” her mother said with a small smile, that didn’t quite reach feel alive.

The duke. The one whose name she’d only heard in court gossip and polite talk. He was said to be gracious. Generous. A man beloved by all. The king confided in him. The people adored him. He was noble not only by blood but by spirit.

How fortunate she was.

The maids said so too. They said it when brushing her hair, when they took their time fitting her gowns, when they traded whispers while polishing her shoes. How lucky, how beautiful, how blessed.

Her beauty was rare. Golden eyes that shimmered like sunlight over water. Blonde hair that gleamed even in dim rooms. Skin untouched by the sun. People whispered when she walked by. Some praised her. Some envied her. But all stared.

She told herself it was fine. She was born to be seen, wasn’t she?

The night of the ball arrived, glowing with perfume and violins. She wore a gown of silver silk, light as a sigh. Jewels sparkled in her hair. She felt unreal, like a doll carved for display.

He approached her through the crowd—tall, elegant, smiling with the ease of someone who never had to force it. The Duke ✘✘✘✘✘✘ himself.

He bowed low. “May I have this dance, my lady?”

Her heart skipped. Of course he could.

He took her hand, his glove smooth against her skin. They spun beneath chandeliers. The world blurred into light and music. Everyone watched.

But as he placed his arm around her waist, she felt something strange. Not pain. Not fear. Just… wrong. Like something cold pressing through her skin.

She tried to smile, as her mother taught.

“Anything wrong, my lady?” His voice was kind. Gentle even.

“Nothing, Sir ✘✘✘✘✘✘.”

“Then let us continue.”

They danced until her legs trembled. His gaze never left her face. When the music stopped, he bent down, whispering something only she heard.

“You dance beautifully.”

And then, before she could breathe, he turned to the crowd and raised their joined hands high.

“My lords and ladies,” he announced. “It brings me great joy to declare our engagement.”

Applause burst like thunder. Cheers filled the hall. She felt the eyes of countless women pierce her skin. Jealous. Curious. Envious.

She smiled. She had to.

The Duke kissed her hand. His lips were soft. His eyes unreadable.

The wedding was two months later. The kingdom called it the union of light and virtue. Flowers rained from balconies. Doves released into the sky. The streets sang their names.

Her gown weighed more than her body. The veil dragged like a second skin. She walked through the cathedral, the air thick with incense. She didn’t see anyone’s face. Only colors. Gold. White. Red.

When the vows ended, she looked up at him and said she would be honored to serve him, love him, cherish him. Her voice barely trembled. He smiled back and said the same.

The bells rang.

She was the Duchess.

That night, she sat on the edge of a grand bed in a room too big for two people. Velvet curtains, white roses, a thousand candles burning low. Her heart beat like a trapped bird.

She looked at the door, waiting.

He was a poet. People said his words could melt the hardest of stones. Perhaps he would recite to her tonight. Something about beauty, or fate, or devotion. Something that would make her feel this was real.

The door creaked open.

He stepped inside, closing it softly behind him. His smile was the same as before. Calm. Perfect.

“My lord,” she said, standing quickly. “I’m honored to be your wife.”

He walked closer, his steps quiet. “Are you grateful?”

“Of course.” She tried to keep her voice steady.

“Would you do anything to repay me?”

“Indeed, my lord.” She smiled shyly. “Would you like me to sing? Or—”

He reached out and lifted her veil.

Her breath caught. The air felt heavy.

Was he going to kiss her? Oh. How lovely.

But his hand didn’t stop. It brushed her hair aside. Then down her shoulder. Then lower.

“My lord?” she whispered.

He tugged at the string of her corset. The fabric loosened. She caught it before it fell.

“My l-lord?!”

“You said you were grateful.” His tone didn’t change. “Take it off.”

Her eyes widened. “But—”

“Are you not listening?”

“My lord, please—”

“Take it off.”

Her hands trembled. She looked down at the floor, her heart racing so loud it drowned thought. She wanted to move, to say something clever, something that would make him laugh and stop this strange mood.

But her throat burned.

He took a step forward.

“Enough,” he said. “I’ll do it myself.”

She stepped back, but there was nowhere to go. The bed pressed against her knees. His fingers gripped her shoulders, harder than before. The room smelled of candle wax and wine.

Her mind went white.

The world outside that room ceased to exist.

It was the most painful night of her eighteen years of life.

Life as Duchess of Duke ✘✘✘✘✘✘ was nothing like they had promised. Nothing like her tutors had whispered about, nor like the maids’ dreamy sighs when they spoke of marriage. 

The castle was beautiful, yes. Vast halls that echoed like hollow bones. Chandeliers that burned too bright. Gold on the walls, silver on the plates, servants who bowed low every time she passed.

There was respect in their eyes, but no warmth.

They called her Your Grace with perfect tone and perfect distance. They smiled because they must. They followed orders, hers included, but never looked her in the eyes for too long. It was as though something unseen pressed against the air between them. 

Fear, maybe. 

Or pity.

Other nobles came often: lords, ministers, knights. They greeted her politely, praised her beauty, complimented her elegance. But their words never felt true. They spoke to her like one speaks to a statue, beautiful but cold.

And she smiled, as her mother had taught. Always smiled.

At night, she waited for the Duke to return from meetings. Sometimes he came smelling of wine, sometimes of perfume. She would pour his tea, sit beside him, and speak softly about her thoughts.

About how the workers in the southern fields were overtaxed. About how the new market road could be built through the forest to shorten travel. About how she wished to build a school for the children of the servants.

She waited for him to answer. He never did.

Sometimes he nodded without hearing. Sometimes he told her to sleep.

And sometimes he reached for her wrist, not to hold but to command. His touch was cold, like marble, his eyes distant even when he was close. 

She learned to keep quiet. 

To let him do what he wanted. 

To breathe when she could.

He wasn’t cruel in words.

He was cruel in silence.

He never shouted. Never struck her. But he looked at her as if she were an object that once interested him and now gathered dust.

Half a year passed before she noticed how tired she had become. The mirror began to betray her.

There were faint shadows under her eyes, dark crescents like bruises. Her lips had lost color. Her hair that was soft before, now tangled easily.

She wasn’t sick. 

Just… always tired.

Very tired.

Her hands trembled when she held a cup. Sometimes she would sit by the window, staring at the gray gardens, wondering why everything seemed dimmer now. The laughter of servants in the courtyard felt distant, like a sound heard through glass.

The Duke barely noticed.

He slept in the study more often than their bed. When he did return, he never stayed long enough to speak. His back turned to her before she could even open her mouth.

It was in the eighth month of her marriage that she learned she was with child.

Her heart fluttered. She pressed a hand to her stomach, as if touching a secret no one else knew. Life, small and fragile, growing inside her.

She thought of telling him. She imagined how he’d smile. How his eyes might soften, even for a moment.

When she finally told him, his reaction was quiet.

He looked at her, blinked once, and said, “I see.”

Then after a pause, he added, “You will need separate quarters. For safety.”

He summoned new maids to care for her. Her meals became more regular, her rooms warmer. She was moved to a sunlit chamber overlooking the garden.

She told herself this meant he cared. That he was protecting her. That this was his way of showing love.

For a time, she believed it.

She read books to her belly, whispered songs, smiled at the way the maids began to hum along. The thought of a child made her feel alive again. Something to hold. Something to be needed for.

But then, one morning, when the spring air was heavy with rain, she overheard the maids whispering near the door.

The words slipped like knives through the cracks.

“…the wedding is next week.”

“…can you believe it, a maid… Lady ⊕⊕⊕⊕ herself…”

“…His Grace must have truly found someone worthy.”

Her heart skipped. She pushed open the door, the words ringing in her ears.

“Who is getting married?” she asked.

The maids froze. Their faces drained of color. They stammered, curtsied, then scattered.

She called for the butler. When he arrived, he bowed low, his face expressionless.

“My lady?”

“What are they saying?” Her voice trembled. “Who is His Grace marrying?”

The butler did not look up. “His Grace has decided to take another wife. Lady ⊕⊕⊕⊕. One of your maids, previously.”

Her fingers tightened around the armrest. “But… it has only been a year.”

“Yes, my lady.”

“He… he cannot. I am his wife.”

“The Duke wishes for a proper companion,” said the butler, still bowing. His tone was flat, his eyes distant. “He believes Lady ⊕⊕⊕⊕ is more suited for the role.”

The room began to blur. The air felt too thin. “More suited?” she repeated. “I am his wife.”

The butler said nothing more.

She dismissed him with a shaking hand.

When he left, the silence that followed pressed down on her chest. The curtains swayed gently. Her hands rested on her belly, trembling.

A proper companion.

What did that make her?

The thought circled her mind like a vulture.

She told herself there must be a mistake. That the butler misunderstood. That perhaps it was a political marriage: temporary, ceremonial. The Duke would never abandon her, not when she was carrying his child.

He would come to her when the baby was born. He would hold their child and realize.

He would remember her.

He had to.

So she waited. She smiled at the servants, even when they avoided her gaze. She walked through the garden, hand on her stomach, whispering to the life inside her.

“Your father is very busy,” she told the child. “But he’s kind. Everyone says so. You’ll see. He’ll love you too.”

Days bled into weeks.

The wedding took place in the grand hall she used to dine in. 

From her room, she could hear the distant music. The laughter, the applause.

Her maids said nothing. They closed the windows to muffle the sound, but it still slipped through: soft, mocking, familiar.

When she lay in bed that night, she stared at the ceiling, her hand still resting on her stomach. The baby moved. A small flutter, a reminder that life still existed within her even as everything else faded away.

She smiled faintly, her eyes glossy.

Perhaps when he sees the child, she thought. Perhaps then he will remember.

How naive she was.

His second wife was more active than she ever was.

The woman glowed with the kind of light that filled every space she entered. She spoke with confidence, her laughter threaded through the halls like a song. Servants hurried to obey her; officials sought her opinion on matters of the estate. 

She organized the staff, planned dinners, even spoke at council meetings beside the Duke.

She watched it all with quiet eyes.

When their gazes met, the second wife always smiled at her. Polite. Warm. Almost kind. And she smiled back. Because that was what noblewomen did.

They dined together sometimes. 

The second wife chatted about the garden, the new tea blend, the neighboring duchy’s scandal and so on. 

Lady ⊕⊕⊕⊕’s voice was soft, her manners flawless. She always ended the talks by touching her hand and saying how she hoped they could be good sisters.

She was the duke's first wife, but she nodded each time, though her throat always felt tight.

On the fourth month after the duke's second wedding, she fell ill. 

The fever came fast. 

One moment she was standing by the window, and the next, the world tilted. Her body trembled as though her own blood turned to fire. The maids panicked. They called the physician, who came running with his hands full of vials and prayers.

She remembered the heat, the weight pressing on her chest, the blurred faces above her. She remembered the pain—a deep, twisting ache in her stomach that tore a scream from her throat.

And then silence.

When she woke, the room was quiet. The sheets smelled faintly of iron.

She moved her hand to her belly and found only emptiness.

Her voice cracked as she called for the maids. No one answered at first. When they came, they bowed, eyes lowered.

“The baby,” she whispered. “My baby—”

They didn’t need to answer.

She already knew.

The Duke didn’t come.

He didn’t send for her. Did not write. Did not speak her name.

He was not angry, nor cruel. 

He was nothing.

A hollow absence where a husband should be.

Days blurred after that. The fever left, but something colder stayed behind.

She began to wander the manor like a ghost. The servants stepped aside when she passed. The second wife was pregnant by then. The Duke didn’t change rooms this time.

From her chamber she could sometimes hear them laughing beyond the corridor. The sound slid through the air like a knife.

The new Duchess, no, THE Duchess, bloomed. Her face bright, her cheeks soft with joy. 

She looked more beautiful than ever. The maids adored her. The officials respected her. Even the walls seemed to listen when she spoke.

Sometimes she still smiled at her, the first wife. Smiled the same warm smile, as if pity and kindness were the same thing.

And she smiled back, though her lips shook.

Then slowly, the smiles stopped.

The greetings turned shorter. 

The meetings fewer.

One day, she realized she hadn’t seen the Duke in months. Not even his shadow. Not even his voice in the halls.

No one spoke of him when she was near.

Her room was moved to the farthest wing, overlooking the forest. The air there was colder. The fire never burned long enough.

Spring arrived quietly. The world outside began to bloom again while her own heart turned to frost.

That morning, a messenger arrived, his cloak covered in dust. He bowed low before handing her a sealed letter.

Her hands trembled as she opened it.

Her family estate: her home… was under attack.

Demihumans, the letter said. A sudden assault. The guards were overwhelmed. The villages around, already burned.

She didn’t think. She called for the steward, the messengers, the captain of the guards. She wrote a letter herself, pleading for the Duke’s aid.

It took three hours for a response to return.

When it came, it was only a single note, sealed with his crest.

His Grace regrets to inform that he is occupied with matters of state. Assistance cannot be spared at this time.

She read it twice, the words blurring into one long wound.

She waited another day, praying he would change his mind. Then another.

Two days later, the messenger returned. His clothes torn. His eyes red.

He knelt before her and didn’t rise.

Her family was gone.

The estate reduced to ash. Her parents, her brothers, her home… everything buried beneath smoke and ruin.

She sat very still as he spoke. The words came like distant thunder, muffled by water.

When he finished, she nodded once, though her body felt like stone.

She dismissed him quietly.

When the door closed, she looked out the window. 

The sky was the same soft blue it had always been. 

The world went on, uncaring.

She pressed her palm against the glass. It was cold.

Somewhere far away, her bloodline had ended.

And she was still here.

Breathing, but barely.

