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Chapter Text

Chapter 17: Season 2 Episode 1

Confusion clouded her mind, denying her any rest until she found her most cherished one.

He may not have been physically strong, and some might call him weak. But her love for him, her rider, let her look past such trivial matters as strength. His gifts lay in his sharp wit and mental resilience, and she was content with that. She could balance him—she was the strength where he was not.

A part of her strength was her fierce drive to protect, and she had always done her best to serve in that role.

Dragons of her kind bowed to no one.

But with him… Her pride meant nothing. Her honor meant nothing. Her bloodline meant nothing.

She, the proudest of all dragons, empress of the grass seas, the most honored among her kind, was never meant to be a mere companion to a human. She'd never let herself be seen as such.

Yet she hadn't anticipated the sight of his eyes that night.

When she saw him, her gaze widened. His eyes were so intense, so uniquely his own.

And then, at some point, the pain in those eyes became her only focus, overshadowing her bloodline, her rank, and even her mistrust of humans.

Nothing else mattered… For in those eyes, she saw death itself… and she was captivated.

She, the ground dragon Patrasche, named by him after she chose to become his one and only dragon. That name meant everything to her because it came from him, from the one whose eyes bore strength through the pain and shadows of death.

Before long, she found herself in the theater, moments before that flash of light stopped the ground carriage as they journeyed to Watergate City. She couldn't recall what happened next, but every beat of her heart distorted the sense of reality.

She'd been away from him far longer than those mere moments. She felt it in her bones. No, it had been days, not seconds, since that light had interrupted their journey since she'd been torn from his side.

"Kya…" Patrasche's snout nudged the empty seat where he should have been, filling her with a deep, aching emptiness.

She remembered finding him, unhurt and sleeping, and a surge of joy and love warmed her heart. Her first priority had been to wake him, see his playful smirk, and remind him to be less reckless.

And then, he was gone.

Once more, without reason, but this time, every beat of her dragon heart throbbed with urgency, pushing her into a relentless search.

With a slow, deliberate movement, she rose from the floor.

Patrasche's reptilian eyes narrowed with purpose, revealing nothing but the regal demeanor of one honored among all ground dragons.

Her gaze scanned the room.

Humans. Demihumans. Spirits taking on human forms. Other riders. Fox-shaped spirits hiding in the shadows. She saw them all, watching the loading window above with anxious faces as if anything there mattered.

But she would not leave her rider's fate to chance.

And so, with renewed determination, Patrasche's tail flicked as she summoned senses sharper than ever before.

The strain was immense, and she would have screeched from the pain if she'd believed anyone worthy of hearing it. She had to bring her rider back, to save herself by reaching him.

With one last look at the room's watchers, she turned, tail whipping the air, and dashed forward, swift enough to stir the air into a gust.

She heard their shouts to wait, but they meant nothing to her.

She'd caught his scent, faint but unmistakable, somewhere near.

And by the honor of every dragon who'd ever commanded respect, she would not let this chance slip without a fight to reclaim her rider.

"Wh-Where are you going?!"

A surprised gasp was all her ears could resonate to her as she fled the theater. That same room that had her body losing its scales from how cold it was.

"W-Wait!" She could hear the voice of someone following right behind her as she ran through the hallway of doors and rooms. "Please just stop running and think about where we are for a moment!" A flash of silver was noticed by the dragoness as she sped through the hallway of rooms without a limit to her speed.

Running, she locked into a feeling that surpassed all of her pain. Sweeping the hall like the wind, she caused her pursuers no rest in their task of catching her.

Her pull towards her rider was even stronger now, the more she ran forward, the more she could feel him closer.

"KYHAAAAAAA!" She screeches as she runs faster and faster, feeling the pull getting stronger.

"STOP! PATRASCHE!" The sweet voice that had been following her with worry was all but shouting at the top of their lungs, failing to keep up with her speed.

She didn't care.

Patrasche the ever-loyal, completely disregarded the world itself for her rider. And that included the theater walls that were standing before her at the end of the hallway of doors.

Ignoring every room for the cast, the dragon took the tip of her hard and scaly head and dashed madly towards the end as if she were a rhino, bursting the stone wall into dust and debris.

"KYHHHHHHHHHHHHHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!" A mighty screech that was as legendary as a roar filled the ears of everyone who was following.

"She broke the wall?!" One person asked from behind her.

"How did she do that, nyan?! Is Subaru-kuyn's dragon stronger than Reinhard himself?!" Another shouted their shock to the heavens, also from behind.

Yet Patrasche didn't give them the time of day. Any other time, she would hold her head proudly, basking in their shock and awe as one of her status deserves to be worshipped.

Not this day. Not this hour. Not this second.

She moved forward through the dust, kicking the rocks off the broken wall and swiping her tail through the air to clear the room.

There were people inside. The dragon at least had the foresight not to attack on sight despite how agitated she was at the world around her.

"No… Please don't come any closer!" One of them spoke, a woman with a shrill voice, huddled on a couch of some kind as Patrasche's nose flared a dust cloud towards her now compulsory targets.

"Th-That's a dinosaur! How is this possible?!" The second person in the room shouted, being a lot more mobile on his feet despite his fear being the same as his partner on the couch. She could see his tremble by the fidgeting of his feet as he tried to stand between her and his partner.

That man Patrasche was facing… He was with an all too familiar spiked hair.

Her anger and rush immediately became null in her heart as she smelled the familiar scent that she had been following throughout the theater beyond this wall.

Her narrowed slits turned to wide and round irises that showed an innocent look on her face, making herself more non-threatening to the couple within the room.

Slowly, the dragon purred softly, bringing herself closer to the man within the room, making him stumble backward in sheer mortification, yelping as he fell on his behind before Patrasche's might.

She stepped over the man, his sweat increasing as she stared him down with inches between them.

"P-Please… Please…"

The voice of the woman broke Patrasche's intense staring, moving her gaze upward towards the woman who seemed to have even more familiar sharp eyes that made Patrasche stare in a paused state upon immediate notice.

"Please leave him alone! My husband and my child did nothing to deserve such a fate—"

"STAND UP NAOKO!" The man screamed at the top of his lungs, suddenly jumping in a surprising show of force to tackle Patrasche's long neck and push his legs with all his might, budging the dragoness backward impressively even though she was 10 times his weight.

Patrasche let out a surprised groan, looking at the man below her with astonishment as he held her in place.

"RUN! TAKE HIM AND GET OUT OF HERE!" He screamed with all his might, clearly putting his all in his effort to keep Patrasche in place with his bare hands.

"... Kenichi…" The wife sobbed, holding on to someone important to them both as tightly as she could.

The woman wouldn't get far, Patrasche could tell from the way her hands trembled around the figure on the couch.

"Please just go…" The husband begged, tears already in his eyes as he pushed his legs into the carpeted ground beneath him to beat her.

It was when the two's priorities were shown to her, that Patrasche started paying attention to the third person inside the room she had broken into.

The boy lay in the arms of his mother while his father tried to save both of them from her.

A boy with the same spiky hair as his father and the exact same sharp eyes as the mother, who held him with such desperation, that it was heartbroken to even the ground dragon herself.

Forcibly, Patrasche's tail swung swiftly towards his feet, making the man tumble down from his effort, putting him in between her hind legs.

She moved quickly, faster than either of the two adults could breathe, her lizard-like neck quickly thrust forward so her face could be as close to the unconscious boy as she could make it.

It was him.

It was her rider.

It was her one and only.

"KRYAAAAAAAAA! KRYA KYRA KYRA!" Her dragon screeching filled the room, she was in, and the hallway outside of it.

"No!" Naoko, the woman that Patrasche now knew as her rider's own mother screamed at the top of her lungs as she held on to her son. Coming between him and what she thought was a fierce beast that wanted to harm him. "Stay away from my Subaru!"

Bringing her muzzle close, Patrasche's screeching halted to not cause any more alarm within the humans surrounding her sleeping rider. She tilted her head with curiosity, looking at those sharp eyes that glared at her.

"Naoko!" The man from behind screamed, scrambling on his feet and bringing whatever he could grab onto, throwing it at Patrasche's head.

The rock blunted her and scaled back, but the dragoness was unhurt even with all of the man's might.

Patrasche focused more on Naoko rather than the one attacking her from behind. She looked into those sharp eyes of the mother, holding the son who was born with the same shape and intensity.

"Naoko, I'll tackle this beast and open the way for you again—" the husband said from behind Patrasche, but Naoko cut him off as she kept up her staring contest.

"Don't." Naoko's voice was firm, undoubtedly hiding her fear behind a sudden boost of bravery that wasn't well hidden when one could see the tremble of her hands on Subaru's shoulders. "It can understand…"

"Understand—" Kenichi was about to ignore his wife's words and scream at her to move.

He was stopped in his tracks as Patrasche gave him a warning glare so intense that it forced him to reconsider his next move.

"Are you… stopping because I told you?" Naoko asked, her heart beating fast and her nerves a wreck, but her intuition ran wild as she read the beast's eyes once it turned to her.

"Do you… understand me?" Naoko asked, having Subaru's body clenched as tight as possible but her heart not easing. Panic was slowly disappearing as the woman noticed how this beast stopped coming closer to her.

"Kryaaa…." Patrasche sounded innocent, keeping her eyes locked with Naoko's as the two stared one another down.

"I'm sorry, but I do not understand you, I'm afraid." Naoko looked at the dragon with fascination and worry, showing sincere remorse as if understanding the disappointment in those beastly eyes of Patrasche.

"I'm happy to tell you if you'd like to know."

A new voice shocked the panic back into Naoko's heart as it intervened in the bizarre moment with a casual indifference to the tension she was feeling.

"Who are you?" Kenichi asked the person who entered the room through the large hole that was blown up by the giant reptile beast. "What's with the giant dinosaur?… Yours?"

The young man who entered the small room brought them a strange sense of calm as he smiled at them with passive indulgence.

"This all must be confusing for you both. I'm sorry about this girl's attitude, she's a bit excitable when it comes to my friend there." The young man pointed at Patrasche and the boy in Naoko's arms as he walked closer to Kenichi.

"Your friend? Wait…" Kenichi looked towards Naoko, finding her staring down at their son with a shocked face. "No way…"

"Is something the matter?" The young man asked, giving a concerned expression at the two's sudden white faces. "I hope I didn't say something concerning about your son… I'd assume you are his parents, yes?"

"I guess you could tell from the resemblance, huh?" Kenichi muttered, his eyes still widened towards his sleeping son.

The young man smiled at him, pointing towards Patrasche who had her eyes glued towards Subaru. "I heard her speak it to you."

"You can understand this one's loud noise?" Kenichi looked back at the gray-haired boy with confusion painting his face.

"She is someone I very much can talk with, seeing as that I'm the owner of the divine protection allowing me such a wonderful ability." The boy tapped his hat with a proud smile that faltered at the extra confusion aimed at him by Naoko. "A-Ahem… I guess you two wouldn't know about that since you aren't from where I am…"

"Clearly…" Kenichi's chuckle was dry, still beholding more confusion and need for answers but respecting the time they were getting without an angry beast stomping its way toward his wife and son. "Can you please… Tell it to—"

Patrasche huffed as to warn him.

"—Tell her to move away from them? Please?" Kenichi asked nicely, though he looked about ready to do the impossible to make Otto do what he said.

"I feel like there's a threatening aura around that politeness but I'm not going to ignore the context, Mr. Natsuki." The boy nodded his head and gestured for Patrasche to kindly move away from Naoko and Subaru.

The dragon reluctantly moved and glared at Kenichi with annoyance, still, respecting his wishes to calm things down for him.

"Natsuki…" Naoko looked from the moving beast that almost caused her a heart attack and aimed a look of uncertain emotion towards the gray-haired boy.

"Ah yes… You must be wondering why I know his name, correct?" The boy smiled at them both, earning a glance of attention from Kenichi as he too realized what his wife had done before him. "Like I said… I'm his friend."

That word seemed to give both parents a new air in their lungs that was very visible on their shoulders.

"It feels like I knock some wind into you every time I say that," the boy looked at them with a concerned, almost hesitant expression, like he feared what they were judging about him. "Could there be a problem with me being friends with Natsuki-san? I know you don't know who I am but I—"

"He made friends." As if she wanted to help by stopping his unjustified panic and self-doubt, Naoko gave a small sentence filled with much emotion that couldn't be understood by anyone hearing it.

"Is that an issue of some kind?" The boy looked at both of them apprehensively. "Natsuki-san's the type to make friends with people that can only cause him trouble, isn't he?"

At this, for the first time, Kenichi had to bellow laughter so sudden from how strong it was that the boy stepped back, visibly startled.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry…" Kenichi held his stomach and wiped an invisible tear as he laughed from his heart. "It's just… I can't…"

"Can't what, sir?" The boy asked softly, seeing the father slowly quiet his laughter until he was silent. "What's the problem with being Natsuki-san's friend?"

As if a cloud appeared over the heads of the parents before him, he narrowed his eyes towards Kenichi.

"... I begged that I would see the day he would finally have someone call him a friend like that soon," Kenichi said with such sadness and emotion that it tore through the heart of the gray-haired boy. "It's… I don't know." The man rubbed the back of his spikey hair, sighing to himself. "It's everything I've asked for him to have other than those weirdos on the internet he likes to act tough for…"

"So Natsuki-san didn't have many friends, huh?" The boy looked at the two with unreadable eyes, yet his fists were clenched, hidden away from them to keep himself in check.

Naoko shook her head with a sad smile, still holding on to her son like he would disappear from her at a moment's notice. "We're sorry we couldn't offer you more welcoming circumstances than this. I always thought to meet my son's friends in a more familiar setting."

"With fewer questions to be asked and even less worry about what's happening?" The boy chuckled with them as they both nodded their heads gratefully to his understanding. "I understand of course." He shook his head, keeping a smile to himself as he eyed Subaru for a moment, which both of the parents noticed.

The boy clapped his hands, renewing his energy as he faced them with a charming grin, his blue eyes shining with emotion.

"My name is Otto Suwen, I'm the Internal Affairs Minister for the Emilia camp, in which your son is the serving knight."

"Eloquent delivery, young man." Kenichi praised him with an even more confused look on his face. "Is this some kind of roleplay? What a weird way to give out a name to someone you've just met."

"It is nice to meet you, Otto-kun." Naoko brought herself to smile at the boy, fully accepting the boy with a kindness that very much affected him. "I hope you forgive us for needing to know more what you're saying… About our son…"

"I-I know this might seem as a stretch to the both of you… But could I please ask you to trust me on everything I'm about to explain before we leave this room?" Otto tried to ignore the affection he was hit with by Naoko's sudden brightness toward him, though he couldn't help but stutter in front of her.

"Will there be… More like her?" Kenichi looked over toward Patrasche, feeling her eyes gazing at him with a visible pressing aura of annoyance.

"..." Otto bit his lip, seeing the small clenching of Naoko's fingers around Subaru's shoulder blades, hearing the slight breaking in Kenichi's voice. He knew the parents were doing their best to hold themselves together.

"All I can say is that you'll be meeting more people who care about Natsuki-san very deeply… Her included." Otto affirmed, trying to earn more of their trust.

"Can we know her name?" Naoko asked, looking at Patrasche more without the pretext of fear filling her thoughts.

"Patrasche," Otto said the name and observed the hitches in their breathing with a slight fascination. "I guess you'd know the name… It's Natsuki-san who gave it to her, after all."

"It's a name from his favorite show as a kid…" Kenichi found himself chuckling and rubbing his head. "How much of a fool do you have to be to name a dinosaur after a dog? What a wasted opportunity to be cool, son."

"You have no idea…" Otto muttered under his breath, which Kenichi smirked at him for.

"Kryaa…" Patrasche groaned from her side of the room, bringing a threatening edge to the conversation.

"It's only a joke, calm down." Otto waved his hand easily, surprising Kenichi as he observed the dragon a bit more. "Sorry, she's attached to her name." He says to Kenichi, making the man smile.

"He's that important to her?" He asked Otto, eyeing Patrasche with a hint of pleasant surprise.

"Of course, her type is royalty where she comes from," Otto speaks with a bit of pride about Patrasche, who served her head tall and regal. "She doesn't trust just anyone."

Kenichi and Naoko started looking at the dragon more closely, now that they weren't panicking about it trying to eat them.

"She's beautiful…" Naoko whispered unwittingly, blushing when the dragoness eyed her. "Eeep!"

"That's… gonna get some getting used to. I can't say our house will fit you, but if our son works hard on his chores, we might give you the living room, Patrasche-chan." Kenichi chuckled as he walked forward toward the reptile without caring about their hostile interactions from before.

This surprised her, as the man inched his open palm closer toward her snout. "Kryaaaa…"

Patrasche allowed Kenichi to touch it, closing her slits and showing humbleness to the father of her rider.

"Good girl…" Kenichi cooed as he delicately treated the royal dragon to his famous tummy rubs that the neighborhood would envy.

"What did she say to us… When you were coming in?" Naoko asked Otto from the side of this interaction, watching her husband with a small smile. "I'd like to know…"

Otto gave the woman a nod and shuffled with his hat placed on his chest. "She said something akin to 'I'm thankful your eyes are like his… Sharp like a blade… Kind, like a mother… But without his darkness and tragedy…"

Naoko held a hand to her chest, frowning at the hidden meanings of the dragon's words. "Has he gotten hurt for her to say that?"

The head minister couldn't offer her anything but a shake of his head. "I cannot get into everything that Natsuki-san has been through… I'm still trying to figure them out as we go along and it… It gets so much worse the more we find out."

Kenichi looked at the boy from beside Patrasche, locking eyes with his wife for a second as they heard what was essentially another person who was suffering the same curse.

"You blame yourself?" Naoko found herself bringing attention to Otto's true feelings, giving him a motherly frown, filled with concern.

"... Please… Let me bring you up to speed so we can get back to the others. They are waiting for me to calm things down and come back soon." Otto ignored the woman's warmth sharply as if believing he was disrespecting her if he accepted her help.

As if he deserved the torment of self-blame that she wanted to learn more about and help him through.

"... I guess we have no choice, Otto-kun," Naoko said with disappointment and lowered frown, giving the boy an aching glance. "You're just as cruel as he is, you know."

"It's not my best attribute, but as a merchant, I have to use it when needed." Otto grinned tiredly at her but moved on swiftly as he turned to both. He fiddled with his hat and explained key details that both parents could not believe.

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"Why couldn't you enter with Otto-kun?!" Petra asked this from the side.

Within the theater, the group who followed Patrasche's dash were returned to the big room underneath the flashing screen.

Emilia, being the one who was the nearest to Patrasche along with Reinhard, took to answering. "She was reeeeally fast… She managed to break a wall all alone and when she entered through it… We weren't allowed to reach her because of an invisible barrier within the crack."

This gained the eyes of those who stayed behind instead of rushing after the dragoness.

"The dragon of Subaru-sama managed to break one of the prison's walls?" Frederica asked with widened emerald eyes. "How come? Reinhard-sama himself couldn't do such a feat… Unless she managed to find the only weak spot in this prison."

"That wouldn't explain why these guys were stopped from venturin' further through the hole though," Felt sighed and glanced at her knight who was standing with his gaze aimed at his feet from the disappointment.

"But… Why has Otto-kun been allowed entry past the broken walls?" Frederica asked with a face full of worry for the merchant, hand on her heart. "How come none of you stayed behind to check on him?"

"Calm down, sis." Garfiel entered the room behind Emilia and waved a relaxed arm. "Otto-bro's got the dragon-lass with 'em. He's the one who told us t' come 'ere and wait for 'em both t' come back."

Seeing her brother's relaxed stance, Frederica noticed that he too was hiding his worry behind a brave face and posture, yet never faltering in his faith that Otto was capable of returning through the broken wall alone.

"What did ya even see through the hole?" Heinkel asked in a gruff voice, leaning in his chair and watching with a frown. "If ya had a hole, there was a sight behind to see, no?"

"We can only see a black fog…" Felix answered his commander with a serious look.

"You're joking…" Tivey spoke from beside his siblings with a look of outrage. "Did you try to shine a light or something toward the fog? There are so many other possibilities you could've engaged instead of just leaving things be!"

"I implore your calm in these moments," Reinhard's voice filled the room before any more outrage could be said towards his group. "I have made sure to try everything I could think of to follow Otto-sama within the fog myself, I even tried to test the quality of the walls surrounding where Patrasche-chan managed to crack."

The knight seemed to grimace as he continued with a more preserved tone and a downward gaze being kept from everyone looking toward him for answers.

"Unfortunately, I think it was a one-time occurrence that will not be repeated by me or anyone else in this prison. It's only Otto-sama who's been allowed past the walls because he promised to return with Patrasche-sama, I'd assume."

"Please calm down, brother," Hetaro said from the side, calming down the thinking strategist of his beloved camp. "I have yet to understand what is happening or where we are. But I know we need your mind for whatever happens next."

Tivey found himself more inclined to retract his posture and sit down, sighing at his brother's words. "I'm tryin' so hard… This place's got me beyond my wits."

"There, there~" From the side, a small hand belonging to their sister patted the monocle-eyed boy on the head. "Ye're forgettin' that we don't have to work so hard when the boss lady is 'ere."

"Thanks, Mimi… Can you stop patting my head? HEY!" Tivey groaned as his sister playfully rubbed his head harder with his palm.

A giggle sounded from behind him that made him pause his fake outrage towards his sister.

"You sure are a loser~," Meili giggled mockingly at him, which served to make him blush under the stare of the mischievous girl.

"N-None knows how to lose than a girl with no future like you," Tivey's reply made Mimi look at him with a widened eyebrow for a moment before her smirk came back in full force.

"Oooh~, I wonder how you'd feel about my future when I put a guiltylow-chan infront of you. I'm sure your screams will be delightful to hear theee~n." Meili twirled in her place and hopped from one foot to the next, unable to connect with the tension in the room at all.

"Please just keep quiet for a moment," A boy with pink hair implored the bluenette with a nervous expression. "Can't you see the glares you've been getting?! This is an upsetting moment for all of us here so please respect our feelings."

Meili hummed to herself, ignoring the boy beside her completely but keeping to herself, ignoring the glare from the maids down below her row, and Felt.

"'our' feelings, eh, Schult-kun?" Al muttered under his helmet as he watched from the side, keeping his thoughts to himself since the last viewing had him impacted negatively. "Seems like your butler's getting too comfortable with following this story like you, princess."

The one he aimed his words at simply didn't reply with anything other than a snort.

"Tis his desire to see the continuation of an unpleasant state of affairs. It suits him better to be an echo of mine desires." Priscilla brought her fan closer to point at Al, piercing his soul with a look of warning. "But amongst everyone within this wretched place, you remain the one most disrespectful to mineself, Aldebaran."

"How so, princess?" Al's voice was offishly calm even though he faced a rising anger that would scare anyone within the room from Priscilla's eyes.

"You think me a fool, clown." Priscilla leaned back with a narrowing of her eyes that screamed for anyone who faced them to run away. "Bring some rest to that adventurous spirit, for I am not interested in forcing the answers out of you by mine hand alone."

"I have nothing to hide from you princess, jeesh." Al faced the beautiful woman's accusations with a small sigh. "That woman we saw was just someone I've run into in my past."

"A past you've chosen to keep separate from myself's amusement." Priscilla's eyes remained narrow as he stayed silent, unwilling to push her arrogance any further than she was.

"Just wait and see, Aldebaran. Remain disloyal or not, the world shall begin to unravel you for mine comfort." Priscilla chuckled supremely at him, leaning back in her chair and enjoying herself beyond the tension that was filling everyone else waiting for Otto to return.

"I find this lady more disturbing than amazing sometimes," Heinkel muttered to himself, looking at Al with a small glare that offered a minute amount of pity.

After a moment, he looked down at the rest of the camps, finding Emilia sitting back with an awaiting Rem and Beatrice.

"So what now?" Heinkel asked what had been plaguing the group. "What happens next? Are we just waiting or are we gonna talk about what we have seen?"

"Slow and steady," Anastasia muttered from her place, observing everyone. "There's much we must deal with before actually puttin' any importance over what's happenin' to Natsuki-kun."

"I think it's best to wait for those missing among us to return," Wilhelm sounded his agreement with the merchant queen wisely. "We don't know what might happen next without someone like Otto here with us."

"One of my most potent questions," Crusch's voice sounded from her seat as Felix sat behind her. "Where has the Warden gone? Why isn't he answering?"

"The bastard's up 'n took Cap'n away like some toy," Garfiel growled from the sidelines, glaring at the floor.

Beside Crusch's right, the empty chair where Subaru used to be forever since this theater was initiated. Around the seat were the girls most worried about him.

"That man dares to take away Subaru-kun and then refuse to elaborate a reason why…" Rem's growl was even more fierce as she gripped her skirt tightly, the wrath building up steadily the more she stayed away from Subaru.

Beside her, the blonde spirit girl looked towards Emilia with a little bit of a hopeful expression.

"Subaru's dragon wouldn't go to such lengths for nothing, in fact. You must've seen something to help, I suppose."

Emilia shook her head with guilt, looking at Subaru's seat with a grief-stricken face. "I didn't… see anything." She bit her lip, feeling the judgment in Beatrice's eyes. "It was super dark… All I could see was Patrasche's tail swiping at something."

"That doesn't make any sense, Emilia-sama," Rem whispered to the half-elf with politeness. "Why would a dragon swipe aimlessly… Unless she's being—"

"Attacked, I suppose." Beatrice cut Rem off with a small glare of panic and danger, slowly looking back to the nervous half-elf. "You let Otto enter a domain where even the dragon isn't holding her own?"

"H-He insisted!" Emilia replied abashedly. "He wanted us to trust him."

"That's… Naive, Emilia-sama." Rem shook her head, giving the half-elf a disapproving look.

Emilia looked from Rem to Beatrice with increasing panic, feeling like she'd done something wrong.

