Arc 2 "Staying alive is seriously hard!"
Chapter 2: "Starting to know each other"
"Hey, what with that face? what did i do to make you look so disappointed?"
"That pose mister..."
"Ah you wound my heart" He says while clenching his chest. "I always thought that pose was Cool and all... I'll keep doing it, i'm sure there will be people that will appreciate it"
"If you are going to do it anyways then why did i even bother answering"
"Ahh come on, i'm just messing around with you, easing the mood, anyway, it seems both of us are comfortable enough, i have somethings i want to ask, but first, i want to give you something, then we can start with the questions" Subaru turns back and goes close to the fire, then picks up something and comes back, keeping what he took hidden from Elsa in his back.
"What's that"
"Oh a little something you know? tadaa~" Subaru shows Elsa a simple brown one piece long sleeved dress "It may not be much, but i feel is better than what you are wearing at the moment, besides it's warm since it was near the fire"
"How..." She tooks in her hands the dress examiniting it, it looks almost new, only maybe a little dirty, but considering they are in a cave, that's to be expected, one thing she takes notice is that the cuts look bad, like it was made by someone without experience or someone very hurried… but maybe it was her, since she doesn't have memories of wearing decent clothes… or something remotely close to actual clothes, anyway the sewing makes it perfectly fine to the touch, so maybe it really it's just her.
'From where this man could have gotten this? It isn't exactly my size, but it seems I can wear it fine'.
Elsa moves up her eyes from the dress to Subaru "Can you please turn your back? I, uh, don't want a man seeing my body naked, especially after the incident". Although she didn't think that the boy would try to do anything to her, she at least wanted to maintain a level of modesty, she escaped her captors for the same reason after all.
"Oh, ohhhhh, sure, I should have thought about that" He hits his forehead with his palm and then turns around giving her his back 'He is showing me his back so easily... now this would be a fine time to attack... I think i'll wait, i'm still in his cave and my body is hurt from the attacks of that vicious man'
Once Elsa starts stripping from her "clothes" the boy turns around again and starts to defend himself after seeing the glare that the black haired child was giving him. "Ah wait, i just remembered, i'll have to see, i want to make sure you don't have a nasty wound in your body after that man hit you" He frowns a little as he speaks, knowing that he sounds suspicious but he can't do anything to remedy it.
'Please I want to help, please allow me to help you'
The girl thinks a little and sighs "No touching" Elsa continues to strip, now fully naked in front of Subaru, she has a scowl on her face, as if warning Subaru to not try anything funny.
Subaru takes a second to come out of the surprise of she actually doing it and starts to look for injuries in her body.
"Geez, you are full of bruises and your bones are poking your skin, when was the last time you had a decent meal... Are any of your bones broken?" He looks genuinely concerned about her, something that confuses her.
"My last decent meal was that that you just gave me, i can't remember when before that, my bones... my whole body hurts when i move but I can so it just fine, can i dress know? the wind is cold"
"I suppose the fresh snow and your young body helped, well, it doesn't look like i need to bandage you, so you can put on that clothes, i want to see if it suits you" Elsa proceeds to put in the not as warm as before dress. "It is a little big for me, but i'll grow into it in some time, so i think is fine" The brown dress reaches a little below her knees, and the sleeves reach to the half of her hands, but bending it backwards a little fix the problem, so it's not an inconvenient to use her hands.
"Ah what a relief, i was worried i messed up somewhere" Subaru then stands up and picks up a surprised Elsa who then starts to kick and punch the air in an attempt to free herself even though it hurts her.
"Hey what are you doing scary eyes mister? Let me go, i didn't allow you to do that" She tries to bite his hand but moving her neck to that degree is extremelly painful to her, so she lands a blow with her legs in his stomach.
"GUH-, calm down please, you are going to make the both of us fall" Subaru puts her softly in the ground a safe distance near the fire, Subaru puts himself in the other side of the fire, so he could speak to her face to face. "You told me that the air was cold, so i was bringing you to a warmer place".