Alive, but forgotten.

Five years passed.

She had seen the Duke thrice.

Once, from a window, when he mounted his horse. Once, across the hall, his eyes sliding past her like she was air. Once, at a ceremony where his hand rested on the shoulder of his second wife, and hers rested over her empty lap

She barely left her quarters anymore. The corridors whispered too much. The servants bowed too fast.

Books became her world. 

Physics, mostly. It fascinated her. 

The way laws could bind even stars, the way invisible things could decide fate. She read until her eyes hurt. Wrote equations she could never solve. 

The universe made more sense than her own home.

The only warmth she had left was from her stepson, ◑◑◑◑◑.

He was six when he found her. Lost in the maze of the manor’s west wing, crying softly, calling for a maid who never came. She comforted him, showed him the way. 

The next day, he came again. And the next.

He would sneak sweets from the kitchen and share them with her, crumbs and laughter between them. She began waiting for his small footsteps every afternoon.

The second wife did not approve.

“She is not fit company,” she had said once, her voice dripping honey. “The child should not linger near her.”

But ◑◑◑◑◑ came anyway. His laughter filled her cold rooms like sunlight. For a while, she forgot to count her breaths.

Then came the tea party.

The second wife had invited every noble lady in the capital. They sat under painted umbrellas, porcelain cups glinting in the light. When she arrived late, as always, the second wife greeted her with a smile too wide.

“Oh, you’re here,” she said. “I almost didn’t recognize you.”

Her tone was soft, but the words slid sharp. The women turned to look.

“You’ve grown pale,” the second wife continued, sipping tea. “Perhaps the servants are neglecting you. Oh, my apologies. You no longer have servants, do you?”

Laughter rippled around the table, thin and sharp as glass.

She smiled, as her mother taught her. Always smile.

The second wife leaned close. “Do forgive me. It must be difficult, living as a guest in your own home.”

The women hid their laughter behind fans.

She said nothing. Her hands trembled under the table. The tea turned bitter on her tongue.

When the party ended, she walked back to her room in silence.

That night, ◑◑◑◑◑ came again, full of restless energy. 

He ran along the balcony railing, balancing with his arms spread.

“Careful,” she murmured. But her voice lacked force. She watched him wobble, a part of her wanting to reach out another part frozen still.

He fell.

The scream echoed. 

The sound of breaking bone followed.

He survived. 

His arm did not.

The house erupted in fury.

The second wife didn’t wait an hour. 

Guards came for her before the sun had set. 

No trial. 

No explanation. 

Just orders.

She was thrown into the dungeon that night.

She screamed once. 

Not for help. For herself.

Days passed. Then weeks.

Only a maid came, twice, to leave food and take the plates. She never spoke. The footsteps faded too quickly each time.

Her hair lost its color. Once gold, it turned white, like snow under ashes. Her skin turned cold. Her voice forgot how to sound alive.

The books were gone. The sky was gone. Only stone walls remained, pressing close.

She spoke to herself sometimes. Or to the air. Or to no one.

Two years passed that way.

Then came the sound.

Far away at first. Shouts. Horns. The clash of something against stone.

An army.

By nightfall, the manor shook. 

Screams rose from the courtyards. 

The guards shouted orders, desperate, lost. She pressed her back to the wall, her breath shallow.

Hours passed.

The noise drew closer. 

Boots. 

Steel. 

Cries that stopped too suddenly.

Then silence.

Then pounding.

On her door.

A person she knew. 

The second wife.

“Open! Please! Let us in!”

Another voice…the child’s crying, begging.

She stood. Her hands hovered over the bolt.

They had thrown her in the dungeon, a room that was neater than a regular cell but firmer than any other chamber in the city…

She could have opened it.

She didn’t.

She waited.

The screams grew louder. Then weaker. Then stopped.

The pounding ended.

Silence again.

She stood there, listening to the world die above her.

Then the door shuddered.

Wood splintered.

Stones fell.

Demihumans poured in.

She didn’t move.

One raised his blade. Another lunged. 

But nothing touched her.

They brushed past as if she were air.

She blinked. Looked down at her hands.

Untouched.

She lifted one hand slowly, brushing it through the air.

Half the wall beside her disappeared.

No smoke. 

No sound. 

Just gone.

The demihumans froze. Eyes wide.

She did it again.

Another section vanished.

A strange calm settled over her. The old equations filled her head again… force, direction, velocity but they meant nothing.

Ah. So that was it.

Her mind, sharpened by solitude, steeped in study, tangled with the ruins of her magic.

The world had abandoned her, and the laws had shifted to her will.

It all made sense now.

She laughed, soft at first, then louder, until the sound cracked against the stone.

She understood everything. The emptiness, the loss, the waiting. It had all led here.

She deserved this. Her rights were returning to her.

It was her right!

All the pain she has endured has finally made her the perfect human being! 

The demihumans hesitated, confused.

She smiled at them gently, as her mother had taught her long ago.

Always smile.

“Come,” she whispered. “I will be kind.”

And she was.

The halls burned red in the dying twilight sun's flicker.

Smoke crawled along the floors, curling around the bodies, whispering secrets to the flames. The air smelled of iron and wet ash. She walked barefoot across it, unfeeling, her white hair drifting like mist.

In the courtyard, she found him.

The Duke. ✘✘✘✘✘.

He was on the ground, his robes torn, the proud crest blackened by soot. His voice rasped as he reached toward the empty air.

“Water,” he murmured. “Please…”

She stopped.

He didn’t notice her at first. His eyes were clouded, his lips cracked. When he finally saw her, he froze.

For a moment, she thought he might say her name. But he didn’t.

“Help me,” he said instead. “Help me, and I’ll forgive you… I’ll…”

Her lips twitched. “Forgive me?”

His breath hitched.

“You locked me away,” she said softly. “You let me rot. My bloodline. My child.”

He flinched. His hands shook as he reached again, scraping the dirt. “Please… I was— I had to—”

“Had to?” Her voice rose, cracked, then softened again, strangely bright. “Had to what? To protect your name? Your honor?”

He opened his mouth, but nothing came.

Her head tilted. “You always looked down on me, didn’t you? Always talking about duty. About grace. About being noble. Tell me, my Duke… how noble do you look now?”

He crawled toward her. His knees dragged through the mud.

She crouched down, her smile stretching, trembling. “Look at you. So small. So weak. Do you remember the night of our wedding?”

He whispered something. Maybe her name. Maybe a prayer.

She laughed. It came out broken, half-sob, half-song.

“You wanted me quiet. Elegant. Perfect. A jewel to polish. So I smiled, like mother said. I smiled every time you hurt me. Every time you forgot me. I smiled.”

She rose slowly, her shadow stretching over him.

“Then keep smiling too.”

Her foot pressed down.

He gasped, tried to push her away.

“Mercy,” he wheezed. “Please, mercy—”

She pressed harder.

“Mercy,” she repeated. “You like that word. It sounds so pretty coming from your mouth.”

He screamed.

She stomped once.

Then again.

Again.

And again.

Each sound duller than the last.

When the courtyard finally went silent, her laughter filled it. Sharp. Unending. The wind carried it through the broken arches, twisting it until it didn’t sound human anymore.

The demihuman soldiers stared from the shadows. None dared move.

She looked at them and smiled through tears. “Don’t look so afraid.”

She raised her hand.

Light spun from her fingertips—thin beams, threads of silver and white. They danced through the air like ribbons. Her body moved with them, slow, graceful, each motion a memory of lessons long ago. Her mother’s voice in her ear.

Chin up. Arms out. Spin.

She turned once, twice. The beams followed, weaving through the air.

The soldiers stumbled back.

She kept dancing.

The light curved with her movement, silent, precise, drawing circles that shimmered like broken glass.

When she stopped, no one else stood.

The demihumans had killed everyone: guards, maids, lords…

…and she had killed the demihumans.

Smoke curled around her feet. The courtyard was still again.

She looked at her hands, trembling now, and for the first time, she felt the weight of them.

She walked through the ruins, past walls that once held her silence, into the grand chamber.

The Duke’s chair stood there, untouched.

She sat down slowly.

The seat was too large. Too cold.

Tears came without warning. Quiet at first, then deep, shaking her whole body. She pressed her palms to her face and wept.

The flames whispered. The world was ending outside.

Then she heard footsteps.

Soft. Steady.

She looked up.

A woman stood at the doorway. Platinum-blonde hair which looked almost white, blue eyes, her clothing strange, not of this kingdom. She walked forward without fear, her gaze calm, her presence quiet.

“You look troubled,” she said.

Her voice was gentle. Too gentle.

“Who are you?”

“Someone who is gathering people like you,” the woman said. “For a world without sorrow.”

She laughed weakly. “Lies.”

“Oh, it is reality.”

“How?” Her voice cracked. “How could there be such a world?”

“By bringing back the Witch of Envy.”

She stared. The flames flickered behind them, throwing light across her pale hair, her ruined gown.

“…Who are you?” she whispered.

The woman smiled.

“My name, dear Regia Corneas, is Pandora Suwen.”

***

The Fragment Of Between

Subaru’s expectations have been thoroughly shattered. 

The kind person she knew would fit the role well and thought would be the final candidate wasn’t, and now a random girl that bumped into her and stole it is?! 

None of this was making sense.

The girl apparently did not learn her lesson and glanced behind her right as she was about to sprint off and became an easy target for capture. 

Subaru grabbed her by the scruff of her scarf’s collar. She’s not about to let this girl run off with the insignia.

“Hey! Let me go!” The girl shouted, not fully paying attention as she kept glancing back from where she had come from.

“Then give me back the insignia you stole!” Subaru shouted back. Frustrated that this girl wasn’t even paying attention.

“I may be a thief, but I don’t care about some glowing gem right now! You can have it!” The speedy girl yelled out, shoving the insignia into Subaru’s chest. She tried to squirm out of Subaru’s grasp, the glowing of the gem in her hand becoming more prominent as she struggled.

Though, right as Subaru was about to let her go. 

A chilling, sultry voice played out, echoing through the alley’s walls. 

“Ara~ how kind of you to bring your friends~ your bowels will look lovely right next to each other~”

Subaru blinked once, the air so cold it hurt to breathe. “Who… who are you?”

The woman stepped forward slowly, that haunting calmness in her stride like a cat that already knew how this would end. 

She tilted her head, her smile wide but empty, her eyes gleaming black like polished obsidian. “My, my… so rude of me,” she purred, lowering herself into a mock curtsy. “Elsa Granhiert. Collector of entrails, seeker of beauty beneath the skin.”

Somewhere in the night, a cricket chirped. Then another. Then silence again.

“Uh… who?” Subaru blurted out, brows scrunching. The absurdity of the name didn’t match the mood; it was like being told she was about to get cancelled by a woman who sounded like she sold perfume on street corners.

Elsa straightened, her grin stretching wider.

“I suppose rumors don’t travel as far as they used to. I am a bounty hunter of sorts. Though I prefer to think of myself as a connoisseur of life’s delicate insides.” She said it casually, like she was describing her favorite dish. “They call me the Bowel Hunter. It’s such a crude title, don’t you think?”

Subaru shuddered, not from the name, but from the calm way she said it. 

Everything about this woman screams psychopath.

She turned toward Emilia, half-expecting recognition, maybe fear, but instead got that same gentle clueless expression.

“Do you… know her?” Subaru whispered, already dreading the answer.

Emilia shook her head, frowning. Then, in pure anime waifu fashion, she stepped forward with polite concern in her eyes. “Miss Elsa, right? You shouldn’t wander alleys like this. It’s dangerous here. Are you lost? Do you need any help?”

The sound Elsa made wasn’t laughter; it was something soft, dark, and delighted. “Lost? Oh, you sweet thing. I’m exactly where I need to be.”

The blonde-haired thief suddenly screamed, her voice cracking as she pointed an accusing finger at both of them. “Are you two idiots?! That’s the freakin’ Bowel Hunter! She’s famous! She kills people for fun!”

For some reason, a random manga panel flashed on Subaru's mind, a bald man saying “I'm just a hero for fun,”

She shook her head, no need to distract herself with such thoughts. Though that manga was peak.

“The hell have you two been living that you don't know her?” The blonde shouted again. She then pointed an accusing finger at Elsa. “Also, the hell did you lie?”

Elsa merely grinned.

Everything in Subaru’s body froze. The words didn’t hit all at once…they slid down her spine, thick and cold. Her mind raced backward through the last loop, the death, every drop of blood. Is she the killer? The one who—

“My first impression… You’re an interesting bunch,” Elsa murmured, her tone still sweet, almost motherly. “But…”

Flash.

No warning, no motion, no sound, just a flash. Then the world tilted. Subaru looked down, and for a split second, she couldn’t process what she saw. 

The cold crept in fast, her breath hitching as something wet slipped down her stomach. 

She tried to breathe, but air wouldn’t come.

Her vision doubled, then tripled, and then the ground hit her. She didn’t even feel herself fall. Just the weight in her gut: heavy, spreading warmth that didn’t belong. 

The smell of iron and something bitter filled her nose.

Emilia’s scream cracked through the air, sharp enough to hurt.

Elsa stood over her, calm as ever, blade glistening in the faint light. She tilted it, watching the red slide down the curve like it was fine wine. Then, with that same delighted curiosity, she dragged her tongue across the steel. “Mmm… your bowels are nice,” she said with a disappointed sigh. “But plainly average.”

And then the evening was quiet again.

Subaru’s eyes stayed open just long enough to see the world blur into black. The insignia rolled from her limp fingers, its glow fading with her heartbeat.

Thus, Subaru died. Again. 