Before Otto had entered the room with Patrasche right behind him, carrying Subaru's unconscious form.

"Cap'n!"

"Subaru-kun!" Rem ran faster than either Beatrice or even Emilia, immediately materializing beside Otto and taking Subaru's body from Patrasche. "Let me check to see if he's alright!"

"I think you need to slow down, Rem-sama…" Otto said with a small guilty smile. "You'll have to represent yourself better to the parents."

The maid paused what she was doing and glanced at Otto with a look of confusion. "Excuse me? What are you saying?"

Otto smiled cryptically without showing his cards to anyone, simply standing there, fiddling with Patrasche's saddle as everyone looked on with more curiosity building.

"Everyone, please if you can give me a little bit of attention at this moment." The minister's head politely demanded more of their interest as he patted Patrasche's neck. "As you can see, Patrasche-sama here managed to find Natsuki-san and he's safe and sound… But she's also found something else."

"Goodjob, Patrasche-chan." Emilia whispered encouragingly to the dragon as she stepped beside Rem, trying to get closer to Subaru but the maid was hogging him all to herself. Her ears were still with Otto and she found herself looking toward him for more information.

"What else did she find? I can't help but be worried…" Emilia asked with a heavy heart, trying to steal glances at Subaru's face to make sure he was fine, truly.

Otto smiled a knowing smile that was filled with warmth.

"Please," he gestured towards the hallway as two people entered the room behind him, "give a warm welcome to Natsuki-san's parents."

Eyes were wide immediately as Naoko and Kenichi entered the massive theater room. The two figures were hunched onto each other, holding one another's hands as they looked around the theater's layout.

Heads turned immediately to survey the so-called parents. Eyebrows raised in recognition at Kenichi's spiky hair, with more features that kept pushing the idea that these were indeed Subaru's parents a little closer to being believed by all those eyeing them.

"Subaru's…" Emilia's mouth was agape as she stared at the couple.

"Parents, I suppose?" Beatrice found herself just as shell-shocked between Emilia and Rem, having been trying to sneak her way towards Subaru, but Patrasche was much too tall for her.

Not that it matters to her now.

For the parents themselves, they looked uncomfortable because of everyone's eyes.

"So many colored hairs…" Kenichi muttered under his breath, trying to chuckle his way through the nervousness.

Though his cheerfulness had long been subdued by the year-long absence of his son, Naoko could tell that her husband's best traits were still trying to push through for just her sake.

"Moving into another world isn't what I expected our son to be doing," Naoko whispered to her husband, clutching his arm tightly as they inspected all the different faces around them. "It's like a fantasy story…"

"After everything we've seen, I actually like the faces we are about to meet, dear," Kenichi said in a warm tone, giving his wife a squeeze on the hand. "It's going to be okay. Our son's in good company."

Naoko frowned but before she could say anything, a voice crashed through the silent tension.

"If I am to be excused, I assume you both have been told about the happenings in Natsuki Subaru's life since he was abducted from your world?" It was a lady with a commanding voice that surprised them both. She stepped before them with her hands straight to her sides.

"Um… Yes. Otto-sama here filled us in on how my son was taken." Naoko nodded her head and looked at Otto, who observed the situation with interest.

The woman talking to them nodded her head and stepped closer to give the parents a bow of the head.

"Well, this is a greeting." Kenichi blinked as he looked at the woman with confusion painting his face.

"I am thankful to you both. For raising your son as such you did." The woman said to them with her head bowed deep, making the parents feel numb in place. "He is not only a good man, but a hero that has given far too much to the people of our nation and world."

"That is Crusch Karsten-sama," Otto said from the side to the awestruck parents, "she is one of the royal candidates set to rule the throne of Lugunica."

"... My son really scored such respect from a girl that high up in government?!" Kenichi was firmly slapped on the arm by his better half, who was taking the bow of the green-haired royal with a lot more grace and less smugness and pride.

"Please, rise Crusch-sama. I wouldn't want a friend of my son's to treat us like this." Naoko said kindly, meeting the woman's royal voice with her soft and warm one. "I wish for us to be friends if my son trusted someone as righteous as you."

Crusch moved her head up and gave the two a nod of her head. "I… Haven't been there much for your son when he first came to our world—" this had many people in the theater wincing and grimacing in strange ways, which was noticed by the two parents, "—I have fought with him, however. Side by side, and witnessed his greatest moments myself."

Kenichi comforted Naoko's arm by rubbing it, feeling his wife tense at what was being said to them. "Fought… He really is something of a knight in that world of yours?" Kenichi muttered in disbelief, looking back at Otto and then towards Crusch.

"You have much to be proud of," Crusch nodded her head and gave another bow. "Forgive us for not being able to take care of him as much as we should've."

"What a cruel thing to blame yourselves for," Naoko shook her head with a small smile, forgetting her worry for a moment. "He's just as much trouble, believe me."

"Ain't that the truth," Kenichi chuckled and looked at his son's sleeping form with a bit of warmth. "He's a dumbass."

"Cap'n's the best, no matter what anyone says." A voice shouted from the far end of the room, which had Kenichi smile towards the others in the room, hand on his hip.

"Now, which of you would say that about someone so lame like my son? You're fanboying over a man who doesn't eat his vegetables, sir."

"That makes 'em even more my Cap'n!" The shout sounded even more genuine than before, which had Kenichi and Naoko start chuckling and giggling respectfully.

They marveled when a muscled, blonde young man stood in his chair to be seen by them, giving them a smirk that revealed his abnormally sharp teeth.

"Name's Garfiel Tensil, I am Cap'n's shield!" The young man pointed his thumb towards his half-naked chest with his grin growing more wild.

The parents found themselves marveling at his teeth, but they both felt more warmth from the words he spoke alone.

"We sure are thankful he's had you to protect him, sir." Naoko chuckled under her breath, feeling very awkward but liking Garfiel's enthusiasm toward her son. "I didn't know my son still made such strange friends."

"Let's be honest, everyone in this room is strange, I suppose." A small girl with drill twin tails walked up to them with her arms crossed. "My name is Betty, I suppose. I am Subaru's contracted Spirit, in fact."

The two parents looked down at the stern girl with shocked expressions for a moment, before Kenichi knelt to face Beatrice.

"May I spring your drills?" He asked with seriousness that could give cancer patients some shame.

"No, in fact." Beatrice huffed and turned her head from him, showing off her long hair.

"I am his father." Kenichi bargained immediately and without shame.

"It doesn't mean anything to Betty, I suppose." Beatrice snorted, looking the man dead in his eyes.

Kenichi looked at Beatrice for another moment longer before he hid his face behind his arm, sobbing into it.

Beatrice was immediately alarmed at this and held her hands out defensively. "What?! S-Stop crying, in fact. Betty didn't mean it, in fact, she just wanted to play 'hard to get' as Subaru taught her whenever she met with you, in fact!"

"UH HUH!" Kenichi stopped his fake crying and pointed at her with a charming grin, filled with smugness. "So it was my son who taught you the tsundere charade! I knew it!" He gave his son a proud smile as he stood up before Beatrice. "My son is a corrupting piece of shit—"

"I am afraid that Beatrice-sama has always been like that," Otto rubbed the back of his head as he witnessed the spirit girl glaring towards Subaru's dad with such annoyance. "She's been like this all her years as a spirit."

"Hard to imagine such a young child to be anything other than human," Naoko said while inspecting Beatrice with fascination. "You must feel so lonely being the only spirit in this room… Or so Otto told us, sorry if I got it wrong."

"..." Beatrice ruffled her dress to straighten it before looking at Naoko emotionlessly. "Betty has Subaru. That's all there is to what she needs in this world, in fact."

Naoko found herself feeling more struck by that answer to the point her jaw hung.

"Yeesh, my son means that much to you? I wonder how he treated such an adorable-looking princess. Those butterfly eyes are unreal." Kenichi gave his usual grin, the light returning more into it than it had in the past year.

"... But of course," Beatrice's smile turned into one of warmth as she glanced at Subaru with love and care. "He's Betty's contractor because she chose him… And he begged her to choose him… It's Betty who must treat him well, in fact."

Kenichi paused at how heartfelt the girl was when talking about his son. "Hm… You've been through a lot with him?"

"More like he's been through a lot without Betty, in fact." The blonde spirit girl frowned with guilt but shook her head to stop herself from any self-blame.

"Well then, I suppose we can make it up by both being there for him?" Kenichi smirked at the widening of her eyes as she looked up at him. "What do ya say? This boy won't live without our adorable faces in his world!"

Beatrice had a small smile on her face as she nodded her head. "Betty would like this, in fact."

"Hm, no snarky comment, she must really like me then!" Kenichi wiggled his eyes towards his wife, who smiled warmly at the two while Otto walked closer to pat the man's shoulder.

"Ahem, I think it's best we sit you down over in the back with Natsuki-san. There's much to discuss with the others and I wouldn't want to make things uncomfortable for you two—"

"They can take my seat!" A sweet voice broke through the crowd, putting the eyes of the parents directly towards the person who had been standing the second closest to Subaru.

"Finally you're talking…" Otto grumbled under his breath, looking at the woman with silver hair as she stepped forward with a most nervous expression before Subaru's parents. "I was beginning to think you're going to let Crusch-sama win this meeting in her favor."

"You're very pretty…" Naoko found herself expressing to the nervous girl before her, holding a hand to her cheek from the surprise.

"Th-Thank you! I think you're pretty too!" The young lady stuttered while fiddling with her robes, trying to step closer to Subaru for comfort, which was noticed by both parents, much to their joy and surprise.

"Not as much as you are, my dear. You don't have to be nervous around us." Naoko said softly, admiring the girl's beautiful looks some more before settling her eyes on Subaru, her one and only son who somehow managed to make friends with these people.

"I appreciate your comfort…" The girl said politely, trying to lose her flusteredness as she shook her head. "I didn't expect to ever meet you." She said truthfully, finding herself sighing out of breathlessness.

"His parents?" Naoko said knowingly, smiling at the girl who seemed close to her son. "What would your name be, pretty one?"

"My name is Emilia, just Emilia." The girl told Naoko and Kenichi, finding herself more pushed to hide her frown so she ended up bowing her head to them out of respect. "Please know that your son's been nothing but a wonderful person for his whole stay at my camp."

"Ah… You're the one Subaru became a knight for?!" Kenichi looked between the beautiful girl and Otto who was nodding his head with confidence. "How the hell did he do that?! I must humble my son or else he will think that he can marry better than I can!"

"I thought you said no one can ever do that, dear." Naoko looked slightly offended by this but Kenichi was too busy giving a very slow and dignified fist bump in the air after looking more at Emilia's slightly visible need to be near Subaru's side.

Emilia found herself smiling at Subaru's father, remembering how silly Subaru actually was and how it relates to his father now that she sees it.

"Subaru's… My knight." Emilia felt the breath of relief that Rem gave from behind her, probably due to gratitude "And I am more than happy with that. If you can find it in your heart to forgive me for saying this but… I do not regret having him with me… by my side…"

Otto facepalmed as Naoko and Kenichi widened their eyes collectively at the girl's audacity. Emilia had a serious face that itched with nervousness but her resolve was clear in her eyes.

"I appreciate your honesty, Emilia-sama…" Naoko replied cordially, not being able to take the girl's words as anything but a warning about a bigger issue no one wanted to talk about at this moment. "Can you show us to the seat, please? I would like to have some more time to think about all I've been told before we start with any discussions like this one."

Emilia's face contorted to one of dismay, seeing how low the mood had gotten after she started speaking. "I-I um… Yes. Please follow me, miss…" Emilia paused as she reflected on a painful reminder of just how easily she screwed a new relationship with Subaru's parents without even knowing their names.

Naoko gave a small comforting chuckle, trying to help the girl calm down a little. "My name is Naoko, dear. A pleasure to meet you."

"I…" Emilia shook her head, "the pleasure is all mine. Please come." Emilia took Naoko down toward the front row.

"Before the discussions begin," A western-styled voice was heard from the second row. "I'd like an introduction from each of us to the new couple in town~"

"I find it to be a waste of time, to be honest. Onii-san's folks are not that special." A little girl with blue hair sang from the back, sitting away from everyone in Priscilla's row, right above Petra and Frederica.

"That's enough, please take your seats." Otto firmly stopped Anastasia from achieving anything by pushing for Emilia to move the parents, Rem slowly moved behind her, unable to speak or show her face to the two as they reached the usual seats of the theater.

Otto slowly helped Kenichi put Subaru back in the middle seat of row one, with Naoko immediately taking the right seat next to him while Emilia sat next to her. Beatrice couldn't sit on Subaru's lap with his parents around so she sat beside Emilia, next to Otto's seat. On the left side, Kenichi sat down next to Subaru while Crusch took the seat next to him, beside Felt and Reinhard.

"Thank you," Otto reveled in the glare that Anastasia shot toward him as he took the lead. "I suppose you want to know where we ended up, me and Patrasche-sama—"

The dragoness herself screeches to fill the room with notice that she is now sitting at the feet of Subaru, on the ground, where no one can disturb her.

"Ah… Yeah. You're the greatest indeed," Otto said with a sweat drop appearing on his forehead as Patrasche nodded in approval, permitting him to continue.

The minister coughed, being encouraged by Naoko's awaiting smile and Frederica's sweet nodding to continue his leading of the discussions with all those present in the room.

"I want—" It didn't matter what he had to say next because the screen above them stopped its flashing of the deformed pictures that no one could see properly to start an active showing of a scene that widened many eyes in the room.

"Another viewing?!" Tivey said with a small growl, unable to believe what he was seeing as the screen began fading to black.

Otto glared upwards at the screen, giving a thoughtful expression towards the parents as they looked on in utter confusion.

"You told us that this place would be weird but all we see is a cinema room… What did you watch in here?" Naoko asked this in innocence, but she noticed Emilia grew more tense beside her.

The mother paused and looked back to Subaru's sleeping face, her hand brushed his as she remembered the long walk past the hell of bodies that she saw him go through.

"Please just tell me if he ever faced such a scene…" Naoko asked Emilia with more emotion showing than she wanted. "If that scene we've watched was not the truth…"

"It… Isn't as simple as that," Emilia spoke deliberately without showing her own emotions openly. "It's all because of the woman Subaru was about to meet on top of the hill… She likes to toy with others."

Beatrice glared at Emilia for a moment before ignoring the conversation happening next to her, focusing on what was playing on the screen.

"I think we can believe what she says, honey," Kenichi whispered to his wife over his son's sleeping body. "She was one of those who were in the corpse pile… Remember?" His hand clenched hers at the memory.

Naoko's eyes widened when she remembered that Emilia was also dead at Subaru's feet during the vision she saw on the screen. "Oh… If she's fine right now… Then that means Subaru really didn't go through such a horrific sight… Thank goodness…"

Emilia stayed silent, not looking at anyone as she felt some stare at her from behind. Especially Anastasia and Rem. All the while Naoko gave a small sigh of relief, nuzzling her son's cheek lovingly.

Kenichi had a small, content smile, unable to see the pitying face Crusch was giving to both of them from his side.

"This ain't gonna end well for big bro's parents." Felt groaned while putting her hand on her temple. "I can't fuckin' deal with how shitty this is gonna be."

"Felt-sama… I think we can live without telling them for now." Reinhard whispered to his lady with a small frown. "Subaru's been through the worst of his adventure already… I can't say he is known for much after this other than contracting with Beatrice-sama."

Felt sighed and shook her head. "Don't be an idiot, Rein. This fuckin' window won't be showin' us anythin' good."

The knight appeared apprehensive to that statement, but he somewhat agreed with his lady.

"Otto…"

The merchant turned from the screen to find Julius leaning behind him with a little bit of a curious expression on the knight's face.

"Yes? Julius-san?"

"Did you tell the parents about the last viewing we've seen? The one with the fields." Julius asked seriously, giving the merchant a judging gaze.

Otto shook his head, surprising Tivey and Garfiel.

"I did not. They had their own window where they watched that viewing. Much smaller than ours but it did the job I guess." Otto rubbed the back of his head, "I know what you're thinking, Julius-san. It was a safe bet for me as well, but I asked them a few questions, and from what you saw with them meeting everyone—"

"They've only seen the latest viewing rather than everything that happened to Subaru from the very start," Julius concluded the dangerous thought with a certain look on his face.

"What's with the face?" Garfiel asked the knight curiously, lounging in his chair. "Can't tell if ya wanna be happy or pull someone and beat them up."

Julius didn't have anything to say to Garfiel, only a sigh and his head leaning back in his chair to look up at the screen above them.

"He was scared they saw him beat Natsuki-san at the royal castle." Otto's eyes widened in realization as he and Garfiel both looked at Julius with widened eyes.

"Afraid ya may never be able to talk to the parents of yer lover, eh, Julius?" Ricardo joked from beside the triplets in the same row as Julius, which made the whole group laugh at the knight sitting with his arms crossed and pulling a straight face.

"I had to make sure there weren't any misunderstandings between us before I got to know the people responsible for such a piece of work as Natsuki Subaru," Julius said in a little bit of a defensive manner but clearly trying to hide his anxiety.

It only made the giggles and chuckles continue.

"Yer not foolin' anyone, Julius." Anastasia giggled from his side, hearing this conversation and very much agreeing with the group who were against her knight.

Oh, those who serve betrayal to his heart.

Slowly, the room began to brighten as the first scene played. As if anticipating the ease everyone was in and requiring them to be ready for what they were about to watch.

Season 2 Episode 1

Begin.

The scene starts with panning across the blue sky. It slowly reveals a large caravan of carriages, driven by large ground dragons.

Naoko and Kenichi looked at the creatures with absolute fascination, their eyes wandering downward toward Patrasche as they noticed her on the screen.

"These are dinosaurs, right?" Kenichi asked Crusch, looking lost as he admired the large reptiles and the carriages they pulled with them. "Those things are acting like horses… This is really making me feel disappointed with Jurassic World right now."

"Can't say a horse would break down a wall for someone they love." Naoko smiles nervously while eyeing Patrasche as the dragoness scratches her snout against her leg like a cat would.

Beside them, Crusch gave the two a small amused smile. "Those are called ground dragons where we come from."

"I see… So they are called dragons…" Kenichi found himself smirking with increased fascination as he eyed the creatures on the screen. "I wonder if you got that name from our world." He whispered to himself, earning a small curious look from Crusch.

"Pardon?"

Kenichi shook his head and gave a bold grin to the royal lady.

The line of carriages was long, almost never-ending as the dragons sped through the Lifus Highway Plains.

Otto is shown driving two ground dragons with a small smile as the scene zooms in on the people sitting behind him. A group of children were sleeping peacefully inside the cart he was leading.

"It's showing Otto-kun…" Naoko smiled towards the merchant boy, who was surprised to see himself in the window. "You should smile like that more, y'know."

"I do agree," Frederica found herself looking at the boy with amusement. "It's a good look on you, Otto-sama."

Otto blushed at the warmth within her gaze toward him, rubbing the back of his head. "I-I didn't expect the events to begin with me driving everyone back towards the capital."

"The capital?" Naoko tilted her head in confusion.

"This is the drive back towards the Karsten estate, where Natsuki-san had finished his liberation of Arlam village from the White Whale and the great menace, Sloth," Otto told her with a look of honesty and admiration clear for his brother.

Faced with the serious faces of all the others behind him, Naoko looked to her husband for some comfort. "I don't know what to say… I hope our son hasn't caused himself any harm… These things sound veeeery spooky."

Kenichi narrowed his eyes at the slight hitch in Crusch's breath, noticing the usually poised and confident woman beside him falter—something about his wife's words had unsettled her.

"I hope so too…" He said with a little bit of worry showing in his tone when Crusch didn't meet his eyes.

Behind the parents, Rem watched the screen with a mix of curiosity and unease, torn between anticipation and apprehension for what would come next.

"I wonder if they will see me fight for him… if they will forgive me for what I did to him…" she murmured, her voice barely above a whisper. A quiet longing stirred within her—wishing Subaru's parents could look at her, acknowledge her, and grant her the absolution she desperately sought for her sins, for the torment and suffering she had inflicted upon their son.

But she remained silent, keeping her thoughts to herself as the unfolding scene deepened their confusion, raising questions far weightier than her selfish yearning to be accepted by those who had shaped the man she cherished.

Also inside of his cart, the group of children were being looked over with warm smiles by a couple that sat in the very back of the moving carriage.

"Ah!" Anastasia's eyes widened as she hummed, glancing between the parents and the screen with a renewed spark of excitement. "Not only are they gonna watch this continuation with us, but they've got no clue what they missed."

"Are you suggesting we proceed with your plan against the margrave, my lady?" Julius murmured near her ear, his voice smooth and measured as he leaned in.

Anastasia hummed again, casting a thoughtful glance first at Subaru's parents, then at Subaru himself, the gears in her mind turning. "We gotta save them too, of course. Surely they don't expect to just go home after finding their sonny…"

"Are you sure he wouldn't just want to leave our world and return home?" Tivey whispered, joining the conversation, his curiosity piquing Hetaro's interest as well.

Anastasia chuckled lightly, careful to keep her voice low. "Tivey-chan, I'd like ya to respect yer own intelligence more and not ask such questions."

Julius leaned back, his brows furrowing. He wasn't sure what to make of his lady's intentions, but the idea of involving Subaru's parents in their schemes unsettled him. He stole another glance at them—so lost, so unaware of what had played out before their arrival. His fingers curled into a fist. The thought of them witnessing something painful, something they weren't prepared for, filled him with an unfamiliar sense of dread.

"I pray that whatever comes next spares your parents a cruelty we could never escape, Subaru," Julius whispered, his heart tightening as he braced himself for what lay ahead.

This couple was sitting close to one another but with little space between them.

The girl of the two gave a small smile of comfort, making a little noise of happiness as she sat beside the boy.

"I see…" Naoko smiled warmly towards Emilia, who eeped at the sudden gaze from Subaru's mother, having her eyes focused on the children for a moment before. "You two must've been through a lot before this…"

Emilia looked at the woman with surprise, her eyes feeling tired and her heart almost exploding with every beat as she recalled that moment in the carriage, how it made her feel to be close to him. How much she misses his warmth in their current seating position.

"I… He saved me." Emilia whispered to Naoko with a deep frown of guilt. "Saved me a thousand times over with every stubborn grunt he gave… It's soooo annoying… But I.. l-love him for doing it."

Naoko was taken aback by Emilia's stuttering confession, while Kenichi bumped a fist in the air with light reflecting on his glasses.

"He must've been smitten with you…" Naoko smiled, eyeing her son mischievously, "I didn't know he would grow up so soon!"

"You should be proud of him," Emilia nodded her head seriously, giving the woman nothing but her whole-hearted feelings.

"I am." Naoko's smile turned sad for a moment before she shook her head and rubbed her son's cheek. "You have no idea how much I missed him… How many times I've died inside waiting for him to arrive back home."

Emilia gave the woman a look of pity and heartbreak, seeing this coming from a mile away, but her heart still gave a gut punch when the mother told Emilia what was always known by the rest of the cast but ignored how horrible it was.

"You've been waiting for him, this whole time," Emilia said in a matter-of-fact tone, showing her pity and sadness at such a cruel thought. "I'm sorry for it taking so long to see him, Naoko-san."

"Call me Naoko, dear." The woman gave her a smile of understanding and emotion. "Please just call me Naoko and help me try to understand what I've missed from my son's absence. I know it makes me sound like a helicopter parent but I…"

"You love your son." Emilia nodded her head, giving the woman a smile with something hidden beneath it. "I wish nothing but to help you reconnect with Subaru. It is the right thing to do… And it will mean so much for him."

"Thank you, dear." Naoko held Emilia's hand in a firm yet kind gesture, giving the half-elf something to be shocked by. "I-I'm sorry… Am I not allowed to touch a royal in your world?"

"Not at all, Naoko-san." Emilia shook her head, giving the lady a small smile of comfort. "I'm just… Surprised. Not everyone would touch me like this back home… So swiftly and with such heart."

"Are you ostracized because you're a royal back home? You seem a little bit sheltered…"

Emilia had to shake her head firmly, not at all expecting Naoko to begin dotting on her like a child. "I-It's not because I'm a royal… Just… People don't take too kindly to someone who looks like me."

"That's horrible." Naoko found herself frowning in anger at the very thought. "It's a loss to make someone so pretty and kind like you feel the need to be sad."

"Thank you…" Emilia said quietly, not sure how to respond to the woman's warmth and kindness. "Thank you very much."

Out of nowhere, a small girl intruded on the couple and sat herself right next to the boy, latching onto his arm with both of hers.

The girl in question had to push her face into her palms, hiding her head in shame at the way she seemed so jealous and childish.

"Noooo…. Not in front of Subaru's parents! No!" Petra whined drastically, receiving a head pat from Frederica beside her.

But behind, there was a different form of support being given to the little maid. As in no form at all.

Meili's giggles filled the room at the sight of Petra trying to latch on to Subaru's side, having long been aware of the orange-haired girl's crush on the knight.

"Maybe having Onii-san's parents here is gonna be fun after all~! hehehehe!" Meili shifted on her feet from side to side and moved on the edge of her seat, ready to collect and use whatever embarrassing thing Petra was going to do next.

"Um… Petra…" Subaru, the boy who was looking ahead with a stupefied expression, talked to the girl. "Aren't you, um… a bit close?"

Petra responded resentfully, giving a side-eyed look towards the lady beside him as she held on to his arm protectively. "Well, she had you all to herself earlier. It wasn't fair! You don't mind do you?" She asked the lady with a bit more spite than needed.

Emilia, suddenly being the center of attention, had her arms raised in panic as she stuttered to respond. "Um… It's not like that, Petra-chan. Subaru and I were just…" Emilia replaced her alarmed expression with a confident smile suddenly. "Right! We had important things to talk about!"

Petra responded with utmost maturity and respect towards the royal candidate, by pushing her tongue out and blowing it aggressively. "I'm not going to lose to you! You hear me?!"

