Chapter 9: Through the Gates

"Okay, so Petra, Ram, Frederica, and Roswaal have already left to some meeting of the lords or something, that leaves the rest of us to go to the camp get together at Pristella, anyone has any plans they need to take care of before we go?"

Everyone replied shaking their heads, "Good, then we'll leave tonight".

"Fuuuuu... ten days is longer than I thought it was..."

Subaru was in the driver's seat, he was in his orange and dark gray, customized knights uniform. He, Otto, and Rem were to alternate being the driver at set intervals as to keep their sanity away from boredom. It has been more than eight days, and they still had two more to go, but each day just kept on getting progressively longer.

"Even though it does seem the days are elongated, it's relaxing, I suppose..." Beatrice said as she laid on his lap, leaning onto his chest. Her face showing a calm and carefree smile.

"Your not the one driving, Beako..."

He yawned, the sun had set hours ago and the next stop didn't seem to be anywhere in sight. Most of the people are already asleep, with Otto being the exception as he was to switch in the next hour.

"How's the witch, I suppose?" Beatrice asked in a whispery voice.

He grabbed the crystal around his neck and examined it, the light it gave off oscillates between dim and bright, and he heard nothing but light snoring occasionally. "She's definitely asleep, she would've begged me to let her out if she wasn't..."

"I suppose..."

Remove the fact that he had to concentrate the road and it really was relaxing, the calm rustling of the leaves, chirping from the night critters, the occasional evening breeze that flows by when the Divine protection of Wind evasion reaches its limits.

"Wonder how long this will last..."
"When you put it like that, It seems you're sure it won't last, I suppose..."
"There's trouble wherever I go, can't stop that... though I hope it's not too much for us to handle..."
"Hmph, with Betty, nothing is impossible, you know"

"Yeah, yeah, because your the almighty, the all cute, Beako," He said while patting her head.

Just after, Otto appeared from the behind them, "Okay, time to switch Natsuki-san, the next stop is still a ways ahead, maybe it'd take till morning so you should rest"

"Right then" He hopped back into the carriage after giving him the reins, "Make sure you don't sleep on the job and get us lost or something"

"I assure you, Natsuki-san, that-" He had already gone inside and closed the hatch, "Hey are you just going to ignore me?!" "Quiet Otto... everyone's asleep..." He sighed and turned back towards the road.

And with that, two long days pass.

"Woaho... this definitely doesn't look like what I had first thought...!"

They had entered the city of Pristella, from the outside, one could say that it looks like some sort of locked down asylum or prison, but once you got a look at the inside, it could be comparable to the Italian city of Venice, actually, it was exactly like Venice, waterways, boats, only difference would be house structure.

"Yeah, this is amazing, Subaru!"
"Rem is glad to have come along..."

'Hey, Ella? Why quite all of a sudden, the sight too much for you?'

No reply, was she still sleeping? Ever since they entered through the gates, a sense of absence was eminent from the crystal on his neck, as if something had happened.

'Um... Ella?'
'Witch cult activity confirmed... Subaru, please proceed with caution, warn the defense units...'
'Hmm... got it...'

.

They proceeded to go through the city, the streets weren't too narrow but it would've been easier to travel by water. Subaru was atop the carriage with Rem, Beatrice, and Garfiel, these four were responsible for the protection of the group.

"Right... gonna sound a little sudden and shocking, but I sense witch cult presence in this city..."

"Witch Cult..."
"Them damn cultists ey..."

They didn't give too much of a shocked expression. They were more of a battle ready, motivated ones. Seems they were expecting something like this to happen.

"Right, I don't think it was a trap set up by Anastasia... she's already here so she'd be risking herself if she decided to trap us here..."

"The Witch-cult probably got that our camps are in an alliance, Subaru-kun... so maybe they had people try to leak information and planned an ambush"

Highly possible, but with the three camps, each having commendable fighting power, with the addition of a mercenary team, and the guards of a city, it wouldn't be easy for them to land an ambush attack, so all they have to do is play cautiously.

"Right then, let's keep this from Emilia and the others to keep things calm... the moment one cultist pops up, our job is to protect Emilia got-"

"Subaru! We're here!"