Subaru snapped back into existence with a gasp that tore through her lungs, like she’d been yanked out of the bottom of a freezing lake. Her eyes darted around — same market smells, same uneven stone underfoot, same heavy bag of appas — and her own trembling hands. “Ah… fuck,” she muttered, heart hammering so fast it made her ribs ache.

Her brain caught up one nightmare at a time. She’d found both the killer and a royal candidate in one go. Both of them weird as hell. 

No, she corrected herself bitterly, both are absolute freaks. 

One was a street thief who somehow had the divine right to rule a kingdom, and the other was a full-time-stripper-slash-serial-bowel-enthusiast.

Her thoughts spiraled. No, no, no… she is NOT going there. Nope. Not again.

“Let me go!”

The voice jolted her. Subaru blinked down and realized that she was holding the thief. Again. The same blonde-haired girl from before. Felt?

Her stomach dropped. Did the checkpoint refresh?!

The thief struggled against her grip, twisting her scarf. Subaru barely noticed. Her eyes locked on the dark mouth of the alley ahead. No movement. No glint of steel. Good, she thought. Elsa’s not here yet. Time to—

“Ara~ how kind of you to bring your friends~ your bowels will look lovely right next to each other~.”

Subaru froze mid-step, the words cutting through her thoughts like a blade through silk. Oh, you’ve got to be kidding me.

Emilia’s voice trembled behind her. “Who… who is she?”

Subaru’s chest felt tight, not because of her chest which was already flat; no, for very different reasons..

Panic crawled up her spine, but she forced her body to move, forced her brain to think. She gritted her teeth and hissed out the words, “That’s Elsa. The Bowel Hunter. She’s a killer: like, an actual assassin who carves people open for fun.” 

Her tone cracked halfway through the sentence, her mind already racing through possibilities: fight, flee, stall, something.

Elsa smiled like she’d just been complimented on her dress. “My reputation precedes me, I see.”

The thief’s voice broke next, shrill with fear. “Why the hell are you here? What about the deal?!”

Elsa tilted her head, her long hair sliding like dark water over her shoulder. “Oh, I was told many things,” she said sweetly, the blade in her hand glimmering as she raised it. “Ah, never mind. Let’s get rid of the extras, shall we?”

Then she lunged.

Subaru was ready this time. 

When Elsa’s blade came whistling through the air, Subaru threw herself backward so hard her heel scraped against the cobblestone. 

The strike missed her by inches, air slicing her cheek like paper.

“Miss!” Emilia shouted, voice cracking with panic. 

Elsa turned, her eyes bright with delight, and slashed at Emilia next.

But Emilia wasn’t helpless: she threw up her hand, ice flashing into existence with a hiss. A crystalline shield bloomed between them, the impact rattling the whole alley.

Elsa actually giggled. “How lovely. Magic and courage.”

She twirled, faster than Subaru’s eyes could track, and the next second Subaru felt the sting: sharp and burning; across her thigh. The world tilted, pain exploding through her leg, blood soaking the fabric instantly. She staggered but somehow stayed upright, her body trembling on instinct alone.

Emilia’s voice came from somewhere distant, her chant breaking through sobs. Ice shards flew like daggers, but Elsa slipped through them like smoke, her grin never fading.

The thief, seeing her chance, tried to bolt. She made it maybe two steps before Elsa turned and flicked her wrist. 

A knife flew from her sleeve, silent as death, and embedded itself straight into the thief's foot.

Her scream tore through the alley.

“No!” Emilia’s attention snapped toward her, and in that split-second Elsa moved. She was a blur, her blade whistling once more.

The sound that followed wasn’t steel on stone… it was wet. Final.

Emilia froze mid-breath. Her eyes went wide as she looked down at the red spreading across her dress. Her lips moved, but no sound came out…

…just shock, confusion. Her hands lifted on instinct, trembling, trying to push her own insides back where they belonged.

Subaru screamed so loud her throat tore.

Elsa’s expression softened in a twisted admiration. “Exquisite. Such elegant insides. Like silk petals.”

Emilia’s body shuddered once more, then fell limp, blood pooling around her boots. The glow of her spirit faded, the air around them colder now.

Elsa turned her gaze to Subaru, smile widening again, calm as a sunrise. “Now, little girl,” she said gently, “let’s see what beauty you hide beneath.”

Then—

Boom.

The sound wasn’t fire or thunder. 

It was everything at once. 

Pressure. 

Heat. 

Cold. 

The world folded. 

Subaru’s scream died before she could finish it. The pain didn’t start in her skin… it started in her soul, like her very existence was being peeled apart. 

Her vision filled with white, then red, then nothing at all. 

Every nerve burned, every thought shattered into sparks.

There was no air. No sound. Just pain and the raw, primal wrongness of being unmade again.

She died.

Then—

Subaru snapped back.

She was back.

Same street. 

Same air. 

Same bag of appas. 

Same trembling hands.

And she was holding the thief again.

Her knees gave out. She hit the cobblestone hard, the impact barely registering through the shock.

“Miss?! You okay?” Emilia was beside her in an instant, her voice full of concern, her arms steadying her.

The thief froze mid-step, confusion breaking through her panic. “Nee-san?” she whispered.

The words hadn’t even finished leaving her lips when it came again—

“Ara~ how kind of you to bring your friends~ your bowels will look lovely right next to each other~”

The tone slid through the air, silk over blades. Subaru’s stomach tightened but she forced herself to breathe. Emilia gasped beside her, confusion written across her face.

“Who is she?” Emilia asked softly.

Subaru didn’t waste a second. “She’s Elsa. The Bowel Hunter. A killer. Run if you can, because she doesn’t stop until someone’s opened up on the ground.”

Elsa stepped out of the shadows with that same amused look, her blade catching the dim light. The little girl's voice cracked as she yelled, “You were my client! Why are you after us?!”

Elsa smiled wider. “I was told many things, little thief. Ah, never mind. Let’s get rid of the others first.”

Subaru’s muscles tensed. She remembered the exact moment Elsa lunged the first two times. The flick of her wrist, the twist of her hip. When it happened again, Subaru was ready. She moved, dropping to the side as the blade hissed past where her neck had been a heartbeat before.

Her breathing came rough and fast. She rolled, barely dodging the next slash, her heart hammering so hard she thought it might burst. She felt the air split every time the knife passed.

“Emilia, go get help!” she shouted.

But of course Emilia didn’t run. “I can’t leave you!” she cried, and ice burst from her palm, shards forming a sharp wall between them and Elsa.

Elsa’s eyes gleamed. “Magic again. Delightful.” She flicked her wrist, the knife spinning in her hand.

Subaru knew the rhythm now. The hunter’s tempo. She ducked again, but this time Elsa changed her timing. The blade sliced across Subaru’s side, not deep enough to kill but enough to tear through skin and muscle. She screamed, stumbling, blood splattering the stone.

Emilia whispered some incarnation and launched another spell, her ice forming a spear. It shot forward, fast enough to blur, but Elsa wasn’t there when it hit. She was already behind her.

The strike came down swift and final.

Emilia gasped. Her body went rigid, then soft. The ice shattered around her as red poured down her front. Her silver hair caught the blood like threads of crimson light. Her lips parted, her eyes glassy with disbelief.

Subaru could only watch, frozen in horror, as Emilia’s body slumped to the ground. The cold spread instantly, the air twisting, the world folding inward. It wasn’t just grief: it was physical. The ground itself started to tremble, colors draining from everything.

Every time Emilia dies, the world follows. The heat, the pressure, the crushing collapse…

…she had to stop it.

But how—

The cold took her before she could finish the thought.

Everything froze. Her blood, her breath, even her scream.

And then she was gone.

Only to open her eyes again.

Same cobblestones. 

Same appas. 

Same trembling hands clutching the thief.

And the same unbearable loop waiting for her.

Subaru didn’t even let her lungs finish the first breath before she was moving. She snatched Emilia’s wrist with one hand and the girl's with the other, nearly dragging both of them off their feet as she sprinted toward the far end of the alley. “No talking, just running!” she shouted, voice shaking, the words spilling out like survival instincts turned into speech.

Emilia stumbled after her, confusion written all over her face. “Miss, what’s going on?!”

“Trust me! Bad news, knife-happy lady, just move!” Subaru barked, yanking harder.

The thief flailed behind her, cursing every other step. “Hey! What the hell are you doing, psycho?! Let me go!”

Subaru didn’t even turn around. Her heartbeat pounded so loud she could barely hear her own thoughts. The only thing that mattered was the end of the alley, the faint light spilling in, safety maybe — no, definitely not, but still better than here.

They were almost there. Just a few more steps and they’d hit the street, except suddenly, Subaru’s grip on the thief’s wrist jerked hard.

The thief had twisted around, her boot catching on a loose stone.

Her foot hit the ground wrong.

Subaru barely registered the weight shift before she felt herself tip forward.

No no no… don’t you dare—

“Hey, you little—!”

And then gravity claimed them both. Subaru hit the cobblestone hard, air exploding out of her chest. She didn’t even have time to swear before a voice drifted through the darkness.

“Ara~ ara~… running already? That’s no fun at all.”

Her heart dropped. That voice. That sing-song tone dripping with glee.

She twisted around just in time to see the flash.

White light, silver blade.

Cold tearing through her midsection.

Her body went limp before the pain could even hit properly. The world tilted, the air went thick, and she caught one last glimpse of Emilia’s horrified face as everything fell apart again.

Then the cold swallowed her whole.

And Subaru died. Again.

Subaru came back with a gasp that scraped her throat raw. 

Her eyes were wide, darting around the familiar street, the smell of dirt, smoke, and half-rotten fruit already making her stomach churn. 

Her whole body trembled from the leftover sensation of dying again and something deep inside her finally cracked.

She didn’t even look at the others this time. 

No explanations, no heroics, no “let’s all stick together.” 

Just raw, animal survival.

When Emilia turned toward her, still confused and kind, Subaru was already backing away. The thief opened her mouth to say something, but Subaru’s eyes said it all… don’t follow me. She spun around and bolted, boots slapping the cobblestones, breath hitching like every inhale burned.

She passed the corners she knew too well, the smell of blood almost lingering there from before.

And then she saw her.

Elsa.

Standing at the end of a narrow passage, her figure silhouetted by the faint orange glow of lantern light. 

The edges of her hair glimmered in the dimness.

Time slowed.

Subaru’s heartbeat echoed in her ears like thunder. The alley stretched endlessly, dust hanging in the air like suspended glass shards. Elsa’s eyes caught her for a split second… 

…sharp, cold, and unreadable.

For a heartbeat, Subaru thought she’d attack again.

But Elsa didn’t move.

She only tilted her head slightly, a smile curling her lips as if she already knew. As if Subaru’s running wasn’t cowardice to her… it was predictable.

Subaru kept running.

She didn’t look back again. 

Not until the street widened and she stumbled out into the open, her chest heaving. 

Her lungs screamed, her legs burned, but she kept going until her knees finally gave out under a small, scraggly tree at the edge of the district. 

She dropped hard onto the ground, curling forward, gasping for air like it might disappear too.

It was only logical. 

She didn’t want to die again. She wasn’t strong, she wasn’t a knight, she wasn’t a hero. Just a terrified girl who wanted to live one more day.

But as she sat there, head bowed, hands shaking, guilt crawled up her spine like ice water. She left them. She left Emilia and the theif girl to die.

Her fingers dug into the dirt. “I’m sorry,” she whispered. “I just—”

The rest vanished under a sudden rumble.

The world… cracked.

The air shifted from warm to frigid in an instant. The light dimmed as clouds devoured the sky, and the first flakes of snow fell — not gentle, not soft, but sharp, biting, furious. Subaru looked up, her breath catching in her throat.

Wind screamed through the streets like the world itself was angry. Every building groaned under the weight of frost forming faster than her eyes could follow.

And then the blizzard came.

It wasn’t weather… no, it was annihilation. A single wave of cold exploded outward from the direction of the city’s center, freezing everything it touched. People, carts, the cobblestone under her hands —all turned to shimmering ice in a heartbeat.

Subaru’s breath fogged, then froze halfway out of her mouth. She couldn’t move. Her tears crystallized on her cheeks as her vision blurred.

Of course. 

Emilia must have been killed again. 

That was it. 

Whenever Emilia died, this world would go full Ice Age mode… thanks to Puck…was it?

Subaru’s thoughts began to slow.

Her body felt heavy, her heartbeat muffled under the thick, suffocating cold. 

But through the frost and wind, something moved.

A shape…

A shape walking…

A woman?

Her hair was white, not like the snow, her dress was…odd.

Then the wind howled louder, and Subaru saw part of a building break free —a huge rooftop collapsing from the weight of ice. It came crashing toward the woman.

The woman didn’t even pause, huh. 

She raised her hand, palm open, not that Subaru could see clearly…

The rooftop shattered into dust before it could touch her.

Subaru’s lips trembled. Who…

Of course… she is seeing thing—

But the word never left her.

The cold reached her heart.

And everything stopped again.

Subaru died.

Subaru came to with a wet gasp, lungs clawing for air like she’d just been yanked out of a drowning dream. Her stomach rolled, and she nearly threw up right there in the middle of the marketplace. The smell of fruit and sweat and heat didn’t help either. She clutched her middle, half expecting to feel the slick tear of her intestines again. Nope: skin intact. For now.

Her hands were shaking. And, oh, great, she was still holding the girl.

The tiny blonde thief squirmed like an angry cat, kicking at Subaru’s shins. “Hey! Let me go, psycho! I don’t even know you!”