Many were laughing at such a scene within the theater, but none were laughing more than Meili herself as she watched Petra's embarrassment grow.

"Not going to lose, eh~?" Ricardo commented with a chuckle as Mimi laughed wholeheartedly.

"I don't see what is so funny." Tivey sighed at the immaturity, looking at Subaru with annoyance.

"That's a little bit sweet, I must admit," Hetaro commented with a small smile, watching the feud between the candidate and Petra grow.

"Ma~~~n, where did all the 'be mature for your age' teachings go there, Petra-chan?" Meili giggled while kicking her legs around in glee.

"I didn't even get to meet with them and they are seeing me like this…" Petra sank into her knees, hiding her head with a dark cloud of depression hanging above her. "Subaru's parents will take the others more seriously because of this… They don't know what everyone's done to Subaru… I-I have to do more to impress them and help warn them…"

"Petra-chan, are you okay?" Frederica leaned over to the small girl, unable to hear what she was saying in the balled-up position she was in. "Would you like it if I didn't watch this? You look adorable~."

Petra sank deeper into her depression as the screen continued to show everyone how jealous she truly was of Emilia as a kid.

Both Subaru and Emilia look at the little girl with surprised faces. "Eh… Emilia-tan," Subaru turned his head to Emilia with an awkward smile. "She's only a kid. You just have to smile and laugh off what kids say." He puts his fingers on his cheeks and imitates a smile for her.

"That's what's so wonderful about you, Subaru-kun…" Rem whispered to herself, unwilling to say it out loud enough for the parents to hear her and start asking her who she was. "I can't stop my heart from beating faster, knowing that I'll no longer be involved with your story soon… I'm sorry. As if I ever was a part of it with your Return by Death removing my sins and failures at your will."

Checking on her sister with her eyes, Ram huffed dryly from her seat at the top and brought a small hand to dust her shoulder, frowning at the fact that she could see Rem being a lot quieter around his parents.

"Don't hide yourself, sister. It will only make things more terrible for Barusu in the long run." Ram whispered to herself with a shake of her head, enlightening the person next to her to speak after such a long silence.

"You only doom Rem to have false h~ooo~pe…" The man said eccentrically from beside her, making Ram look at the speaker apprehensively.

"Roswaal-sama…"

The man himself sat back with his eyes more focused on the screen than the parents in the front row. "What does it matter if she tells them anything, Ram? Having Rem's heart shatter a thousand times shouldn't seem so app~eee~aling to her dearest sister."

"..." Ram's hands clenched her skirt tight, glaring at the floor while listening to his cruel words.

"Rem's about to see the moment where Gluttony's about to remove her existence from this world… A moment that Natsuki Subaru himself couldn't redo after everything we've s~eee~n." Roswaal's eye glints when he turns it to Ram. "I believe you're smart enough to realize that after everything… Subaru-kun will die for Rem."

Ram's eyes met his as she kept her silence.

"I wonder what he's done… To give up on saving Rem… What his parents are going to watch with us once he finds her in that condition…" Roswaal's voice was more deadly than gleeful at these words. "I wonder how many times Rem's heart can break in just a simple moment."

"Why…?" Ram's voice cracked, unable to match his coldness to her sister as she gave the man a small tearful look, trying to keep her strength.

"You need to focus on what's important, unlike Subaru-kun and Rem… I can see when life's throwing a distraction meant to harm me when I'm on my path." Roswaal muttered to her, giving her a deadly glare. "You need to stop letting her heart lead her to ruin, Ram. She needs to stop getting attached to anything that has to do with—"

"Barusu?"

Ram's teary-eyed face suddenly turned cold with resentfulness and disinterest, making the man lean back a slight inch as she leaned forward with a deadpanned glare.

"Roswaal-sama, please make sure to drink more water next time we have a break. You seem to be speaking words of nonsense that disinterest even the most boring of people like Otto." Ram said diligently, actively crushing the power in the lord's eyes with her complete nonchalance to his behavior and words.

"... Have you no care for Rem, you cruel m~aaa~id of mine?" Roswaal's gleeful voice returned, trying to replace his surprise as he stared at Ram.

"Barusu's parents would make for good in-laws." Ram mused to herself, crossing her legs while leaning back in her chair. "My sister will charm them fully and they will be able to stay by her side when Barusu is too trash to be there for her."

"... You're a lunatic." Roswaal spat after a second of his speech being frozen by the sheer absurdity of Ram as a character. "The audacity to be so greedy and selfish."

"I wouldn't want to hear this coming from you, Roswaal-sama. Ram can hear you speak for days on end, but the hypocrisy would make her puke if this was the line you feel most disgusted with her crossing." Ram tilted her head with a sweet smile that unnerved the clownish lord in his seat, waving a foot in place as she leaned further into her seat.

"No way!" Emilia responds firmly, making him look shocked. "Even if she's a child, I can't take such a lackadaisical attitude."

"Lackadaisical? Who says that in this day and age?" Subaru looked overwhelmed by her serious stance on the matter so he just smiled sheepishly.

But Emilia only pouts in anger. "You're teasing me again!"

"I'm not a kid!" Petra growled from the side as she gave a pout of anger towards Subaru.

Stuck in between each monster, Subaru could only keep the peace by apologizing like a weakling.

"Okay sorry~... I need to thank you, Petra." He patted her head, which turned the little girl into a smiling angel suddenly. "You kept your promise to not leave Emilia-tan alone."

"This guy's keeping women of all ages fighting over 'em, huh?" Heinkel snorted with annoyance, painting his face at the scene in general. "What a load of bull… This kid's living a fantasy for one moment and then having life crush him suddenly in the next."

"... I think I understand why he owns so many hearts, Heinkel-sama." Schult gave a small smile at the scene. "This is after the defeat of Sloth and the White Whale after all… He saved them after so much."

"We didn't even get to see the worst of it, apparently," Heinkel commented with a bit of gratefulness in his voice. "I don't think I'd have liked to see more self-righteousness gone to waste." He glared at his father and son, both sitting at the front and watching the scene with smiles on their faces, ones that could be seen at least in the case of Reinhard.

Towards the front row, Emilia was frowning at Petra's behavior and ignoring her own childishness at the moment.

"I do apologize that you had to see me being so stern," she said softly to Naoko beside her, being completely serious. "This wasn't Petra's brightest moment and I had to say something to keep such childish impulses in check."

Naoko could only puff her cheeks to keep a short and sweet giggle from becoming as loud as a laugh. Emilia ends up looking at the woman with confusion and patience, waiting for Naoko to stop her giggles.

Beatrice spoke from the side of Emilia with a glance of annoyance aimed at her. "You were the one who looked childish in that situation, I suppose. It was you who argued with Petra when you had all the cards, in fact."

Emilia immediately patted Beatrice on the head, seemingly ignoring the spirit. "Shush, stop taking the side of Petra just because you play with her from time to time. She needs to be called out when she does something wrong."

Beatrice glared at Emilia with disgust as Naoko placed her soft hands over her mouth and trembled in place to hide her giggles.

Kenichi looked at Crusch with a bit of a playful expression, seeing his wife being busy with Emilia, he had to speak to the nearest person he knew.

"Crusch-sama, if I may be so bold to ask," he struck up a conversation instantly, which surprised Crusch pleasantly as she blinked and turned to him with a small smile.

"Please do so. I hope to answer your questions to the best of my ability, sir Natsuki."

"Please, that's what my son likes to be called when he's dreaming of maid cafes," Kenichi waved a hand, not hearing the slight squeak coming from the blue-haired girl behind him because of what he said. "Mr. Natsuki-sama the Mighty or Boss, are fine."

"Thank you for the correction," Crusch nods her head politely. "So how can I help you, sir Natsuki?"

Kenichi clicked his teeth playfully at the innocent look Crusch gave, but he shook his head. "I was wondering just how many people he's been helping?" The man's voice turned soft as he eyed the screen with a bit of pride in his voice. "I wanna know… So I can understand why all these girls suddenly see him like I do."

"You hold your son in such deep affection, similar to a woman?" Crusch raised an amused eyebrow as the man pushed a fist before him and flexed a bicep with a grin.

"The level of affection that I have for my son is supreme to that of a thousand women!"

Crusch's lips pursed at that notion, staring at him more seriously. "Doesn't seem like you are lying to me… So that means such a statement is spoken with complete conviction by you." She wishes that the Natsuki family could stop making her disbelieve her own divine protection sometimes.

"That m-much?" Rem whispered behind them, being only heard by the duchess.

"Big bro's dad is just as much of a weirdo, yeeesh!" Felt snorted while watching the man in amusement, chin on her knuckle.

"To answer that question…" Crusch had to take a moment to look back and smile at everyone. "I believe you needn't look far for that answer about your son."

Kenichi nodded his head firmly. "Mhm, I see. My son could only save a small number of people because he sucks—"

"He's been the most accomplished hero of this generation before gaining any lands or titles in just a year of him being in Lugunica," Crusch continued her statement with a peaceful smile, happily contradicting his.

"Sucks at being lame, I mean." Kenichi coughed playfully, earning a chuckle out of her as he turned with a proud grin on his face, aiming for his son on the screen. "Man… You grew up too fast for me to be there and catch you when you need it."

"He has people already waiting to help whenever he needs," Crusch interjects on his moment of pride and happiness with a kind smile of her own. "Believe in the fact that his actions will not be forgotten by us. I'll make sure of that myself on my honor as a Karsten."

"I see." Kenichi smiled more forward as he turned to face the duchess with his arms folded across his chest. "Thank you very much." He received a nod from Crusch as she turned back to the screen with a determined smile on her lips.

"Man, this son of mine became a harem protagonist in a matter of a year… I need to work overtime to get a bigger place." Kenichi thought to himself while eyeing Crusch and Emilia with a bit of sweat appearing on his forehead.

Subaru smiled sincerely as he closed his eyes. "There are so many people I need to thank when things calm down." He looks up as the screen shifts to showcase memories from the past.

It showcases Wilhelm's fierce strike downward at a great white Whale with sharp teeth that struck the skies with its form.

"What the—" Kenichi found himself losing grip on his expression at the mere sight of the creature above him on the screen.

Naoko herself was more shocked by Wilhelm's acrobatics than the beast he was attacking.

"Otto-kun… Is that the 'White Whale'?" Naoko asked the boy with a trembling finger.

The merchant had his hat put over his face, unable to speak as the image of the Whale passed by above him.

"Sorry, Cap'n's mom." Garfiel sighed and patted his friend's back. "That thing's dealt its damage pretty deep into Otto-bro." His voice shows a hint of the wrath he feels against the monster.

"... I'm very sorry, Otto-kun," Naoko muttered as she saw the faces of Julius, Ricardo, and even Emilia as they all sat protectively over Otto while glaring upwards toward the creature.

"From now on, that's how it must be remembered," she turned her head back to see the same old man who was slaying the beast on the screen. "It's nothing but justice for it to remain a memory and nothing more." Wilhelm glared at the beast with no hint of regret in his blue eyes.

"Did it hurt you as well?" Naoko asked with a little frown of hesitation, not sure if she could ask such a question from someone who looked so beyond her in terms of years.

Ironically, Wilhelm refused to look at her for the same reason as he closed his eyes whimsically.

"It's not me the beast has hurt… That was my doing towards myself and my family."

At his words, Naoko noticed the red-haired men in the room adopting a frown of guilt and a scowl of something beyond dark and twisted.

As if Wilhelm was the conduit of a deeply rooted negativity between them.

She frowned deeper, holding her hand closer toward her son as she saw the people he was around more clearly. Her eyes brushed past a little maid girl with blue hair who was trying to move away from her eyesight for some reason. Naoko didn't know what to say to her, so she turned back around to look at the front, trying to learn more from Subaru with her worry increasing.

"I'm grateful to Crusch-san and her gang,"

"You're being mentioned," Kenichi smirked to look over at Crusch. The duchess held a small look of pride within her heart, nodding to the screen with satisfaction.

"Crusch-sama…" Felix muttered from behind her, watching the interactions between her and Subaru's father increase the more she was mentioned and clenching his skirt at every interaction. "Don't forget… he couldn't save you…" His heart hurt when he said this. "Please tell me that he tried to help using whatever he could at least… I'll forgive him if he tried hard enough and still failed… After everything… I just want to know why his death didn't help Crusch-sama when she needed it most…"

The healer was silent after that last whisper aimed toward the screen. Increasingly more agitated and focused on what mattered the most to him. His lady, not the parents of his friend, who are undoubtedly going to be more crushed than Felix when they learn about Return by Death being used the way he wanted it to be used.

"I want to know if my hatred is justified for you, Natsuki Subaru-kuyn," Felix whispered as the scene moved on without caring for him.

It showcases him in a room with a lot of people and a purple-haired lady winking toward him, as images of demi-humans and wizards fighting the great white beast played.

"and Anastasia-san and her people helped a lot, too."

Immediately anticipating the gazes of both parents, who turned around to look at Anastasia with gratefulness in their eyes, the merchant queen waved at them warmly.

"Natsuki-kun is a lot more crafty when he's backed against the wall, I'll let ya know that. It was fun makin' a splash on the map with 'em."

"You're a royal candidate too, correct?" Naoko found herself bowing politely to the lady before her. "Your accent seems familiar to me, but I thank you for the help you've offered my son."

Kenichi did the same bow but with a more confident grin.

Anastasia was surprised by this attitude from the parents. "Ah, you two sure are flattering this lady with too much credit. It was Natsuki-kun's idea to get me t' help in the first place, y'know~"

It showed Subaru standing confidently beside a radiant knight as they prepared a strike of striking proportion using magical arts.

"And I hate to admit it, but the same goes for Julius and those guys."

The knight didn't show how affected he was at being thanked, simply giving a cordial nod towards the thumbs up given to him by Subaru's father.

"... He still thanks me when I helped end his life with that same blade."

"Don't think over it too much," Anastasia firmly nudged his shoulder as he muttered under his breath. She gave him an affectionate smile, letting him bask in the gratefulness shown to him on the screen. "Don't throw away Natsuki-kun's hard work and nice words."

Julius kept his frown and clenched a fist on his knee.

Subaru opened his eyes again and turned to the front of the carriage with a smile. "I'm even indebted to Otto."

The man in green stuck at the front of the carriage to lead their ground dragons turned at the mention of his name. "Did you say something, Natsuki-san?"

"Nah, nothing. Just that I'm super grateful to you, too!" Subaru gave a thumbs-up.

"Gosh, what brought that on?" Otto looked taken aback with a small redness appearing on his cheeks. "You're making me blush."

"Yeah, I can see that they're friends from this scene alone," Kenichi whispered to his wife over their son's sleeping form, giving her a charming grin.

Naoko herself was nodding and giving her son a small smile of comfort and protectiveness. "I guess he was doing better than I thought… With responsible people like Otto-kun by his side."

The merchant being spoken about did not look at the screen for long, finding the need to frown and glare at the floor far more compelling than the laughter of Garfiel or the triplets behind him.

"Everyone's just gonna act cheery with the fucker after he pushed the kid off a damn cart so the Whale can get 'em… Nice." Heinkel snorted in disgust, looking away from Otto and the people around the merchant who were chuckling at his interaction on the screen.

Otto had his fists clenched on his knees just like Julius as he thought the same thing Heinkel did about himself.

"Even if all of you choose to forget… I never will…" Otto whispered, lips trembling as the screen moved on from his face to Subaru's.

Subaru turned to the small kids with his smile becoming more warm. The screen played the image of a blue-haired maid with tears at the corners of her eyes.

It was Rem's turn to frown deeply, already seeing Naoko's eyes turning from the screen and land on her immediately.

The maid gulped to herself, unable to meet the woman's eyes for more than a second. Even though Naoko weakly waved to her, even though the distance wasn't at all significant between them considering Rem was sitting behind Subaru in the second row… The maid just couldn't keep contact for long.

"And… hehe…" He chuckled as he looked to the floor of the carriage with his small smile.

"What's wrong, Subaru?" Emilia asked from the side, looking interested.

This caused Subaru to suddenly end up a blushing mess as he stuttered. "Oh, um, just… Emilia-tan…"

He calmed himself and looked at her with a serious glare that took Emilia aback. "There's something really important I need to tell you."

"Hm…" Naoko tilted her head with interest as she turned back to watch with curiosity. "Why is he acting like that one time I caught him with cookies under his pillow?"

Kenichi, meanwhile, was sitting with his mouth agape at the conclusion he'd come to on his own. "H-How many is there? SON?!"

Emilia, realizing how important this was, sat herself straight in preparation and nodded. "Okay. What is it?"

"This is really hard for me to say, but please hear me out." Subaru looked to the side for a moment. "Oh and of course, I'm prepared to be knocked out by Ram when I tell her!"

"... It wouldn't be pleasant if you're prepared for it, idiot Barusu." Ram huffed above everyone, keeping a cold expression as she prepared for what was to come.

"Fascinating how she can sound so endearing to someone she's insulting at the same time." Al rolled his eyes inside of his helmet and turned from Ram and Roswaal to watch the screen some more.

He looked back at Emilia. "But I want you to hear it first."

Emilia nods. "Okay." Giving him her ears and attention.

"It's actually… about Rem." Subaru toyed with his fingers like a chad as he began. "Rem said that she, um…" He also stuttered like a complete chad.

A vision played of Rem talking to him with tears in her eyes. "You'll still keep me by your side from now on?" It returned to Subaru's desperate, pleading face.

Rem's heartbeat increased at the way the screen portrayed her. She wanted to hide her face and have no one acknowledge her existence forever until the blood stopped rushing to her cheeks.

"..."

Rem couldn't help but close her eyes as soon as Naoko's widened ones turned to her in a whiplash. The mother of Subaru looked at Rem with clear shock as her lips formed an 'o', while Kenichi was watching with his glasses reflecting the light from the window above, silently letting the scene continue before he made any judgments.

"This moment…" Emilia whispered with a frown, unable to explain the dark feelings inside of herself as she watched and remembered what happened right after. "I wonder if you did anything, Subaru… Knowing you…"

"Y-You see what I'm getting at, right?" Subaru said with a great struggle. "I mean, well… Rem said some nice things to me…"

Seeing him in this state, Emilia holds her hands up in a calming manner. "Subaru, just calm down for a second. I'm not sure what you're trying to say, but I can tell you're trying your hardest to say it, okay? So just take it slow, like a good boy."

Kenichi had to chuckle a little bit, breaking his stern facade for only a moment. "It's like a badly written mangaka."

Heinkel glared down at Kenichi specifically, "This guy's enjoying his son's torment or something, he's disgusting."

"She calls him a good boy?" Hetaro commented with a little bit of guilt on his face. "Isn't that humiliating?"

"It very much is, but he's used to it." Tivey nodded his head alongside Julius, making Hetaro sweat.

Subaru's face fell with a small tear running down his cheek. "'Like a good boy'? That's not exactly encouraging. But… Okay." He tapped his cheeks and collected more power as he let his feelings be known. "I'm just gonna come out and say it, like a man!"

"How responsible of him…" Ram sighed in annoyance, already at odds with the scene. "My sister shouldn't be relegated to number two so easily."

"What is it he wants to tell her?" Naoko finds herself invested in the private moment between Subaru and Emilia, having a look like the one she has when she watches soap operas back home, which Kenichi notices.

"Even your mother is treating you like a trash MC, son." Kenichi chuckled as he told Subaru under his arm with a smirk. "I'm proud of you for being so respectful. Even if it was an asshole thing to do without your parents being asked for their blessing."

"The thing is… Rem said she loves me, the same way I told you that I love you! So…" There was a blush on his face after blurting this out but his eyes slowly opened as he waited for a reaction to his confession.

"Hmm," Meili turned her head sideways while wobbling from side to side, inspecting Rem and Subaru more closely. "Mother didn't tell us about her at a~ll… Yet she was so important to Onii-san in the end?" A grin spread across her face as she kept a dark thought. "Interesting~"

Naoko gasped with her hands on her mouth immediately. "LOVE?! HE HAS TWO GIRLS THAT SAID THEY LOVED HIM?!"

Rem closed her eyes, waiting for the judgment call upon her fate with Subaru directly from the woman who bore her beloved. She couldn't help but think of the worst-case scenario of rejection and condemnation from Naoko even if the woman knew nothing of what Rem had done.

But to Rem's surprise, the woman was far too airheaded for such a judgment to be made so soon.

"How can we feed so many mouths once we get home?! We will need a bigger room for them to stay in… And the kids! Kenichi!"

Rem looked stupefied at the air-headed woman in front of her. Unable to say anything from the shock of how quickly Naoko accepted Subaru's feelings as fact.

"Did she just accept her son having two partners?" Julius snorted in equal disbelief beside Anastasia and Rem. "I wonder if his father feels the same way…" Julius and Rem both looked over at Kenichi, the maid fiddling with her skirt nervously.

The husband in question was slowly doing a fist-bump in the air with his eyes hidden behind his glasses reflecting the light in the darkness of the theater, having the most serious expression a man could have.

"These are his parents, alright," Julius sighed in resignation and wiped his hand through his hair elegantly. "Why would I expect a respectable dialogue?"

Rem's heart was beating so much she could feel it echo in her ear as she stared at the two from behind.

Emilia's face is uncovered slowly by the camera from behind Subaru's head, showing a baffled expression on her face that wasn't at all what he was expecting.

Many in the theater began turning the smile away from their expressions as they realized how abnormal it was for Emilia to react like this.

Those more experienced across the crowd already knew exactly when this moment happened.

"Otto-bro—" Garfiel tried to nudge Otto as his eyes scanned the theater's window for his own answers.

Before Otto nodded his head after receiving the touch from his friend, keeping his head down. "Yes, Garfiel-san… This might be how he found out the truth."

"Shit… Ah, shit man…" Garfiel sighed and slammed his palms into his face. "How does it always keep gettin' fuckin' worse for my Cap'n?!"

"The hell's going on?" Heinkel hummed to himself, looking down at the crowds for an answer. "That ain't a normal reaction at all. That half-elf bitch's on something."

"She's a respected candidate for the throne, Heinkel-sama! Please have some more respect." Schult glared at the man beside him but he heard a small sigh of boredom from his other side in the same row.

"Can you be a little bit less of a wussy? tha~nks." Meili glared at the boy and returned her cheerful expression towards Subaru and Rem as she continued thinking about her own plans, leaving Schult to stammer and blush furiously in humiliation.

Heinkel didn't care what was going on between the kids as he continued to look for an answer from the people below them.

After a moment of silence, Emlia spoke with a soft, curious, and unbothered voice. "Subaru… Um…"

"Yes?" He asked with his expression showing readiness for whatever might be her decree about his and Rem's feelings.

But Emilia's face only fell as she gave him a small tilt of her head.

With a dejected expression and an even more guilty tone, Emilia spoke softly to help satisfy her confusion.

"Who… is Rem?"

Subaru's face lost all blood instantly, shown by his blush disappearing as his confident expression turned, slowly without any moment of hesitation, it turned into one of terror.

Emilia sat frozen, her violet eyes widening as her own voice from the scene echoed in the theater. Her lips trembled. "I… I didn't mean to say it like that… I must've crushed him with those words." She whispered, feeling the weight of Subaru's horror and having her heartbreak apart at his expression

"You did, I suppose," Beatrice muttered, clutching her dress tightly. She crossed her arms, her usual snark absent for once. "This is... beyond cruel, I suppose." She glanced at Subaru, then at Rem, fidgeting. "Even I don't know what to say."

"Do you… Don't know who this Rem girl is?" Naoko looked at Emilia with a frown on her face.

"Why would Subaru talk to you as if you knew who Rem-chan was?" Kenichi asked from the side of Subaru, glancing between the girls and his son.

Being faced with the confusion of both parents, Emilia couldn't help but purse her lips and glance behind Naoko and Kenichi, where she locked eyes with Rem.

The maid cried as she met Emilia's gaze. Rem's lips parted slightly, and her hands curled into her lap as she watched Subaru's expression crumble. The air felt tight and suffocating. "Subaru…" she whispered, her heartbreak, "You really haven't forgotten who I am…"

At Rem's words, Emilia seemed more crushed and guilt-ridden, which made the parents glance between each other and then toward the lonely girl sitting in the back.

"I'm sorry, miss… But I don't like how sad you're looking." Kenichi turned his confused and worried expression to one of slight warmth as he moved a hand to push Rem's hair away from her eye. "Please don't look that way after hearing my son confess his love to you."

"..." Rem looked at the man with widened eyes. "I don't… Sir, please don't speak to me." She shakes her head and pushes his hand away.

Kenichi frowned at the girl's coldness, moving back so he could give her more space. He looked at his wife and found that Naoko was glancing between Rem and Emilia with even more curiosity and confusion than he did.

"My best chance to understand what's going on with my son and that girl is to ask you, Crusch-sama." Kenichi glanced at Crusch, hoping for an answer to all of this.

The military-clad woman exhaled after a moment of observation. "... I fear whatever explanation I can give you would hinder the true horror of it all."

"So something really is wrong then…" Kenichi looked at her more seriously.

"..." Crusch herself couldn't reply, finding her grip on the armrest tighter than usual as she looked at the floor, away from Subaru's father as he begged her for any information she could give.

Arms engulfed her from behind, giving the duchess warmth that expelled a lot of tension from within.

"Ferris…" Crusch whispered as she felt his cheek nuzzling the side of her neck.

"You must be dealing with it right noyw… Please don't deal with this alone, Crusch-sama, nya." Felix whispered his plea into her ear.

Crusch moved her head to place a reverent kiss on his forehead, pressing her nose with his in a gesture of trust and love while patting his hand. "Thank you, Ferris…"

Kenichi pulled back with a small frown, thinking to himself as he watched the two interact. "Whatever's going on with Rem and my son… This Crusch girl is going to be hurt… Or was she already hurt and this lady with cat ears came to comfort Crusch."

The father of Subaru stared at his son's sleeping form with an increase in his heartbeats.

