Hello peoples, the author here.

I've originally begun this fic on AO3 and right now decided to migrate it here to get more feedback (*cough* and more views possibly *cough*).

This is my first fanfic EVER which I began writing on a whim, so expect it to be rough around the edges, and be relentless (but fair) in your criticism.

Also, in the later chapters I begin using names of towns, cities, and countries of the Re:Zero universe, so here's a Reddit link to the map I use:

r/Re_Zero/comments/f9v2nb/media_rezero_world_map/

Thanks, and I hope you enjoy.

UMPH

...

UMPH

The chair creaked as Heinkel struck Julius, again and again, the constraints now being the only thing keeping the knight sitting up. Julius could barely see through the haze of red before his eyes but didn't give out a single sound, no matter how long the interrogation went on. There was another click of fingers.

"Enough, Heinkel, don't knock the poor guy out." The red-haired ex-Commander of the Royal Guard stopped his swing in mid-air, and slowly lowered his fist. He then looked to the younger man sitting behind him, observing the interrogation.

"Want me to stay around?" He gruffly questioned.

"No, no, I believe me and Julius have a quick discussion to have. I will call you in again if you'll be needed."

Heinkel Astrea snorted, "Whatever you say," and walked out of the basement-like room, slamming the wooden door as he exited, leaving the other two men in an eerie silence.

The observer huffed and stood up, "A real mess we have here, no really, we do." He picked something up and walked up to the near-unconscious knight. Julius suddenly felt something pleasantly cool run down the back of his neck. Water. He unconsciously licked his lips, he hasn't drunk anything in a day or two (time was hard to nail down exactly, without the sunlight to show the passing days) and with the stress of captivity, it felt like weeks.

There was the noise of the jug being placed down and a pair of warm hands lifted Julius's face, making sure eye contact was maintained. "And we both know there would be no mess if you would just get on with it and tell me where she is."

Julius could barely open his mouth to tell the observer to go fuck himself, and yet he did. "You can... go..."

"Fuck myself?" The observer responded with a note of amusement. "Oh please Julius, we've been through this. I don't want this to continue, you don't want this to continue. Though Heinkel seemed to be strangely supportive of meeting you again. Anyways, we both know that this is very clearly unpleasant and we both wanna leave as quickly as we can, so tell me." The observer bent down to make sure his face on the same level as Julius's. "Did Anastasia Hoshin, Leader of the Hoshin Trading Company and Enemy of the Revolution, seek and receive asylum in the Vollachia Empire?"

Julius scrunched up his face. "I don't..."

The observer shook his head. "Oh come on Julius, wrong answer. We went through this so many times. I am asking again, did Anastasia-"

Julius spit in the observer's face, the mix of blood and spittle hitting his cheek. "As a knight of a Throne Candidate, I shall never-"

Now it was the observer's turn to interject, as he rubbed the spittle away with his sleeve. "What Throne?"

Julius gritted his teeth, or at least those that were left. "The Throne of the Lugnica Kingd-"

"Oh please, there is no more Kingdom."

"Tell that to your lap-dog, that is, whatever's left of her."

The observer grabbed Julius by the hair and pulled him up, almost pulling the knight out of his constraints, "There are no more Knights, for any commoner can handle a weapon. There is no more royalty, Citizen Juukulius. And there is

NO

MORE

THRONE.

So tell me, did Anastasia Hoshin, LEADER OF THE HOSHIN TRADING COMPANY AND ENEMY OF THE REVOLUTION, DID SHE SEEK AND RECEIVE ASYLUM IN THE VOLLACHIA EMPIRE..." Even with the self-control and evenness, the observer couldn't stop the low rage escaping his voice. He let go of Julius, allowing him to sink into the chair, but even with the situation utterly against him, Julius couldn't help but feel a pang of satisfaction that he was able to drive the bastard into such rage.

"Because right now, this is the beginning. And it doesn't matter whether in a day or a week or a month, you WILL answer me, covered in your own shit and piss and begging it to stop, but you WILL tell me that she-"

"Hah!" Julius wheezed. "Unlike you, Subaru, I am not a coward." He snickered and looked up at the observer. "You have not a single shred of leverage against me. You have nothing, you are nothing, even when you have me chained."

Natsuki Subaru, with his long black hair and red flower pinned to his carmagnole jacket, stared back at the knight, his lips a thin line. Silent rage burned at his insides, Julius wasn't wrong. But that didn't mean he'd get the satisfaction of knowing it. "Fine, guess I will have to ask Joshua." Subaru gave him a gentle smile and turned around. "I will come back, and then you can answer me. Answer me correctly, that is. Heinkel!" Subaru called out and knocked on the door. "Oh, Heinkel!"

Subaru walked away from the makeshift interrogation room, listening to the reverberating sounds of hits echoing in the underground corridors. He thought that maybe if he were present at the interrogation himself, he would have a chance at picking the Casus Beli out of the fool, but no, knights were always tough to crack. Should have left it to the professionals.

He thoughtfully passed the two patrolling Revolutionary Guards, ignoring their salutes. Finally, he entered his chamber and sat down at the desk, still covered in the inkblots and papers. He took a feather and dipped it into the ink, maybe this time he could draft it better. The work instantly stalled, no, the Constitution would not come to him. Even with the copy of the Napoleonic Code by his side, the one he brought with him from the original world, he still couldn't fit it into this world... what was he missing? What building blocs did he skip in his way here? His mind slowly drifted back to the beginning, back to his arrival, back to...