“Yeah, yeah, one second,” Subaru muttered, trying to think through the headache pounding behind her eyes. She knew what was coming. She’d seen it, felt it, died through it enough times now. The loops weren’t random anymore: they were cruelly organized. And she was their punchline.

Okay. Think. Elsa’s about to show up. Emilia’s here. This thief’s here. The universe apparently hates her. That much is clear.

She needed a plan. Not a good plan, just… something that didn’t end in a close-up of her intestines again.

Before she could line up a thought that wasn’t “scream and run,” she heard it.

That soft, mocking voice slithering down the alley like silk dipped in blood.

“Ara~ ara~—”

“You’re late,” Subaru blurted, voice sharp and trembling at the same time.

A pause. Then the rhythm of boots echoed. Elsa stepped into view, her smile soft but eyes sharp enough to cut. “Oh? You knew I was going to come here?”

“Obviously.” Subaru forced a grin that looked like it was stitched onto her face with fishing wire. “You can’t expect the client to fully trust someone like you, can you? Hehehe.”

She even added finger guns. Why? She had no idea. Maybe because her brain was trying to laugh before it cried.

“Miss?” Emilia blinked, all polite confusion, looking between them. “What are you talking about?”

Subaru turned, flashing her the brightest, fakest smile she could muster. “Oh, you know. Business stuff! Super normal business things! Don’t worry about it, hehe.” Inside, her soul was melting into a puddle of existential dread. I’m gooooing to diiiie.

Elsa tilted her head, amusement flickering behind her dark eyes. “You talk like someone who knows something you shouldn’t.”

“Oh please, I know lots of things I shouldn’t,” Subaru said, waving her hand dramatically. “But you’re here for a job, right? So tell me: are you planning to take out both targets or just the one?”

Elsa’s smile stretched a little wider, that calm, killer’s calm. “You certainly sound like someone in the know.”

Subaru grinned, sweating bullets. “Yup. Totally informed. Deep in the game, me. Knows the players, the price, the plot twists—”

Elsa cut her off with a soft, melodic laugh. “You’re a terrible liar.”

Subaru blinked. “Huh?”

Before the thought could finish forming, Elsa moved.

The air itself seemed to split. Subaru barely saw the blur of black leather before instincts took over—she ducked, the knife glinting inches from her face as it carved through empty air.

Elsa twisted midair like a dancer, her second strike arcing downward. Subaru stumbled back, boots scraping across the cobblestones, the blade hissing past her chest close enough to slice a few hairs.

“I, uh, missed me!” Subaru yelped, adrenaline turning her limbs into electricity.

Elsa didn’t stop. She turned her wrist, and the blade flew, slicing the air toward Subaru’s throat.

But Subaru was already moving: sidestepping before Elsa even threw it, a mix of instinct and sheer, traumatized muscle memory. The knife clattered against the wall behind her.

“Predictable,” Elsa murmured, impressed. “You learn fast.”

“Call it survivor’s intuition!” Subaru shouted, heart hammering.

Then, from behind her, a blast of frost ripped through the alley. Emilia stood tall, arm raised, ice shards forming around her like glowing wings. “Step away from her!”

Elsa turned slowly, eyes narrowing with a spark of delight. “Oh? Magic users are always fun to carve open.”

Her tone was sweet as syrup. Her eyes said murder.

Elsa moved again. Too fast, too graceful. Emilia launched a volley of frozen spears that shattered against Elsa’s blades like glass.

Subaru didn’t stay to see round two. “Cya!” she yelled, voice cracking, and bolted out of the alley.

Elsa’s head snapped toward the sound, watching Subaru’s retreating figure vanish into the marketplace. For a moment, the assassin just stood there, smiling to herself.

“…Huh,” she murmured, licking a fleck of blood off her thumb from Emilia’s earlier strike. “What an interesting girl. I can’t wait to see what her bowels look like.”

Meanwhile, Subaru was sprinting like her life depended on it: because it absolutely did. She shoved past vendors and shouted apologies to pedestrians, hair flying, lungs screaming for mercy.

Her brain was a chaotic mess of thoughts, most of which involved the words “run,” “death,” and “ohgodohgodohgod.”

Her heart hammered against her ribs. “No time to waste,” she muttered between gasps. “Time to find help. Guards, knights, random guys with swords, anyone!”

She didn’t care about pride. She didn’t care about plans. At this point, she would happily throw herself at Julius’s shiny boots and beg for salvation.

Behind her, somewhere deep in the maze of streets, she thought she heard that faint, amused chuckle again.

“Ara~ ara~…”

Subaru nearly tripped over her own feet. Nope. Not looking back. Not today, Satan.

She cut through the market, ducking behind carts, weaving through people like a terrified raccoon. The smell of spices and sweat clung to her, but all she could think of was the flash of a blade, the sound of laughter, the memory of cold.

When she finally stumbled to a stop near the plaza fountain, she slumped against it, chest heaving.

“Okay, okay, think,” she told herself, shaking. “You’ve seen enough murder today to fill a true crime podcast. You can figure this out.”

She looked down at her reflection in the water — wild hair, bloodless face, dark circles under her eyes. She looked like someone who’d seen the end of the world and been told to clock in for another shift.

“…You’re doing great, sweetie,” she whispered to herself.

Her body trembled from the leftover adrenaline. She could still feel the ghost of that slash across her belly, still remember the way her insides had felt wrong, heavy, slipping. She clutched her middle again, shivering.

Not again. She wasn’t doing that again.

If she was going to survive this loop, she’d need to play smarter. No more improvising with death incarnate in an alleyway.

Her mind flashed with images: Emilia’s frozen eyes, Elsa’s slow grin, the white-haired woman in the blizzard. The pieces were starting to connect, horribly and perfectly.

There was a reason that woman appeared to kill her and Emilia And if Subaru had to keep looping through hell to figure it out… fine. She’d do it.

She’d rather break reality than die crying again.

For now, though, she needed allies. Guards, adventurers, mercenaries — hell, even that appa vendor Kadomon would do if he had a bat.

Subaru pushed off the fountain, steadying her breathing. “Alright. New strategy. Step one: don’t die. Step two: find someone who’s good at killing things that like killing me.”

The wind picked up again, carrying faint traces of laughter that didn’t belong in daylight. Subaru froze, glancing over her shoulder.

No one. Just crowds, sunlight, and the noise of the market.

Still, she didn’t shake the feeling that she was being watched.

She adjusted her cloak and started walking faster.

If Elsa wanted a hunt, fine. 

She’d make it one. 

But this time, the prey had a plan.

Sort of.

Maybe.

She hoped.

Subaru ran through the market street like a storm in human form; except, instead of wind, she was powered entirely by panic and trauma. 

The air was full of the smell of sweat, and that sickly-sweet tang of freshly baked bread, which, under any other circumstance, would’ve made her hungry. But right now, her stomach was in full rebellion mode.

Every step echoed like a ticking clock in her mind. 

Three minutes. Maybe less. Elsa was probably already carving her way through the alley like a graceful butcher.

“Come on, come on, there has to be a knight somewhere!” Subaru gasped, spinning her head left and right.

But no dice.

The street was quiet for once. Not even a glimpse of the shiny armor she’d normally spot patrolling around, talking big about “justice” while checking out maids. 

She found vendors, kids chasing a ball, some guy selling fruit that looked like they were already halfway to fermenting: literally everyone except someone useful.

Subaru darted up to a random shopkeeper, “Hey! You seen any knights around? Big shiny dudes, talk about honor, bad at actual saving?”

The man blinked. “Eh? Patrol doesn’t post ‘round here anymore. Not since last week.”

Subaru’s mouth hung open. “Not since last… what kind of fantasy world doesn’t even have a working police rotation?! You guys got dragons instead of horses, assassins, muggers, and you’re telling me your system runs on vibes?!”

The merchant gave her a blank stare like she was shouting in a language only panic could translate.

Subaru groaned, running a hand through her hair. “Okay. Mercenaries then. Hired swords. People who kill things for coin!”

But as she darted from stall to stall, it was the same deal; just merchants. So many merchants. Every second person was selling spice, fabric, or fruit, and not a single one looked remotely capable of decapitating a professional murderer.

She stopped dead in the middle of the street, chest heaving, her head spinning. The panic in her chest started to morph into this cold, hollow weight that pressed against her ribs. She could feel it again… that creeping knowledge that she was about to die. That same sick anticipation of an ending that she didn’t even want to see anymore.

“Crap,” she muttered. “Crap, crap, crap. I’m gonna die again.”

And just as that thought finished loading in her head, she walked right into someone.

“Ow, hey! Watch where you’re—” Subaru’s words froze as she looked up.

The woman she’d bumped into didn’t even budge. 

Like, not even a flinch. Subaru might as well have run into a statue sculpted out of ice and ego.

The woman’s face twitched, the faintest muscle in her jaw tightening in irritation. Her hair was snow-white, sleek and perfect, glowing in the daylight. Her eyes were a pale shade that almost shimmered when she blinked, like polished glass reflecting everything and feeling nothing. She looked like she should’ve been painted, not standing in a dirty street with fish scales and apple cores lying around her boots.

“Uh… sorry,” Subaru mumbled, already stepping around her. “Kinda in a hurry, about to die, excuse me—”

“Anosa,” the woman said, voice soft but carrying this weird weight that made Subaru freeze mid-step.

Subaru looked back, half-annoyed, half-desperate. “Yeah?”

The woman smiled: not kindly. More like a cat pretending it liked the bird it was about to eat. “You look troubled.”

“Mhm, yeah, that’s an understatement.” Subaru waved her hands vaguely. “Whole “D” thing, long story, no time, so—”

“And being a generous person,” the woman continued smoothly, ignoring her, “I’ve decided to see if I can help.”

Subaru squinted. “Wait, nah. You can’t. I need someone strong to help me.”

The air shifted. The woman’s smile faltered for half a second before reforming into something thinner, colder.

“Strong?” she repeated, brushing her hair back with deliberate slowness, her chin lifting a fraction. “You say that as if strength  is something you can recognize when you see it.”

Okay, weird flex, but whatever. 

Subaru wasn’t about to get into a philosophical debate with a walking snowflake.

“Yeah, yeah, sure, big power, mysterious lady, not the time.” She gestured frantically down the street. “Look, there’s this psycho woman with knives about to murder my friend and probably me, so unless you can, I don’t know, deflect a sword with your face, I gotta go—”

“Interesting,” the woman said, voice syrupy sweet but dripping with offense. “You assume I cannot.”

Subaru blinked.

The woman sighed dramatically, like this whole interaction was beneath her but she was far too benevolent to end it. “Tell me, girl. What is it you need done that requires such strength?”

Subaru eyed her. Something about her felt… wrong. Not in an “evil” way, exactly, but in that way a porcelain doll would be wrong if it suddenly started talking about morality. 

The way she stood there, perfectly composed while people moved around her, made Subaru’s skin crawl. Like she was the only real person in a painting.

Still, no time to unpack all that.

“I just need someone to help me stop this lady from killing my friend, okay?” Subaru snapped, desperation cracking her voice.

The woman tilted her head slightly, the sunlight catching on her silver earrings. “I see. And you think I can’t help because I don’t look strong enough?”

“Bingo,” Subaru muttered, then sighed. “Look, I don’t have time for ego contests—”

“Ego?” The woman’s tone shifted, subtle but sharp enough to draw blood. “I simply find it amusing when people assume weakness because they can’t see power. It’s so human. So small.”

Okay, yeah, red flags everywhere. Big glowing ones.

Subaru squinted again, finally getting a better look. The woman’s outfit was fancy: white fabric with gold linings, like something an aristocrat or a saint would wear. Every fold and stitch looked expensive, but the way she carried herself screamed something else entirely. 

Like she didn’t just own the world; she was the world, and the rest of them were just temporary inconveniences.

Subaru muttered under her breath, “Great, I ran into a noble with an attitude problem. My life’s a sitcom.”

The woman’s eyebrow twitched, but she smiled anyway. “So, tell me, little one, what’s your name?”

“Uh, Subaru. You?”

The woman looked at her as though granting a blessing. “Regia Corneas, dear.”

Subaru blinked at the name, then shrugged. “Cool, cool. No offense, Miss Regia, but beggars can’t be choosers, and I’m the beggar today.”

Before Regia could respond, Subaru grabbed her wrist cold as ice, of course, and started pulling her toward the alley.

Regia didn’t resist. She didn’t look tense, or curious, or even annoyed anymore. Her face settled into this calm, amused expression that made Subaru nervous for reasons she couldn’t explain. 

Like Regia was humoring her: not helping, not cooperating, just letting the little mortal drag her along because she was bored enough to play along.

The street bustled around them, oblivious. The smell of spice and smoke filled the air, the sky gleaming too bright for how grim Subaru’s stomach felt.

Her heart thudded in her chest, every beat reminding her that she was running on borrowed time. Emilia’s life was on a timer. So was hers.

Regia, meanwhile, walked like she had all the time in the world. Every step elegant. Every breath deliberate. The kind of person who didn’t run because the universe moved around her pace.

Subaru looked over at her and muttered, “You sure you’re not, like, secretly evil or something?”

Regia’s lips curved upward. “My dear, everyone is secretly something.”

Subaru groaned. “Why do I always attract the cryptic ones?”

“Because,” Regia said smoothly, “you look like someone who doesn’t know how to walk and always bump into people like a blind girl.”

Subaru’s mouth opened. Then closed. Then opened again. “Okay, rude, but fair.”

They turned a corner, the alley finally coming into view: dark, narrow, and echoing faintly with the kind of noise Subaru’s brain refused to identify as screaming.

Subaru’s stomach dropped. She gripped Regia’s wrist tighter, picking up her pace.