A purple showing of multiple memories starts rolling with the center of all the images and scenes being ones where Rem and Subaru were talking and leaning on one another with happy smiles.

"I don't understand… Brother?" Hetaro looked to his sibling for more information, but he noticed that Tivey was holding on to Mimi as she trembled in fear. "Sister?"

The little boy looked around the room and noticed the purple glare on the screen was making everyone appear more agitated.

Even Anastasia, beside Julius, was giving the screen above a glare too heated to be ignored. "What a misfortune to fall upon…"

"... He hasn't been hurt for it to show this," Julius muttered, ignoring Rem beside his lady as he glared at the window above.

"This is just a precursor," Otto whispered to him, earning looks from Anastasia and Hetaro as he glared at them.

"Otto-bro… Is this the moment Cap'n realizes what happened to Rem?" Garfiel asked his brother seriously and hesitantly, giving his usual roughness in the question but appearing more aware of how tragic it really was.

Otto nodded his head, giving the maid a small look of pity. "Seems so."

Garfiel looked at the carpet with his eyes widening in horror. "Shit…"

"Come on… Seriously? He was just about to confess to her." Felt sighed and glared directly at the taunting screen. "What's more fuckin' pretty is this playback of happy memories to make it clear what Rem's lost. Gee, thanks for nothin' ya damn bastard."

Reinhard gave his own grimace at the entire scene. "What a cruel concept to be in…"

"He couldn't find anyone who remembered Rem in the entire year she was in her sleep," Petra whispered to the knight under her breath. "It was just… I…"

"Petra-chan?" Reinhard looked back to the little maid, worrying over her voice breaking.

"I'm sorry… It just…" she wiped her small tears while watching the cruel playback above. "Rem deserves retribution for her torture of Subaru but… This… This only crushes him for no good reason… Why would he get put through something like this?"

Petra's sobs were muffled so she didn't reach the parents in the middle of Reinhard's row.

The knight looked at the maid for a moment and then at the floor where his anger could shine most through his blue eyes.

"Shhhh…" Frederica frowned as she patted Petra's head, moving her head to look up where her colleague was sitting by the lord of the estate they served. "How do you think Rem's family feels watching this? You have to be stronger, Petra-chan."

Ram wasn't aware of Frederica's gaze, she wasn't feeling like being focused and observant as she stood up from her seat and walked down the aisle, passing her master on her way.

"... Make sure she's hugged well," Roswaal muttered before falling to silence as Ram moved on her own.

Once she was standing next to her sister, Ram quietly sat down on the empty seat between Rem and Felix, taking her sister in a hug.

"Barusu made sure you were not forgotten. He reminded my heart of why it was broken when you were gone." Ram whispered in her sister's ears, bringing the blue-haired maid more tears to wipe from her cheeks.

It all stops as the wheel of a moving carriage invades through the memories, making them disappear.

The screen shows the Lifus Highway once again, with a smaller line of carriages being operated on the road. In the middle of this smaller caravan, the giant carcass of a Whale's head was being transported among them.

"..." Otto grimaced once he saw the sight of the corpse, finding it hard to contain the tremble in his hands as he stared and kept his lips frowning in disgust at the creature.

"That's all this creature will ever be… A carcass…" Reinhard's voice spoke through the theater, glaring at it as did most in the room.

Naoko and Kenichi looked with more rapid interest at the head of the creature as they noticed the sudden change in perspective.

"These visions are operating like an anime…" Kenichi whispered to his wife over their son's sleeping form, earning a nod from her as she glanced between Subaru and the screen above with a frown.

"Why is it centered around Subaru?" Naoko asked, receiving her husband's silence as he stared at the floor the same way she did at Subaru. "Can't we just have someone respond to our questions?"

Kenichi held on to his wife's hand as she shivered. "You've been staying strong all this time…"

"Ever since I got him back… I can't help but want more and more…" Naoko's lips quivered as tears suddenly showed at the corner of her eyes. "He's just a boy… And he dealt with that beast whose head is being carried by an army before us."

Kenichi's frown deepened, his eyes hidden away by his glasses some more as his wife sunk her face into the neck of the sleeping young man sitting between them.

"I feel so bad for his family…" Schult said as he watched the couple with interest from above everyone. "They've done nothing to deserve being left behind in such darkness."

"Don't pretend to know what's going on either, kid," Heinkel grunted, also watching Subaru's parents and glaring at the Whale's head with hatred. "Good riddance."

"How come such a wonderful puppy's been defeated? Oooooh that's the White Whale-sama~ isn't it?" Meili found herself chuckling in amusement, completely the opposite of everyone in the room. Even the opposite of the new arrivals like Heinkel, Schult, Hetaro, or Subaru's parents. "It looked so pretty~... But it mustn't have been that scary if it got beaten by such a measly number of people."

The girl dared to pout in disappointment at the carcass on the screen. "I was expecting a lot more outta something that killed the last Sword Saint~"

"Oi, shut your fuckin' mouth kid!" Heinkel's shout pierced the theater without a wait for Reinhard's frowning expression or Wilhelm's furious eyes to turn on Meili. "Can't ya see we're watchin' something here? Give us a break from your trap, yeah?"

The small girl hummed to herself as she looked at Heinkel with unsettling gleefulness. "How come, angry redhead-sama? I can't understand what I said to bother you~"

"Ya didn't say anything to bother me, kid." Heinkel snorted, not giving in to her game so easily, which surprised Wilhelm and Schult specifically. "I just don't like it when you speak near me. You're a freak."

"What a cruel thing to say to a child…" Naoko muttered under her breath as she watched the exchange with her husband, both frowning at the drunkard at the back row with distaste covering their expressions.

Heinkel rolled his eyes when he locked gazes with the parents again.

Meili simply giggled and kept humming to herself as she watched with more interest. "Wonder why Onii-san's still asleep until now… I kinda miss him."

The inside of a carriage is shown, with injured and beaten men laughing together as they lean back in rest.

Rem is sitting at the end of their cart, looking out of it towards the sky with a thoughtful look.

"..." Emilia's mouth hung open and her eyes widened in realization of what she was seeing.

"What's wrong with you, I suppose?" Beatrice asked, noticing the sudden tension in Emilia's hand.

Naoko kept an eye on the two as Emilia was demanded to answer.

It was the others around her who provided cover for the half-elf to remain in her stupified state.

"We get to see what happened on that day." Anastasia was at the edge of her seat suddenly, giving the most serious look she's had since entering the theater. "This is somethin' a gal must see for herself."

"Otto-bro…" Garfiel called from the far end of his row, looking nervous but ready for anything.

Otto simply nodded, looking defeated at the very idea of the scene continuing to show them what he realized as well. "This will not be pretty… But I must understand what happened myself."

"You don't look very happy, Rem." A voice speaks from the maid's side, filled with steel as she looks to the speaker with surprise. "Are you still worried?"

"Crusch-sama…" Rem says with a soft startle. The screen shows an armored Crusch sitting back opposite Rem's place in the cart, giving the maid an elegant grin.

Felix's eyes are glassy with sorrow as the scene continues. He can barely contain his anguish any longer. His voice, trembling with both grief and longing murmured, "Ferri-chan is sorry he wasn't there, my lady."

Crusch leans into his embrace, giving him a face of calm determination. While she refrains from divulging any details of the unfolding tragedy, her tone is a gentle whisper meant only for him. "Ferris… I'm here, even if we can't change what's been done."

Beside them, Wilhelm placed a hand on Felix's shoulder. His eyes filled with a mixture of regret and solidarity as they met Felix's pained gaze. "Crusch-sama may not have come out unscathed, yet she still holds your hand right here and now, Ferris-dono," he offers quietly. His gesture is simple and supportive, it speaks volumes as the trio braces for the revelation of what Crusch has endured during the attack.

Right beside the trio, Rem's expression is one of desolation. Her body trembles as she clutches Ram close to her chest.

Ram, ever the steady presence, presses her arms tighter around Rem. "You're not forgotten," she assures her softly. "I'm here, sissy… Ram won't leave."

"Ferris and Wilhelm, and all the volunteers fighting alongside us, are the best of the best. Ricardo and the Iron Fang are lending us their aid, too. Such an assembly cannot lose." Crusch said with confidence to the maid.

"..." The beastman himself seemed less interested in giving a charming reply as was usual of his character. He assumed a deep sigh instead and looked at the screen with deep annoyance.

"Ain't looking so cheerful there, bro," Al said, leaning his helmet on his knuckle. "You're being praised, by an opponent's camp leader no less. That should be a stamp of honor, no?"

"Just who're ya kiddin' with that?" Ricardo snorted and eyed Al. "Can't say I find the honor in bein' praised when I've been asleep for most of my fightin' duty."

Al shrugged, unwilling to lean more into arguing with the beastman as he turned back to the screen.

"You saved me…"

Ricardo looked down at the voice who spoke to him. "Huh? Whatcha say?"

Otto turned to the beastman with a small frown on his face. "You've done me a mercy and saved me from the Witch Cult back then. I'd say some of that praise is worth it."

Ricardo's eyes widened and his active mouth paused for a moment. "... Not enough to help yer bro." The beastman said with a frown as he turned back to the screen above.

Otto looked at the ground with an empty, tired gaze.

"Is it selfish of me to worry despite all that?" Rem said with a small frown, receiving no change in reaction from the armored candidate before her.

"It's as Natsuki Subaru said…" Rem's eyes widen with interest as Crusch pauses for effect. "You look best when you're smiling." Crusch's grin stretched as she tilted her head to the maid, making Rem look down.

A small stretch of every laugh and smile Subaru gave to her played over her words as she whispered.

"Honestly… That Subaru-kun is such a troublemaker…" She smiled and closed her eyes.

Most were giving the maid a look of pity within the theater, to the point where Naoko had to pause her watching to glance back where Rem was sitting, directly behind her sleeping son.

"He gets that trait from me, unfortunately," Kenichi snorted with a smile showing his pride in no small margin.

"But… Why?" Naoko asked Rem, earning the eyes of both the maid and her sister. "Why would you be so sad like that when you have my son's heart so firmly in your grasp?" Naoko's words made Rem choke on something invisible.

Beside her, Emilia looked away from them and frowned at the floor beneath her boot in reaction to what the mother was revealing.

"I'm a mother, dear," Naoko said softly to the tearful maid, "I can sense that you two have something unlike any other in this room… Why are you so sad about that?"

"I… I can never be sad that Subaru-kun has feelings for me!" Rem winced slightly at her sudden tone towards the woman. "I'm sorry… Please… Just…"

Naoko frowned deeply at the tremble in Rem's shoulders, seeing a great tension within her that even her sister couldn't rub away as she hugged her side.

"Please," Rem bowed her head, whimpering to the woman, "Just don't give me a chance."

"What?" Naoko asked, glancing at her husband for some support but Kenichi was just as confused as she was.

"Rem…" Emilia whispered harshly towards the maid, showing great shock by the widening of her eyes. "Don't."

Naoko glanced back at Rem with this added context, even more confused as the maid wilted in on herself.

"Naoko-sama… I'm undeserving of being Subaru's wife." Rem whispered, her tone broken and ghostly as she looked away from the mother to hug the neck of Ram.

"..." Naoko could only lean away from her seat, her expression one of heartbreak at the scene.

Kenichi immediately leaned to hold his wife's hand over Subaru's sleeping form, giving her a nudge to let it go for now.

"Let's see what happens next and we can understand from someone else later… Okay? We still need to know why we are watching this stuff surrounding our son… Why didn't it give us the beginning from the very moment he was taken away?"

He held her hand and gave her a slightly better version of his charming grin that had lost its light long ago when the first search party came back empty-handed with no trace of Subaru.

Suddenly, Rem's eyes opened and she turned her head to the lady sitting before her. "I'm sure you would also look quite different with a smile since you always carry yourself with such dignity. I believe you would look lovely if you smiled."

Crusch's face fell into a confused pause for a moment before an uncertain look took over her. "Yes, well… I'm not very good at smiling. It is something I still regret, even now." She did give the maid a small sheepish smile of her own, however. To which Rem delivered one of her own.

"Crusch-sama…" Felix whispered while nuzzling her cheek, "It's the most beautiful smile in the world, Crusch-sama."

Emilia frowned to herself as she watched Crusch slowly pat Felix's head, a soft upward tilt visible on her lips as she shushed him. "Crusch… Rem isn't saying all of that to be nice, y'know."

"It's known, Big Sis." Felt interjected firmly, giving Emilia a small gesture with her hand to signal the half-elf not to interrupt the mistress and knight from their private moment. "They've been fighting with each other for the past couple of viewings and it's gotten cranky sitting near 'em."

Emilia gave Felt an understanding smile that still held a hint of apology.

"She doesn't look that bad," Heinkel muttered under his breath, making Schult nod his head.

"She's super pretty but I think Lady Priscilla's smile beats everyone in the room." The boy looked happy with his effort to compliment his lady from the bottom of his heart, only to receive an unimpressed snort from the baroness.

"Keep your wits about you, Schult," Priscilla spoke with authority and displeasure, swinging a leg while keeping her eyes on the screen. "You've made the mistake of assuming a divine can't be the prettiest in the whole world, not just within these meager walls."

"S-Sorry, Priscilla-sama." Schult bowed his head with tears of remorse appearing underneath his eyes, something that made Meili glance at Priscilla curiously.

"Feeling the need to admire a divine's looks from afar, child?" Priscilla's voice only reached Meili and the men of her camp in the same row as her, but her eyes never looked in the assassin's direction, as if Meili wasn't worth the acknowledgment.

"... Hm." Meili found herself more reserved as she leaned back and observed the arrogant beauty sitting in the same row with her. "Not really~," she teased childishly while moving from side to side. "Onii-san's adventures are getting a lot more boring~," Meili whined while stretching her little legs and kicking them about. "I couldn't help but focus on someone who spoke like Mama."

"Be clear to stop such notions," Priscilla blows her nose without giving Meilie the time of day. "Tis a blessing in disguise that you've chosen to sit next to perfection in that seat. Your wretched mother or whatever else made you to be the waste of space you now represent, should stay far away from mine image."

Meili smiled coldly at the orange-haired lady with the ruby-red eyes.

The two ladies enjoyed the moment together for a few more seconds before a loud burst sent their attention askew.

The screen showed the front carriage of the transport line blowing up into smithereens with blood splatters. The ground dragon, the passengers inside, the cart itself, everything was lost in a mist of chaos that refused to stop showing their silhouettes as they were torn apart.

Crusch's grip tightened around Felix's arms, keeping him from seeing the scene of carnage as she tightened the muscles on her neck to keep the healer's cheek in place. It was enough to surprise the boy into silence as the duchess closed her eyes to listen instead of watch.

"What the hell…" Kenichi whispered under his breath, his eyes widened and his hands clenching the armrests of his seat.

Naoko's jaw hung in place at the sight, unable to comprehend what was happening to the people in the scene. "Th-Those poor people!"

"... That's how the attack happened?" Otto questioned incredulously, looking more enraged than even Garfiel who was glaring with alarm. "They didn't even see it coming…"

"Did you expect the cowards of the cult to do anything less?" Ram hissed with hatred, hugging her sister harder. "Sissy…"

Rem's voice was cut short as the scene continued.

"ENEMY ATTACK!"

Crusch's roar across the sea of moving carts forced those able to move and ready their swords. Even Rem stood with her morning star at the ready.

The caravan moved forward as one, overlooking their fallen brethren, dragon, and men alike as they turned ahead to the person responsible for such carnage.

A man with white hair stood alone, ahead of the swarming dragons coming toward him.

"Is he responsible for this?" Kenichi looked at the man with a face full of disbelief. "What…?"

"Just watch what's gonna happen, old guy." Felt glared at Kenichi and then glared harder towards the white-haired person on the screen. "Rein…"

"He is the cause of the attack, Felt-sama," Reinhard muttered, face serious. "There's no one left standing but him on that road."

Julius, Garfiel, and even Ricardo leaned more forward to get a better look at the white-robed man.

"Such chaos… Who is this man?" Frederica asked while holding the hand of a paralyzed Petra. The little maid had a white face as she looked on at the scene.

"This isn't fair…" Petra whispered under her breath.

"Woah… That's such a cool hit~" Meili cheered from the background, ignored by the entire room as everyone was busy trying to figure out what was happening.

"Run him over!" Crusch commanded from her carriage as she glared at the man.

"Crusch-sama!" Rem quickly took hold of the candidate by the waist and jumped in the air, taking Crusch with her.

"Why jump?!" Schult looked beyond frightened, but he pushed through because of his worry. "Don't get hurt, please!"

Priscilla gave the little boy a look of pity before rolling her eyes and glaring at the screen with annoyance. "A mere displeasure. One would hope the Karsten girl fulfills her role as mine stepping stone to the throne and kills this disgusting character."

"Don't talk about them like they are characters in some story, princess," Al spoke without a hint of remorse towards the people dying around Crusch and Rem. "It's not pretty when they are serving to fight an enemy you dislike as well."

"You should have more of a fuckin' heart." Heinkel glared at Al. "This bullshit attack is killing men like you and I."

Al was led to snort at the very notion. "Come on, pal. We would never be alike on that field. I would give you a few seconds before you run away and then piss yourself."

The drunkard didn't say anything to that, but he glared with such hate towards the knight that Schult shuffled a little bit further from him.

"Besides," Al continued while resting the cheek of his helmet on his open palm. "I can see you taking it out on me and not princess… I don't think it's fair for me to take the anger you have against our employer."

"If only you were after such a notion of employment and contracts," Heinkel's turn to snort was one he took with pleasure as he leaned back with a malicious grin. "But ya're too busy going after some toes to care, ain't ya?"

Heinkel's face was immediately pushed to the floor with such speed that his red hair left a blurring trail in the air.

"Know your place, dog of Astrea's clan," Priscilla commanded with a wrath that began unleashing behind her red eyes.

"Sorry, pal." Al shrugged his shoulders, not even glancing towards the man struggling to remove his face from the carpeted floor at Priscilla's shoes. "I guess the princess doesn't like it when I'm insulted."

"Phhhuck you," Heinkel muttered through the carpet, keeping a fist clenched beside his head as he tried to get up slowly, softly mending the burn marks that trailed his soft flesh.

As they both flew into the sky, the cart that Rem left behind only spent a second before, and without warning, the ground dragon carriage was consumed by an unthinkable force. One moment, it creaks along the dusty trail, its iron-bound wheels grinding against the earth, and the next, an invisible hand of destruction strikes with terrifying precision.

Eyes went wide all over the room at the sight of the destruction and gore.

"Th-Those people…" Felix tried to force Crusch's hands to lessen their tight hold on him, trying to see more of the bloodshed through his tearful eyes. "I was treating them on the fields! Their conditions were treatable before this attack, I-I…"

Kenichi and Naoko looked at Felix with a bit of pity at the tragedy.

"I couldn't…" Felix's tears began flowing down without a chance of stopping. "I couldn't put them back together… Because of this sick monster…" His voice took a darker turn as he glared with hate through the waterworks.

"My god, honey…" Kenichi whispered with full remorse, capturing his wife's hand and squeezing it to cease the beating of his heart. "What a poor girl…"

"Those people were being so happy… They were innocent…" Naoko spoke with a hand on her mouth, looking at the screen and not blinking for a moment. "It almost got Rem-san…"

At those whispers, the half-elf sitting by the mother's side seemed to grip the robes on her arms with precision. "... Subaru's been imagining how this attack looked since the moment you were found, Rem," Emilia spoke in a haunted voice, her tone showing the depth of realization she'd come to as she watched. "This… Is what he could never see but wanted the most."

"He wanted to help her more than watch what happened to her, in fact." The spirit of Subaru said from Emilia's side, giving Rem a look of pity and understanding before looking away. "This situation is not even unfortunate, I suppose. It's cruel. The girl had just survived the White Whale and all of those run-ins with Guese…"

"It's cowardly," Hetaro muttered from behind the spirit girl, making Emilia wince as she looked at the white-haired man.

"Coward…?" Emilia's eyes remained on the man for more than a second, striking a hint of familiarity with him before she shook her head. "He's far less than that," the half-elf's voice broke at the end as she continued watching. "I have seen this man before… But he's so unfamiliar it's reeeally bothering me!"

A soundless pulse emanates from nowhere and everywhere at once, warping the air like ripples across a glassy pond. Then, in an instant, the carriage erupts. Shards of wood and metal scatter like autumn leaves caught in a storm, while each dragon and human who were caught by the trajectories of the invisible pulses turned into scatters of meat and blood splatters across the grass.

In the middle of it all, broken wood and disrupted grass blades from the dirt, the white-haired man spoke undeterred by the bloody hand that splattered near him.

"…" Naoko's eyes were stretched at the sight, unable to give any indication of how shocked she was.

"Shit… that power…!" Felt grunted in alarm and distaste.

"It's different from the unseen hands," Reinhard muttered under his breath, shaking his head while analyzing the scene sharply. "This is no doubt—"

"The Archbishop of Greed," Rem glared at the screen, her tears still falling steadily. "That monster."

Kenichi winced at the poison that came through Rem's voice, but he moved his attention to Crusch and Felix to better understand how it affected them as well.

Crusch was holding on to her hand very suspiciously as if trying to rub something away from it. Trying to feel it in place, which confused Kenichi. To the point of making the father glare upwards at the white-haired villain responsible for such trauma.

"I wish you wouldn't do that. Ordering them to run me over when I'm not doing anything? That's not something any decent human being would do." His voice was uncaring and without remorse.

"How dare you do such a brutal thing to my retainers?" Crusch stepped forward as she and Rem landed in the middle of the massacre site. "Just who are you?" Rem got ready beside her.

"I see, I see." The man speaks with a small smile that appears to be his extent of being charming. "You don't know who I am. But I know who you are. You're a candidate to be the next ruler of this nation."

"You talk too much." Crusch valiantly rejects him from his self-satisfied reverie as she puts a hand on her sword. "Answer my question!" She unsheathes her blade and points it at him, its light shining through the highway from its reflective surface. "Next time, I will kill you!"

"N-No… Don't fight him!" Naoko found herself stuttering while holding her hands to her open mouth. "Please just run!" The fear in the woman's eyes for the well-being of the two girls was transferred to Emilia sitting beside her.

"I should've been much quicker trying to reconcile with Subaru and get to the capital…" Emilia bit her lip and shrank in her seat, watching the tense scene with equal worry for Crusch and Rem.

"That's unrealistic, in fact," Beatrice shook her head and glared at the man on the screen. "If it was up to Subaru, there would be a quicker push to get to the capital, in fact."

Emilia didn't realize that Beatrice was looking at her deeply until a few seconds later. "Huh? I… What do you need? I'm more worried about Crusch-sama and Rem—"

"So Subaru didn't know about Rem's condition before you had returned to the capital?" Beatrice asked with her eyebrow raised.

Emilia's lip was bitten again as she turned to look at her knight. "... I was just asking the same question myself," her frown showed her sadness as she observed him some more. "He must've known something… Must've used that curse…"

"If he did Return by Death," Beatrice said, that name required both girls to gasp and breathe more heavily as their hearts felt heavier for a moment. "I-If he's done this, I suppose… What are we watching then?"

Emilia's heartbroken expression moved her to look up at the scene with more questions in her mind. She grasped her hand around some of her robes, trying to imitate the feeling of his hand in her tightening grip, wishing for the same comfort.

Instead of respecting her threatening command, the white-robed man looked as if he was dejected from the party's entrance. "Now that's just mean. But I suppose one could never hope to rule a country without some degree of arrogance. I can't comprehend that sensibility myself, but…"

"Does he ever shut his trap?!" Felt growled with disgust.

"It seems like this man's too confident in his abilities… Another archbishop that doesn't act like Sloth…" Anastasia muttered with her chin being covered in her blue scarf as she watched in deep thought. "Natsuki-kun will have to meet with him personally to know anythin' useful for the rest of us."

"Subaru wouldn't last against this man." Julius cut with a firm glare toward the villain on the screen. "He will be hurt."

"Wouldn't it be stupid to fight against such a person?" Meili asked from above the room of watchers, her smile sweet and playful as she swayed from side to side. "It's not like that guy's gonna need to be close to hurt the green-haired lady, right~? Why not give up and go home?"

While most of the theater glared towards Meili with their own versions of dislike and hatred, Kenichi was the only one who wasn't focused on the little girl as he looked at the Duchess once again to better understand what was happening.

"Hey… You okay?" The father asked, making the steel-faced lady glance from the screen to him.

Her hand was on Felix's head as she gave a court nod. "This is something I've already lived through," Crusch revealed in a soft voice, patting Felix more and more as he glared at the armrest of her seat.

Kenichi's eyes widened. "I-I'm sorry. This… You went through seeing your men get killed again, then… It must suck for you."

"... I'm their commander, it's my duty to carry the fight until the end," Crusch spoke without emotions showing in her voice other than the monotone depressing firmness that made Kenichi grimace.

"I told you there would be no second chances!" Crusch shouted as her blade's glow turned green with her strike finalizing a magical attack that leaped throughout the highway planes, and broken carriages, and struck the man to cut him in the same manner he cut the bodies at his feet.

"... Woah…" Kenichi's eyes went wide when he turned back to the screen to see this. "Is that… No way."

"It's magic," Crusch affirmed still without any emotion. "I know that your home doesn't have the concept worked out like ours…"

"T-Then you can hit him from afar! That's splendid!" Naoko clapped her hands, giving herself a moment to be happy as the hit got closer to the villain.

Crusch looked away and closed her eyes, controlling her breathing while feeling Felix tighten his hold around her shoulder blades from behind.

"I don't think that attack will be damaging enough," Schult whispered to Heinkel as he bit his lip nervously. "I'm scared for them."

"You don't even know kid…" Heinkel had to swallow, his legs shaking out of habit as he recalled something. "Greed… He's much more than just a guy with a plain face like this. He's a monster… And those two should count themselves lucky they survived this attack."