He heard the silver bell voice from under the carriage, he saw that they were in front of a traditional, Japanese style building, 'The water plumage Inn' is what was written on the sign. They all got off and noticed that several people were looking their way, "Guess it's not every day that you see a bunch of people on the roof of a carriage... anyway, that's it for now, meeting dismissed"

"Okay then, I'll bring the ground dragons over to stables, you should go ahead..." Otto said

He proceeded to lead the Patarasche and Verhoe over to the side. "Glad yall came" they were then suddenly greeted by a woman in white, with wavy lavender hair and wearing a fox scarf, it was the host, Anastasia Hoshin, beside her was her knight Julius, who just bowed.

"Thanks for inviting us, Anastasia-san... and... Julius... eh? Who's that Julius look alike" Subaru asked while pointing at the young boy beside Julius.

"Oh, this is my younger brother, Joshua Jukulius, it is good to see you've recovered from the paralysis, Subaru, and it's nice seeing you again, Emilia-sama, Great sprit Beatrice, Garfiel-dono, and Rem-do..."

Rem's stern gaze stopped his sentence, "Rem-dono... is truly loyal to you, Subaru" "Yeah, yeah, listen, I'm still not over that fight you hear? One day, I'll take you down Julius, someday... but not today, you better get ready till then"

He chuckles seeing Subaru's usual attitude towards him, "To think that such a person has standings even close to Nii-san...", Joshua, who was wiping his monocle, interrupted "Joshua, even though Subaru acts the way he acts, you shouldn't show any disrespect, it would hurt the name of the Jukulius family and Anastasia-sama's image"

"Ah yes, you are right, Nii-san... I apologize for my disrespect... Subaru-dono... but I still think you have a long way before you reach my brother, in both strength and knightliness"

"Pfft, you think I want to be something like that? Yeah sure he's, 'The Greatest Knight' to you and the rest of the kingdom, but to me, he's just Julius, nothing less, nothing more...

Subaru turned over to see the Inn they were going to stay at, "Haah... well building somewhat nostalgic..." he said while thinking back to his time in his own world just a few weeks ago.

"Nostalgic you say? This is a Kararagian style Inn, for it to be nostalgic means you must have originated from Kararagi, yes?" Julius suggested.

"Well... not really, it's nostalgic but it's not like all the houses in my place were the same as this one, we'd say that this is... a traditional style, not a modern one... anyway, enough talking, let's go inside"

Subaru came in first, with Beatrice and the rest following behind, to his the surprise, the interior almost exactly matches the ones back in Japan, wooden flooring, sliding paper walls, they were all there.

Anastasia brought them to one particular room, by the looks of the door, it was much larger than the rest, they also heard familiar voices coming from the other side. She opened the sliding door, "Sorry for intruding yall, but the rest of em just arrived"

On the other side, Wilhelm, Felix, and Crusch were seated on the floor, around what seems to be a rather large coffee table. "Subaru-dono, Emilia-sama, please come in" Wilhelm greeted them as he gets up and bows.

"Hah, seems you got here before us, Wilhelm-san, Ferris, Crusch-san" Subaru enters and waves to them.

.

With Otto now present, they were all seated around the table, sipping tea and eating pastries. "So Natsuki-kun, it's a bit late but congratulations on defeating the Hakugei and the Witch cults Sloth"

Hearing that, he nearly spat out the tea in his mouth, "E-Eh? Why are you congratulating me? Wilhelm was the one who took down the whale and Julius took down the Betelgeuse with Beako's help, I barely did anything, you know"

Wilhelm shook his head, "If it weren't for Subaru-dono's participation in the Hakugei conquest, none of it would be possible, I myself would have most likely fallen" "That's right Subaru, it's with Sloth as well, you were able to see through his authority, which gave us a huge advantage" Julius added.

"Tch, even you..."

"Natsuki Subaru, though you did contribute the least in combat, you exerted the most effort out of everyone, taking the role as bait, it takes not only courage, but resolve as well, you should take pride in that, Hero of the Hakugei Subjugation..."

"Yeah, from what I heard, Subaru did a lot of cool things, I almost thought they were trying to trick me or something..." Emilia chimed.

"Come on, I can barely do anything, all this congratulatory stuff..."

"I recall you saying something about taking down Elsa Greinhart, the guthunter, and there was also the Great rabbit you reported the other day, I wouldn't call that barely anything, Subaru..."

"Natsuki-san, what about the time when you redirected all the mabeast away from us, we thought you were gone for, to take down about fifty on your own, you can't say your powerless..." "Yeah Boss, my amazing self's was gonna help out but ya finished it before I even got there"

"Of course, Subaru is Betty's contractor, after all, you shouldn't expect any less from him, I suppose" He clutched his head flustered, "Dammit, Rem please say something..."

