Prologue

The doom was ending. Hollow plains were being swallowed by the sheer amount of flames engulfing this decaying world. The remaining ones were slowly losing their will to live, their hope, and their colors.

But there's a sight that hurt more than magic, more than blades, more than words; a sight painful to even glimpse.

A girl, with brillant silver hair, with the sweet name of Emilia, was sitting on the remnants of this burned land with the body of young man between her arms.

Her cry was full of regret, full of guilt, full of anguish, full of sadness, full of sorrow. Tears were profusely falling on his head, that will forever be in an intangible state of death.

Yet, his face was at ease. As if death was finally the end. A smile was drawn in his libs, who tried in its feeble way to reassure her, to tell her it was fine.

It was inspiring how that face never lacked a smile. He smiled during hardships. He smiled during happy moments. He smiled even if it was a lie. He smiled when asking for help. He smiled during his life, and died while smiling.

A red-haired hero, whose name's Reinhard, was looking over a pallet full of dust, barely keeping his tears from falling.

An handsome man with purple hair, known as Julius the Knight Impeccable, was gazing at a corpse tinted with purple and white, praying for a safe journey in heaven.

A young one with blond hair, auto-proclaimed Garfiel The Gorgeous Tiger, was slamming his fist on the ground, feeling as the most useless shield in the world.

A little girl, Beatrice the Great Spirit, was crying with the silver-haired beauty.

A cat-boy, Felix the Blue, was covering his face with his hands, leaking salty waters.

They were the remaining ones, the remaining hope. Eveyone else has died.

Aldebaran, stripped of his power during the chaos.

Otto, clawed by the hordes of Witchbeasts attacking everyone.

Anastasia, her body destroyed by her own magic while trying to save as many comrades as possible.

Priscilla, stabbed by her own sword when fighting Pandora.

Crusch, disintegrated by the cursed dragon's blood.

Felt, engulfed by the fire of a dragon.

Ram and Rem, killed by the enemy of their race.

Wilhelm, his head sent flying by his son out of frienzy.

Roswaal, his sacrifice to stall time for the tactical retreat after finally seeing his dream become true.

Ricardo, stabbed by a hundred of daggers.

The triplet of Mimi, Tivey, and Hetaro, killed by the Sin Archbishop of Wrath.

Frederica and Petra, their existence erased by Roy Alphard.

Meili, turned into a bunch of caterpillars by Capella and gently squashed, one by one.

What remained of them was only a broken shell, empty of emotions; as if lost in the dept of the abiss.

"—promised! You promised! You promised to marry me! You promised! Why?! Why!"

No one had the courage to calm her, to hug her, to reassure her. No one. Everyone of them needed some comfort, because the same people who gave them a friends, who saved them, who gave them hope, were dead.

"You promised! Why!? Why?! You promised me… —hk… to make me happy… —hk... why…"

With no longer the strength to lift her legs, she just buried her face between her hands, and cried. She wanted to give up on everything.

During the time she has been kidnapped by Regulus Corneas, she was finally able to give a meaning to those feelings that kept pressing her soft heart. Since her adventure at the Pleiades Watchtower, she feared that her feeling would become a hindrance and thought of getting rid of them, with the terror of ruining their relationship. But, with time, those feeling kept growing and growing, making it unberable to continue like that.

She knew that Subaru loved her and would do anything to make her happy, even the impossible, to her annoyance. But… what if something would change? What if something would change inside of them if they started a proper relationship? She feared the worst, she truly feared it. Subaru was her true new beginning. Thanks to him she became stronger, emotionally and physically, cleaver, and dependable.

After many adversities, she was able to voice out those feelings. She can't actually describe it really well, having been caught by the moment, but it felt like taking off a weight.

She won't never forgot that night full of emotions, full of discovered truth, and new sensations. After that, they promised to fulfil their desires and dreams, to make each other happy, to…

There's no meaning in reminding herself of a promise made by a promise-breaker… but it hurts. It hurts nontheless. It hurts so much. It hurts so much that it's actually unberable.

She just wanted to lie down, and cry. Despite that, she was too tired from everything to actually put effort on crying. What she could do, for now, was only despair without voice, without words, without emotions.

But, unfortunately, faith won't allow her to even catch breath.

As if the sun had enough of the tragedies the world of the Od Lagna was bearing, the light of the sky grew thinner and shallow. And then—

Black. That's what her eyes could see at all.

An enormous mass of what seemed the void personified grew on the ground. What were beads quickly became rivulets and, in no time, they turned into giant waves striking here, there, and everywhere.

Garfiel was soon stabbed by a hundred of shadows. Julius lasted longer, but met the same fate. Ferris kept on reviving himself, but his gate could no longer keep up, leaving him to slowly drown under the sea of black. Beatrice accepted her death, knowing of having no chance of survival. Reinhard was strong, even without his divine protections, and continued on slashing, cutting, fending, butchering, and surviving for eternity.

Not good. A really bad sign. No one except the Jelous Witch was capable of such wonders. Emilia chanted her magic, trying to stop the black matter from coming any closer, but it was useless.

The matter ate her magic, slowly making its way to her. Everything she did, tried to do, hopelessly struggling to do, was for naught.

The void was now enveloping her alabaster skin, not giving her the room to even move.

Then, a sinister being surrended by an aura pitch dark, as if her entire existence was beyond human knowledge, began to walk in her direction.

Everyone of her steps was soundless, emphasizing her otherworldly presence. Her face, identical to that of Emilia's, was motionless, with faint tears falling on those lovely cheeks of her.

Not having any way of escape, Emilia just watched the being approach with a mad fear running all over her body. It was terrifying how this fear felt natural.