"That's true! They survived this attack, didn't they?" Schult's eyes widened in realization. "Priscilla-sama did receive such reports a year or two ago…" The boy rubbed his temple, trying to recall more. "I can't remember how they survived though."

"Why do that when we can watch what happened to them?" Al asked softly from Priscilla's side, making Heinkel grunt with distaste.

"As if that's going to be important once the kid finds out his girl is being attacked." Heinkel's words put a stroke of fear into Schult's heart as he gasped in reaction.

"No… He's not going to Return… Please…" Schult became teary-eyed at the notion as he turned to the screen more slowly than before.

But the strike impacted an invisible bubble that surrounded him, causing the attack to become null and void.

Crusch was awestruck.

"Not a single scratch," Tivey spoke in an analytical voice, not surprised as were many around him like Anastasia, Julius, and Otto. "As expected… One can't assume an Archbishop will be easily done away with."

"Not one as infamous as Greed… The destroyer of Fortified City of Garkla." Otto whispered with dread, earning a nod from a deadly serious Anastasia above him.

"Karsten-san is in a heap of shit…" Anastasia grumbled while keeping her eyes on her green-haired friend with clear worry showing beneath the facade she keeps up.

"Damn!" Garfiel slapped his armrest and growled. "This guy's got cheatin' powers like that Petelguese fucker!"

The parents didn't have time to ask what he meant by that, considering he was the only one they could hear from the group. They were as nervous and fearful after the failure of the attack as the children minus Meili were, so they kept watching.

"Now, look here!" The man glared at her, looking insulted. "Who taught you that it was acceptable to swing a sword at someone when they're happily talking? I do believe that's a violation of my right to speak!"

Rem's glare intensified towards the man, with her hatred unceasing nor her anger.

"He speaks about himself as if nothing else is important." Kenichi started to look angry the more he watched the man and observed his actions. "What a douche…"

"All of those lives… And he's talking about something so insignificant?" Hetaro, the only one also out of the loop as much as the parents in the room, was glaring at the man from his seat too. "This is an archbishop alright."

"Thankfully you had fled the fight before any harm could come to you," Tivey whispered to his brother, reminding Hetaro just how close he was to this encounter.

"Huh?! Hang on a sec!" Garfiel whiplashed to look at the Pearlton triplets with his teeth bared. "Ya were there durin' this attack and didn't help the green princess and Rem?!"

A lot of eyes moved to Hetaro with shock and anger, aiming at the small boy.

Hetaro looked hurt by what was being aimed at him from everyone except the Anastasia camp, he couldn't wait to speak when he noticed the slight look of focus Felix was shooting toward him. It was as if the Healer was going to tackle him to the floor at a moment's notice.

"I was there yes… I had been tired out after the White Whale's subjugation and needed treatment like the other soldiers who went with me." Hetaro received nods of support from his two siblings, he appreciated Mimi not calling him weak like she always does when he retells this part of his story. "My boss already knows what happened to me, when the attack happened—"

"Just say that you ran away and refused to help my sister!" Ram growled, glaring at the boy but not as intensely as she wanted to seem. It was probably because Rem was holding her hand and shaking her head from the side.

"Sister… You don't understand what we Crusch-sama and were trying to do."

Hetaro continued explaining as he felt the heated glares continue to pressure him. "I-I fled the scene with other members of the Iron Fang while Rem-san and Crusch-sama spoke with the Archbishop. I didn't know it was an Archbishop when I ran or else I'd have stayed to do something, I promise!"

"Wait," Otto's eyes widened and he too turned to meet the boy's scared face with a look of scrutiny. "Were you the one that reported the attack on the convoy?"

Hetaro nodded his head frantically. "I reported what was happening as soon as I could so backup could arrive to the aid of Crusch-sama but… It was too late."

Otto turned to Garfiel with a stern look, patting the blonde's shoulder. "Garf… Without that report, no one would've come to check the highway. They wouldn't have been able to save Crusch-sama or any survivors at all if it wasn't for him reporting the attack."

Garfiel's whole body language softened instantly as he rubbed the back of his head. "Is tha' right? Uh… I'm sorry lil' fella…"

"I-I'm not that young," Hetaro tried to laugh while breathing heavily from the panic that settled him. "I'm only fifteen this year."

"... Right." Garfiel had a weird face as he looked down at Hetaro before shaking his head and sitting back down in his seat. "Sorry again. Mine amazin' self doesn't wanna throw accusations like that."

Feeling the people of the theater starting to accept his explanation, Hetaro breathed a sigh of relief when Felix stopped looking at him with those cold eyes of his.

The healer gripped on Crusch harsher when he felt her hand move away from his head and rub her arm at a certain area.

Kenichi also noticed the same move of her hand as Felix and looked at the screen with more curiosity than fear.

Before any movement could be done by her body, Crusch shouted in pain as her arm went flying from her body and into the grassy plains.

"Crusch-sama!" Rem held the armored lady as she fell and quickly applied healing magic on her amputated arm.

"Ferris…" Crusch struggled in pain, hanging on to her stump and closing her eyes. "Ah!"

"No…" Frederica gasped first, wincing at the painful amputation done to the beautiful warrior.

"Ain't this asshole movin' or somethin'?" Ricardo growled with his blue eyes squinting to catch any detail he could. "There's gotta be a way to fuck with his attacks somehow!"

"Sister…" Ram held on to her twin with her eyes glaring harsher than before, her hands trembled in fear as she realized that Rem was essentially all alone now.

"Crusch-sama!" Felix hung his head low to keep her close to him, "I'm sorry I couldn't be there… even though you called for me." The tremble in his hands refused to cease as he held on to her. "I'm sorry… I'm sorry… Nya…"

"It's alright, Ferris," Crusch whispered to her knight, giving his head a gentle push so she could hug him tighter in his position. "You got to me, eventually."

"Not fast enough!" Felix wailed, his tears staining her neck and shirt. "I wasn't there fast enough! I shouldn't be a knight or a healer… I'm nothing without you, Crusch-sama!"

"Ferris…" Crusch didn't know what to say as she held on to him, looking down at the boy with a confused, overwhelmed look.

The healer didn't care what he was putting his lady through with his confessions as he held on to her. "I'm sorry… I know I promised to not be as obsessed as I've always been but… It's true, Crusch-sama." Felix showed no remorse after everything that happened between the two throughout the viewings in the theater. "I will always and forever, only exist for you. Please… Please accept me as I am. I can't give up on what I've always known."

Crusch could only close her eyes and pat his head, not willing to answer such a pathetic wish from the one she trusted the most in the room.

"Tck…" Priscilla glanced from the screen towards Felix and Crusch with a glare filled with disappointment. "How displeasing, she didn't even put up a worthy fight."

Priscilla deliberately ignored Felix's existence.

"How can she do that when the opponent is a fuckin' monster?" Heinkel asked his lady with his most ludicrous glare, running defense for Crusch's sake uncharacteristically. "This is beyond unfair to all of these men… Argh, what a fuckin' bullshit situation!" He held his head in his hands and rubbed his hair furiously, earning an eye roll from Priscilla.

Beside Crusch, another person was looking at the pair of healers and candidates with widened eyes.

"Holy… That's why she was holding on to her arm?" Kenichi muttered to himself, looking in between the screen and the green-haired lady who was dealing with Felix breaking down. "I can't help but be scared of her for dealing with such an ordeal and still look so professional."

His eyes turned to glare at the situation above him as Rem faced the white-haired man alone. "This absolute douchebag…" There was more than just anger showing on the man's expression. His whole body was showing signs of worry for the girls on the screen, and even fear from what they were facing.

"A guy like that can just destroy them without a second to waste," Kenichi whispered desperately, glancing over at his son's sleeping face. "What would you even do to deal with this… What can you do against such a bastard… Son." He whispered to no one, simply talking to himself as he dealt with the flare of his nerves alone. "Please don't try to do anything stupid…" Kenichi whispered some more, feeling how hopeless his wish was.

"Her arm…" Naoko, still watching with her jaw hung open, looked heartbroken at the deformity that Crusch had been inflicted with by the monster. "It's been cut like that? Just… Mercilessly…"

Emilia was wincing at the sight and holding on to her arm out of instinct. She looked towards Felix and Crusch in the theater with a look of pity and guilt showing on her face because of her instant relief that she wasn't in the same situation as Crusch or Rem.

"I'm sorry." She whispered, knowing no one would hear what she was saying regardless of her guilt.

Rem growled and applied as much concentration as possible as a new voice came up from behind.

"I keep eating and eating, but it's never enough!"

"..." At the sound of the new person behind Rem, many were widening their eyes in curiosity and confusion, but one person had a different reaction to most in the room.

"He comes at such an unfair moment," Roswaal's voice was unheard by the rest of the room as he had taken to whisper his thoughts without Ram being near him to judge. "This wasn't displayed in my gospel… My Teacher…"

His eyes roamed to Rem and Crusch, seeing the different yet similar terror that filled them both as they tensed in the arms of their caretakers respectively.

"My Teacher refused to give any meaning to Rem's life," Roswaal stated this as if it was a fact he could just admit allowed and move on from with as little emotion as possible, ignoring the shaking of his fists.

"Huh?" Rem stopped looking at Crusch's wound and turned her head slowly to see what was happening behind her.

Rem's arms held on to her sister tighter.

"Who's this now?" Heinkel almost sounded like he was whining but his expression was one of pure outrage for what the girls were going through. "Can't these two have a damn break?! They JUST helped the kid beat the White Whale!"

"Calm down, Deputy Commander Astrea," Julius commanded sternly from the front, seeming more serious than he anticipated due to his cool being long lost.

"Julius-kun…" Anastasia warned from the side but the knight had already been infested by an underlying cause to guilt himself.

"If I was more reliable, Subaru wouldn't have needed to take the Sloth front with all of the manpower available." Julius put his shaking fist on his knee once again, trying to steady his hands.

Hetaro found himself looking at the screen with more guilt than expected from a child like him. "I never saw what happened past this point… I ran as fast as I could…" He couldn't help but show his curiosity and fear for what was about to happen to the maid.

A small man in tattered rags and long hair walked amongst a sea of corpses that lay at his bare feet. Men, the ones who were alive behind Rem and Crusch just a moment ago, were now bleeding on the grass, harmed by the small man as he grinned while looking at his long wrist blades.

"I eat, I devour, I chew, I bite, I gorge, I gnaw, I munch, I crunch…" He kicked a man's corpse in the face as he blabbered on and on. "PURE GLUTTONY! Ah, thank you for this feast!"

Rem's face showed unease as she watched the small man walk toward her, with Crusch grunting in pain as her arm created a pool of blood in the grass.

"What misery…" Emilia looked on with her jaw hanging and her eyes in disbelief at the monster with all the death surrounding him. "These witch cultists…" Her voice broke from the desperation she felt at the scene.

"These fuckin' scumbags!" Garfiel cursed from the side, looking with his hurt expression as if he could do nothing to help the people around the barefooted evil. "That's him, ain't he?! Otto-bro!"

Otto nodded his head, taking one look at Rem in the theater and turning back to the screen so he could answer emotionlessly. "That's him alright… The one responsible for Rem-san and Natsuki-san's year-long divorce."

Garfiel growled with his teeth bared at the screen, fire spewing from his emerald eyes almost.

Listening to Otto's words, Ram could feel her sister's hands lose their grip as the maid looked completely paralyzed by the figure on the screen. Ram didn't pay more attention to her collapsing sister than she should've. Instead, the pink-haired Oni found it more appropriate to memorize every fiber of the being that stood before her inside the window.

"Tell me if that's him…" Ram asked her sister, clenching the terrified Rem as much as she could from the waist before moving her hand and handling Rem's chin so she could look into Ram's eyes. "Sister, tell me if that's him!"

Rem refused to answer as she looked at the man with something akin to extreme hate and understandable fear. "I'm sorry, sister…" Rem whispered. "You were right when you told me…"

Ram's eyes widened as she understood immediately what her little sister was meaning to say, her gaze moved up towards the screen immediately.

"You two are…" Rem spat with hate as both the white-haired man and the small wrist-bladed monster grinned sadistically.

"You faced them alone." Ram's face contorted to one of horror at the sight of her sweet sister being surrounded. "Not only did you do it with Petelguese and the Witch's Cult back then… You've done this with the White Whale and these monsters again!"

Ram's tone turned to that of fury towards her sister as she glared at Rem.

The blue-haired maid couldn't help but wince and looked down at the ground. "I wanted to help…"

"YOU'RE JUST HURTING YOURSELF WITHOUT CARING ABOUT ME OR BARUSU'S FEELINGS!" Ram shouted at her hunched sister as the scene continued.

"Sin Archbishop of the Witch's Cult, representing gluttony… Lye Batenkaitos." The monster now known as Lye introduced himself with a gleeful grin as he continued his trot towards Rem and Crusch.

"..." Felix stopped his shaking and wheezing against Crusch's neck at the introduction, finding himself frozen in place and glancing upward toward the man on the screen instantly. "Who did he say he was?"

"That's him, Felix," Wilhelm said from the side, glaring at the two men himself with his hands clenched. "Those are the ones responsible for what happened to Crusch-sama and…" He didn't continue what he was about to say as he looked at the healer who was staring deeply at Ley's face. Wilhelm shook his head, unwilling to sink Felix further.

"Gluttony," Felix whispered with his eyes emotionlessly scanning the small man with such intensity that Felt needed needed to lean away from him and Crusch.

"The guy's imagining a thousand ways t'hurt 'em. Not sure if I don't wanna join, to be honest." Felt rolled her eyes at the intense reaction from the healer, giving him room for understanding as she looked back at the screen.

"She's all alone…" Petra found herself stopping her hatred towards Rem, remembering all of the sacrifices the maid had made for Subaru against Sloth and the White Whale. "This isn't at all how it should be ending for them… Those who do good must have a happy ending in the end… This is too much for a punishment!"

As the small village girl was going through multiple states of emotion, the little girl sitting behind her, unlike the others in the room, was looking at the screen with more excitement than fear.

"Mama can use this information to get some go~od ideas against Onii-san, hehehe~" Meili giggled while swaying from side to side, noting down everything she could mentally about the two men and the maid.

"And the Sin Archbishop of the Witch's Cult, representing greed, Regulus Corneas." The white-haired man introduces himself elegantly as well, watching on as Lye finally reaches a good distance between him and Rem.

"What a collection of asshats," Heinkel insulted with a disgusted look, giving the men around Ley's feet one more glance of pity before giving a nasty glare to the two.

"Betty doesn't believe for a second that the girl managed to come out alive from this, in fact." Beatrice looked beyond impressed by Rem's glare. "These people… Are meant to be the allies of Guese… Yet they act so much more selfish yet stable." Her voice turned low with anger as she clenched her dress between her small fingers. "Why did it have to be Guese alone that suffers the fate of insanity, in fact?"

Emilia heard what was being said and put more focus on the man with the white hair standing over Rem. "Guese…" She whispered while clenching her hand tight, wishing to have the comfort of her knight for this one moment only to get her past the confusion and heartbreak she felt.

It was Reinhard who reminded Emilia about the one she should be thinking about the most instead of herself. "Rem-san… You've faced these two because of my incompetence to be there at the subjugation of the White Whale. I am deeply sorry." The red-haired knight seemed more guilt-ridden than Emilia remembers seeing him.

"It ain't just you," Felt looked bothered by herself as she looked down at the ground. "I'm the one who told ya to leave 'em be and focus on somethin' else. Remember? Fuck…" Felt shook her head with a miserable expression overcoming her, slamming her fist on the chair handle beside Crusch.

"We came here because we heard our pet had been slain, and look at this bounty!" He opened his arms and moaned in pleasure. "I expected them to be a good, ripe bunch, considering they managed to kill a beast that had been rampaging unchecked for 400 years… But this is beyond my expectations!"

"Pet?" Schult looked shocked as he registered what he was saying before anyone. "Did he just call the White Whale… The monster… His pet?!" The boy looked beyond fearful but his eyes wandered over toward his side, where the man most affected by the beast was sitting. "Heinkel-sama?"

"... Tckh!" Heinkel's gripping strength showed as his armrests creaked from the pressure the man was putting into his fingers around them. His glare was true with hatred and fire that couldn't stop burning. "Guess that solves it, eh, dear pops?!" The sober drunkard glared at his father. "The Cult bastards worked together to take Mom out! What the hell are ya gonna do about that, huh?!"

Wilhelm refused to meet Heinkel's eyes or words head-on. He kept watching with his hardened expression trained on Gluttony.

A giggle sounded from the side of Heinkel's row, bringing the man to glance at the one laughing.

"Sounds like you're too cowardly to take them on yourself or me~, hehehehe!" Meili giggled childishly, calling him out and finding his antics more amusing than pathetic, opposite to everyone else in the room.

"You little…" Heinkel stopped himself when Priscilla gave him a side-eyed look.

As the monster rambled on, Rem slowly placed Crusch on the ground and stood on her two feet.

"NICE! GOOD! GREAT! EXCELLENT! FINE! PERFECT! FANTASTIC! STUPENDOUS! How long it has been since our hunger was so thoroughly sated!"

Rem's morning star is revealed at the ready.

"No…" Ram whispered, looking between the screen and her own sister with widened eyes.

"She's not going to take them on all alone, will she?" Hetaro voiced his disbelief, trying to look for anyone else who might find this sacrifice unneeded. "She can't take them down on her own!"

He looked around, but most of the people in the room were wincing as if knowing what was about to happen could not be reverted. "Brother?"

"She's done this more times than we can count, Onii-chan." Tivey was glaring at the maid's back while putting his monocle back in place, surprising Hetaro at how heartless he sounded. "What's about to happen is just senseless stupidity."

"You can relax. I'm nothing like that guy there." Regulus waved his hand carelessly when Rem eyed him with a dangerous glint. "I hate fighting and stuff. All that 'hunger' and 'thirst' nonsense? Such petty self-indulgences are beneath me."

The air around Rem became visible as it paved the way for mana crystals to manifest into reality above her and Crusch. All of the crystals were frozen in the air, Rem, pointing directly in both directions where the archbishops stood.

"Please, just run away…" Naoko whispered with more sadness because of the people on the ground. "Subaru's waiting for you with Emilia-sama. Please—"

"It's already been done, honey," Kenichi moved over to hold the hand of his wife over their son's sleeping form. His lips didn't stop frowning in anger at the situation. "That brave girl is doing her best to save a royal candidate in their world."

"That's not enough for her to throw away her life!" Naoko shook her head in rejection at such a notion. "Why are those bad men attacking her and those people?"

Both refused to question the fact that magic has been used by Rem for the fourth time, already getting used to that fact being normal within this world.

"Were you even listening?" Regulus looked annoyed. "Did I not just say that I hate fighting?" He narrowed his eyes at her but Rem gave no acknowledgement with her eyes.

The maid kept her head pointing towards Crusch, having her morning star at the ready as she prepared her mana attacks.

"Is that all you wish to say," she turned her head to give him a glare of hate, "witch cultist?"

"Maid-san seems reeeeally brave!" Meili clapped her hands with something akin to admiration in her eyes. "Though I wonder if such a cool stance will hold, hmmm." She put a finger on her lower lip and bit into it worryingly like a child would do for a character in crisis, not as a human being worried about another.

"Don't egg them on!" Schult tried his best to keep his voice low but the intense scene got to him far more than his little heart could take. "Please—"

"You've grown tiresome, Schult. Keep quiet." Priscilla didn't need to glance at the boy to earn his immediate compliance with her words. She kept her eyes locked on the situation above with an expression of disgust.

Gluttony walks forward ever closer as Rem stands between the two. "Soon enough, a hero will appear and rid us of all of you. The one and only hero… whom I love." As her voice softened in belief, losing its sharp edge, Gluttony's amused and sadistic one filled the air from the side.

"..." Rem couldn't help but look away as the parents looked at her with widened eyes full of shock. She felt the guilt increase when she noticed how far her sister's hands had been folded from her.

"You think Subaru can take these people on?" Kenichi looked at the maid as he asked whisperingly. "Young lady… That's ridiculous! This isn't a level of attraction anymore, you're obsessed."

Rem closed her eyes and accepted the words like a strike to her heart as Kenichi looked back at the screen with more worry clear in his eyes for the girl.

"She's delusional," Heinkel grunted from above, thinking the same thing as Kenichi as he saw the difference in power between someone like Subaru and those two, except he knew something Kenichi didn't about Subaru which made Heinkel more opposed to having the child anywhere near the archbishops.

"Oh? A hero? I look forward to that. And who are you?" He asked her, grin so wide it reached his eyes.

"The head maid of the mansion of Margrave Roswaal L. Mathers…" Rem shook her head, both hands on her battle chains, "And currently, the caretaker of my one and only love, my beloved Natsuki Subaru, who will one day be that hero… Rem!" Her Oni horn appeared, glowing above her forehead with power that could be felt even by those who saw its light from afar.

"..." Roswaal moved his eyes away from the screen to close them and rest his temple in his gloved hand.

"Freakish man," Anastasia grumbled under her breath, stopping her observation of the margrave so she could watch what would happen to Crusch next.

"Why have so much faith in my son… You put him in danger by giving out his name like that, young Rem…" Naoko looked more confused than emotional as she realized what was being said didn't make sense. "He's a boy just like you. He can't even use the amazing magic or jump as high as you did."

"Please, Naoko-sama… This is hard on all of us." Emilia tried to come to Rem's rescue, succeeding when Naoko gave the half-elf a certain glance before looking over toward her sleeping son.

"What do they know about you, Subaru?" Naoko patted his cheek and continued watching, not noticing the sheer relief Rem was going through due to Emilia's interjection behind her.

"You'd better be ready, Sin Archbishop!" She proclaimed fiercely, "I promise you, my hero will soon be here to bring you to justice!"

With that, Rem unleashed her crystals forward towards both men, the first strike on Regulus ended up being blocked by his invisible bubble instantly, while the second attack on Ley was dodged and weaved as the small man began running towards Rem with great speed.

"That's a valiant effort," Frederica winced, earning a glare from none other than Meili.

"If you wanna lose~, booooo~" The little assassin sounded from above, earning glares from those who were tense enough watching the situation.

Beside Rem, Ram was gripping her dress tightly to the point it wrinkled from the rage. "What the hell was the point of these attacks even…? Why?!"

"Sister…" Rem sounded more heartbroken as Ram glared at the screen with such anger. Glared at Rem on the screen like she wasn't even worthy of being listened to. Glared at the HER that was in the past and caused Ram so much pain.

"Why did you do this to us?" Ram whispered accusingly, breaking Rem's heart.

She brought her morning star forward to attack the oncoming archbishop but he slapped it away with his wrist blade.

"Ah, what mettle!" Ley shouted in malicious glee as he kept clashing with her battle chains in the air. "I am most certainly going to enjoy… this feast!"

Rem kept her attacks coming with monstrous velocity and without break, but even so, he kept clashing with each attack and getting closer and closer.

From the sidelines, Regulus watched with a smirk as Rem began losing her footing.

Subaru's face was shown for a moment. Rem continued to increase her attacks to keep Gluttony from coming closer to her.

Until she was attacked from behind by an invisible pulse… The same one that caused all of the carriages to become mere wrecks all around her.

Regulus chuckled as her body let go of the chains that kept Ley in his place. Leading to him finally finding room for a counterattack against Rem.

"Dirty fuckin' bastard!" Garfiel roared and slammed both fists on his chair handles repeatedly. Most in the theater represented a tone of extreme anger and hatred for the two men on the screen. None beat the Ram's as the pink-haired maid had her eyes shine through the tears while the screen continued playing Rem's last stand.

"How does he do it?" Felix asks as the scene slows down, having his stone expression still in place. "How does he take away their memories?!"

His sharp teeth were shown biting down as flashes began playing.

"Ferris…" Crusch held on to her healer, not wanting to watch the scene herself so she used him as an excuse.

The healer backtracked into his seat, with his face resembling a wince of disgust, his hands shaking in fear.

"He literally ate… Their memories?" Julius whispered with a disturbed expression.

"What a fuckin' ability… yuck." Ricardo put his head in his hand, overwhelmed by the possibilities of the ugly ability. "Stealin' someone's soul is like removing a bit of nature's life force from the world."

"Feeling like ye're a poet now of all times, Ricardo?" Anastasia didn't want an answer to that as she watched the dire scene with her glare intensifying.

With one last image to flash before Rem's eyes… She only saw darkness.

The image was that of her as an adult, with blue hair as long as her elbows, as she sat in Japanese-style clothing. Subaru was sitting by her side, with another person standing as he looked at them both. A child with blue hair that was styled exactly like Subaru's.

In Rem's arms… Was an infant of black hair no stranger to its mother's features as Rem hugged it with kindness.

"Thank you for the feast!" Ley moaned in pleasure as her vision faded into white flames that burned each corner of her existence.

"He could've had those any time he wanted to be had he listened to my Teacher's commands," Roswaal spoke coldly, looking at the darkness within the screen like his existence was fading away.

"Was that…?" Emilia's gasp shook the theater at the realization as she saw the vision end without mercy. "No! That's too cruel… No… Please…" The half-elf could only beg because of her disbelief, looking over to check on Rem with tears slowly running from her eyes.

Beatrice also looked over with a face that resembled shock and pity mixed into one. She didn't hesitate to give her sympathy to the maid even though she had been one of the most vocal against her. "I'm sorry you had to relive through that again, in fact."

"Those children… Oh no…" Petra whispered with a gut-wrenching squeak, not believing what she was seeing. "A-And Rem's been asleep ever since this moment?" Her tears began falling out of the sheer brutality of the idea.

"Does this cult know anything but their collection of atrocities and disgust to share with this world?!" Julius was the most furious among the knights as he slammed his fist on his knee and turned his elegant expression into a snare. "I will stop at nothing until I've seen Gluttony pay for this!"

"..." Reinhard couldn't but nod his head in silence, the guilt overwhelming him from getting far more involved than he should be.