“Alright, scary lady with knives, noble lady with hair brighter than the moon, let’s see if we can somehow not die this time,” Subaru muttered under her breath.

Regia’s eyes flicked sideways, her smile faint and knowing. “Don’t worry. I don’t die.”

Subaru’s heart skipped a beat. “…Cool.”

But for some reason, she didn’t doubt her.

The alley smelled like fear and iron and rotten tomatoes… the usual mix that Subaru had grown disturbingly familiar with over the last few loops. She gritted her teeth as she and Regia turned the corner, her boots sliding over the damp cobblestones. The scene was already a disaster.

Emilia and Elsa were locked in a fight that looked more like a dance than combat… Elsa’s blade flashing like silver lightning, Emilia’s magic exploding into shards of glittering frost. The air shimmered between them with every impact, each strike ringing out like a bell of death.

And in the far corner?

The blonde thief, clutching that glowing insignia, trembling so hard it looked like her soul was about to pack up and leave her body.

Regia tilted her head slightly, her white hair catching the dim lamplight. “Well. This is unexpected.”

Subaru nodded automatically, chest heaving. “Yeah, but uh… do your thing, magic lady, or whatever it is you do because she’s—”

Then it hit her.

She’d just dragged a random stranger into a fight with the Bowel Hunter.

Her stomach flipped. Oh no. Oh no no no no.

“Wait,” Subaru hissed, grabbing at Regia’s sleeve. “You can’t… I mean— look, I didn’t mean to bring you here to die, okay? She’s like, really good at stabbing people, like professional stabbing.”

Regia blinked slowly, utterly unbothered. “I wasn’t talking to you.”

“Huh?” Subaru’s confusion lasted a solid three seconds before Regia extended a hand; not toward Elsa, but toward the thief girl.

Her voice was cool, almost lazy. “Who is that child?”

The chaos froze. Elsa’s blade stopped mid-swing. Emilia’s ice shard hung suspended in the air before she dropped it with a startled gasp.

The thief blinked, terrified and pale, clutching the insignia tighter against her chest.

“My, my, this is unexpected,” Elsa said, lowering her dagger just a little. Her eyes glimmered with interest. “A guest enters the stage.”

“You’re back, Miss?!” Emilia exclaimed, voice bright with relief and disbelief all at once. “I didn’t expect you to come back with help!”

“Stop expecting!” Subaru shot back immediately, voice cracking slightly under pressure. “Let’s let’s all just take a deep breath and sort this like civilized women—”

Her eyes flicked down to Elsa’s outfit, which was, generously speaking, about 20% functional clothing and 80% murder stripper aesthetic.

“—uh, like intelligent beings, regardless of fashion choices,” Subaru added quickly.

Regia didn’t respond. She hadn’t even looked at Subaru. Instead, she strode past both Emilia and Elsa like they weren’t even there; straight toward the little thief, who backed up against the wall with wide, scared eyes.

“Wait, what are you—” Subaru started, but Regia had already knelt gracefully in front of the thief, eyes locked on the insignia glowing faintly in the thief’s trembling hand.

Without asking, Regia reached out and plucked it from her.

“Ha.” Regia’s lips curled in satisfaction as she turned the emblem over in her palm, the faint light reflecting off her unnaturally bright eyes. “My magnificent presence has brought me just the thing I deserve. The universe loves me.”

“Uh, huh?” Subaru stammered, confused and slightly alarmed. “What are you even talking about?”

Regia ignored her and asked the thief girl, “What's your name?”

“What's it to you?” The little girl shouted back.

“Answer me,” Regia said coldly.

“F-felt,” she answered.

“What is going on?” Subaru asked.

Regia didn’t answer right away. She stood, the insignia still in hand, admiring it like it was something she’d been waiting centuries to see.

Then Subaru realized exactly what was happening and blurted, “Hey, that’s mine!”

Regia turned her head slightly, eyebrow arching. “Anosa,” she said calmly, “are you a royal candidate?”

“Uh… no? But it belongs to my friend!” Subaru jabbed a finger at the direction she had left Otto at, and Emilia happened to be standing in that direction, Emilia looked way too confused to back her up.

Regia regarded her for a moment, silent and unreadable. “Why should I believe you?”

Subaru froze. “Because, uh…” Her brain fumbled for logic. “Because lying’s not exactly my hobby?”

That didn’t sound convincing even to her.

But after a moment, Regia just sighed, like she was already bored of the conversation. She walked over and dropped the insignia right into Subaru’s hands.

“Wait, seriously?” Subaru blinked down at it, confused. “That easy?”

Regia smiled faintly, her voice barely above a whisper. “You look like my mother.”

Subaru’s entire thought process flatlined. “…”

Before she could even question that, Regia turned her gaze to Elsa: calm and quietly terrifying. “I’ll take it from here.”

Elsa tilted her head, smirking faintly. “Lady Corneas, my client will not be pleased.”

“Ah, so you want to displease THE Sisterhood?” Regia’s tone was airy but sharp, like silk hiding a blade. “You want to displease the magnificent me?”

Elsa’s smirk faltered for the first time that night. Her fingers twitched against her blade, but she didn’t raise it. “I… no….”

“Good.” Regia folded her hands behind her back, satisfied. “Then don’t.”

The tension in the alley shifted. Emilia blinked between them, her icy barrier melting away in confusion.

“Um, excuse me?” she asked, tentatively raising her hand like she was in class.

Regia turned, her expression patient but not exactly kind. “Yes?”

“What’s… Sisterhood?” Emilia asked softly, genuinely curious.

Regia’s face twisted into something between pity and disbelief. “Have you been living in a cave that you don’t know what THE Sisterhood is?”

Emilia hesitated. “…yes?”

“It’s the future of the world,” Regia said simply, as if explaining something obvious.

Subaru, meanwhile, stood frozen in the middle of it all, blinking rapidly as her brain tried to catch up.

Elsa, the literal serial killer, was afraid of Regia. Emilia was confused. Felt looked like she was one wrong breath away from fainting. And Regia: this random noble she’d dragged out of the street: apparently knew what the insignia was, had some weird superiority-complex, and talked like she owned the entire universe.

“What the hell…” Subaru muttered, clutching the insignia tighter. “Who is this woman? Why does Elsa know her? Why does she know about the insignia? What the hell is Sisterhood?!”

Before she could spiral further, Regia turned her gaze on her.

“You,” she said smoothly.

Subaru froze mid-panic. “Me?”

“Yes, you.” Regia smiled faintly, though her eyes didn’t. “You’re a fine one. I invite you to join my organization.”

Subaru’s mouth opened. Then closed. Then opened again.

“What… what is even happening right now?” Subaru asked, her voice thin and brittle as she looked between the white-haired woman, the corpse-still Elsa, and Emilia, who looked like she was watching a foreign film without subtitles. “If this Sisterhood thing is such a big deal, can someone, I don’t know, explain it like I’m five?”

Elsa quietly sheathed her blade. The leather creaked softly. “I see my services are no longer required,” she murmured, her voice smooth and unfazed as always. Without another word, she turned and walked away, her heels clicking faintly against the cobblestones. In a blink, she vanished into the shadows.

Subaru exhaled shakily. One threat down, apparently replaced by a new, somehow worse one.

Meanwhile, Emilia tilted her head, brows knitted. “Um… excuse me?” she said hesitantly, raising her hand again. “I like joining organisations… Can I… maybe join this Sisterhood thing too?”

Three voices snapped in perfect sync.

“No.”

Emilia flinched like she’d just been slapped by a ground dragon's dirty tail.

Regia didn’t even glance at her, voice flat and dismissive. Subaru’s “no” came out reflexively, because she had no idea what the Sisterhood was but knew on instinct that Emilia didn’t belong in whatever this mess was.

And Felt: sweet, terrified Felt: managed a faint echo of the same “no,” though hers was more out of fear than conviction.

Emilia slowly lowered her hand, eyes wide and watery. “O-okay… sorry…”

Subaru sighed, rubbing her temples. “Alright, I give up. What is this organization anyway?”

Regia exhaled softly through her nose, like a queen indulging the chatter of a peasant. “You’re wasting my time. My time is valuable. Every second I spend standing here is another second the universe loses a fragment of my brilliance.”

Subaru blinked. “Uh-huh. Okay. Great. But where exactly are you going, Miss Universe Fragment?”

Regia turned toward the mouth of the alley, her movements slow and deliberate, like she expected the world to move out of her way. “To do something worthy of my existence, of course.”

Then, without looking back, she lifted her hand and said coolly, “Girl. Stand up. You’re coming with me.”

Felt, still curled near the wall and clutching her foot, glared through the pain. “The hell I am! I’m not going anywhere with some crazy noble who talks like she’s her own religion!”

Regia froze. The faintest twitch crossed her face… just enough to show that her patience had reached its expiration date.

Her voice dropped lower, colder. “Excuse me?”

Felt crossed her arms defiantly, though she was trembling. “You heard me!”

For a heartbeat, the world seemed to hold its breath. Then Regia’s lips curled into a disdainful grimace.

“Such insolence,” she said, her tone dripping with disgust. “This is what happens when inferiors are allowed to speak without permission. You can’t even grasp the grace of my attention, yet you dare to talk back? Do you understand how unworthy you look just existing in front of me?”

“Uh, whoa, okay, hey, chill—” Subaru started, stepping between them.

Felt took her chance to turn and bolt for the alley’s exit—

—only to vanish in a blink.

Subaru’s eyes widened. “What—?!”

A sharp sound cracked the air, like the snap of fingers, and suddenly Felt was back; not running, but limp and stunned, caught in Regia’s arms as if she’d been pulled by invisible strings.

Teleportation? No, telekinesis? Space magic? WHAT?!

Subaru stood frozen, mouth open, words refusing to leave her throat.

She’d seen death. She’d seen magic. She’d even seen time rewind.

But this?

This was some peak X-men shit.

And Regia… still looked bored.

“Wait, hold on!” Subaru blurted, stumbling a few steps after the pale woman as she effortlessly carried a very unamused, squirming Felt like a cat with a kitten. “Why are you kidnapping her?!”

Regia didn’t even turn around at first. Her tone came cool and steady, like she was delivering divine law. 

“I have no desire to carry such a peasant who reeks like sewer water. However,” she finally said, flicking a speck of imaginary dust from her sleeve, “this particular peasant happens to be a royal candidate. And as much as it pains me to say, I require her cooperation.”

“What— royal candidate? Her?!” Emilia gawked, gesturing wildly at Felt, who was still trying to kick her way free.

“Yeah! What the hell are you talking about?!” Felt shouted, kicking against Regia’s pristine white dress. “Put me down, crazy lady!”

“Crazy lady?” Regia’s brow twitched. “How charming. I’ll remember that when you’re trying to breathe in my presence next time.”

Subaru groaned, running a hand down her face. “Okay, okay, that’s great and all, but are we just gonna like let her walk away with the thief-slash-candidate-slash-smells-like-sewer girl?”

Emilia blinked, eyes darting between them. “Wait, um, Miss Corneas, could you maybe stop for a moment?”

Regia’s expression didn’t even change, but her steps paused. “You are…?”

“E-Emilia. Just Emilia,” she replied, nervously clasping her hands together.

Regia’s eyes flicked over her once, an almost imperceptible look of distaste crossing her face. “Ah. So it's you,” she murmured under her breath, tone heavy with something unreadable. “You should do your job better. The leader is not pleased, nor am I,”

Emilia blinked. “Which o-organisation—”

Before Subaru could even speak, a wheezing, familiar voice called out from behind them.

“M-Miss Natsuki…”

They turned to see Otto staggering into the alley, bent over and gasping for air like he’d just run a marathon. His hair was a mess, and he looked like he’d just wrestled a pack of raccoons.

“Otto!” Subaru shouted, waving. “Hey, look who’s not dead!”

He leaned against the brick wall, still panting, and shot her a look that was somehow both exhausted and deeply betrayed. “Why… please explain to me why you left me with three muggers, Miss Natsuki…” He squinted past her at the tall woman holding Felt. “And… who… ah… Miss Corneas… ah…”

“Hello, Miss Suwen,” Regia said, smiling like she’d just found a bug to poke.

Otto blinked, half-tired and half-offended. “It’s mister—”

“Unfortunately,” Regia interrupted, voice silky and smug, “I have urgent matters today, so you won’t be graced by my magnificent presence any longer. Farewell.”

And with that, she turned sharply, her white hair flowing like silk behind her, and began walking out of the alley as though the world itself made way for her.

The air hung heavy for a moment, the silence broken only by Otto’s tired breathing.

He slowly looked from Regia’s vanishing figure to Subaru… then to Emilia.

He pointed at Emilia. “What just happened… and… who is she…?”

The silver-haired girl stiffened, eyes wide, mouth opening and closing like she was trying to come up with the least suspicious answer possible.

“I… uh…” she started weakly.

The maid flinched, looking like she was about to melt into the cobblestone. “Uh, right,” Emilia said, raising a nervous hand, trying to fill the silence that Regia left behind. “I’m the maid of the Mathers Manor. I was here with my senior maid, Ram, but I… lost her. Then I met Subaru who—”

“—who found a rival royal candidate and watched her get kidnapped by some woman in white!” Subaru blurted out dramatically, pointing toward the direction Regia vanished in.

Otto blinked, still hunched over, and stared at her like she’d just started speaking in tongues. “…what.”

“Yeah, don’t worry about it,” Subaru said quickly, waving her hands. “Forget that part. What I didn’t expect was you showing up all huffy like that after abandoning me!”

“Abandoning you?” Otto nearly choked on air. “I didn’t abandon you! You left me with three muggers, Miss Natsuki!”