Elsa looks a little surprised by his response "oh, sorry mister" 'Just what the hell do you want from me? This is not something you do for a person you have met for less than one day, and if he were a slaver, we will not be in a cave hiding from the cold'.
"Enough with that "mister" thing, i'm not that old and i already told you my name, i'm Natsuki Subaru" He says proudly pointing his thumb to himself.
"What part is supposed to be your first name?" The boy's extravagant manner of speech and actions were completely indecipherable for the kid.
"Subaru! It's Subaru! Just... just call me Subaru" He takes a defeated posture, as if this whole exchange was more hard than he had anticipated. Subaru then changes is stance again, looking seriously at Elsa "Can we leave my name aside a moment, i'm interested in yours kiddo, what's your name"
"Elsa" She could have given him a false name, but that would be pointless, she has nothing to her name and doubts that someone is so interested in her as to hire and assassin just for her.
"Well that's a pretty name Elsie-chan" The boy smiles like if he just didn't display a level of friendliness that they don't have.
"No. Please stop with that Mister" Elsa was having none of that, now she more or less can tell that the boy is not dangerous to her, but she doesn't like how she is being treated, but since he isn't a threat, maybe she can make him drop his unnerving friendliness.
"Too soon? Aww, well I want you to know that I want our relationship to advance enough for us to use pet names, I consider pet names as a way to show how close we are with each other"
'But I don't want to be close to you Mister, I thank you for your help, but once I can, I'll just go my way and you yours, someone who imitates a noble in Gusteko while being so strange can be nothing but problems'
"Hey was with that sour face Elsie-chan?" With the smile that he is giving it is hard to tell if the boy is feigning ignorance or if he really is that dense. (1)
"Stop with that name already!" This time she makes no effort in hiding her discontent, accompanying a glare with her words.
Subaru frowns, puts his hand on his chin and pauses some moments, then his face light up and looks at the girl next to the fire.
"Then how about this? I will simply call you Elsa, and you would call me Subaru, that 'Mister' thing annoys me"
Elsa ponders the idea a bit, calling this man by his name to not be treated like a baby seems like he set her up from the beginning, but the consequences of playing along are so small that she doesn't care to do so. Because of that, she reluctantly takes the deal.
"Fine… Subaru, I will call you by your name" 'if it really is your name, I have never heard of a name that starts from the surname'.
Subaru murmurs under his breath "Yes! I finally got you to call me by my name, after all those tries, this is the one, I can feel it"
Elsa decides to ignore the weird man that looks too happy about something and concentrate in the warm spot in front of her, then extends her hands closer to the fire, she looks at the dancing flame and then at her hands, until her corner eye noticed the brown surface that now covers her arms, making her remember her unanswered question from before.
"Hey, Mi-Subaru, where did you take out this dress?"
She now is looking at the boy at the other side of the fire. The question making Subaru stop is lonely celebration of something.
"Oh that, I uh, made it for you"
Subaru lowers his head and stares to the fire, as if he was hiding his gaze.
"You… made this?"
Elsa is surprised by this, if it is true, then maybe the man in front of her is more skilled from what he appears or transmits.
"Although I'm very confident in my sewing skill, I had never done something similar to clothes, I have adjusted some to fit me better but never done one from zero myself, so I'm pretty sure they have to be cumbersome to wear, sorry about that".
"And you did it for me?"
"Yes, looking at you, it's not hard to assume you are having a hard time dealing with the cold, so I thought that it would make you happy and more easy to endure the cold of this land, seriously, how can you walk in the storm half naked and barefooted, don't do that again if possible".
'Why does he look so concerned? As if he cares about what happens to me… no wait, he does care, if he didn't he wouldn't have made anything of all the strange things he has done,why?! I don't understand, does he have a problem in his head?'.
Before she can ask him his reasons he continues speaking.