"Rein… I need you to find this guy as soon as we're outta this fuckin' prison." Felt looked at her knight with her red eyes showing rage never seen on her before. "We gotta take 'em out, by all means necessary!"

"Did he eat her?" Meili asked with a bit of apprehensiveness, "I don't understand what happened~!" The girl showed no issue about Rem's loss, only disappointment and whining about how it ended.

"He so obviously didn't!" Schult growled at the girl by Heinkel's side, glaring at the screen with his innocent eyes.

"Oh my god… Those children looked like…" Naoko gasped, looking at her husband with a tearful face. "They were…"

"They were Subaru's… They had his lame attributes from head to toe." Kenichi, who was staring at the dark screen with an emotional expression couldn't help but crack a joke in the middle of a small sniffle.

A joke that was answered from behind them. "My sister's cute features were the only saving grace for Barusu's children."

Ram's voice was more toned down, but her usual snark and bite were missing completely. As if she said those words without any energy in her soul.

"Sister…" Rem whispered to her twin, trying to reach out for her, but Ram's hands were far out of reach when she leaned away. "Please… I-I don't want you to be angry at me."

"For once in my life I refuse to blame Barusu's disgusting qualities for your behavior, Rem." Ram admonished with a firmness that made people pause around her. "He's capable of giving you the most beautiful children I've ever seen… You can only think of how I feel now after making me live a year without knowing who you even were?!"

"... H-How do you think I feel?" Rem's tears made her wail like a child as she was faced with the hardened glare of her older sister. "I can't escape this nightmare no matter how many times I get myself back together!"

"Rem…" Emilia tried to stop the maid from going further, but Rem's heart was too damaged to hear.

"I can't keep going on like this every time!" She held her head, her maid sleeves sticking to her hair as she rubbed her fingers throughout the strands. "What I've done to Subaru when he first came to our world… You think I wanted to see myself doing any of that to my beloved?!"

Naoko and Kenichi looked at the maid with widened eyes.

"What did she do to Subaru?" Kenichi asked, looking at Crusch for an answer, but the Duchess watched Rem with a pained look on her face.

"Or the amount of times I've failed to save him from danger?!" Rem screamed at the top of her lungs, remembering each memory as she'd lived through them. "Or the times I failed to save you?!"

"Sister," Ram tried to speak, but Rem's face reddened from the rage as she balled herself up in her seat.

"I just saw my children for the first time and I can't even hold them for a moment before they get taken away!" Rem's voice pierced the walls of the room as she screamed at the top of her lungs.

Ram was immediately hugging the maid from the side, letting her sister settle into her grasp. "Sister… Please… I'm sorry for what I said…"

"You're going to forget me…" Rem sniffled and wheezed as she cried like a child. Unable to control herself anymore after everything had fallen in front of her. "Everyone… Everyone's going to forget me… I have no one to blame me or care…"

Ram couldn't say anything as she glanced at Roswaal from her seat. Begging for his guidance at a time like this. But the lord was looking away from the two maids, a shadow hanging over his head and his hands trembling.

Naoko looked at the two sisters with heartbreak. "I don't understand anything… Why do you speak of such cruel delusions that might not happen to you? What did that monster do other than injure you like Crusch-sama?"

"He did it to both of them!" Felix surprised the small theater with his voice, growling and pointing at the screen above Naoko and Kenichi.

"What… Exactly what did he do?" Schult asked Priscilla that question since he couldn't tell himself.

The red lady only patted his head as she started speaking, aiming her voice below toward Subaru's parents.

"You there, commoner and his wife." She commanded, earning Kenichi's attention.

"I dunno why you're talking to me so sharply, but… Yeah? Kind of trying to figure this out right now." Kenichi waved a hand at the twins holding on to each other and Crusch with her knight.

Priscilla rolled her eyes at him. "Your stupidity is a plague that's been copied to the next generation of thy bloodline, I applaud the poison."

"Wow, you're a mean one," Kenichi glared and put his hand on his hip while facing her fully. "What do you want."

"To know what happened and why you and your wife are lonesome in your confusion," Priscilla huffs as she points above the man and his confused wife. "Then keep watching what shall become of your son once he finds what remains of this pathetic maid."

"My sister isn't pathetic!" Ram shouted over everyone's outrage.

"Where do you get off, I suppose?" Beatrice growled at Priscilla from beside a glaring Emilia.

The red baroness refused to acknowledge any of them as she reserved her beautiful eyes only for the two parents opposite her on the front row.

"Watch your son, and be entertained by the bloodshed." She sat down and crossed her legs as she began fanning herself, leaving Kenichi to look at Naoko alone.

"What the heck is going on?" He asked under his breath.

"I don't know, honey… I-I…" She glanced at Subaru's sleeping face and seemed more worried than ever. "My heart feels heavy and I don't know what to do or say… This is too much."

"Do you think you can continue watching this?" Kenichi sounded a lot more serious as he whispered to her.

"I…" She looked at her son, feeling his hand in hers as she observed his features. "I don't know what happened to Rem in the first place… So I want to see if she's alright after such terrible men attacked her."

"... What if our son's not the same after that?" Kenichi whispered, giving her a gentle squeeze on the shoulder.

Naoko nuzzled her cheek to his knuckle and brought her own hand on Subaru's cheek. "Isn't it about time we became more involved then?"

Her words seemed to make the man think as he too looked toward his one and only child with emotions overwhelming him. "I… I didn't think he'd need us…"

"Let's see if he does," Naoko whispered to her husband, revealing their insecurity towards their amazing child open and center.

They both held on to each other and looked on as the darkness above became light and a new scene played over them.

"I know you said what you wanted just to scare them all, princess." Al mused from beside Priscilla as the screen played once more. "It's really evil of you to remind them of Pal's ability and that he might use it once he sees—"

"Tis not the job of an animal like you to read the thoughts and intentions of a divine." Priscilla harshly shut him down, swinging a foot to kick him in the shin.

"Not in a talkative mood?" Al winced while rubbing his foot.

Priscilla's eyes narrowed on the parents as she answered.

"Absolutely not."

The scene opened once again during the nighttime. It stretched across the mansion of the Karsten estate, showing several ground dragon carriages all over the front yard of the property.

Many healers were hard at work attending to the injured and unmoving on the grass of the yard, having fires to light their way above them.

It was a scene from a massacre as everyone was either unconscious and bleeding out from a missing limb or a dangerous wound, or they were screaming in pain as they were attended to by a healer.

"How awful…" Emilia gasped as she and Subaru stood in the middle of the desperate scene, overlooking the healers and medical professionals' efforts to treat the victims.

Beatrice moved her eyes to see the half-elf beside her and inspect her reaction. "He's about to find her, sooner or later, I suppose." She whispered to Emilia.

"I don't know what you want from me…" Emilia gripped her ropes tightly, wishing to be closer to her beloved knight as the pressure increased.

"You know exactly what Betty wants, I suppose." The spirit looked at the half-elf with a miffed glare. "I don't have the nerve to act with you, in fact. Please tell Betty if he's done it."

Emilia didn't answer her immediately, only keeping her eyes on the screen with a quivering lip. "What if it did…?"

"What?" Beatrice looked at her with a raised brow.

"Shouldn't he try to protect her the same way she protected him?" Emilia's voice was low, more scared of what she was saying like a child who was looking over their shoulder after hiding their lunch from a bully. "I-If… If he hadn't wasted his time trying to save me… He wouldn't have lost those children—"

"Betty needs to slap the sense back into that brain of yours, in fact." The spirit all but spat towards Emilia out of sheer disgust, making the half-elf flinch on herself. "Feel shame for the amount of times Subaru had to face Guese alone."

Emilia looked away from Beatrice, unable to take the glare from the spirit.

Subaru had his eyes scanning the entire yard. "What happened here?" He asked in a growl but a scream forced both of them to look at another grim scene.

Felix held on to Crusch's unconscious body as he cried, with Wilhelm putting a hand of comfort on the healer's shoulder.

Subaru's entire body trembled at the sight of Crusch as he watched Felix cry over her.

"..." Crusch looked at Subaru's reaction with something akin to surprise, seeing the boy show her more pain than she was worth in her eyes. "Go on and find her," Crusch whispered, looking over towards Rem.

Beside her, the healer who was crying on the screen gave no similar reaction to her unconscious form this time.

"Please try to do it just once, Subaru-kyun…" Felix whispered under his breath, his eyes empty and tired from all the crying and desperation. "Please just try to help Crusch-sama for once in your damn life…" He whispered. "Please…"

"Where's Rem?" He whispered after looking around Crusch's unconscious form. "WHERE IS REM?!" He shouted one more time before starting to run in a mad dash of uncertainty through the lines of corpses and despaired healers alike.

"My poor boy…" Naoko whispered under her hand, watching with her chest tightening around her heart. "I've never thought he'd see something so horrific… At such a young age too…"

Kenichi handled his wife's arm with care, giving her a small comfort as they watched together. "I can't say I'm not proud that he's not breaking down at the first sign of trouble and blood… Our son's been through a lot we still don't know about."

"What could possibly be wrong with that other world for Subaru to look so…" Naoko paused and looked between her sleeping son and the one going through the crowd of corpses on the screen above her. "... So… Unbothered by all this death and horror?"

Kenichi's lips thinned and his eyes roamed his son's face one more time, feeling his heart beating faster in his chest.

"I don't know…" He whispered desperately, showing hurt in his eyes as he concentrated on Subaru. "I don't know, honey."

It's just like before!

Subaru spoke in his mind as he recalled a memory of Otto on a dragon carriage. "Who is Rem?"

"I have no younger sister." Ram would tell him with an unimpressed face in another.

"Rem?" Emilia tilted her head at him in another.

Subaru ran forward with a terrified expression that forced his sharp eyes to show the intensity of his concentration.

Just like the time when the White Whale got Rem!

But I know we defeated the White Whale! So why?!

"He doesn't know about Gluttony's power…" Otto muttered, earning a look of attention from Hetaro above him.

"Um… When exactly did the White Whale get Rem-san?" The little boy asked, trying to remember the White Whale's war on his comrades. "If she was attacked during our fight with the Whale, shouldn't she have been forgotten by all of us before the attack by the Witch Cult?" Hetaro pointed at Crusch and looked at the rest of the people in the room.

But no one answered him as Kenichi asked something far more curious to him.

"Um… Excuse me… Why did her own sister ask who she was?" Kenichi pointed at the flashback of Ram above him. "And why is it that people are acting like Rem's been forgotten? Especially Subaru…"

"I'm just as confused too~" Meili sounded her weight with the parents and Hetaro as the theater failed to answer each one.

"That's because you weren't here when these things were shown to us," Schult seemed a little curious as to what the assassin was thinking about things so far. "I wonder if you want to help them. I don't know who you are, miss. But people seem to dislike you because of your weird personality."

"Is that what you think, hmmm?" Meili hummed to herself with her expression turning from a mischievous one to one of thoughtfulness. "People are unusually mean to me, y'know."

"Priscilla-sama seems to like you…" Schult looked at her with a small frown, maybe trying to help her feel better.

Not that Meili needed it as she ignored him and continued to watch.

"I'm sorry, sir." Otto bowed his head to Kenichi, taking his eyes off Emilia and Ram for a moment. "Please could… Could you watch the following event before we explain what exactly happened to Rem-san?" The merchant eyed the maid still huddling in her sister's grasp. "I can't tell you anything that can explain this accurately."

Kenichi seemed upset at this for a moment but he shook his head and sat back down, giving Hetaro a small shrug when they locked eyes.

Hetaro himself looked towards his brother, who wasn't giving him anything to go by.

"I'm sorry, but the next event will surely show you a great deal that I can't explain," Tivey whispered to his triplet, but that put Hetaro into even more confusion than before.

"This is reeeeally not fun," Mimi whined beside the both of them, not caring what the two were talking about.

He continued to run across the laid victims of the carnage, shouting with all his might.

"Rem! Where are you?! If you hear me, say something, Rem!" Across healers who were doing their best, and patients who only wanted to rest, Subaru ran and screamed over them without stopping until he noticed something to the side.

"Rem!" He found a blue-haired person being treated by two people, so he knelt down and quickly turned them over. "Not her…" He glared forward and continued to run as the screen showed the blue-haired person to be a guy.

"Rem!" He continued running. "Rem! Rem!" Pushing apart bodies and corpses that had been placed in carriages to make space in the yard.

"Rem! Rem! Rem!" He sprinted through more lines of unconscious and barely alive victims.

"Rem!" He pushed a healer out of the way to see who they were treating but kept running when it wasn't her.

The screen followed him from the back, showing his arms shooting forward and backward as he sprints.

"Rem! Rem! Rem!"

"Watching him run around like a headless chicken is horrific enough, minus everything else we've seen." Frederica voiced what all the others were thinking as they watched the scene with various expressions of pity and sympathy.

"What we've seen points to one conclusion that ain't gonna be pretty for them parents watchin' with us," Anastasia whispered with a shake of her head as the scene continued to show her how Subaru was panicking over every healer he was meeting. "Boy's too delusional not to do anythin' stupid."

"I'd disagree if I had the honor to say that Subaru has people he can rely on at that horrible moment…" Julius grits his white teeth and shows the pain he feels within him for what is about to happen. "But I cannot."

"Ya think he'll make it painless on 'emself?" Anastasia asked humorlessly, "Or ya think he's gonna do it fast and nothing else matters in terms of pain?"

"My lady…" Julius showed disappointment as he glared at Anastasia for the first time in a while. Only for the woman to wave him off.

"A gal's gotta cope with this shit fest somehow, Julius~" Anastasia didn't look at all in the mood to be joking so Julius believed her when she said that. "I'm worried about a lotta things happenin' around this troublesome guy… Just as much as you. Though I can't be as in love with him as you've been, my dear knight~"

Julius immediately glared at her once again, disregarding his earlier conclusion.

Never mind, she's still joking.

"REEEEM!" He screamed with all his might as he reached the end of the Karsten estate gardens, breathing heavily and hunched on his knees. "Rem…" He panted in despair… "Where did you go, Rem?"

"..." The blue-haired girl received looks of sympathy from Emilia, Felt, and even Subaru's parents as she was held by her older sister. Rem moved her head to stop hiding behind her knees and looked up where the screen showed her a nightmare she's always had.

"... I'm right here…" She whispered but no one could hear as she looked at him. "Don't shed tears for me… Why do you do this to yourself when I'm ungrateful for everything you've given? I just threw away our future and now you have to deal with the consequence of that."

"Didn't you ever wonder?" Ram asked her, as the scene paused for them to finish speaking. "Ever since you've returned to me in this prison… Did you not wonder what it was like for Barusu to be the only one who remembered and looked for you?"

Rem's eyes teared more than they already were. "..."

"Sister," Ram continued whispering in her ear as the scene continued above them, sensing the conclusion of their conversation. "The primary victim of your low self-worth is dealing with the consequences all alone. I couldn't even help this man even though I want to with all my heart… Because he's always on his own."

"You…" Rem looked at her sister, unable to register the cruel words she was stabbing into her guilty heart. "You think I need to hear this now? You decide not to insult his existence at this moment specifically?" Her voice showed anger steaming within her at the absurdity.

Ram gave her sister a tired look and gave a small nod. "If he's dealt with everything and stayed by your side for a year when even I couldn't… I'll do my best to make you understand how painful he had it."

"I already—"

Ram put a finger on her lips, stopping the outburst as she pointed at the screen with her head.

"No. You do not understand."

He looked to the side and paused for a moment. Then a small smile of relief filled his expression as he ran toward what he saw.

"Rem!" He ran until he was right above the lying body of a blue-haired maid. The healer who was attending to Rem was pushed to the side as Subaru took her by the shoulders. "Come on, Rem, wake up! It's me! Hey, Rem? Rem… Rem!"

"She's alright…" Naoko breathed in relief, holding her son's hand and giving a small hopeful smile.

"She looks alright! Not even a scratch…" Kenichi also showed some hope in his expression as he leaned forward, though his face was missing the smile his wife was displaying. "Then why are all of these people behind us acting so depressed?" He asked himself as he watched more curious than ever.

"You know this girl?" The healer asked from behind, earning a glare from Subaru.

"Yes! She's Rem! She's alive, right?! Why won't she wake up?!" Subaru asked pleadingly but the healer only turned his eyes away solemnly.

"Unfortunately, she's beyond help. Nothing I can do will wake her—" Subaru caught the man by the collar with a furious expression and began shouting.

"Why?! And you call yourself a healer?! If you're a healer, then heal her! Wake her up with magic! Right now!" Subaru's eyes had tears in the corners which led to the healer's understanding expression as he allowed his body to be pushed by Subaru.

Naoko put her hands on her mouth at the heartbreaking scene, feeling her tears come forth because of the pain her son was displaying.

Kenichi quickly put a hand on his wife's shoulder, bringing a sympathetic nod towards Felix who was also watching with a great deal of sympathy and depression for Subaru.

"I apologize for what my son is saying. I'm sure he doesn't mean to insult healers like yourself, young lady." Kenichi said and turned to his wife so they could hold each other while looking over their son.

Felix blinked but shook his head, unable to correct the man after he had turned towards his family. His focus was sharply placed back on Subaru, feeling the need to grip his skirt as hard as he could to calm his nerves.

"Do it… Help her the only way you can… This is your only power after all… Subaru-kyun…" He whispered with tears still appearing beneath his eyes, making sure that Crusch or Felt wouldn't hear him.

"COME ON!" Subaru let go of the man's collar, begging him in a whisper. "Please…" He fell to his knees before the man. "Come on…"

The healer only shook his head and began walking away silently, leaving Subaru with Rem's unconscious body.

"... I passed out before the backup party could pick me up with them to the highway," Hetaro muttered as he watched with guilt filling him to a larger extent than necessary. "I couldn't even remember seeing her by the time the bodies arrived."

Tivey and Mimi frowned at this, seeing a new side to their usually shy brother.

"No need t' feel like it's on ya kiddo." Ricardo patted Hetaro's head, not seeming as cheerful as he usually is.

"Oooooh!" Meili nodded her head with an expression of understanding. "Then that's why she was always asleep when me and Elsa came… But… Why didn't Mama's contract include her as a resident in the mansion?" Meili swayed from side to side, earning a nod of attention from Schult.

"Isn't there something more to this? Will he get Rem-san to wake up?" Schult asked himself, looking at Heinkel for any sort of answer.

But the red-haired man was stuck glaring at the screen with his teeth gritted in hate. "... Louanna. How many people out there have this sickness because of monsters and bastards from the Cult… Yet you had to get it in the most frustrating way… Fuck."

Schult could only look at the depressed man with sympathy, reeling his confusion back as he looked to others for help.

"What more do you need than this?" A voice whispered from the very back, unable to keep to himself as he watched everything happening inside of the theater and on the screen. "Tell me, Subaru-kun… How much did I need to push you more… If this didn't break you as my Teacher had transcribed?" Roswaal growled with such hate that his multi-colored irises had a red shine to them from the lights on the screen reflecting upon his unblinking orbs.

"Why did you not use that power and quit trying to be a hero?!"

Subaru's head moved to the side, where a broken blade was discarded on the grassy floor beside Rem.

Roswaal, Beatrice, Otto, Anastasia, Emilia, and even Petra all stopped breathing as soon as the scene centered around the broken weapon.

"Ah, shit…" Felt whispered while closing her eyes. "Big bro… I can't blame ya for tryin' but this shit's really not gonna fly when I getcha outta that fuckin' sleep of yours."

"No," Reinhard grunted in disbelief, "he wouldn't… Not like this…"

He held on to the blade's hilt, bringing it closer to his teary face.

"W-What is he—" Naoko's tears dried and her face went white at the image being displayed. She held on to her husband's hands and looked like she was waiting for her lungs to work on their own since she had forgotten how to breathe. "What is he doing?!"

"Son…" Kenichi seemed more flabbergasted than scared or afraid. "Why?! What are you doing?!"

"I don't understand. What is happening?" Meili focused her interest back on her Onii-san which was her only target in this room as far as she was concerned. "What is Onii-san doing with that~?" She asked childishly, pointing at Subaru and his broken blade.

Hetaro also seemed just as confused as the others but his attention was more so aimed at the ones who've been inside of this theater far longer than him. "Why… Are they all looking like they expect something tragic to happen?"

"Ain't this fucker lucky," Heinkel growled under his breath, pushing the worried Schult off of his arm as he glared at Subaru. "At least he has the power to bring his own lover back to the waking world… While I have to break my back begging for a chance so I can get a cure that might not even work!"

"You're so obviously jealous of Pal, you're forgetting the most important defect of his ability," Al, the only one in the theater with an offishly calm exterior, as even Priscilla showed some disdain with the scene, had his head resting on his knuckle while crossing his legs and watching.

He gulped while eyeing the broken weapon. And then looked off to the side.

Every single victim of the carnage was shown before him as he stayed kneeling on the grass.

"Don't use them to go through with this, Subaru Natsuki…" Crusch whispered with her gloved hand turning into a fist, wishing for the comfort of having his hand in hers. "I want nothing more than to make you understand the fault of what you're doing now."

Kenichi looked at her, hearing every word she said, and looked back towards the screen, more confused, more dumbfounded.

Behind Crusch, Felix was the only one near to give Subaru a silent nod. "Please do it… Show me why you didn't help Crusch-sama if Rem had to be stuck in a coma for such a long time… Why did you give up on her?"

"If I Return by Death now…" Subaru whispered as he slowly touched the blade's handle, pointing its broken edge toward his neck.

"Return by what?" Hetaro widened his eyes, "what is he doing?!" He looked around for an answer from the others but even his siblings didn't show as much emotion to what was happening as he was.

The parents on the other hand,

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!" Kenichi's shout rang through the theater, giving everyone a first impression of the man's first instance of anger since he'd been abducted into their viewing party.

Naoko looked like she was on the verge of collapse as she turned away from the screen, begging Emilia or Beatrice for help. "Why is he doing this?!"

His hands trembled.

"I'll have to fight Petelgeuse again." He whispered with fear, bringing the blade further into his neck, drawing blood as he pressed it against him. "But I don't care."

Hetaro noticed the angry looks on Otto and Garfiel's faces, seeing them sit there and watch this madness without being able to do anything to help must be crushing.

"Yet, I can't see any signs of fear!" Hetaro hissed as he watched them. "Why aren't you all more angry with him, more confused?!" He looked at Julius to get an answer, but the knight simply refused to meet the boy's eyes.

"It's what I'm asking after watching this decision being made by Subaru again and again," Julius whispered the answer, not letting the boy hear it as his angry glare aimed at Subaru on the screen.

His trembling got worse as he steeled himself further and further. "I'll fight him as many times as it takes…"

"Please stop, I suppose." Beatrice held on to her twin tails, folding her small legs so she could feel safer without his warmth. "Please…"

"As many as it takes?" Roswaal's eyes widened and he leaned forward with more interest, even his frown was removed from his expression and a sharp, focused face replaced it.

He gasped and breathed heavily as he forced himself to stop trembling. "beat him as many times as it takes…"

"..." Priscilla's glare intensified on him, showing anger in the way she kicked the chair directly in front of her seat.

"All over again?" Petra started to cry at the very idea. "You just saved us… You went through so much… HOW CAN YOU WANT MORE?!" She held on to Frederica but the older maid herself was leaning away to hide her expression of disappointment.

The screen finally panned over his endangered neck and trembling hands to show his face as he growled with an expression made of hell itself. "... To save both Emilia and Rem."

"... But everything you've done was exactly how I remember it…" Felix, bringing his disturbed expression to light, found no better time to sound his confusion than now. "What stopped you from pushing through with this?! Are you a coward? Just stab it in and save them, nya!"

"Ferris…" Crusch looked back at him with great shock and horror at what he was saying.

"He needs to save you! He didn't save you!" Felix glared at her through his tears, clearly overwhelmed with emotion.

"This isn't the way for young Subaru-dono, Felix," Wilhelm spoke in deep disappointment, but the healer didn't care.

"Then why did it not work?!" He shouted, earning Felt's glare as well as Reinhard's surprised expression.

"You want this… Whatever it is… To be Subaru's solution to this situation?" Reinhard asked, beyond mortified at the prospect. "How could you agree to such a thing?"

"It worked for everyone else!" Felix growled at him, showing the knight no reverence. "For Rem the most too!"

"Pal's gonna make this guy lose it soon," Al muttered jokingly, the echo of his helmet making his words louder than they needed to be which added more fire to the situation.

"Can you please shut up for o~ne second?" Meili said above everyone, having a small pout on her face. "I'm trying super hard to understand what's going on with Onii-san and why he's doing this to himself before he met with me and Elsa-san. Let me understand!" She glared at them with anger but went back to watching the screen with a cold look.

Schult couldn't help but notice the slight grip Meili had on the seat she was leaning over as she watched.

His eye shed a tear as he gave one last unconscious growl. "I won't let either of them die!"

"H-How's he gonna save them with this?" Hetaro asked, beyond tired of waiting for an answer, unable to take the expression Subaru was showing. "Please… Someone answer me if he's going to be okay after this!"

"Just watch this shit and stop yer worryin'!" Heinkel glared at the small boy. "He ain't gonna be hurt. This is what he needs t' do."

"If it'll save both of you…" The screen showed his point of view as he held the blade to his neck, struggling to stop blinking. "I'll… As many times as it takes!"

"..." Emilia couldn't believe what she was hearing and seeing as it happened on the screen. Her hand moved to the front of her chest, trying to ease the pain that filled her heart. Her jaw was hung as she observed her knight at one of the most terrifying moments she'd seen anyone be in.

"Subaru…" Emilia whispered, unable to speak any words that could do him any justice. She had nothing to say to him yet needed to say too much at this moment specifically.

All she could do was look away to spare herself the painful look on her knight's face. "Not another time, please…" She closed her eyes and let her tears drop, breathing heavily and forcing her hands to cover her ears. "I can't see you do this… I'm sorry." She sobbed.