Natsuki Subaru, 17, wasn't sure where he took the wrong turn. "I..." He looked left and right. "Wh..." He froze as he felt something brush behind him. Quickly turning around he noticed a dog-man give him a suspicious look as he passed by him. The boy's voice caught in his throat. He looked around again. A lively street, guards in medieval armour, street vendors. Maybe he's in... some weird festival..?

He tightly shut his eyes, covered his ears and counted to ten. Upon opening them, nothing changed, besides another few weird glances from another couple of strangers, one of them clearly a.. gecko...

"No... No! I-!" He pulled his book bag close to his body and took a few steps forward. The steps turned into a walk, then a jog, until he was sprinting at full speed, blindly stumbling around the streets. "I have... I have to get OUT!"

Did he get drugged? Kidnapped? Is he dead? How-

His legs carried him in an unknown direction, the buildings disappearing into the distance, being replaced by hovels. He didn't know for how long he ran but when he sat down exhausted, legs aching, it didn't matter. Thankfully he took a turn into a narrow alley, away from the madness, just enough to collect his thoughts. His mind seemed to freeze, he needed to swallow down all the new information. He sat still for minutes, or maybe hours, but he finally took notice of the time he wasted only when the sun seemed to stop shining on him, and started to roll behind the alley's buildings. He got up.

"There must be an explanation... there must..."

He scratched at his bag and fished out his phone. His finger froze at the unlock screen. No signal.

"What the hell what the hell what the hell what the hell..." He mumbled as he checked over his thing again. His books were still there, his pencil case, his phone, a bag of chips. His school bag was all the same. He checked his uniform, but the drab shirt and blazer haven't become any less boring than they were before. If he was drugged, then it was a very choosy drug, his perception wasn't any different. His eyes darted around. No, this clearly isn't his world, not his reality. Then...

He slapped his cheeks, "Focus..." After putting the phone in his pocket, he sat against the wall of the alley again. His eyes scanned his surroundings. Mud-straw huts, dirt roads, the smell of shit. Feels like I got thrown back a couple of centuries... though there were never lizard people in the history humanity, at least if you don't believe the conspiracy theorists. So he clearly hasn't moved in space or at least not in Earthly space, nor in time, that just means he jumped-

"Into a parallel uni-!"

Suddenly there was a rumble over his head and he could feel something cold pour on his head. Instinctually he screamed and jumped forward, looking backwards. The ground he just stood on was wet, and as he looked up he noticed a young woman holding an empty bucket, looking back at him intensely from the hovel's second-floor window. He froze.

There was a short silence, after which the young woman seemed to lose interest in the loud boy, "Watch where you're standing!" she shouted annoyedly and shut the window with the same low rumble she opened it with.

"S-sorry..?" Subaru wasn't sure how to respond to something so blunt and-

Something in the back of his mind clicked. The woman was speaking Japanese... Why? What connection would this world have with his? Was he really in another world? His head hurt from all the questions and he felt exhaustion catch up to him.

He picked up his bag and dusted himself off. Whatever sludge he just got dumped on himself, he will have to just live with. For now, he should find a place to re-

"Hey, you!" Subaru looked behind him to spot a young man with blueish hair and plain clothes. "Hand yer valuables!" Subaru gave him a smile. "E-excuse me?"

"Yer valuables! Hand 'em!" There was a noise from behind Subaru, his head quickly turning to spot two more guys, one extremely short and the other barrel-chested, emerge from the other side of the alley. No bolting here.

"S-sure! What do you want!" He opened his bag, allowing the books to tumble on the floor, mostly books and old document translations.

The burglar came up to his stuff and began sorting through it. "What the hell is this trash?! Who the hell needs books!?" He stood up and kicked the documents to the side, damaging them further. Subaru flinched. "Well, you look like a fancy cunt!" The bandit walked up to the student, licking his lips. "How 'bout we drag ye off and yer daddy pays us for ye!" The blue-hair took out a pair of knives. "Yer coming with u-"

Subaru didn't even understand where the sudden burst came from, but it was exhilarating. For just a few seconds, the fear melted away, which was enough for him to headbutt the knife-wielder. The bandit fell backwards, opening the way out of the alleyway.

The boy was about to bolt, but his very collar seemed to stop him, a hand grabbing his shirt.

"Where ye going?" said a low threatening voice, as Subaru looked up at the figure behind him. Ah, he forgot about the other two. The tall purple-haired man suddenly grabbed him into a standing chokehold.

"Nothin' personal, jus' need another day's bread." He pronounced in a terrifyingly calm tone. Subaru kicked and struggled, but the grasp only got stronger.

"Fucken' bastard!" As Subaru's vision tunnelled, he saw the blue-hair get up with his knives. "I'll kill him!"

"Chin, stop, you fool! Sto-"

"SHUDDUP TON!"

Subaru felt a great pain explode in his abdomen and the chokehold release on his neck. Life slowly started draining away from him...

The darkness was like the waves, covering him, then subsiding.

"What have you do-!"

...

"Headbutted m-!"

...

"The guards are co-!"

...

...

The darkness seeped in more and more. Subaru couldn't feel much anymore, the numbness reaching up to take him away. A sheer, blind terror of his incoming doom overpowered him, yet his last thoughts were of home, and the people he loved so dearly.

Subaru gasped and looked around mindlessly. The same street, the same guards...

He dropped to his knees and vomited.