"Subaru-kun is weak and makes foolish decisions many times..." He sighs, finally getting something that isn't praiseworthy, "But even though, Rem can't help but love you..." She said embarrassed.

"Argh... where's Ram when you need her..." He said, sending laughs everywhere.

After an hour the Emilia camp left to go do their business with the Muse company, the one who was selling them the crystal. They were going to travel there by water but, "Subaru can't go on a boat, I suppose..."

"Sorry guys, I'm highly prone to seasickness... so I'll just walk there"
"Should Rem accompany you?"

He pulled her over to the side, "Only the two of us can sense the witch cultists, so one of us has to stay with Emilia, okay Rem" "Yes, you are right Subaru-kun..."

.

"Please stay safe Subaru!"

"Beako's with me, nothing can go wrong!" He shouted as he waved them goodbye. "Right then Beako, let's go!" "You're not forgetting about me are you?"

From behind them, Satella appeared, wearing a gray cloak that concealed her body and most of her face. "Oh, was wondering when you'd show up... alright then le-"

"Let's go!" she said as she dragged him by the arm. "That witch is so annoying, I suppose..." She mumbled as she followed behind.

"Right, date number two!"
"What did I say about being unwillingly dragged into a date?"
"That it's the only way you'd do it, hehe"

.

Detour after detour, they eventually got lost during their exploration.

At some point during their search, they had entered a park to look for someone to ask directions from. The park was relatively empty compared to the number of people they've passed by.

"Hey Subaru, I'm getting good vibes from that direction, must be something big going on there, let's check it out!"

"Hmm... not too su-"

Without giving him a chance, she just dragged him and Beatrice over in that direction, he didn't resist as that would normally result in attention being directed towards them, something he definitely didn't want to happen.

The 'good vibes' she felt lead them to a fountain, a crowd of people surrounding it. On the fountain, the three saw a girl, she had blonde hair, her skin was tan, and she held onto a stringed instrument, in Lugunica, it would be called a Lyulyre, something closely resembling a ukulele.

"Looks like a performance... ahh, it seems so calming," Satella said as she said to the song, Subaru and Beatrice could do nothing more than to nod along as they quickly fell into the trance as well.

The song she was singing was a classic Lugnican song, Subaru has heard a few of the verses before but he has never caught the name of the song, which was a little irritating.

.

After the performance, the crowd spread out through the park leaving just her and the three of them, "So, how did you three like the song?"

"Oh it was great, ah, it was like lying down on a cloud as it was gently pushed along by the wind... you wouldn't by chance have a divine protection of serene singing or something do you?" Satella said as she bombarded her with compliments.

"Aha, well, I do have the divine protection of telepathy, I can relay my feelings to you all and evoke positive emotions~, it's great for a traveling minstrel like me!" she said while making a thumbs up notion to them, "So? You guys needed something?"

"Yeah... we were looking for the Muse trading company... but kinda got lost, hehe..." Subaru said as he scratched the back of his head, "It would be wonderful if you could show us the way, or at least give us some directions..."

"Kiritaka-san's place? Oh yeah, I can show you there, I'm done here anyway, come, come, it's over this way!" She said as she sprinted over to one of the gates.

"This girl... is also annoying, I suppose..."
"Oh come on Betty she's sweet"
"She has that lucky-go-happy attitude, could be annoying sometimes...".

"So, I don't think I've introduced myself, I'm Liliana, a traveling bard! I go where the wind takes me, all over the continent to spread the achievements of people through poems and songs!"
"Betty is a great spirit, I suppose..."
"I'm Ella, nice to meet you, Liliana-san!"
"Natsuki Subaru..."

They continued walking a few more steps until, "Wait... N-Natsuki Subaru?!" "Yep, that's m-" "As in the Lolimancer! T-The knight of the Emilia camp!?"

She literally started yapping about him, it seems news in Lugunica travels faster than he thought, it was only a month since their camp has been interviewed for the Royal selection, and it seems he's already got his name popularised, it being the 'Lolimancer'.

The people around them all started mumbling about him, he heard the words 'Witch' and 'Little girl user' mixed in which made his face go sour.

"Hey! Don't just scream that out, some people aren't comfortable with the names other people give them ya know!?"