"Sorry about your feet, I can't do anything close to shoes or boots, so you'll have to endure a little more, I'm really sorry… Well, can we leave this topic aside for now? I'm sure you have other questions, once we deal with those I want you to answer my own"
As if remembering something important Subaru decides that they should change the topic for the moment.
'Guess that can wait'
"So… Subaru… What happened after I fell unconscious? I only remember waking up here, and that's it"
"Ah, that's an easy one, I carried you in my jacket until I found this cave in the blizzard, I had already founded it before but the blizzard made it hard to find it again, when I entered the cave I made a little space and put you down".
"How long I have been sleeping?".
"Not that long, you are all a fighter Elsa, it has been only a couple hours, the storm is still raging and is so cold outside, neither of us will survive going out at the moment".
Subaru smiles widely as he speaks, looking at something beyond the walls of the cave. His face is really creepy, to the point of making Elsa a little uncomfortable.
"Okay, how did you make a fire?".
"I used flint and some stones from the cave to make sparks on oven wood".
"Flint? Oven wood? Where did you get all that stuff?".
Subaru lowers his sight to the ground.
"I… I… Uh, kinda stole from the shop… Okay Okay, I know that is bad, but trust me, I did what I needed to do to ensure both of us were well".
'This man' Elsa angrily looks at Subaru and confronts him.
"So you told me to not steal from the shop so you could go later yourself?".
"Wha- NO! I was trying to avoid you ending up beaten by that bastard… Not that's stealing is Okay or something but at the moment I wasn't thinking in that, the only thought in my mind was to make you don't enter that shop".
"Then how did you know what would happen if I entered the shop? I haven't seen you in the town, or better yet, how did you know I would steal the shop that night?"
"…"
"…"
"So you aren't going to tell me" Elsa sighs, calming herself "Should have known".
'No matter who you are, everyone has their secrets, I don't like how "Subaru" won't tell me how he knew that, but fighting him now will do me no good'.
"Next question, what did you stole?".
Subaru narrows his eyes as if trying to remember with difficulty what he had stolen.
"Oh, just the most important and urgent things, like the wood, the flint, a pot to boil water and cook, all the food I was able to carry in one go and finally some cloth and thread with a needle".
Subaru raises his fingers while counting until he reaches the end, returning his gaze to Elsa, signaling her to continue asking him questions.
"Where are we?".
"In a cave duh" Subaru tries to choke out a laugh but even he recognizes that was terrible. Elsa now looks a little pissed with the goofing of Subaru.
"You know that's not what I was referring to… Subaru"
"Okay Okay you don't have to look so angry at me… We are in a cave, yes, you already knew that, while you went to take a nap, I continued to go straight in the storm because I already knew of this cave, I even entered before to make sure it was safe and all, but again, you already knew that, is like at 2 hours of walking from the town, but maybe more now that the storm is hitting this hard, it's really cold outside, I'm sure I will have a cold tomorrow, because I had to go steal without my jacket, since you were sleeping in my jacket and couldn't take you out of there, since you were so cold, I was so scared, I thought you died hahaha"
Subaru started rambling in a cheerful tone that only bothered the black haired child, despite his tone, his face is everything but cheerful.
'He doesn't look so good, maybe I can distract him to calm him a little, the last thing I want is him attacking my while he is so unstable'.
So, the kid decides to interrupt the boy putting her hand with her palm extended in front of him, even if she risk a little getting catch by the fire under her arm. This action appears to put an end to the maniac moment of the boy, making him recover the breath he couldn't while rambling.
'Uh, I suppose that is a universal symbol for stop, no matter what world one is in, good to know'.
The boy let out a dry, but genuine chuckle at this realization, maybe the actions of the girl were really helping him with the disaster that are his nerves, but the girl didn't have a way to make sure, since she really doesn't know much about the man that has rescued her… or she rescued him? she was sure the boy would lose the fight with the shopkeeper.
"So… Subaru… what is o-ok… okay?"