“I panicked, okay?! Sorry!” Subaru shot back, puffing her cheeks, clearly embarrassed.

He sighed, rubbing his temples. “Anyway… a knight came by, so I didn’t have to do anything. The muggers got arrested. But—” He jabbed a finger at her chest. “—I ran across the entire district looking for you! Thinking something might have—”

“Um…” Emilia said softly, raising her hand like a student interrupting class. “I… I should be going now? Senior Ram must be worried sick about me.”

Before either could answer, a sharp, cold voice sliced through the air.

“Emilia.”

The three of them froze.

Then, from the end of the alley, a girl with short pink hair and blood-red eyes appeared, dressed in the same maid outfit as Emilia; but her aura screamed “I am done with everyone here.” She marched forward like an angry headmistress about to hand out punishments.

“R–Ram!” Emilia gasped, straightening up immediately.

“Senior Ram,” Ram corrected her.

“The hell…” Subaru muttered under her breath, watching her stomp closer with that calm, deadly grace only older siblings and upper management possessed.

“Emilia,” Ram said, voice as sweet as a snowstorm. “Do you have any idea how long I’ve been looking for you?”

“I—I’m sorry! I got lost and then there were people and then this scary woman and—” Emilia stammered, shrinking under the weight of Ram’s glare.

“Hey, take it easy on her,” Subaru stepped in, hands up like a mediator at a hostage negotiation.

Ram’s eyes flicked to Subaru. “And who might you be?”

“I’m Natsuki Subaru,” she said proudly, puffing out her chest.

Ram blinked. “Nuts Yuki Barusu?”

“H-Hey! It’s N-A-T-S-U-K-I   S-U-B-A-R-U!”

“Whatever,” Ram said, flipping her pink hair with practiced dismissal.

Emilia, desperate to change the subject, quickly said, “They’re kind people, Ra— uh, Senior Ram. They helped me when I was in trouble.”

Ram glanced at Subaru and Otto again, as if mentally deciding how much respect they deserved. Her expression softened: barely. 

“If you seek a reward for your kindness, you may visit the Mathers Domain,” she said curtly. “If Roswaal-sama deems it fit, he will grant you one.”

And with that, she grabbed Emilia by the wrist. “Wait—”

“Goodbye,” Ram interrupted, already dragging her down the alley, her back straight and her patience visibly gone.

Emilia gave a frantic little wave. “Th-thank you again!”

Then they were gone.

The alley was silent again.

Otto’s stomach growled.

A second later, Subaru’s stomach followed in perfect harmony.

A beat passed between them: just the two of them, standing there, ragged, hungry, and emotionally fried.

“…Uh,” Otto started, scratching his cheek. “You still have the appa, Miss Natsuki?”

“Huh? I had the bag with me…” Subaru’s eyes widened. “I lost it.”

Otto’s expression flattened instantly. “…of course you did.”

***

Final Fragment

Regia’s heels clicked sharply against the marble as she stepped into the massive white-walled manor, each sound echoing down the pristine corridor like a command. 

The hall was lined with women in identical black uniforms: all perfectly pressed, all perfectly still… and the moment she entered, they parted to the sides in utter silence, bowing their heads.

“I have brought a peasant who is highly important for our goal,” Regia announced, her tone smooth yet dripping with disdain. “Wash her, do her hair, and make her a proper lady.”

Felt immediately kicked and shouted in protest, her voice bouncing off the high ceilings. “Hey, let go! I ain’t no lady and I ain’t joining your creepy tea party, you hear me!?”

None of the women reacted. Their faces were blank… disturbingly blank; as they took her by the arms and dragged her down the hall. Felt’s voice echoed away until it vanished entirely.

Regia didn’t even glance back. She merely brushed invisible dust off her sleeve.

Then, from a nearby door, a blonde girl appeared, her expression calm and obedient. Her pale green eyes lacked any warmth as she bowed slightly.

“Elder Sister Regia.”

“What is it, Sylphy?” Regia asked, sounding both bored and mildly irritated.

“A guest awaits in the garden.”

Regia didn’t stop walking. “Who is it? You know I don’t have time to waste.”

“It’s him.”

Regia froze for half a second: just half. Her head tilted a little, a thin smirk curling at the edge of her lips.

“Oh. I see.”

She resumed walking, her pace now sharper. The women who had been standing like statues began to move again, forming two neat lines behind her as she made her way down the endless corridor.

The manor was a monument to symmetry, tall arched windows spilling moonlight across polished floors, walls adorned with pale curtains and gold accents. Each footstep felt rehearsed, like the house itself obeyed her rhythm.

When she reached the end of the hall, two girls in white dresses stood at attention beside an ornate pair of tall double doors. Without needing to be told, they opened them wide.

Regia glided inside.

Beyond the doorway was a large room filled with the faint fragrance of roses and the dim shimmer of candlelight seeping in from the open garden doors. The night outside glowed with faint silver mist, and there, leaning casually against a pillar with crossed arms, stood a man with red hair and the confident poise of someone who knew he belonged anywhere he went.

Regia’s smile thinned.

“Didn’t expect to see you here tonight, Astrea,” she said, her voice steady but laced with something sharp.

The redhead turned his gaze toward her, lips twitching into a polite, faintly amused smile. “I was here on an urgent matter, Lady Regia.”

Her eyes narrowed. “What is it? I hope it’s something worth my time.”

He smirked faintly, the air between them thickening.

“It is,” he said softly. “It is."

The carriage rocked lazily along the dirt road, wooden wheels groaning every time they hit a stone. Dust trailed behind like a lazy ghost. Otto sat upright on the driver’s bench, holding the reins in both hands, his jaw set in the noble, tragic grimace of a man trying to look competent in front of someone who clearly wasn’t buying it. Beside him, Subaru lounged with all the composure of a cat pretending not to care she’d just fallen off a ledge.

For a while, silence ruled. The rhythmic clop of the ground dragon’s claws was the only sound, broken only when Subaru leaned back, crossed her arms, and sighed like a martyr.

“Sooo…” she finally said, dragging the word out until it threatened to die of exhaustion. “That was… something.”

Otto blinked, eyes fixed ahead like he was pretending the conversation wasn’t aimed at him. “Yes, Miss Natsuki, that was definitely something.”

The words hung in the air awkwardly, like an unclaimed fart.

Another beat of silence.

“We found a rival candidate,” Subaru said.

“Yes, we did. And looking for her, you left me with thugs.”

“Hey! Those were pretty weak!” Subaru retorted. “Plus you handled it pretty well!”

“I did but I still cannot believe that you told them “Don’t hurt me! He’s the one with all the money! Just look at his fancy outfit! Rob him! Not me!”. Is that what you see me as?” Otto's tone almost felt like he was hurt. 

Ah, crap. Subaru thought. He is doing the victim thing. “Aaaaanyways, think Regia will look after Felt nicely?"

“Well, Regia is a rather well known humanitarian who works for women empowerment. I'm sure Felt will be fine.”

“Wait, for real? And you know about Regia, huh.” Subaru mused. “Noice! How, by the way?”

Otto looked a bit hesitant. “Um…they came to recruit me for their organisation.”

“Huh, I thought it was a women-only—” Subaru's eyes gleamed. “Hehehehe… Femboy Otto! Hahahahaha….!”

Otto looked away, mortified. “Stop it, Miss Natsuki! You do remember what you told me about Miss Regia calling you, right?”

“Of course…” Subaru blinked. Then she squinted suspiciously at him. “Do I look that old?”

Otto’s hands twitched. The reins gave a nervous jingle. “Pardon?”

“I’m serious.” Subaru leaned closer, the kind of close that made Otto’s soul evacuate his body. Her breath tickled his ear. “Do. I. Look. Old?”

He froze, caught between survival instincts and politeness. “N-no! Of course not! You look very young! Positively youthful! Blossoming even!” His voice cracked halfway through “blossoming,” like a dying rooster.

Subaru’s eyes narrowed. “Huh.” She leaned back, crossing her legs dramatically. “Because that woman said I look like her mother.”

Otto gave a sympathetic cough. “Perhaps she meant it metaphorically?”

“Metaphorically my ass! She said, and I quote, ‘You remind me of my mother.’” Subaru’s hands flailed. “Do I look like I’ve ever tucked anyone into bed and reminded them to floss?!”

“Maybe she—”

“She had white hair, Otto! Gray ones! She looked like she’d fought in the Great Gray Wars and lost!” Subaru gestured wildly toward her own face. “And she said I look like her mother! Like I’m one blink away from knitting socks for grandchildren I don’t have!”

Otto chuckled weakly. “Well, people have… interesting ways of expressing affection?”

Subaru groaned and leaned forward, elbows on her knees. “You think I’m overreacting?”

“I wouldn’t dare say that, Miss Natsuki.”

“That’s code for ‘yes,’ isn’t it?”

“Absolutely not, Miss Natsuki.”

“Say it again.”

“Absolutely not, Miss Natsuki.”

She smirked. “That’s what I thought.”

The carriage hit a bump, bouncing them both. Otto clutched the reins tighter. Subaru adjusted her seat, glaring ahead.

“She was definitely older than me. Had those old lady vibes, you know? The kind that smells like crushed flowers and regrets.”

“I wouldn’t know, Miss Natsuki.”

“You look like someone who’s been trapped in a floral-scented room before.”

“I… might have attended a noble banquet or two,” Otto admitted hesitantly.

“There it is,” Subaru said, snapping her fingers. “So you do know.”

“I fail to see how—”

“Tell me,” she interrupted. “What do you think gives off the ‘motherly’ aura? Is it the eyes? My voice? My, oh god, it’s my hair, isn’t it?” She clutched at it dramatically. “It’s too mature. I knew it. I should’ve gone with that bob cut. Everyone said it made me look fifteen. I’d take that now. Fifteen is a good number.”

Otto’s mouth opened and closed like a dying fish. “I… believe your current hairstyle is… age-neutral?”

“Age-neutral?” Subaru repeated with horror. “That’s like calling a sandwich ‘moisture adequate.’”

Otto panicked and waved his free hand. “I meant elegant! Elegant and timeless!”

“Ah yes, timeless. Like dust.”

He coughed into his sleeve, praying for divine intervention.

Subaru slumped back into her seat, muttering, “Mother. Pfft. What should I expect next? Someone calls me Grandma Subaru? Should I start carrying candy in my pocket?”

“You do seem to enjoy giving advice,” Otto offered, immediately regretting it.

She gave him a look sharp enough to shave bark off a tree. “Careful, merchant boy. I can still throw you off this carriage.”

“I’m holding the reins,” he reminded gently.

“Then I’ll throw the reins off too.”

Otto wisely said nothing.

They rode in silence again for a few seconds until Subaru suddenly huffed. “You know what? Maybe I should take it as a compliment. Maybe she thought I radiate wisdom. Experience.”

“That sounds positive,” Otto said cautiously.

“Or maybe,” Subaru leaned closer again, “she thought I look tired. Like life already punched me and took my lunch money.”

“That’s… unlikely.”

“You hesitated.”

“I was… calculating how best to disagree.”

Subaru pouted. “You’re terrible at damage control.”

“I’m a merchant, not a politician.”

“You’d die in politics.”

“I nearly die every time you talk to me, Miss Natsuki.”

That earned a small snort of laughter from her, the kind that slipped out accidentally and made her glance away quickly, pretending she hadn’t laughed at all.

They reached a crossroads. Otto slowed the carriage, pulling the reins lightly. The sound of the dragon’s claws scraping the dirt filled the pause.

Subaru stretched, yawned, then gave Otto a sideways look. “Alright, tell me straight. What’s the first thing you thought when you saw me?”

“I beg your pardon?”

“The very first thought. Don’t censor yourself. Spill it.”

Otto swallowed. His brain screamed in terror. “I thought… you seemed… confident.”

“Confident?”

“Yes, like someone who could…confuse and lead people.”

“Into battle or into bad life choices?”

“Both, probably.”

Subaru grinned. “Fair.”

A few more moments passed before she spoke again, voice lower this time. “Be honest. If someone saw us now, what would they think we are?”

Otto blinked. “What do you mean?”

“Like, look at us. You’re driving a carriage. I’m sitting next to you, looking fabulous. We could be anything. Business partners? Criminal duo? Star-crossed lovers?”

Otto turned scarlet so fast it was almost audible. “I… I don’t… that last one—”

Subaru snorted again. “Relax, I’m joking. You’d die halfway through the first act.”

“From embarrassment, most likely.”

“Exactly.”

The ground beneath them softened, the wheels squelching slightly in mud. Subaru watched Otto concentrate on steering and tilted her head. “You ever get tired of being the straight man in every conversation?”

“It’s safer than being the fool,” he replied.

She smirked. “You sure? Looks exhausting.”

“Exhaustion is safer than chaos.”

“See, that’s your problem.” She poked his arm.

“It’s a business strategy.”

“That’s sad.”

“That’s profitable.”

“Still sad.”

They both laughed quietly, the sound oddly comfortable this time.

Subaru leaned back, looking at the rolling hills. The air smelled of grass and a hint of… bio-waste which was surprisingly tolerable. “You know, if someone had told me a few years ago I’d be sitting in a lizard carriage with a guy named Otto who was a dragon maiden, I’d have laughed.”

“Then you’d still have ended up here,” Otto muttered.

“Probably.”

The wind picked up, tugging strands of her hair into her face. She brushed them away impatiently, then glanced sideways at Otto again.

“Hey.”

“Yes?”

“Do you think people here age differently?”

He frowned. “In what way?” He then blinked. “Wait, what do you mean by “here”?”