But there's one thing that surclassed her fear; it's surprise. They had identical faces, after all. Was she a descendant? Was she, perhaps, affiliated to the Witch? No, she doesn't even want to think about it.

"I need him…"

Those words, spoken with obsession and madness, betrayed by the sincere plea of her sweet voice, were adressed to the only one spared by darkness; Emilia.

"You need him…"

This sentence was vague, yet obvious. Emilia's eyes twinkled with tears, the memory of him slowly dying in her arms. Destroyed by his own self, killed by his own selfish self, murdered by his own annoying self, slayed his own foolish self— it's, and always has been, his prelude to the end.

"We need him…"

A mutual desire, a mutual want. One was the greatest evil, the symbol of darkness and malice. The other was the greatest good, the symbol of selflessness and goodwill. But they loved the same man, have been saved by the same person, and became stronger thanks to the same objective. It was truly ironic, wasn't it?

"You are…"

This question didn't require an answer, nor to even be asked. Knowing that, it emptied what remained of Emilia's will to survive. But. She'll struggle to the very end, just to keep her most important promise to her most important promise-breaker.

"I want him… I want him to live… I want him to smile… I want him to be happy."

"——"

Why is Satella saying such blasfemous things? Why should a Witch that thirsts for love need him? She knew him? She cares for him? She wants him? She wants him to be happy?

A strange feeling, similar to disconfort, built up inside of Emilia. It felt heavy. It didn't hurt, but it was unberable. It was dreadful, incredibly so. It made her breath from anxiety, barely keeping herself to not cringe her features from the mere horrifying thought of seeing them together.

Ugh, why are emotions so damn complicated?

"I gave him even my power… but that Witch stripped it from him."

"…What do you mean?"

It was hard to breath, it was rough to talk, but she managed to. After all, this question was necessary.

But she got completely ignored. Go figures, her voice had been so low that even herself could barely hear it.

Satella paused, taking breath, but this simple action caught Emilia in awe. Why, though? It wasn't anything too hard to get; the Witch Of Envy was standing in front of her, talking to her, conversing to her—but it was exactly that. Was this an inhuman monster? Something that was acting, instead, soo… humanly? She was breathing (and crying?) during all of this time. Was she a monster to begin with?

—Yes. There's no doubt. Those shadows came from her, and they killed the ones Emilia cherished as friends. That's a fact, and something that can't be changed.

"I gave him the only thing keeping him alive, Return By Death."

"——"

Return By Death? What is that? It must be a skill of some sort. Judging a book by its name (don't do it at home, kids), it seems like something regarding returning back from death.

He has not died in any circumstances she encountered, though. But you can't see a dead body if it's doesn't exist, if you think about it. Has he, like, died off screen? Not that she'll allow him die in her watch.

But wait a sec—a power from the Witch!?

"What, does it do?"

"If he dies… Return By Death would reset the entire world to a certain degree, with him as the proof of that forgotten future."

"What…"

This was the answer for some questions left unanswered, but the button for hundreds of them. But the most important one is,

"'The fogotten future?'"

"It means that he remembers what happened, and him only."

Wait, it means that when he dies— that's it! The times he goes in a mental-breakdown, the times he goes completely insane, the times he acts in a completely different way… it was because he died…

Would it mean that, they failed to protect him? Would that mean that he had to shoulder their failures? Their mistakes and errors? All alone?

"Why did he never tell me?"

"Because I shan't let him."

Has she asked that question out aloud? Even though the question was for herself, she didn't expect an actual answer from the Witch.

"…What?"

"It's in our contract."

Emilia closed her eyes, as if in understanding, but at the same time she was filled with suspicious and doubt.

A contract with the Witch?!

There are way too many truthbombs…

But being serious, there's another question that is necessary.

"I-if I may ask… what I'm here for?"

There was a little pause. Why are you making such suspense, Satella-chan? That ain't nice, y'know~.

"To change everything."

Emilia just looked at her as if Satella was insane, or more like more insane than she expected.

"What?"

"I shall send you before the catastrophe to prevent his death."

"Whuh…"

Going back in time!? It was said that she was an extremely powerful Yin user, but to the extend of controlling time…?

Not even waiting for her's reply, Satella reached an hand to Emilia's forehead, making her nearly faint.

The black matter was slowly surrounding even Emilia's face—

Then, she had strangest feeling of her life.

She watched everything she experienced backward, from the moment that thing died, to the time they set free the elves at Elliot Forest, to the war in the Sacred Vollachian Empire, to the conquest of the tower, to the battle in Pristiella, to the liberation of the Sanctuary, to the heartfell confession of Subaru, to the Witchbeasts invasion, to the loothouse fight, to her first arrival at the Mathers domain, to…

In a garden painted with shadows of darkness, a maiden, faulted for the destruction of a half of their world, reminisced on the mistake that she thought was impossible.

"I... sent her to the beginning..."

—And cut! (sorry, I've always dreamed of saying it...)

Yup, here I am, after months of hiatus. I'm not gonna lie, I got lazy after writing the first few thousands of words and... yeah...

Well, here's the prologue. It's a bit short, but don't worry; I PROMISE of releasing chapter 1 this week-end. For now, I've around 4-5k of words... and I've to write at least another 5k of words to keep my promise of 10k words... shit.

But anyway, expect adventures, drama, comedy, psycological thrill and, the reason I came to watch Re:Zero for, Rom-com!!

I hope you'll enjoy the story!!

P.S. Could someone send me the link for Reactionist's discord? I dunno if it's in the main discord of Re:Zero, but I don't like the community from there. Too many simps, y'know.

If you can, send me one from the comment section. I thank you, reader, if you did it.