He drove the blade into his neck, watching his arms plunge it deeper and earning darkness with the final blink.

"NO NO NO NO—" Naoko's scream filled the entire room as expected from the mother of the one who had just killed himself. Her eyes were wide open, desperate as she lunged at her own sleeping son.

Kenichi's face was pale, his body stiff with shock. His hands trembled, yet he didn't let go of Naoko, even as his own voice choked in his throat. He had seen the worst in life, as much as a man like him could, but nothing had prepared him for this.

He wasn't quick enough to hold her back, but he kept a hold on her shoulder as she dove toward Subaru. In a second, she had slapped Subaru's face as hard as she could.

"NAOKO!"

"LET ME WAKE HIM UP! PLEASE! I NEED TO SEE HIM OPEN HIS EYES!" The mother didn't see anything else. Only her son's lifeless body lying there, so still, so impossibly silent. She shook Subaru violently, her hands gripping his shoulders as though sheer force could drag him back from death.

"H-He's not dead, in fact!" Beatrice tried to speak over the parents from her seat, watching the scene with increasing worry. "He's asleep, in fact!"

"Subaru! Wake up, please, baby, please!" Naoko sobbed, her voice breaking into raw, animalistic wails. Tears streamed down her face, falling onto her son's skin. She shook him again, harder this time, her nails digging into his flesh. "You can't do this to me, Subaru! You can't!"

Kenichi swallowed hard, his own hands shaking. He wanted to pull her away, but how could he? How could he tell a mother to stop trying to wake her son in a place where they understand so little?

But Subaru wouldn't wake up.

His body only rocked lifelessly under her desperate touch.

"Why?" Naoko whispered, her breath catching. "Why would you leave me like this?" Her forehead pressed against Subaru's as she trembled, rocking back and forth. "I wasn't ready… I wasn't ready for this!"

Kenichi closed his eyes, inhaling sharply. The moment pressured him into suffocating levels. This was too much.

Naoko's sobs quieted, but the shaking didn't stop. Her hands trailed over Subaru's face, her fingers brushing against his eyelids, as though willing them to open. Her voice came out in a hoarse whisper, "I can't lose him again—"

Emilia and Rem could only flinch out of shame and guilt at the hurt in the mother's words.

"Please don't let me lose you again, Subaru." Naoko sobbed, fighting off Kenichi's hands as he stood over them. "I can't keep looking for you this time. Please! I CAAAAAAAAN'T—" She cried until her lungs could no longer carry air and the need to breathe won over her emotions.

Kenichi could only look away from his wife's pitiful sight, unable to form any of his emotions together after what he had seen. All he had was the tears running down so smoothly from his eyes in streams that mirrored his son's when killed himself in front of everyone.

"What did he gain from such a thing?" He asked himself, looking at his son's sleeping face with something akin to confusion and desperation. "Tell me you had a plan other than losing your hope… Son… You're not weak enough to break so easy."

"He's not." A firm voice came as his saving grace.

He looked at Crusch as she refused to meet his eyes and glared at the floor.

"Then what the hell was he thinking?" Kenichi begged for an answer, his tiredness beating his manners as he spoke to the candidate. "Please…"

Crusch kept her lips thin, dealing with the death of his son like one would expect from a candidate for the throne of a country.

But this wasn't the reaction he would expect from someone who liked his son the way Crusch did.

And she seemed to agree with him as she met his eyes bravely, not hiding herself.

"If you wish to know why the death of Natsuki Subaru was not a surprise to most in this room, just like Hetaro and the assassin girl…"

Kenichi could feel the eyes of the tearful Hetaro who seemed to respect his son enough to care about his death even through his confusion. And those curious wide eyes from the small bluenette in the back of the theater, though he could feel them coldly scanning his son specifically.

"Who are you people…?" Kenichi asked with a little bit of disgust showing through his overwhelming emotions.

Crusch took the words on the chin and closed her eyes for a moment as she pointed her nose towards the darkened screen above.

"We are the people who couldn't save your son from death," she answered him, truthfully, bluntly, coldly, and emotionally all at the same time in a most paradoxical manner that made Crusch's voice command the different personalities of the entire room.

"And this happened more than once, Natsuki-sama."

Kenichi could feel his wife stop struggling in his grasp and quieten her sobbing almost instantly at the words.

"What do you mean?" Naoko asked in a hoarse, tired, and broken voice, keeping hold of her son but trying to face the green-haired woman by her husband's side nonetheless.

The Duchess gave them no answer but looked at the screen as it lit according to Crusch's commanding glare. Starting the process of another scene yet again before the entire silent theater.

Faint noises, flashing images, purple glow…

And suddenly, he woke up gasping and in pain.

"Are you all right?" Emilia asked from his side, showing the screen that he was gasping inside the moving dragon carriage that Otto was driving. "Subaru, what's the matter?"

Subaru stopped his panting and closed his eyes to calm himself. "Where's Rem?" He turned to Emilia with a desperate face. "What happened to Rem?"

Only silence was his answer for a moment as he waited in the carriage filled with children who were asleep.

Petra and Emilia looked at him with worry.

Emilia tilted her head with a frown of concern. "Subaru…"

His eyes widened in instant realization before Emilia could even continue.

"Who…"

They might as well have popped out by a certain point as the world slowed around him when she spoke.

"... is Rem?"

And then it turned dark.

At the top of the room, Roswaal was forced to lean back and put a hand to cover his eyes as he crossed his legs. He elegantly removed his interest from the screen and aimed his face elsewhere. "I keep forgetting, Subaru-kun. Ah, how cruel that is." He chuckled dryly at the humor of it all. Or the irony. Or the depression. The man didn't know or care.

"He ain't got control on the points where he returns… Fuck." Heinkel winced in absolute displeasure, his anger disappearing immediately. "This actually fuckin' sucks more than havin' the kid win and save his girl." The drunkard looked guilty for a moment before hiding his expression behind a glare towards the floor. "Shit man…"

Beside him, Schult hugged his arm and continued to shed silent tears at the cruelty Subaru had been served.

"Told you," Al sighed in his helmet, leaning further back into his seat. "What a shit defect of this ability. And he still killed himself after everything he's learned? Pal's a professional self-hater."

"I find this more distasteful than before," Beside the knight, his mistress showed great disgust with a snarl.

"That beautiful face doesn't deserve such an expression, princess." Al humored her casually. "Ain't no one gonna marry you if you look like this."

Priscilla ignored her knight's jesting and aimed her sharp glare directly towards the sleeping person in Naoko's grasp. "A knight without heart is a joke that needn't be heard or acknowledged." She whispered with hate, keeping her thoughts to herself for the first time since she had entered the theater.

"..." Kenichi felt himself holding on to his wife for his own comfort now, not believing what he was seeing.

"I don't understand… I-I…" Naoko stuttered and quivered her lips as her tears renewed when her son was shown to be alive once again. "Why… Is he…"

"Did he just go back in time?" Kenichi whispered desperately to Crusch, finding a little bit of air in his lungs to speak after the gut punch he had to endure emotionally. "Please tell me he just went back in time… Please—"

"That," Crusch's lips quivered with emotion she was professional enough to stop from overtaking her as she steeled herself. "That is the ability Natsuki Subaru has been cursed with."

The two parents were looking at the woman with their jaws hung and their tears never stopping.

"Big bro needs to die to go back into the past…" Felt said from Crusch's side, looking at the ground and away from the parents in what Kenichi assumed was guilt. "We couldn't know because he didn't tell us anythin' 'bout it."

"His ability?" Naoko whispered, looking between Crusch and Felt for a moment, not blinking or even breathing.

A voice spoke from her other side that showed as much guilt and pain as Crusch held back.

"H-He didn't have control for when exactly he could return…" Emilia whispered in horror, holding her hand to cover her mouth as her tears spilled. "What I said to him… He k-killed himself to try and save her and… spirits!"

"It's going to haunt him worse than any death, I suppose." Beatrice couldn't hide her tears at the prospect. "No one blames you but yourself, half-elf."

"I'm sorry…" Emilia whispered, unable to look at anyone as she tried to hide her face in her hands. "I shouldn't have said that."

"So that's what happened?" Ram whispered from behind Naoko's seat, looking at the screen with her own tears drying and having an expression of forced acceptance. "Even your sacrifice couldn't save my sister from this fate… I was right not to judge you, Barusu."

"Course ya can't judge this buffoon," Anastasia glared at the maid sitting by her side. "He always gives his all no matter how distasteful it is." She softened her eyes when they roamed on Subaru's sleeping face. "Ain't like he received anythin' worthy of his sacrifice so far."

"..." Julius couldn't look anymore as he put his head in his hand and leaned down to rest his eyes. "How does this keep getting worse for you?" He whispered in anguish, earning a small pat on the back from Mimi.

"He turns back time itself… Is that how he beat the White Whale?" Hetaro looked as shocked as the parents as he asked his brother.

"What do you think, Onii-chan?" Tivey sounded more tired than ever and answered with a depressed face. "What do you think one at the center like Natsuki Subaru would do if he had such a power?"

"Th-Then that means… You've been in here watchin' his use of that ability…" Hetaro's eyes widened in sudden realization. "This is why none of you showed humanity in your reactions!"

"That's a stretch to say, ain't it?" Ricardo grimaced at the boy's words, but the boy wasn't deterred. "We're all grievin' 'ere kiddo. It's just…"

"You keep seeing him die." Hetaro's eyes were wide as dinner plates as he noticed how the wind was knocked out of most of the theater. Everyone looked away from his gaze, cowardly from the notion. "..." He didn't know what to say as he looked back at Subaru with a tearful gaze, the water beginning to fall from his eyes and down his cheeks.

Tivey moved over to hug his brother tight, similar to how Ram was doing to Rem.

"Cap'n's never been given a break before we got t' meet, him and I," Garfiel muttered to himself, looking at the floor with his eyes devoid of emotion. "He just kept goin' and goin' and it's scarin' me what might happen if I ever… Uh…" The blonde found himself shedding a tear from one of his eyes. Quickly wiping it away, he shook his head to regain the tough facade he'd kept for so long. "He ain't gonna take this loss well."

"He never did." Otto held his face in his hands and muttered his interjection. "Rem-san's condition… Was the one thing he couldn't save with his utmost ultimate ability… What terrible luck."

"You say luck?" A voice interrupted the monotone grieving of the right side of the room, bringing the parents to look over behind Crusch on the left row. "This is not luck by any margin of logic, nya!" Felix grit his teeth and growled with hate as his tears fill.

"Subaru-kyun… I'm sorry for ever misjudging you!" He held on to Crusch's chair and kept his tearful face slammed against the headrest. "You've done what a weak person like us could do! You sacrificed your life to try when I couldn't do anything!"

"Then… Who do you blame, Felix?" Reinhard asked with a guilt-ridden face, "You don't seem like yourself. Please—"

"It's that Witch of Envy!" The healer shouted at the top of his lungs in the room, earning the eyes of everyone in the room. "It's her and her alone that I should've blamed from the start!"

His lips quivered as new tears replaced the old. "I'm so sorry for thinking the worst of you, Subaru-kyun." He cried harder and gripped the edges of Crusch's seat so harshly he began to bruise his fingers.

"..." Wilhelm had nothing to say about what happened with Subaru, feeling as close to the young boy as he ever was with this tragedy. "They seal their doom by harming our loved ones, Felix." He offered the young healer some encouragement to the best of his ability.

"H-How could I forget this moment?" Petra muttered under her breath, earning the attention of the old knight since she was closer to him. "I remember being in the carriage and seeing him suddenly fall into a fit of rambles about Rem… How did I forget that it didn't happen?"

"You didn't know that he would do this—" Frederica tried to be as comforting as she could, but the young maid shook her head, refusing the help.

"I always knew he would, Frederica-Nee-sama," Petra growled with her tears streaming down more than anyone else. "It's always going to end up this way since he stayed with us."

Behind Petra, a more cheerful voice spoke up their own thoughts, not to anyone in particular, just talking to themselves.

"So that's how he does it~" Meili leaned back and masked her shock with a look of childish curiosity. "Onii-san's power is so cool!" She giggled and kicked her little legs in the air while lying on her back. "This ability will make Mama s~o interested in Onii-san~! I think she might even bring back Elsa as a doggy if I demanded it as a reward!"

The assassin wasn't heard by anyone important, only Schult glared at her lying form in her seat after hearing what she had to say.

Before long, the mansion of the Karsten estate was shown again, and the camera quickly skipped to Subaru sitting inside a lavish guest room with Rem lying on the bed before him.

He kept looking down at her with a frown.

"Now that I think about it, I never really saw you sleeping before. You always woke up before me." He chuckled to himself as he looked at Rem once again. "Before I knew it, you were already in my room, watching me sleep."

He placed his hand on her cheek and whispered softly. "Rem."

The girl he whispered to on the screen showed nothing but heartbreak and an amount of grief that couldn't be rivaled by even the parents sitting in front of her.

"Subaru-kun…" She whispered back to him, her tears long dried on her face. "Subaru-kun… I'm here…"

Kenichi looked at the broken girl behind him with a glance of pity, his arms comforting his wife as they watched with confusion what was happening to their son.

"I'm right here, Subaru-kun," they listened to Rem whisper hauntingly, as if she was in another world altogether, removed from them and the theater itself. "I'll always be here for you. I promise."

"If what everyone is saying is the truth, honey…" Kenichi whispered to Naoko as they glanced at the maid behind them. "Our son—"

"He's died for her before, Kenichi," Naoko whispered back to him, desperately hugging Subaru's shoulders and putting her cheek against his head, getting poked by his spiky hair. "I can't believe this… H-He's too young to just pick a blade and—"

The woman couldn't do anything but sob against her only son's hair. "He just did it… So easily… So fast…"

Kenichi felt his heart break into a thousand pieces, not only because of the defeated look on his son's face as he sat by his loved one but also because he realized how much this ability of his had put him through.

"How can he grow to hate his own life when he hasn't even lived it yet?!" Naoko sobbed, disregarding Rem's troubles for her own as she held on to her son.

Kenichi was grateful for the people around them once he noticed that they were all looking away from the couple out of respect. All except Emilia, who was taking a guilty expression that tore his heart when he noticed it.

Above him, the screen continued.

"I'm sorry, Rem." His voice broke as he held on to her skin, his eyes catching the sight of a fruit knife reserved for the appa basket on top of the bedside table.

"Don't do it again," Petra bit her lip and glared through her tears, immediately noticing the detail before anyone else could.

"..." Rem widened her eyes through her catatonic state, removing herself from the love-drunk rambles and bringing more worry into her expression as she leaned forward. "Please don't!" She begged, holding onto Ram's hands.

"I tried to sound all brave, saying I'd die as many times as it would take to save you… But I guess no matter how many times I die, I'll never make it in time." His face trembled to keep his tears from overflowing once again, showing the heartache he felt for her as he sat there.

"How…" Garfiel blinked a few times, showing his confusion and horror at the prospect he thought about. "H-How many times has Cap'n died to say it like that? For Rem's sake, I mean…"

"Don't put it on Rem!" Emilia glanced at Garfiel instantly, giving him a disapproving frown, but the blonde looked to Otto for an answer.

"..." Otto himself couldn't do anything but grip his fists and sit quietly, looking at the floor.

"What more do ya need t' know that we haven't gotten from this shit show already?" Anastasia sighed, shaking her head at Otto's silent acceptance of the conclusion she'd come to. "There's nothin' he can do."

Garfiel's eyes widened in the same realization. He leaned back in his seat and looked a the ground in silence.

"He's lost for the first time, in fact," Beatrice whispered the conclusion for all to hear, giving a small sniffle, wishing to be closer to his sleeping form. "He can't save her… Subaru will never forgive himself, in fact."

Emilia grimaced and closed her eyes to deal with the pain of those words silently.

"Fuck, Big bro…" Felt whined into her hands as she rubbed her face in anger. "He's blamin' himself too. This guy's worse than you are, Rein!"

The knight couldn't but look away from his lady, glancing at the scene as it continued without him.

"Every time you try, I can't help but feel like a part of me is being torn out of its place inside my soul," Rem whispered while holding on to her sister, bringing a fresh stream of tears as she watched her hero sit by her bedside. "I left you because I didn't care about how it would make you feel… No. That's a lie. I wanted you to care, to feel, to miss and dot on my body."

She covered her face with her hands. "I wanted you to show me how much you loved me, Subaru-kun!" She sobbed into her palms, earning angry glares and glances full of pity from the people around her.

"I didn't know that it would hurt like this!" Rem sobbed, unable to watch anymore as she sunk away into her knees, despite Ram holding on to her. "I didn't want to see you do the same!"

"Should've thought better then, you stupid girl," Anastasia muttered with a bit of distaste showing in her expression towards the maid.

Out of nowhere, the air around him began to glow and a gray cat appeared, floating above him and Rem.

"Oh, It's just you, Puck," Subaru said as he leaned away from Rem, retracting his hand from her cheek.

"'Just me? I don't think that was necessary. You're so mean." Puck held his hands in offense, but Subaru turned away from him to look back at Rem.

"..." Kenichi seemed surprised for a moment by the flying creature, yet he had no energy to give a reaction. "Had this happened a few moments ago, I'd say that's the most adorable thing I've ever seen." Kenichi gave a dry statement, not meant to be replied to.

"That is my spirit… Puck." Emilia whispered to the man with her eyes focused on the screen, Kenichi noticed the slight downturn of the half-elf's eyebrows, foretelling a glare aimed at the cat.

He didn't ask, since it wasn't his place to.

"So what brings you all the way out here?"

"I have a connection with this girl too, remember? So what's wrong with me dropping by to check in on her?" Puck crossed his paws and kept floating near the two.

"That's never been your style, Bubby." Beatrice shook her head, giving her old friend a deep frown of disappointment. "Just say what you need without giving Subaru hope, in fact."

Subaru's eyes lightened up suddenly. "Puck, couldn't you—"

"Sorry, but not even my power can wake her from the sleep she's in." Puck cut any hope out of Subaru's tone and forced a depressed look back on the boy's face. "It might not do much to make up for that, but I could tell you a bit about Gluttony."

"Gluttony?" Subaru asked the spirit.

"The one who devoured her name and memories." Puck reveals with a smile as Subaru listens with a serious expression. "Put simply, the Authority of Gluttony is a power for eating. He can eat someone's name and make everyone forget about them, or make that person lose their own memories by eating them."

"If both your name and your memories are taken, there'll be nothing left of you but an empty shell. That's what happened to this girl." Puck pointed at Rem while Subaru looked at her with gritted teeth.

"Disgusting fucks!" Heinkel spat the insult with venom filling his tone. "These bastards are making other people go through this shit! And on purpose?!" He slammed a fist on his knee, thinking about his wife and gritting his teeth. He slammed his knee, again, and again.

"Ooooh, that's why she's not on Mama's list!" Meili flicked her fingers with a bright smile and pointed at the screen. "Thanks~, it was really annoying when I and Elsa showed up and had a side mission to go through with her~"

She was promptly ignored when people focused on the parents and their reactions.

"So that is what happened to you?" Kenichi asked the girl without looking behind him to meet her eyes. He kept staring at her sleeping form on the screen, seeing the resemblance between her on the screen, and his sleeping son in Naoko's arms. "I'm sorry, Rem-chan."

The maid shook her head, refusing his words. "Please don't apologize," she rejected in a small voice. "I'm undeserving of it."

"I at least can remember my son. Every memory we've had. Every tear I shed for him, in private of course." Kenichi's smile was weakened, beaten, disturbed, and unworthy to be there on his face at that moment.

But Rem could see that strong spirit Subaru had imitated to an impossible degree.

Kenichi was giving her a comforting smile even though he was far more clueless about what was happening and more deeply damaged by the developments happening to his family.

"Thank you, sir." Rem nodded and kept her frown aiming to the floor of the room in silence.

"I'm sorry too…" Naoko whispered, keeping her eyes closed and hugging Subaru tighter. "I can't imagine being forgotten by everyone I love. It's a mercy that at least you can't wake up to live the nightmare—"

"It's a mercy that Subaru remembers you. Even if I don't understand why he's the one able to remember, I guess it's because he's not from your world and can't use magic or whatnot." Kenichi rubbed the back of his head, trying to get a feel of his old self through the pain in his heart.

What was more important to him, was to remind Rem that Subaru cared enough that he died for her. Unlike what his wife was carelessly saying.

Ram's eyes stopped their glare toward Naoko and gave a silent nod of thanks to the man for what he'd done to comfort her sister.

"Subaru…" Puck called out with a smile, but Subaru was still glaring at Rem's condition to care.

"What?!"

"I hate to ask a favor of you when you've already got so much on your mind…" Puck's words earned him Subaru's gaze as they faced one another. "But I'm counting on you to take care of Lia."

With a smile, the spirit disappeared with a burst of light, leaving Subaru all alone with an unconscious Rem.

"All he cares about…" Emilia glared with heat behind the tears, shaking her head and closing her eyes. "He's given far more than you could, you liar."

"Good riddance, what an asshole." Felt snorted, giving the middle finger to the screen which earned a nod from Garfiel and even Otto.

Subaru is shown closing a door as he walks through the hallway of the mansion until a voice stops him.

"So this is where you were. How is she?" A cordial, polite, and feminine voice spoke, being revealed to be that of Crusch as she stood in the hallway in front of him.

Subaru gave a soft smile as he responded. "No changes at all. It's not as if there's anything I can even do… I know I'm weak and pathetic, and yet…"

"That's not true at all. I believe you made her quite happy, in fact." Crusch's words make him look away with a small frown on his face. "I'm sorry… That was crossing a line."

"I've made you upset, haven't I?" Crusch spoke softly with her hands up to her chest from nervousness.

"At least you're okay," Kenichi gave a small smile of relief, "why are you acting so shy around my son all of a sudden?" He tried to tease weakly, sensing a moment he could use to get his friendship with the lady back after their last confrontation.

But Crusch shook her head, unwilling to speak with the man and looking away from the screen and the crowd of watchers to hide her expression.

Kenichi thought it was because of his last interaction with her and that she was upset, so he frowned and looked back at the screen, allowing her the space she needed.

Subaru shook his head, "No. Anyway, were you looking for me because you needed something?"

"Yes." She nodded. "Everyone has gathered in the lounge to discuss things. And well… Um…" Crusch took a moment to say more but her words failed her as she appeared more confused.

He gave her a small smile and spoke to continue for her. "It's Natsuki Subaru."

"I'm sorry. Of course, you're Natsuki Subaru-sama. I've been told that I owe you a great deal, and yet I've been nothing but rude. Please forgive me." Crusch gave a bow of deep apology but Subaru immediately waved her off.

"Nah, you can't help it. I know you have a lot to remember right now. It doesn't bother me, Crusch-san."

Crusch could be shown with a small frown on her face as Subaru took her with him towards the lounge.

"Oh," Naoko whispered weakly, opening her eyes in the realization of what she noticed.

Kenichi nodded his head in realization, giving Crusch a look of sympathy.

"She lost her memories," Petra whispered with widened eyes, wiping her tears and giving the duchess a glance of pity. "H-How cruel. Everything about this ability is cruel. There's no point in it but to inflict such pain on people!"

"Crusch-sama, I'm sorry for making you deliver that message," Felix said from his seat as everyone began settling in.

"No, it's quite all right, Ferris-san."

"That sounds so unnatural, yuck!" Felt shook her head in disgust, glaring at Crusch.

"At least she's still awake," Heinkel muttered under his breath while glancing between the screen Crusch and Rem in the theater.

"I'm glad it was you who managed to get out of the curse with the least damage, Crusch-sama," Rem whispered to the duchess, earning a shake of the head from the silent lady.

"Seeing this provides me no comfort or pleasure, Rem. Make no mistake of that." Crusch's voice was cold, not giving any respect to the emotions playing across the theater because of her condition.

"It's just Ferris." The catboy corrected his lady firmly. "You and I have known each other for ages. It makes me sad when you talk to me like you don't know me."

"I'm sorry." Crusch bowed to him in apology. "I know it won't be like before, but I'll try my best, Ferris."

"There's no need to rush. I'll always be on your side, Crusch-sama!" Felix held his hands to his cheeks while eyeing his lady. "Besides, it's like I'm seeing a whole new side to you now!" His tail wiggled and wagged with excitement, the pervert.

"Does he have to say it like that?" Felt snorted at Felix as they continued the showing of Crusch's condition.

"Felix is grieving my lady," Reinhard muttered, bringing a new perspective to Felt as she widened her eyes in realization.

"Wait, are ya thinkin' about what you would do if it was me who was attacked, Rein?" Felt asked softly, aiming a frown at her knight who was thinning his lips in response.

"I don't think I could take it with as much grace as Subaru or Felix, Felt-sama."

Emilia, who was sitting next to Subaru in the lounge, looked at him with a worried frown. "Subaru."

He looked surprised for a second before plastering a smile on his face. "It's okay. I've calmed down now, Emilia-tan. I'm fine."

"Well, now that Subaru-dono and Crusch-sama have returned, let us talk," Wilhelm announced from the middle seat between each pair.

Felix took the lead. "Let's start by reviewing where we currently stand. By the time the Iron Fang members who got away brought back reinforcements from the capital, the only ones left were the casualties and…" He struggled to turn to his lady but Crusch continued for him.

"I'm sorry." Hetaro, who had been silent since the suicide of Subaru, still unable to comprehend what everyone else had watched without him, could only shake his head and bow it to the parents, Rem and Crusch. "I'm sorry I wasn't able to do more than that for you. We only managed to get away and send backup."

"We already talked about this, kid— I mean guy." Garfiel shook his head, not looking back at Hetaro, and pointed his nose upward. "Just watch in silence, okay?"

Hetaro didn't understand why Garfiel was so weird about his age in particular, but his sister nudged him from the side, giggling a little bit.

"I think Tiger-san is angry that you're the same age as 'em." Mimi smiled to comfort her brother, wishing he would find it as funny as she did.