“Uh, slip of tongue, what I mean is like, do you think maybe the lady who called me ‘mother’ just had… weird standards? Maybe in her village, everyone looks fourteen by the time they hit fourty?”

“That’s possible,” Otto admitted. “Sun exposure, diet, mysterious curses… take your pick.”

“So basically, I got mom-zoned because of sunlight.”

“It’s a powerful enemy.”

Subaru puffed her cheeks. “Next time someone calls me old, I’m saying I’m solar-challenged.”

“That’s… not terrible, wait, WHAT DOES THAT EVEN MEAN?.”

“Shhhh, It’s genius.”

Otto smiled faintly. “You have a strange definition of genius.”

“Thank you. I pride myself in it.”

The carriage rattled over a patch of stones. Subaru tapped her fingers against her knee, humming.

“Still,” she said after a while, “I can’t get over it. Imagine someone walking up to you and saying, ‘Oh, Otto, you remind me of my grandfather.’ What would you do?”

“I’d politely ask if their grandfather owed them money.”

“That’s why you’re single.”

Otto choked. “Excuse me?”

“You heard me.”

“I’m not— that’s hardly… Miss Natsuki, that’s a rather personal—”

“Defensive much?” she teased.

He groaned softly. “You’re crazy.”

“You’re not the first one to say that.”

“Unfortunately.”

Subaru laughed again, louder this time. The sound bounced off the trees like bright little bells. Otto couldn’t help smiling a little despite himself.

“Alright, fine,” she said finally, still grinning. “Maybe being called ‘mother’ isn’t that bad. At least it’s not ‘grandmother’, right?”

“Exactly, Miss Natsuki.”

The ground dragon made a deep rumbling sound ahead, breaking into their banter. Otto’s eyes widened slightly, already knowing what was coming. Subaru leaned forward, curious.

“Oh, you can talk to animals, right? What did he just say?”

Otto hesitated, gripping the reins tighter. “He says you are really pretty and look like some noble.”

Subaru blinked, pleasantly surprised. “Aww, thanks— wait.” She squinted. Subaru’s eyes widened. “Wait. Hold up. Back it up. Rewind. He just complimented me?”

Otto nodded nervously. “That’s what he said.”

She slapped her knee. “Finally! Some recognition! You know how long it’s been since someone called me pretty and meant it?”

Otto opened his mouth, but the words died before they could form.

“Never mind, it was a rhetorical question,” Subaru said quickly, flipping her hair. “Anyway, what else did he say?”

Otto cleared his throat. “Patrakash also says you look like some noblewoman. Very elegant.”

“Elegant?” She tilted her head, pretending to think. “I can live with that. I mean, I don’t have a tiara, but I’ve got attitude.”

Patrakash snorted.

Subaru gasped. “Was that… did he just laugh at me?”

Otto smiled faintly. “It would seem so.”

“Oh, now we’re getting bold, huh? The big scaly comedian wants to laugh in my face?” She leaned forward, glaring at the dragon’s tail. “Don’t think I won’t roast you back, lizard-boy.”

Patrakash flicked his tail as if to say, bring it.

“Miss Natsuki, a heads up…” Otto decided it was time to intervene before diplomacy collapsed completely. “You know, he doesn’t like being called a ground dragon.”

Subaru blinked. “What do you mean he doesn’t like it? Isn’t that what he is?”

“It’s… complicated,” Otto muttered.

“Complicated how? Does he prefer ‘scaly noble’? ‘Four-legged aristocrat’?”

“I’m serious,” Otto said, half laughing. “He really doesn’t appreciate the term. It’s a bit of a sore spot.”

Patrakash made a noise that sounded like an offended grunt.

“See?” Otto pointed. “You’ve upset him.”

Subaru put her hands up. “Alright, alright! Sorry, Sir Patrakash, Duke of Dirt Roads.”

The dragon flicked his tail in what might have been reluctant forgiveness.

Subaru looked intrigued now, leaning her chin on her hand. “So, what’s his deal then? Why does he care what people call him? Did someone bully him in ground-dragon school?”

Otto chuckled. “Not exactly. You might not be very comfortable with this, but…”

“Please,” Subaru interrupted. “I’ve fought kidnappers, bowel-hunting-obsessed-stripper-psychopath, weird woman calling me ‘mother,’ and now I’m talking to a talking dragon through a tax accountant who looks more feminine than BT— uh, better not say that, you never know who is listening— I mean you look more feminine than some Korean Idols plus, you are also a dragon maiden who is not a maiden. I can take it anything— uh, don't take it the wrong way.”

“That’s… fair.” Otto adjusted his grip on the reins and sighed. “Alright, where do I even begin…”

The carriage creaked as they rolled over a patch of pebbles, and Otto’s eyes glazed over slightly, the kind of look people got when preparing to share a story that ruined their life and their credit score.

“It all started about three years ago,” he began slowly, “when I was still trying to expand my trade routes. I needed a ground dragon for transport; strong, fast, dependable. But finding one was like trying to buy an honest politician. Every dragon I found was either half-dead, untrained, or priced like gold-plated steak.”

Subaru snorted. “Sounds like the used dragon market’s thriving.”

“Oh, it was a nightmare. I checked every stable from Priestella to Gusteko. Nothing. Then one day, I hear shouting from a side street near the trading district.” Otto’s expression turned nostalgic. “And there’s this man, big beard, red face, yelling his lungs out at his ground dragon.”

“Let me guess,” Subaru said. “That ground dragon was Patrakash?”

“Exactly. The man was shouting, ‘Patrasche! Calm down! You’re coming with me!’ Meanwhile, the dragon was trying to bite him.” Otto grinned faintly. “And thanks to my divine protection, I could hear what the dragon was yelling back.”

Subaru leaned forward. “Wait, so he was actually talking back?”

“Indeed. He was shouting something like, ‘My name is Patrakash, not Patrasche, you uneducated buffoon!’ It was quite spirited.”

Subaru burst out laughing. “Oh my god. He was correcting him mid-tantrum?”

Otto nodded solemnly. “Yes. And every time the man mispronounced it, Patrakash’s tail whipped harder. I thought he was going to flatten the poor fellow.”

“That’s incredible.” Subaru wiped a tear from her eye. “Imagine dying because a dragon’s mad because he doesn't like the way you say his name.”

Otto chuckled. “It nearly happened. I stepped in mostly out of pity. I thought maybe I could help calm him down. So I approached him, said something like, ‘Patrakash, eh? Odd name, but it suits you.’”

Subaru grinned. “Oh no. Don’t tell me…”

“The moment I said that,” Otto said, shaking his head, “he froze. Completely still. Then he turned his head toward me: slowly, very slowly… and locked eyes with me. I swear, I could feel my spine reconsidering its career choices.”

Subaru giggled. “He gave you the death stare?”

“Worse. He stared at me for a full ten seconds, then leaped straight at me. Tail wagging like a dog seeing dinner. I thought I was about to be crushed. But instead, he just… licked my face.”

Subaru howled with laughter. “Oh no, that’s so much worse. You were chosen.”

“I was slimed,” Otto said grimly. “I couldn’t breathe. His tongue nearly drenched me like a rat in rain. And the owner just shrugged and said, ‘Looks like he likes you. Fifty percent discount if you take him now.’”

Subaru was still laughing. “And you bought him? Just like that?”

“What was I supposed to do? The crowd was cheering. Someone yelled, ‘A match made in heaven!’ Another started clapping. I couldn’t walk away without looking like a villain.”

“You’re telling me Patrakash indirectly used public pressure on you to buy him?”

“I’m weak to various degrees of pressures,” Otto said flatly.

Subaru was clutching her stomach now. “That’s incredible. You basically impulse-bought a dragon like someone buying a blender on sale.”

Otto sighed. “If only he were as easy to handle as a— wait, what is a blender?”

Patrakash snorted again, as if offended by the comparison.

Subaru laughed harder. “Oh, he’s listening. Look at him pretending to be majestic.”

Otto shook his head. “He’s been my partner ever since. But to this day, I’m not sure who owns who.”

“Definitely not you,” Subaru said instantly.

“Correct.”

For a few moments, the two just laughed, the road stretching on peacefully before them. The countryside was bright, the air crisp, and Subaru’s mood lighter than it had been all morning.

“So,” she said eventually, wiping a bit of sweat from her brow, “you bought him because he slobbered on you. Romantic. How’s that working out for you?”

“Surprisingly well, considering,” Otto said. “He’s saved my life more times than I can count. Though he also nearly killed me just as many.”

“Balance,” Subaru said wisely. “That’s what builds a healthy relationship.”

Otto gave her a look. “If you call constant near-death experiences healthy.”

“You’d be surprised.”

Patrakash rumbled again, and Otto tilted his head. “He says he could tell from the start that I wasn’t like other merchants.”

Subaru gasped. “Aw, he likes you.”

Otto frowned. “No, no, he’s clarifying now. He says I looked too pathetic to survive on my own, so he pitied me.”

Subaru wheezed with laughter. “That’s even better. He adopted you.”

Otto rubbed his forehead. “Yes. That seems to be the general understanding.”

They rode in silence for a while, Subaru still chuckling under her breath. The rhythm of the wheels and the creak of wood filled the air.

After a bit, Subaru spoke again. “So wait, if he was talking back then too, that means he’s been weirdly self-aware for years, right?”

Otto hesitated. “That’s… where it gets strange.”

Subaru perked up immediately. “Oh? You’re telling me there’s more?”

“Much more,” Otto said, sounding almost weary. “Patrakash isn’t just a ground dragon. He has… a backstory.”

Subaru’s eyes widened with delight. “A backstory? Like, tragic past, long journey, mysterious backstory?”

Otto stared ahead. “Something like that, yes.”

“Oh, you’re telling me everything,” Subaru said, grinning. “I live for this kind of nonsense. Spill it.”

Otto sighed, bracing himself as Patrakash rumbled ominously like a creature about to make everything more complicated than it needed to be.

And with that, he began.

Otto cleared his throat dramatically. “Patrakash claims: now, don’t laugh, that in his past life, he was human.”

Subaru blinked. “Human,” she repeated flatly in her mind. “Of course. Why wouldn’t a talking lizard also be an ex-human? Makes perfect sense. Maybe the carriage used to be a politician.”

Otto went on, oblivious to her sarcasm. “Yes, a full-grown man. A warrior, no less! He says he served a great king called Ashook.”

The reins creaked as Otto gestured grandly with one hand, clearly invested in the story.

Subaru tilted her head. Ashook... wait, that sounds like... Ashoka? As in, actual historical emperor Ashoka? No. No way. Please don’t tell me I’m sharing a ride with reincarnated ancient royalty in lizard form.

Otto kept rambling cheerfully. “Apparently this Ashook fellow was some big deal: an emperor with shining palaces, golden walls, and armies larger than cities. Honestly, I thought he made it up. I even told him, ‘That’s impossible!’”

Patrakash made a loud grunt that sounded like offense.

“Oh, don’t get all moody again,” Otto said, sighing. “You told me he ruled an empire called Moooria or something. I told him I’d never heard of it, and he just glared at me like I insulted his mother.”

Subaru’s thoughts started spiraling. Maurya. Oh, come on! He’s serious? The Maurya Empire? That’s like... 2000 years ago! What next, is he going to say he was Ashoka’s gym instructor?

Otto nodded to himself. “Anyway, Patrakash says he was a commander in that army. Fought in countless battles, brave, loyal, undefeated. Died protecting his king in glorious combat.”

The dragon let out a dramatic rumble, shaking his tail like applause. Otto looked impressed. Subaru, on the other hand, looked like she was trying not to laugh or cry.

He was a general, huh? In another life. Sure. And I was Cleopatra’s tax advisor. Honestly, I'm not even going to be surprised if cute bunnies here turn out to be man-eating monsters; eh, I'm overthinking.

“He insists he’s telling the truth,” Otto continued. “Says after he died, some old man appeared and told him his soul hadn’t finished its duty. That he’d be reborn to complete it.”

Subaru blinked slowly. Reborn as a ground dragon. Talk about a downgrade. Imagine waking up expecting heaven, only to find scales and a tail.

Otto nodded, serious now. “He says he accepted his fate with honor. And then poof! Next thing he remembers, he’s hatching from an egg.”

Subaru nearly snorted out loud. She bit her lip to keep it together. Imagine that realization. ‘Where’s my sword? Why do I have claws? Why am I green?’

Patrakash growled something long and passionate. Otto listened carefully, then translated with a straight face. “He says the old man promised that he’d one day meet the daughter of the far east. Only through her would he regain his human form. An act of true love, apparently.”

Subaru froze.

Her mind screamed. Oh no. No no no. Not this again. What is with this world and me being a lizard's prophecy girl? I’m going to jump out of this carriage.

Otto chuckled. “Of course, I told him that’s ridiculous. He didn’t take it well. Called me faithless. You know, for a lizard, he’s very dramatic.”

Patrakash gave another proud grunt. Subaru was trying to melt into her seat.

“He thought you might be her at first, actually,” Otto said conversationally.

Subaru stopped breathing. Her eyes went wide.

“But,” Otto continued, completely unaware of the crisis forming beside him, “he says your clothes and manners don’t match the women from his old world, so he’s certain you’re not. Still, he says he won’t give up. He’ll find her someday.”

The silence that followed was so long that even the carriage wheels seemed embarrassed.

Subaru kept her face still, eyes blank, body frozen. Inside, her brain was a chaotic carnival. Oh, fantastic. A prehistoric simp. And I’m riding him— wait, ew. Why does this keep happening to me? Why am I the daughter of the far east? I don’t even have a boyfriend, let alone mystical heritage.

