Subaru woke up, it's rare that he slept longer than seven hours, but this was an exceptional case. He noticed that the bed he was in was also exceptionally comfortable. He glanced around the room, noticing several expensive looking paintings of various landscapes, along with lots of vases and other furniture. He also saw Reinhard sleeping on a chair to his left, and a brown haired cat... person, on his left.
This cat person also appeared to be casting healing magic, the warm glow felt familiar. After blinking a few times, the healer noticed he was awake. "Well you tyook your time waking up, Mister Natsuki~" She, or he, (Subaru had no clue) said in a rather androgynous voice.
Reinhard's eyes fluttered open. He glanced at his surroundings before recalling the events at hand. "Subaru, I'm glad you're awake." He stated.
Subaru sat up and stretched, feeling the ghost of an ache in his chest. "Where am I?" He asked.
"You're in the Crusch Estate Mansion, I took you here after you fought with Elsa Granhiert." Reinhard replied.
Elsa Granhiert? Oh that must be the assassin who fought us yesterday, or... How long have I been out?
Subaru had forgotten about that. "Right, what the hell happened? I felt like a carriage hit me once I casted that spell." He rubbed the spot on his chest where he supposed his gate was.
"You used a spell that was incompatible with your gate, Subaru." Reinhard answered.
"Huh?"
"If you use a spell you don't have an affinity fyor, it can damage your gate quite badly, Natsyuki~." The cat boy explained, seeing the confusion that was painted on Subaru's face.
"I see."
"Subaru, this is Felix Argyle, he is the best healer in the kingdom. He healed your gate and your, burn wounds." Reinhard scratched his arm while saying that last part.
How much do you wanna bet he thinks my injuries are his fault? His Nice Guy levels are off the damn charts.
"I see. Wait, you said burn injuries? What exactly happened last night?" Subaru asked, he had obviously missed quite a bit during his unconsciousness.
Reinhard nodded. "Well, I don't know what happened before you passed out, but when I arrived..."
Flashback
Reinhard kicked the door down, he had been searching for Subaru for the past thirty minutes, and he had heard all the shouting from outside. Upon entering the room, he noticed the black haired assassin and the unconscious Subaru on the ground.
A silver haired woman had stopped her attacks to kneel down next to Subaru. The assassin took advantage of her distraction and charged forwards to attack her.
But even if you can run the speed of sound, you're no match for the Sword Saint. Reinhard jumped ahead and blocked the attacker's hit. "Black hair, poisoned blades. You must be Elsa Granhiert, the Bowel Hunter." He inspected her from toe to head.
"Red hair, powerful looking sword. You must be the Sword Saint. I'm so happy to have such interesting opponents." She grinned. She jumped towards him to strike, but Reinhard blocked with his bare hands.
It continued like this for a while, Elsa would jump back and forth, trying to harm him, and Reinhard caught the blade with nothing but his skin and almost infinite amount of Divine Protections. After several minutes, a beam from the ceiling fell to the ground. It was then that Satella remembered that the loot house is on fire. She tried to lower the temperature of the fire to extinguish it but she then fainted from over usage of mana.
Reinhard noticed several planks of flaming wood about to land on lady Satella, so he rushed towards her and pushed her out the way. Elsa then took advantage of the time frame and rushed towards the Giant. She jumped and was just a few inches from carving into his bowels when something grabbed her by the ankle with impressive strength. At this moment, Rom swung his club and clashed it against Elsa.
She could feel her skull shatter and her spine fracture, she was flung across the room and flew out the window. Reinhard quickly ran to the window to see if she was still alive, and if she was, he'd arrest her. But by the time he got there, she had disappeared. He sighed and hesitated chasing her but a glance back at the flaming building reminded him of the two unconscious bodies on the floor.
After a moment of hesitation, with great haste he evacuated them all from the building. Once outside, Rom approached him.
"If you hadn't intervened, I would have died. Thank you for that." He confessed, rubbing the back of his neck.
"Of course, but I don't think I could have beaten her without your help." Reinhard's humbleness seemed to be unlimited.
"You're certainly like the rumours say, you're not stuck up at all." Felt voiced, now standing next to Rom. "We would have been toast if not for you, thanks I guess." The thief's pride took a small hit from having to be saved like a damsel in distress. But it's better to have a damaged pride than to be dead.
Reinhard nodded and looked back at the two sleeping beauties. "Do you know these two?"
"They came into the loot house earlier, it seems we might have stolen something from them that they needed back." Rom admitted. "Please don't arrest Felt, you can arrest me just leave her please."
"Rom! I'm the thief here! Arrest me not him!" Felt yelled.
Reinhard shook his head. "I won't be arresting anyone today. I'm off duty, so I can unofficially disregard the stealing from them." He confessed. "In other words, I won't tell if you don't."
Felt was about to make a joke along the line of 'Doesn't that violate the knightly code' but she refrained from it, in the case that he changed his mind.
"So what did you steal from them?" Reinhard asked curiously.
"It's an insignia of some sorts." Felt stated. "I gave it back to him after finding out he's a spirit arts user. That was a surprising amount of spirits at his command."
Reinhard nodded. I saw first hand how high is affinity is. He can speak to them verbally and understand them too. I've never seen so many spirits condensed in such a small area, let alone in a heavy populated one. He could be dangerous, but my Divine Protection of Empathy earlier showed that he has no malicious intentions. He seems to be a bit more self-hating than the average person but I don't think he's evil.
Either way, back to the subject at hand.
"Where is it now?" He asked.
"He pocketed it." Rom responded.