Maybe a question about other thing can help him further, besides, he keeps repeating that sound? Word? And it started making her curious, so maybe this was a good change to kill two birds with a stone.
"Uh? Oh, you know, 'Okay'… 'ok' or… I'm not making much sense, am I?".
"No, you are not"
"Ugh, well you see, 'Okay' is like 'good', you say 'Okay' when things are going fine, or everything is in order, or when you want to tell someone that you understood what they are saying… or you can use it when you didn't understand anything but you don't want the other person noticing"
"Okay, I didn´t understand anything of that"
"No, what's the point of using Okay if then you are going to tell them that you didn't understand…".
The black haired kid can't hold her laughter at the stupidity of the boy, teasing him is very easy, almost as if he leaves himself wide open.
"Wait a second… AHHH you little brat, stop laughing"
Subaru is not truly angry, that much is clear to Elsa, so she doesn't feel the need to distance her from the boy, but the exaggerated movements he makes while responding to her teasing makes her laugh a little longer than she expected.
"Ahaha… ha… Anyway, from where is that word? Is not one I had heard in my life, and I have met people from the 4 great countries"
After all, as a slave she had met persons from every part of the world, the more common where from Gusteko, not a surprise considering they were in Gusteko, the second biggest where from Kararagi, she had heard that the slave market is strong there, lastly, from where she had only met a few where from Lugnica and Vollachia. Lugnica doesn't have a strong slave system, and Vollachia when not at war has its borders closed, so finding a slave from there makes them a rarity, but not more valuable compared to the rest of the slaves.
"Uh, from where?" Subaru puts his hand on his chin while looking at the rock ceiling of the cave.
"You could say that it's from my hometown, but the word was widely used, but I think I know the reason you haven't heard of it before"
"it's that so... Where is your hometown?".
The young girl fixes her eyes on the ones belonging to the boy, hoping to get an answer this time, since one would help her understand better the boy.
"It's hard to say really, please tell me the four great nations and maybe I can pinpoint better where I am from, since I don't know that much about all the nations".
The child softly nods at the request, and prepares to speak, knowing she is going to go little bit without pausing.
"We are in Gusteko, or if you want to say the whole name, The Holy Kingdom of Gusteko, this icy wasteland filled with mountains who make traveling hard, is controlled by The Church, who worship the Great Spirit Odglass, I have heard there is a Holy King, but to us people struggling to live, he doesn't matter more than other nobles"
Elsa speaks with disdain in her voice while speaking of her country, she clearly doesn't have a positive opinion of her homeland.
"You sound 'salty', uh, spiteful if you didn't understand"
"I am"
"Why?"
"It's hard to survive and I hate this cold, just to not start rambling like you did Subaru some moments ago"
"Oh, sorry about that, I lost my cool there, didn't I?" He scratches his cheek while looking apologetic.
"Well continuing with Gusteko, here we have a lot of spirits, more than other countries, even I that don't have a worth mentioning affinity with spirits sometimes I have found some"
"Spirit affinity? How do you know how high is your affinity?"
"I was a slave, so they tested it to see if they could sell me at a higher price, as I said, they didn't find nothing noteworthy"
"Right… you were a slave, are you Okay?" The look Subaru gives to Elsa looks a little sad, sadder than she expected it to be, but considering how strange the boy reacts to anything she was worried that he would start tearing up and crying or something.
"Yeah, I'm not the only one, or the first or last, so it doesn't affect me, although I wouldn't want to go back, I'll fight to not go back"
As the black haired child spoke those last words she could see how Subaru's expression distorts in a pained one, while trembling he forcefully presses his abdomen, as if trying to force something to stay inside him.
"Are you… are you Okay Subaru?" The girl asks more of courtesy than genuine concern.
Subaru stays in that position while gasping and breathing heavily for some moments before returning to normal.
"Yeah… I'm Okay, just, just remembered a painful moment of my life, or death haha, I wished in that moment to have died rather than keep enduring that burning pain".