Patrakash turned his big, glittering eyes toward her. She refused to meet them. If she didn’t make eye contact, maybe he’d forget she existed.

She narrowed her eyes… is this why his balls are so big… she shook her head, even though her eyes had been scorched by the sight of his dangling testicles bigger than most fruits… must be some isekai buff like you get in the anime and manga… does he have a system?

Otto smiled obliviously. “You’re very quiet, Miss Natsuki. Feeling unwell?”

Her lips twitched. If I say yes, will you throw me out of the carriage? Please do. I’ll walk.

“Mm,” she said, keeping her tone light.

Otto blinked. “You’re sweating. It’s the heat, isn’t it?”

“Fine,” she replied automatically.

“Are you sure? Because you look—”

“Fine,” she repeated, smiling just enough to make him stop asking.

Otto chuckled nervously. “Well, you’re tougher than most. Patrakash says that proves you’re not the maiden anyway. Says the real one would’ve fainted by now.”

Subaru’s left eye twitched. Oh, I might faint, all right. From secondhand embarrassment.

The carriage jolted as they hit a bump, Otto fumbling with the reins. Patrakash gave a smug rumble, like he was proud of his tragic, heroic past. Subaru stared blankly at the horizon, thinking about how her life had turned into a bad mythological fanfiction. 

Otto sighed contently. “You know, sometimes I wonder what if he’s right? What if souls really do carry old memories? Maybe he really was a general once.”

Subaru’s inner voice screamed. Oh, he definitely knows something. Like how to make my life a nightmare.

Patrakash rumbled again, deep and satisfied. Otto translated with a grin. “He says you’d be surprised how much the soul remembers.”

Subaru didn’t move. Her hands rested calmly on her lap. Inside, however, her mind was chaos. Fantastic. The lizard philosopher strikes again.

The wind tugged at her hair as the carriage rattled along. Otto hummed cheerfully, the ground dragon strutted like royalty, and Subaru sat in quiet, stoic despair, hiding her panic behind a deadpan expression.

Because no one: not even the reincarnated lizard of Ashoka’s army would ever find out that she was a daughter of the far east. And she was absolutely not going to kiss a dragon to fix his reincarnation problem. Never.

***

The garden was eerily quiet, the kind of quiet that hums before thunder. Moonlight dripped through the tall windows, spilling over the marble like cold milk, and Regia stood perfectly still, her white hair faintly glimmering. 

The red-haired man was leaning lazily against a pillar, the faintest hint of amusement in his eyes, like someone who had already figured out the ending of a board game and was only here to watch others struggle.

Regia folded her arms, her voice cutting through the silence like a blade. “So, what are you looking for, Astrea?”

His eyes, bright and sharp as the edge of dawn, flickered to hers. “The council has given me the duty to locate the fifth candidate for the throne.” His tone was calm, measured, and annoyingly righteous, the kind of calm that made Regia’s skin itch. “I’m sure you’ve already heard about the selection process.”

From within his coat, he pulled out a small oval insignia. The thing gleamed faintly in the light, an elegant relic of royal magic. Its red gem pulsed in the light like a slow heartbeat.

“The council gave me this,” he said, his voice dropping an octave as he turned it in his palm. “When a candidate touches it, the gem glows. It’s how we confirm them.”

Regia’s eyes narrowed slightly. Her expression didn’t waver, but her tone came out sharper than usual. “Why ask me? Surely, a great knight like you doesn’t need to rely on me for something so trivial.”

He gave her that faint, patient smile again, the kind of expression that irritated her more than open arrogance ever could. “You have great networks,” he said simply. “There isn’t a noble, merchant, or criminal in this capital who doesn’t know your name. If anyone would already know the fifth candidate, it would be you.”

At that, Regia lifted her chin and smiled. “Flattery suits you poorly, Astrea. But you are right, as usual. There is no one like me. I am a masterpiece of creation, a living embodiment of elegance and intellect. My reach extends beyond this city’s limits and into the very roots of the kingdom itself.” She began to pace, her voice growing more animated with each word. “The nobles kneels to my donations, the guilds rely on my investments, and the underworld fears my name. I am not merely informed. I am omniscient within these walls.”

He waited, calm, eyes never leaving her.

Regia stopped, turning toward him with a small grin. “So yes, I have already located the fifth candidate.”

He tilted his head, his red hair catching the candlelight. “Oh? And who might that be?”

She crossed her arms again, smirk deepening. “Why should I tell you, Astrea? You act as if I am your servant.”

That was when his smile softened. The warmth in his eyes drained, replaced by something sharp and terrifyingly sweet. “Because,” he said quietly, “if you don’t tell me, I’ll kill everyone in this mansion.”

The words hit the air like a guillotine.

For a moment, even the faint wind outside seemed to die. The women standing near the entrance stiffened; not a breath escaped them. The red-haired man didn’t move, didn’t raise his voice, but every syllable rolled with power.

Regia blinked, then chuckled softly. The chuckle turned into a laugh, high and musical. “You wouldn’t dare.”

He tilted his head again, his smile returning: but it was no longer warm. “Try me.”

The aura was so thick that the room nearly vibrated. Regia’s lips curled upward, her sharp teeth flashing in the candlelight. “You’re amusing,” she said finally, a single note of delight in her tone. “Fine, then. Let’s see what happens if—”

The doors at the far end of the room suddenly burst open with a loud crash. Both of them turned.

“Get away from me, you freaks!”

Felt sprinted in, her messy blonde hair flying in every direction, her dress half torn from her struggles. Behind her, two of Regia’s attendants were chasing, holding brushes, hairpins, and ribbons. Felt’s bare feet slapped against the marble as she stumbled, looking around frantically.

“I’m not a future queen!” she screamed, trying to dodge the women who reached for her. “I’m just a slum dweller! Stop trying to put perfume on me!”

Her wide, panicked eyes landed on the red-haired man standing near Regia. “Him?! You! Please, help me!”

He blinked, a faint flicker of surprise crossing his face. “Me?”

“Yes, you! Save me from this crazy woman!” she cried, pointing an accusing finger at Regia.

Regia put a hand on her hip, sighing dramatically. “Excuse me, I’m not crazy. I’m extraordinary.”

The red-haired man straightened slightly, his expression softening as he looked at Felt. “I can only save you if you allow me to be your knight.”

“Huh? What?”

He smiled gently, like someone offering a child a promise. “If you accept me as your knight, I’ll protect you. You have my word.”

Felt hesitated, trembling slightly. Her eyes darted from Regia to him, confusion and fear tangled across her face. “Then… you’ll save me?”

“You have my word,” he said again.

Felt swallowed hard, then nodded rapidly. “Then… okay!”

Regia’s face twisted in clear irritation. Her perfect lips pressed into a thin line. “Tch.”

The red-haired man looked back at her with calm composure. “Well,” he said softly, “you can still sponsor her while I am her knight. That way, she has both backing and protection.”

Regia’s eyes narrowed. Her expression flickered with mild contemplation before she smirked again. “Huh. That actually works.”

Felt blinked, completely lost. “Wait, what? What are you two talking about? What’s happening?”

Regia sighed like someone bored of a child’s questions. “We’re simply arranging the political and logistical infrastructure for your future reign. Nothing complicated.”

Felt stared blankly, her mouth hanging open. “My what?”

The red-haired man gave a small, comforting chuckle. “Don’t worry. Nothing bad will happen to you. Not while I’m here.”

The moment he said that, something shifted in the air. A soft golden light pulsed faintly around him, warm and soothing, like the glow of morning sunlight. Felt’s eyelids drooped slightly, her breathing slowing.

“Wait… what’s… happening…?” she murmured, swaying slightly before falling forward into his arms.

He caught her gently, as if she weighed nothing. Within seconds, she was asleep.

Regia rolled her eyes, crossing her arms. “Of course. Another divine protection. You really are full of yourself, Astrea.”

He looked at her, the faintest smile tugging at his lips.

“What can I say,” he replied. “I’m the Sin Archbishop representing Pride—”

He paused, the smile turning razor-sharp, “Reinhard Van Astrea.”

***

The wheels clattered in a steady rhythm against the dirt, and the morning sun hung lazily overhead. Subaru sat stiff beside Otto, still trying to un-hear the life story of the reincarnated ground dragon who believed himself a long-dead Indian war hero. Her brain was trying to reboot itself. 

Patrakash trotted ahead, his tail swinging like a metronome of mischief, every flick sending a puff of dust into Otto’s face.

The silence between them stretched awkwardly. Otto hummed to himself, as if nothing strange had happened. 

Subaru, meanwhile, was fighting the urge to laugh, cry, or jump off the carriage.

She needed to change the topic before Otto started quoting ancient poetry on behalf of his lizard.

“So,” she said suddenly, her tone casual in the same way a collapsing bridge is casual. “I’ve been thinking.”

“That sounds dangerous,” Otto muttered, half smiling.

“I’m being serious here” she said, leaning back “We need to start looking for a good name for our company”

He blinked. “A name for the… company?”

“Yes, a name for the company. Something that expresses both you and me. We’ll be partners, after all.”

“...I guess you are correct, Miss Natsuki,” Otto said. “So what kind of name are we talking about?”

“Something that would represent us, as I said,” Subaru said, nodding sagely. 

“That makes sense. And it should be relevant, too. Relevant to our work.”

“Right,” she said, tapping her chin. “Something catchy. Something that screams ‘mayonnaise but with passion.’”

“Please don’t say it like that,” Otto muttered, visibly uncomfortable.

She ignored him. “How about… Mayomancers?”

“That sounds like we summon condiments.”

“Exactly!”

Otto groaned. “I meant that as a bad thing.”

Subaru waved him off. “Fine, fine, something better then. A name that fits us, our chemistry, our teamwork.”

“Teamwork?” Otto said, arching an eyebrow. “Last time someone threw an egg at my face when they talked about “teamwork”.”

“That was probably teamwork in progress,” she said solemnly.

He exhaled deeply. “All right, fine. Let’s start with something simple. What about The Mayonnaise Company?”

She wrinkled her nose. “Boring.”

“You got a better one?”

She frowned in thought, eyes narrowing as the carriage bumped along. “Wait. Before that, do we need to register the company? Like with paperwork? Taxes?”

Otto blinked. “Do you even know what those words mean?”

“Of course I do. They mean boring stuff you’ll handle.”

“I should have known.”

“Look, all you have to do is drive, talk to people, and not mess up. I’ll handle the creative part.”

Otto’s voice dropped into a mutter. “That’s what I’m afraid of.”

She ignored that too. “Now, for the name. Hmm. Something legendary. Something that’ll make people whisper in awe. Maybe... The Miracle of Eggs?”

“That sounds like a religious cult.”

She laughed. “True. Okay, something else. The White Gold?”

“Sounds like we’re selling suspicious powder.”

She frowned. “You’re no fun.”

Patrakash snorted loudly, as if agreeing with Otto. Dust puffed up from his nostrils, and Otto coughed.

“Even he thinks this is absurd,” Otto said.

Subaru leaned forward. “What did he say?”

Otto tilted his head, listening to the dragon’s growling rumble. “He says, and I quote, ‘I am surrounded by a chaotic disaster.’”

Subaru froze, then grinned slowly, eyes lighting up. “That’s it.”

Otto blinked. “That’s what?”

“The name! Our brand!” she said, clapping her hands together. “We’ll call ourselves The Duo of Chaos.”

Otto looked like someone had handed him a bucket of confusion. “The… what now?”

“The Duo of Chaos! You and me, the unstoppable pair! The culinary storm that will change history!”

He rubbed his temples. “Miss Natsuki, that name doesn’t exactly inspire confidence. It sounds like we’re professional troublemakers.”

“Well, we are,” she said proudly.

“Too weird,” he muttered. “Maybe something that sounds less… dangerous?”

“Fine,” Subaru said, pouting. “What do you suggest, Mr. Serious?”

Otto thought for a moment, tapping the reins against his leg. “How about… 

…The Cluster of Chaos?”

Subaru gasped, eyes sparkling. “That’s… awesome! You’re a genius, Otto!”

His cheeks turned faintly pink. “I wouldn’t go that far.”

“You’re blushing!” she teased. “You totally are!”

“I’m not!” he protested, but his voice cracked halfway through.

Subaru laughed, triumphant. “Ha! The Cluster of Chaos it is. We’ll make history with this.”

Otto sighed, though the corner of his mouth twitched. “You’re going to get us arrested, aren’t you?”

“Not if we sell faster with better marketing.”

“Why do I have a feeling that’s not the comforting reassurance you think it is?”

“Because you lack vision, Otto,” she said solemnly.

“Or maybe I’m the only sane one here,” he muttered.

“Now, for the slogan,” Subaru said, ignoring him, eyes gleaming with the confidence of someone who’d just invented capitalism. “We need something that speaks to the heart. Something powerful. Something unforgettable.”

Otto groaned. “Please don’t make it weird.”

She leaned forward dramatically, lowering her voice like she was announcing a prophecy. “Our slogan shall be…

He braced himself for absolute brilliance or utter nonsense.

…Pass me the mayonnaise, please.”

Chapter End

Nix's Notes: Originally, this was supposed to have 9K words. Unfortunately (or fortunately) I decided to write more and more, wanted to write more but it would have become way too long. 

But I absolutely loved writing it. It would have taken far less time had I not been busy with real life. 

Lots of hugs and  kisses to Tahap, Ren for beta reading it. 

Also! This time, for this chapter, Tahap is going to handle the end notes... Let's see what she cooks.

Drop your thoughts in the comments, your words and kudos are the fuel of our motivation!

Till next time!