Reinhard walked over to Subaru's pocket and pulled the insignia out. He recognised it instantly as a royal candidate insignia. "Interesting, well, I'll overlook this and I'll let you two go. I'll take these to a healer."
End of Flashback.
"After that, I took you to this manor and Felix here was kind enough to heal you." Reinhard smiled, although he seemed to rush the second half of his sentence. He also left out the part about his Divine Protection of Empathy.
Felix giggled. "After you begged me to, yes. I healed you and your gate. I recommend to not use magic you don't have any affinities with, but other than that your gate should be as good as new~." He had stopped with the unnecessary 'y's but still spoke in that overly enthusiastic tone.
Subaru chuckled and then thanked him. He was about to ask another question before his stomach rumbled, interrupting him. "Ah. I forgot that I haven't eaten since. Well. How long have I been out?"
"Well, it happened the day before yesterday. We spent all of yesterday trying to heal you and then now you've woken up. It's currently morning and time for breakfast." Reinhard explained.
I haven't eaten for three days, sheesh.
He pulled his covers off and realised he was naked except for underwear. "Hey, what happened to my clothes?"
"They burnt in the fire."
Fuck.
…
After putting on some clothes, he joins Reinhard and Felix for breakfast. Opening the doors to the dining room, his eyes bulged from his skull. The amount of food, and the quality of it was stunning. It was like a dream come true. His eyes scanned the buffet and he made his way to take a plate and dump an unbelievable portion of everything on his plate.
When he went to sit down, a servant approached him and informed him that Lady Crusch wanted to see him at her office after breakfast. Subaru nodded and thanked the servant who promptly walked away.
Subaru sat down next to Reinhard and Felix and then dug in.
"So, Felix, what is my affinity?" Subaru asked, curious.
Felix shrugged. "I don't have the means to knyow, my friend. But Reinhard here can. Nyah~."
Subaru visibly cringed at that last part but then turned to Reinhard. The red head nodded in return and put a hand on his shoulder. "You have the affinity for... Shadow."
Subaru blinked. "Shadow? What the hell is that?"
"There are 6 elements, Fire, Water, Earth, Wind, Shadow and Light. But Shadow and Light are super rare. Nyah~." Felix grinned and then stuffed an appa slice into his mouth.
Subaru nodded slowly. He finally understood the affinities and why his gate got put through the shredder when he used a fire spell. "So, I heard that you can use spirits as gates. Could I use spells I don't have the affinity for with spirits?"
Reinhard nodded. "If you make a contract with a spirit, you can use their gate and cast spells depending on their affinity."
"Can I have more than one spirit at a time?"
"You can, Julius-Kyun has 6 quasi spirits."
"Oh, so I can have one for each affinity. Cool." Subaru nodded.
…
Subaru finished his meal and went to meet Lady Crusch. He entered her office after knocking and was met with a green haired young woman in a military uniform.
"Pleased to make your acquaintance, Mister Natsuki." She said.
"Please, just call me Subaru." He smiled back. "It's nice to meet you too, Lady Crusch."
"I called you here because I heard of your impressive spirit affinity. I want to offer you a place here, as one of my knights, we can train you in the way of magic and combat." Crusch offered.
Subaru sat down and thought about it. He saw no flaws in it, but he didn't know the woman and did not just wanna join cause he thinks she looks hot. He was torn between yes and no, before coming up with a solution.
"Lady Crusch, I wish not to offend you, but currently I would like to train alongside Reinhard. Maybe when I am officially knighted I shall join, but please give me time." He explained. He noticed her eye twitched but her smile did not falter.
"Very well, Subaru. I wish you the best for your training and I hope to see you again." She smiled.
He excused himself from the room and made his way through the halls. He wasn't exactly sure what he was supposed to do but he eventually stumbled into Reinhard. I swear, it's like we're magnets. We just keep bumping into each other.
"Aaaah, Naatsuuuki Suubaruu."
Subaru turned at that really annoying way of saying his name. He saw a rather tall man in a suit, with clown makeup on. "Oh, Reinhard, I didn't know the Crusch mansion had a jester."
Felix, who was beside Reinhard, burst out laughing. Tears forming in his eyes while he grabbed his stomach.
Reinhard winced. "Subaru, this is Lord Roswaal. The most powerful magician in the country."
Subaru visibly paled. Ah... Fu-
"It's okaaaay Subaru-kun. I wanted to thank you for what you've dooooone." He had a smile on his face, but it didn't meet his eyes.
"What I've done?"
"Lord Roswaal is Lady Emilia's sponsor, Subaru." Reinhard replied.
"Who's Lady Emilia?" Subaru was perplexed.
Roswaal raised a brow but seemed to catch on to what had happened. "She might have told you a faaaalse name, but her name is Emilia. It's the silver haired laaaady you insisted on helping~."
Ooooooohhhhhh. So her name is Emilia. I see. Why did she tell me Satella then?
"Anywaaay~.. I'm in your debt, so staaaate your wish~." He said.
Although his clown makeup is weird and his accent annoys me to no end. He is also the country's best magician... Hmmm..
"I'd like for you to give me magic lessons. Train me." Subaru stated.
Roswaal smiled once more. "Then it's aaaaa deal~."
…
Hello! Sorry for the short chapter! It was mostly just a filler to clear up some things and to finish the arc. I shall start working on Arc 2 now and once I've finished Arc 2 I'll work on Spirit King so this may be on hold until Spirit King is around the same level of progress.
I shouldn't take too long with Arc 2 (hopefully) as I already have it planned out and I just need to write it. Anyway. See you all soon!
And if you have any critiques or questions or even just wanna say you enjoyed it, please leave a review, it helps to improve my writing and really motivates me!.
Thank you!