"O-Oh, I'm sorry, i-it's just, I ever since the royal selection began I've always wanted to go see Emilia-sama, she must have had a hard time with all the prejudice, I had to see how she endured through all that, but sadly i'm stuck here in Pristella because of Kiritaka-san and then there's this and that and..."

"Whatever happened to that 'all over the continent' thing you said about yourself?" Subaru mumbled.

"So anyway, we're almost there so let's hurry up!"

She started to make a run for a rather large building, if that wasn't the building, they wouldn't know what is, "H-Hey! Liliana! Don't just run off like that!" the three then rushed behind her.

.

"Haah... so this is it?"

The three stopped at the gate, panting, trying to catch their breath, Lilianna could be seen making a run for the stairs, completely forgetting that there were people she had to lead.

Subaru nudged Satella, tapping on the purple crystal on his neck, signaling her to go back in. She just nodded and silently dissipated into light particles.

"So let's go then?"
"Carry Betty, I suppose..."
"Hm? Hey, I'm tired too you know..."

He took her and lifted her up to his shoulders, and he proceeded to walk through the open doors.

"Do you have an appointment sir?" The front desk clerk asked.

"Yeah, I'm Natsuki Subaru, part of the Emilia camp, gotta meeting with... Kiritaka Muse if I remember correctly, I'm kinda late but I'm sure they've told you that I'd be coming..."

"Oh yes, it's the second left room on the third floor"
"Right, thanks!"

He made his way up the stairs and he finally caught up to Lilianna who was now out of breath, "Heh, took you a while to get tired... so this is the third floor, second room to the left would be..." He approached one of the doors, but suddenly they opened by themselves.

"Thank you very much, Kiritaka-san"
"The pleasure is mine, Emilia-sama"

Emilia, Rem, Garfiel, Otto and a man with pale gold hair came out of the room. This was probably Kiritaka Muse. "Ah Subaru, your late, we've already finished the business discussions," she said in a rather pitiful tone.

To Subaru, it didn't really matter, he was actually glad it was over, those kind of things were boring and he'd just screw them up anyway. A breathless Liliana came up to them, dragging her feet on the ground.

The moment Kiritaka set her eyes on her, his calm demeanor deteriorated into one of shock and utmost rage, "Liliana! Stay away from you!" with his sudden outburst he went back into the room and came out holding a blue gem. To everyone's surprise, he literally threw it at Subaru, who was momentarily stuck in position.

It went straight to his face. For a throw that was panic-filled and sudden, it was quite good. He had no way of dodging this, he can't put a rift in front of his face fast enough so the only thing he could do was just stand there.

'Too slow...'

Just before it got to him, the blue gem just tilted away from him, as if a strong gust of wind had hit it, or, to be more precise, a strong gravity-like force had changed its trajectory away from Subaru. It kept on going until it reached the ground, where the carpets cushioned the fall.

"What a lousy shot... I suppose..."
"Hey! I get your paranoid and stuff but could you at least consider where you're throwing things! I've got a little girl on my shoulder here!"

Kiritaka, who wholeheartedly just ignored Subaru, brought Liliana into the room he had just come out of, from the other side, everyone could hear him screaming out worrisome questions. Then, a white-cloaked man came out from the room and bowed to them.

"Apologies for his sudden outburst, when it comes to the Songstress, he can get a little... out of hand, since our business is done, it's best you leave before the problem escalates..."

"No problem with here, right guys, let's go"

Subaru said as he leads the rest down the stairs. They made their way outside and Subaru snapped his fingers, a rift to the Water Plumage Inn opening behind them, it surprised Otto and Garfiel. They questioned how he was able to use that, he just shrugged it off as gate crossing.

"You guys go ahead, I have some business to do elsewhere"
"Hmm? Where you goin?"
"Pristella is a merchant city and is a great place to make connections..."
"So your gonna do Merchant stuff, huh? Right then, don't come back too late... or too drunk..."

Otto waved at them as they went through the rift one by one.

The rest of the day went by fairly quickly, the three camps discussed about a cure for the Gluttony victims. They figured that if they were to behead the Archbishop of Gluttony, the memories and names of the eaten may return. If that doesn't work, there's the Pleiades Watchtower, a place guarded by the sage Shaula. A place that was rumored to have something that can grant wishes.