But Hetaro only frowned and looked at Garfiel more deeply. "Something else's bothering him, Mimi."

"... Those in situations similar to mine."

"Crusch-san's memories were eaten, and Rem lost both her name and her memories…" Subaru muttered under his breath with a harsh look.

Felix would continue. "The capital has also many cases of memory loss that no healer could fix, like Crusch-sama, and an unexplained malady they've dubbed the 'Sleeping Beauty disease.'" He leaned back as he spoke after a pause. "But now all of that…"

"... Should be considered the work of the Witch's Cult," Wilhelm said with a piercing glance towards Crusch, startling her. "Oh, I meant nothing against you, Crusch-sama." Wilhelm backtracked and bowed his head. "I do apologize for frightening you."

"'Sleeping Beauty'... Heinkel-sama's wife has that, doesn't she?" Schult looked at the man next to him, earning a grunt from the Deputy Commander. "Is it the fault of that monster Ley as well? Did they hurt your wife, Heinkel-sama?!" Schult's words grew more angry as he demanded an answer.

"Calm down, kid." Heinkel's rough features softened into a small sigh. A defeated one. "Just calm down… It ain't about the cult what happened to Louanna."

"Maybe they could be the ones to hea~l her if you join up with them, mister." Meili sang from the side with a mischievous glance that spoke all sorts of evil to Schult as he glared at her.

Heinkel's arm tensed at the prospect before he shook his head and glanced at Subaru.

"Go fuck yourself, kid," Heinkel grunted with finality, still looking at Subaru but aiming his words at Meili.

"Oi, that's still an elementary student you're cursing at." Al whistled at the audacity of the man's ill manners.

"No, I apologize for being such a hopeless master." Crusch bowed her head. "I've been trying my hardest to remember you, as well, but…"

From beside her, Felix sighed after seeing this scene play out. "We finally took care of Sloth, and now there's another Sin Archbishop? This really sucks."

"Sloth?" Naoko whispered, feeling something strangely familiar from that word alone. "Why does it feel so painful hearing that?"

"Subaru's… Beaten Sloth before those two attacked us." Crusch muttered to the parents, earning widened eyes from them both.

Even Meili looked somewhat surprised by this news, finding this more interesting than what was happening on the screen.

"Onii-san really fought and won with someone like that? Wow~"

"W-Was he as dangerous as them?" Naoko asked, her heart beating for her son. "Please tell me."

"He was far more cruel in his personality," Crusch whispered with a look of pain as she recalled the various loops Subaru went through.

And as if she was being read easily by them, Kenichi asked her the question his heart was breaking to hear an answer for.

"Did he die?" The father asked with his arms tightening around his tense wife, both looking at Crusch with pleading gazes that the duchess couldn't handle on her own.

"I'm sorry," Crusch whispered with sincere care and compassion, even if her current condition is downtrodden. "I don't want to put myself in the position of revealing to you what was sacrificed by him. I cannot."

She turned away, bringing a painful tug on the hearts of both Naoko and Kenichi as they looked at their son with fear on their faces.

"Son…" Naoko called once again, trying to get any reaction out of him as he slept soundlessly in her arms. "Son, please."

He leaned his head back with his cat ears moving downward without much effort to inscribe his mood. "Of course, the moment Emilia-sama became a candidate in the royal selection, we knew the Witch's Cult would get involved."

Hearing this, Emilia looked down in thought. "Maybe… It really is my fault."

Subaru looked at her with a troubled look but Felix started talking.

"Well, that's true," Subaru growled at him but Felix continued speaking. "They're fixated on getting rid of Emilia-sama, the half-elf. What's going on now is just a tiny part of—"

"Cut it out! That's ridiculous!" Subaru interjects loudly with a glare towards Felix. "Give a little more thought to what you say!"

He stands up and slams a black book on the table before them. "The only ones at fault here are those scumbags! Don't put all the blame on the wrong person! Hurting your own allies with misdirected blame isn't gonna help!"

Felix only leaned forward with a bright smile and a cute voice full of condescendence to match. "Hmm? Coming from you, Subaru-kyun, that's so much more convincing. I guess it's the difference in experience?"

"I know it's not my finest moment." Felix whimpered under the glares of Petra and Garfiel. "I'm deeply sorry, Emilia-sama." He bowed his head to the half-elf, earning a small wave from her.

"It's alright… There's more truth to your words now than I realized back then." Emilia's voice was low and her head was hung as she took the blame on herself.

"Why are people blaming you for being a half-elf?" Naoko asked, giving the girl a once-over. "Is this why you said people don't come near you? I never noticed your ears."

Emilia looked like she wanted the world to eat her name and have everyone forget about her when she was faced with such a question from the mother of her knight. "I-I… I'm a half-elf. The reason for a lot of bad omens in my world, Naoko-sama."

"You poor girl," Naoko whispered, still holding Subaru close to her. "You absolutely don't deserve such a life. It's no wonder Subaru fell in love with someone like you."

"I'm afraid that you'll change your mind once you realize what being in love with someone like Emilia-sama could entail for your son and his family." Anastasia's interjection was as cruel as her cold look being sent Emilia's way when she said this to Naoko.

The mother could only see Emilia looking away with a pained expression, obviously dealing with a great deal of memories and pain that Naoko could not understand or dig deeper into.

She could only sigh and turn away from the girl, wishing to speak about this more with Subaru being awake.

"I wanna tease you about how much she resembles your toys back home, Subaru," Naoko whispered, smiling at him as she nudged his cheek with a finger. "Please wake up soon."

Subaru gritted his teeth at the healer but a voice interjects on their spat.

"Ferris," Crusch speaks sternly, making Subaru lean back in surprise. "I cannot ignore the comment you just made. Apologize." She commands him with such firmness that Felix is backtracked immediately.

"Natsuki Subaru-sama is right. It is crystal clear where the blame should fall. Plus, you do not have the right to ridicule someone who has made a correct statement." Crusch further reprimanded the healer as he wilted under the pressure.

"Y-Yes, Crusch-sama…" He turned to Subaru and Emilia with his head bowing to each of them. "Emilia-sama, I apologize. To you, too, Subaru-kyun."

"Don't worry about it, let's just get to it." Subaru put a hand up in forgiveness.

But Felix wasn't done as he pulled himself up. "But just let me say this. About the alliance, we spoke of… Can we just scrap that idea?"

"What the hell's the matter with—" Garfiel shook his head, stopping himself. "Nevermind. I understand how ya feel."

"This is surprising coming from you, Garf." Otto smiled at his brother with a bit of pride. "You seem more understanding now."

The blonde grunted and side-eyed Felix from his seat. "Can't ya see how guilty the guy looks? He's goin' through the ringer right now."

"How come there's an alliance between you two when you're supposed to be rivals to the throne of the kingdom?" Kenichi asked Crusch, trying to uplift both of their moods.

"It was hard won by Subaru." She told him, earning a look of surprise from the man. "He's the one to set it up from the start."

"... I didn't expect him to be a political guy." Kenichi rubbed the back of his head, humbled by his son's doings while he was away from him. "I can't see him as a member of parliament though…"

Crusch gave him a curious look which Kenichi waved at, shaking his head. "Now's not the time. I'll explain later when we have better moods."

"One could say that's what you've been striving to get since this viewing started," the duchess turned away from the man with a small smile of her own.

Kenichi found the will to nod with a little bit more comfort as he watched.

The silence was deafening as everyone looked at him with wide eyes.

"What do you mean by that?" Subaru asked dryly. "How did all this lead to the subject of dissolving the alliance?"

"An alliance is formed when it benefits all parties involved," Felix responds harshly while having his hands folded on his thighs. "You expect us to ally ourselves with Emilia-sama, the Witch Cult's target? Can you promise that Crusch-sama won't be hurt again if we do that?"

Subaru seemed struck by this. "Well…" He had nothing and instead, he had to bite his words and look down.

"I am opposed to that opinion," Wilhelm announced from his place at the table.

"Why would you be opposed, Old Man Wil?!" Felix cried from the side in betrayal. "Look what's happened to Crusch-sama! What point is there in continuing to assist Emilia-sama and her friends?!"

"I hope you can give me more credit than that, Felix." Wilhelm bowed his head to the healer, "Everything's forgiven so long as you know who our true allies are."

Felix found himself letting go of Crusch's seat and bowing back to the old knight. "I'm sorry, Old Man Wil. I really am… I…" The healer gripped his skirt harder because of the shameful behavior being displayed by him. "I'm sorry.'

Wilhelm nodded his head, patting Felix on the shoulder.

"With regard to this Gluttony, the one who attacked Crusch-sama… We may be given an opportunity for revenge." Wilhelm explained coolly, making Felix more outraged.

"Is that more important than Crusch-sama's life?!"

"Ferris…" Crusch calls from his side, but he ignores her.

"I know this is hard on Crusch-sama, too! She has no idea what's going on, she can't remember anything… So how can you expect her to fight?!" Felix looked around the room and then smiled at his lady. "Isn't that right? Isn't it?! I'm sure I can do something about your memories! Even if it's not enough right now, I'll fix this with my magic! So please don't put yourself in any more danger!"

"Nothing I've tried worked," Felix whispered with increased isolation as he rubbed his cat ears with the end of his wrist. "I couldn't achieve the one thing I promised you, Crusch-sama. And I blamed Subaru-kyun for my deficiencies instead. I'm sorry, nya."

"... Ferris." Crusch quickly patted the young healer on his head, bringing him closer to her seat so she could hug him. "It's alright. I'm here now, you should not fear your guilt anymore."

"I shouldn't have failed!" Felix cried while hugging his mistress tighter than he ever had. "I'm so sorry!"

Crusch received all this pleading with a small smile as she looked at him. "Ferris… Thank you for worrying about me." She said softly before turning to Subaru and Emilia. "Right now, there is simply too much I don't understand. I can't remember a single detail about who I used to be. I'm sure all of you are perplexed as to how you should interact with me, too. But to everyone who still retains their respect for me despite all this," she bows deeply once more to everyone in the room. "I must express my thanks."

Everyone looked at Crusch with surprise as she rose again. "Ferris, I know that your concern for me is genuine and that you are trying to guide me. I could do as you say and walk the path that is safest. But I loathe the thought of going on with my life, knowing nothing. If I have a choice, I would rather choose for myself than simply do as someone says."

Crusch's amber eyes shone with such conviction and confidence in herself that it made Felix cry at the small hint of his old master appearing once again.

"Crusch-sama…"

She took his trembling fists in her hands and made him face her. "Ferris…"

No more words were needed as the waterworks for the healer began and Crusch allowed him to nudge her head with his as they held on to one another.

The two seemed to quieten their words as they watched the scene together, Crusch had her greater strength push Felix away from his chair and made him sit beside her on the front seat of the first row.

"Thank you for always believing in me," Crusch whispered to the trembling and traumatized healer, letting him sob into her shoulder. "I promise to stop your obsession where you can be happy, Ferris."

"I-I'm okay if it's obsession, Crusch-sama." The cat-eared healer spoke through his sniffles. "I'm okay if it's your boot I'm under, no matter what happens."

Crusch shook her head, "this only shows the extent to which I need to work, Ferris."

Wilhelm could only look at the two with a frown as the scene above continued.

"When did you set your sights so low, Felix-dono?" The old knight asked himself in a whisper unheard by anyone except for Petra.

While looking at the two with a smile, Wilhelm nodded and turned to Subaru and Emilia.

"If this is Crusch-sama's will, surely no one would be in favor of dissolving the alliance."

"Right," Crusch affirmed with a smile, keeping a crying Felix underhand. "I know I will be a great deal of trouble to you, Emilia-sama and Natsuki Subaru-sama."

Emilia shook her head. "No, it's all right. We can't exactly say we're on the same page either." She smiled at Crusch. "We need to rejoin Ram and everyone else who's at the Sanctuary, and we need to talk it over with Roswaal, too."

While Emilia was speaking, Subaru was busy glaring at the floor of the room.

"... Meeting the margrave, huh." Anastasia's glare was brief, unwilling to turn around and see the man's reaction to the scene above. But she focused more on reading what the rest of Emilia's camp was thinking about that.

From Beatrice and Emilia's worried glances to the furious glares that Otto and Garfiel sent each other, she could notice a lot of stories being told between those camp members that would surely be exposed to her soon.

"This place is a real fickle deal, ain't it?" Anastasia bites her lip, not sure if she likes it or not. "Whether it's distasteful or not, this ain't the time to respect yer privacies to protect someone's plans."

"My lady?" Julius looked at her with confusion, seeing the anger behind her eyes.

"That clown has planned somethin' for Natsuki-kun," she muttered with conviction that turned the knight's blood cold. "It ain't a coincidence that Karsten was taken down either… This whole thing is a damn ploy…"

Julius could only look at the floor to digest what was said to him by his master.

The screen cuts to the fruit knife and the appa basket near Rem's bed once again.

Subaru was shown staring at it once more… deeply concentrating on it.

"You said I was strong, but without you," he smiled tiredly as he turned to Rem. "I can't even find the Subaru who could put on that tough guy act, Rem."

Most of the people in the room looked personally insulted by the he talked about himself.

"I can't even recognize him anymore, Kenichi," Naoko spoke tearfully to her husband, watching her son degrade himself with depression she wished to take away from him. "I wish I could take away all of his pain right here. So he can smile again."

"Do you see how he keeps staring at every knife that's in front of him?" Kenichi whispered with his hands trembling around Naoko's shoulders. "I can't even tell if… He can see it as a tool for the fruit or to activate that… I can't even call it a power." He moved his forehead closer to Subaru's head, beside his wife. "Just what have you been through without us, son?" He sobbed as a tear was shed, breaking away the facade he'd tried to build for a long time inside the room.

Naoko moved her hands to hug his waist.

Seeing the parents of her beloved react this way, Rem's heart could shatter into a million parts and it still would be more merciful to her fragile sanity from the guilt.

"I'm sorry, Subaru-kun… I caused your parents so much grief because of what I made you do. I'm sorry."

"You had no way of knowing about the Witch's curse." Ram shook her head, refusing to let her sister take all of the blame alone. "You're at fault for thinking your life is unimportant to those who love you."

Rem closed her eyes and nodded her head. "I'm sorry to you too, sister."

The door opens and a soft voice speaks. "I knew you'd be here."

Subaru turned suddenly to see who it was. "Oh… Emilia. Did you need something?"

The half-elf smiled and stepped into the room after closing the door behind her. "Am I not allowed to be here if I don't?" She looked down at the sleeping girl. "I know this girl… Rem-san, too, don't I?"

"Rem-san, huh?" Subaru said with a depressed face, not turning to face Emilia, which made her look between him and Rem.

"Oh, right… I just called her Rem before."

"Well, you're basically Roswaal's guest. I don't need to explain that she's Ram's sister, right?"

Emilia gives a small hum. "Yes, I can tell. She looks just like her. There's no mistaking it."

"Rem… I'm sorry," Emilia apologized, earning a look of attention from the parents.

When the maid accepted the apology with a shake of the head, Kenichi's tearful eyes widened in realization. "Wait… That means you still remember each other," He moved his gaze toward Crusch in more realization. "And you got your memory back before we could meet!"

"Yes. When we got imprisoned here, the owner cured the diseases from Gluttony." Otto answered the man's hopeful words with his monotone explanation. "Natsuki-san's yet to meet with Rem being awakened, unfortunately."

Otto's words settled a depression of heartbreak on the faces of the parents along with making Emilia and Rem wince with hurt and dissatisfaction.

She turned to Subaru with a worried gaze. "Subaru, you haven't slept at all, have you? You should rest for a while."

He stared at Rem without blinking for a few seconds.

"It's not like I'm doing anything that'd make me tired." He whispered more to himself than to her. "It's not like I can do anything."

"But it's true that you want to do something, right?" Emilia stepped closer to him pleadingly. "If your spirit keeps trying so hard for so long, your body will wear out first. So… please."

Subaru could only reply with a soft chuckle. "I'm so pathetic." He sang it softly while Emilia shook her head.

"No, you're not. You've helped me so much, Subaru." She leaned down to be at the same height as his sitting position. "I really mean it."

He looked at her smile as she looked between him and Rem.

"Stop saying that," Naoko demanded with a hurt look. Bringing her head closer to her husband's chest.

"Keeps saying this stuff, over and over again," Schult muttered into Henkel's arm, giving Subaru a look of pity.

"Ain't it annoyin'." Heinkel grunted, trying to push Schult away but the boy was stronger than he let out to be.

"I don't like that he keeps saying these terrible things about himself," Emilia whispered forlornly. "I-It's like his talk when he tried to run away with Rem."

"At least you're there to help him, I suppose." Beatrice glared at her legs, feeling worthless.

"It'll all be fine… Not that I have any right to talk as if I know that." She shakes her head. "I want to understand how you feel, but since I don't remember anything about this girl, I know anything I say will just hurt you."

His exhausted eyes moved from Emilia to Rem constantly as she kept talking.

"But…Just know this, please." Emilia leans forward again with an adoring smile. "Don't burden yourself with carrying the weight of Rem alone. Let me carry your burdens with you."

"Emilia…" Subaru speaks huskily as if half-dead. "But you don't even remember anything about Rem."

"Is it wrong to want to do something if I don't remember her? She's important enough to you that it's made you this sad, right? Is it so strange that it makes me want to help her, too?"

They both look down at Rem and then back at each other.

Rem's eyes filled with new tears that she couldn't explain immediately. "Thank you, Emilia-sama." She whispered from the bottom of her heart, tearing a painful tug on everyone who heard her desperate yet grateful squeak. "Thank you for standing over me with him. For being there as two people who care."

"... You're welcome, Rem. You're a good girl and I know you'd do the same if it was me in your place." Emilia accepted the subservient gratitude with grace and humbleness.

"Just like you saved me, I want to save you this time," Emilia affirmed with conviction as she glared at him. "If you're in pain, I want to do something for you."

Seeing the look of fire in her amethyst eyes, Subaru could only stare slack-jawed for several seconds.

"Emilia-tan is amazing." He had to say dryly as he closed his unblinking eyes for the first time since she'd entered.

"Really? I think you're much more amazing than me."

"No, I'm really not." Subaru rejected her tiredly.

"He is… Why do you keep looking at me, um?" Emilia found herself blushing at the intense stares from the two parents hugging Subaru. The half-elf didn't know why she had the sudden attention of everyone in the room.

But Naoko smiled softly toward her, with a knowing look and eyes filled with satisfaction that made Emilia feel a little proud of herself.

"I knew you were a good person from the moment I saw you." She whispered to her with her expression changing into one of gratitude. "Thank you for holding our son accountable to his own shortcomings about his self-respect."

"The kid's a handful," Kenichi smiled softly at Emilia. "but I can tell that he's head over heels for an amazing person… People if I'm going to be honest." his eyes roamed towards Rem and a little bit to Crusch.

The half-elf found herself unable to accept such praise, as her blush faded away slowly and her frown came to replace any smile she could have from such compliments.

"Please… Don't misjudge me if I say this… But…" Emilia's voice broke when she glanced at Subaru in their arms. "I'm not that good of a person. Not when Subaru's suffering to the point he has all on his own."

The parents blinked with surprise as she turned away from them.

"I'm glad it was you." He said to no one in particular.

Rem grimaced, feeling the hurt from that one comment alone and leaning closer to her sister.

Most in the theater also showed similar pained reactions to his words, feeling the heat and the cruelty behind them.

"If that is what you choose, Subaru-kun," Rem said with tears rolling down her cheeks once more. "I accept that… I-I… Emilia-sama over me has always been the deal."

He smiled to himself. "Emilia… I have a favor to ask."

She tilted her head at him. "What is it?"

"Could you turn around? I'm going to cry." Subaru held himself together but his voice broke at the end of his sentence, leading to Emilia nodding her head and complying with his wish.

Rem's tearful eyes widened in surprise, feeling hope finally settle back into her heart.

"Cap'n…" Garfiel looked away with a deep discomfort showing on his face. "Ya can't make me cry too, man. This ain't fair!"

Felt and Otto could only chuckle sadly, finding humor in Garfiel's words and how Subaru was affecting them personally.

"Alright." She says softly as she steps away.

Before long, he allowed himself to finally break down.

His tears fell relentlessly, cascading in four thin streams down his cheeks, pooling into his palms before dripping onto the wooden floor. His shoulders shook with each sob, his breaths coming in ragged gasps that broke into hiccupping cries. Mucus ran freely from his nose, unchecked, adding to the raw, unfiltered grief that consumed him.

Naoko's breath hitched as she stared at the screen, her fingers digging into Kenichi's hand like a lifeline. The image of Subaru's crumpled body, shaking with sobs, seared itself into her mind. It was unbearable.

"How can I deal with seeing him like this?" she whispered, her voice barely audible over the soft hum of the theater's sound.

Kenichi's eyes remained fixed on the screen, but his grip tightened over hers. His throat bobbed as he swallowed hard. "I don't… I don't know." His voice was rough, thick with something he was trying to hold back.

Naoko let out a bitter, trembling laugh. "I am his mother. I should've been there with him. If I went with him that night—" Her nails bit into the skin of her palm as she fought the shaking in her hands. "But I—" She sucked in a sharp breath. "I thought he was fine. He always said he was fine."

Kenichi finally turned to her. His face was pale, his jaw clenched so tightly it looked painful. "He smiled, Naoko," he murmured. "He laughed. He joked. And I—I let myself believe it." He exhaled shakily, his eyes dark with something deep and suffocating. "I let myself believe my son was okay."

The silence between them stretched, filled only by the fading echoes of Subaru's grief on the screen.

Naoko looked down at their intertwined hands, her voice breaking. "How could we not see?"

Kenichi shut his eyes for a long moment before shaking his head. "Maybe we didn't want to."

Naoko flinched. It was the truth, wasn't it? She had wanted to believe Subaru was strong. That he was happy. That his struggles were just passing storms, nothing more.

"I would've done anything," she whispered. Her shoulders curled inward as if she could shrink away from the weight of it all. "If he had just told me—"

"He did." Kenichi's voice was almost too soft to hear.

She snapped her head toward him, confusion flickering through her tear-stained face.

Kenichi's gaze remained on the screen, his expression blank—no, hollow. "He did tell us, Naoko." His fingers twitched around hers. "Just… not in words."

Naoko's breath shuddered out of her lungs.

The sleepless nights. The quiet moments of hesitation before answering, the way his eyes lingered on them like he wanted to say something but never did. The way he laughed a little too brightly like he was trying to convince himself as much as them.

"Oh God…" She brought a trembling hand to her mouth. "He did."

Kenichi let out a slow, shuddering sigh, finally turning away from the screen. "And we didn't listen."

Naoko squeezed her eyes shut. Her whole body shook. "It wasn't supposed to be like this," she choked out.

Kenichi nodded, his voice hoarse, barely above a whisper.

"No," he said. "It wasn't."

From behind, Emilia approached quietly, without a word, her arms wrapped themselves around his shoulder blades, with one hand silently patting his spiky hair with love and compassion.

Subaru looked back at her in shock for a few seconds, allowing her to hold on to him and pat his head over and over again.

Naoko and Kenichi bowed to Emilia gratefully, holding on to each other and their son.

"Thank you, Emilia-sama," Naoko said to the girl with utmost gratitude, not caring if the half-elf took it positively or not. "Please accept it… Please."

Emilia's lips were thin with hesitation, her fingers trembling on her lap as the parents presented themselves before her humbly.

"I… You're welcome… I must be by his side." Emilia answered hoarsely, giving them what they wanted without knowing what else to do. They looked like they needed more of a lifeline from her than anyone else in the room.

Before his eyes settled back to Rem with a glare of defiance.

"I swear… I will get you back. I swear it."

Subaru's hand reached to grab Emilia's.

"I'm going to… Your hero is going to come for you!"

With Emilia hanging on to him from behind, and him holding on to her from the front, Subaru glared through his tears and made his oath to Rem.

"I swear it!"

Rem's sleeping face is the last shot.

"Please wait for me," He begged.

"Rem."

Title card:

Each One's Promise

Season 2 Episode 1. End.

As the screen faded to black, Rem sat motionless, her hands clasped together in her lap. The weight of Subaru's words echoed in her chest, settling deep, like a promise meant for her heart alone.

She should have been happy. She should have felt warmth from his unwavering determination, from the fire in his eyes as he vowed to bring her back. And yet…

"Why does it hurt so much?"

Her fingers curled slightly, pressing against her palm. The name he called out in the end, her name, lingered in the air even after the sound had faded.

"Subaru…" she whispered, her voice barely more than breath after everything she's been through.

"You haven't… given up on me… Even after everything." She trembled in Ram's grasp. "I can't reach out to you, I can't answer you!"

Because he was still asleep.

Her chest ached with something she couldn't define. If she could move, if she could speak, if she could just— But there was nothing.

The final image of Subaru's desperate, tear-filled eyes burned into her soul, a tether pulling her toward him, even though she remained trapped in an endless nightmare where she kept failing him, over and over again.

Somewhere, deep inside her slumbering heart, a whisper stirred with soul-filled determination.

"I'll wait for you, Subaru-kun."

And the rest of the theater were left to react in their own ways.

"That got so boring~." Meili sighed and dropped her head back on her seat, not caring for the glares she received.

Next up, Episode 2… Arc 4's continuation…

Hello guys. Sorry for the long wait on this one.

I had focused on my studies right after chapter 16 to get a grip on how I should study medicine. I didn't think I was made for it and it caused me a lot of trouble. Luckily, I managed to get good enough grades to be considered in the top 10 of my class.

Thank god for everything.

But I wanna thank you for all the support you've sent my way. Especially the ones who have donated to me and still continue to support me with dms and love.

I'll be trying my best to update more frequently as I have gotten a good grip on how to study for this semester's subjects.

Please keep commenting and talking to me about what you'd like to see.

I plan on making an Arcane react fic, let me know what you lot think of that idea.