As the sun set, everyone went in for dinner, they served some traditional Japanese food, which shocked Subaru and Beatrice. Sadly for Subaru and maybe Beatrice, he had forgotten to bring any mayonnaise, and he didn't feel like rifting back to the mansion in front of everyone, so he had to make due without it for now.

.

"..."

He was now currently outside with Beatrice in a garden. ever since the Sanctuary incident, every evening, Subaru and Beatrice would go out, Subaru would activate Demonic Rage and drain the surrounding mana to supply it to Beatrice, that's exactly what they were doing now but just at a lower rate as to keep it unnoticeable.

Subaru was playing around with Minya, making small shapes and other things, it was a form of practice and it got rid of boredom as well. From inside the Inn, Julius, along with Crusch, Felix and Wilhelm came out. They had sensed some mana draining from the atmosphere and came to check out what was going on.

"So it was Subaru-kyun all along... wait, Subaru-kyun, what are you doing! Your gate is still damaged!"

He let the Minya shapes dissipated, he had deactivated Demonic Rage and his eyes turned back to its Red-Orange color mix. "It's alright, my gate was fixed a while ago... no problem what so ever..."

"Huh! But how, it's only been a month -nya"
"Let's say it's a trade secret for now..."
"NYAA! Subaru-kyun you meanie, Ferri-chan demands you to tell me nyow!"

He pestered while shaking his shoulders, "Nope, not gonna happen..." Seeing that he wasn't willing to budge from his statement, he shrunk back behind Crusch.

"Subaru... I was going to ask you before, but I couldn't find the time, but... your eyes...?"
"My eyes? Oh yeah, they're starting to get red right? I've been told it has something to do with the Witch genes, turns out I'm pretty compatible with them, I absorbed Sloth's authority when we finished him off... though mine's a little weaker than his..."

He put his hands out, and summoned his Minya blade, he caught it with his hand, only to throw it up, "Invisible Providence..." He mumbled, and a black hand sprouted from his chest, though only he could see it.

The unseen hand caught the blade and he lowered it down, using the unseen hand instead of his own for a farther reach, it baffled everyone, especially Julius. "Quite useful if I do say so myself..."

He trailed off, and it was suddenly silent, "Something has been on your mind, Subaru, I could tell an air of caution has been around you ever since you came here... is something the matter?"

He sighed and took a seat on the bench, "Was thinking if I should tell this to you guys but I guess that's what should've done it in the beginning... anyway, me and Rem had sensed some Witch cultists within Pristella, not sure how many or which group it is, but they seem to be playing within the shadows... didn't want to start a panic so I kinda kept my mouth shut for now..."

"Seems they might want revenge for what we did to Sloth..." Julius said. "Well, whatever the reason, they'd have to get through us before they do anything to the city, keep on guard, anything can happen when the Witch-cult is involved..." He got up and went back in, waving the rest goodnight.

A/N

...
[ReveiwR524]: Subaru, if you would choose between being a strategist or a brute-forcer, which would it be?
[Warlock Subaru]: Your asking someone who has almost no battle experience?
[ReveiwR524]: Yep, was just wondering
[Warlock Subaru]: Then... I guess...
[ReveiwR524]: You take forever, hey Knight Subaru, what about you?
[Knight Subaru]: Well, from what I learned, I would alternate between the two, depending on the opponent, sadly, playing dirty is a thing of the past since Knight's fight fairly
[Warlock Subaru]: Author-san, your just going to ignore my answer?
[ReveiwR524]: You did say you have no battle experience right?
[Warlock Subaru]: Who's fault do you think that is?!
[ReveiwR524]: It could be me, or Red, or some of the reviewers who prefer you fight the underdog way, can't really pinpoint the blame...
...

Hey, hey, friends, family, and people who waste their precious time reading my crappy piece of writing, I'm grateful for you to reach the authors note.

I might go on a Hiatus (Break) till 19 March, cause my mocks are starting this Thursday and I heard from my upperclassmen that you absolutely DO NOT want to mess up, anyway, Math is a piece of cake, I could say the same for Chemistry and Physics but then you got the commerce subjects which I suck at.

Wish me luck Pls...

Question: Do you guys say it, [Lugunica] or [Lugnica]?

Anyway, for anyone waiting for a Prepetual Promise update, might take a while cause I'm just dying to write a Witch cult vs Warlock fight scene, so pls be a little bit more patient, this goes for the Forgive me Remake too...

See ya next time, (Red, same as last time, deadline at least a week kay?)