They stay in silence for a minute while both of them organize their thoughts, Elsa evaluating the reactions of Subaru and everything she had learned about the boy at the moment and Subaru berating himself for almost spilling a terrible and painful secret.
"Moving on Subaru, I think those were the most important details of Gusteko, so I'll move to the second one I know more about".
"Yeah, please do, I don't think that my home is in Gusteko".
"So, Gusteko is at the north of the world, and to the West of the world is Kararagi, I think the entire name is The Kararagi City States? I'm not sure what a city state is, so don't ask me about why the name".
"The name reminds me of the names in my home".
"Yes? Well, of what I have heard, Kararagi has a… a… how do you put this in a word?... Ugh I give up, Kararagi has lots of merchants and markets, you could say that money and merchants are the most important things in that country… I think… they speak funny, like the whole country has a weird accent, and sometimes it can be a little hard to understand them, or maybe the persons I have meet had stronger accents?
"What the hell? There is a Capitalistic country here?".
"Uh did you said something?".
"Ah no, just mumbling to myself".
"The food and houses are the most different compared to the rest of the world, but I can't describe them well, because I was told this a long time ago and even the person telling me had problems telling the form, I suppose their whole culture is that strange or unique, is hard to say".
"I guess that only seeing it I would be able to understand then, anyway I hadn't heard the name Kararagi before, so I don't think it is, maybe just a coincidence".
"Ah, I almost forgot, in that country there are lots of demi-humans, maybe they are even the majority, but discrimination is low in Kararagi, they believe that if one is capable, that's all that matters"
"Well, now comes The Dragon Kingdom of Lugnica at the East".
"Do you know why is called the Dragon Kingdom".
"Yes, is pretty common stuff actually, Lugnica has that name because the royal family of that country made a covenant with the Divine Dragon Volcanica, and that dragon now protects their kingdom".
"A Divine Dragon uh… I hope that I don't have to slay it or anything, I'm no dragonborn or something".
"Just what the hell are you talking about?" 'I swear to Od lagna that he speaks like a crazy person, yet he seems to be sane… most of the time, is he joking? If so, he has terrible sense of humor, and strange vocabulary'.
"Ah forget what I just said, tell me more about this Dragon Kingdom…".
Subaru squints is eyes and then opens them wide, putting quickly his hand on his pocket and taking out his flip phone and checks the time, then looks at Elsa.
"Hey Elsa, we have been talking for a while now, you hungry? I am, after all, I gave you my instant noodles when you woke up, so I'm gonna use this nice fire to make us a soup".
"Food is scarce, so even if I weren't hungry I wouldn't tell you no"
"That's a bit depressing response but Okay, I'll go get some snow to melt it into water, besides the one I had already melted".
After saying that he reveals a pot with water to the middle, the pot was covered by a cloth alongside other things, mostly metal and wood utensils. Subaru puts on his jacket that Elsa is no longer using and on top of that a coat that is familiar to Elsa but she can remember from where. He goes out of the cave and comes back with some fistfuls of snow that he drops on the pot, after a few repetitions he removes the coat, removes a bit of snow from it and puts it near the fire to dry. He then picks up the pot with cloth protecting his hands and stands near the fire holding the pot over the heat so it can start boiling.
"Ah how I wish to have something to put this pot on, but since we have so little I have to stay here, I can feel how my clothes are burnt a little even, and I'm sure that the soup wouldn't be that good, heck, it even took me several tries to learn how to boil water, I really am worthless, no?"
"You didn't know how to boil water?" Elsa ask Subaru with a deadpanned expression.
"AH don't look at me like that Okay? Nobody told me that snow can burn a pot, it smelts so easily in one's hand but the damn thing is so Tsundere and doesn't let you boil it all at once"
"You… burn a pot… with snow… You are terrible Subaru, much worse than worthless even"
Elsa starts laughing at the poor boy who is preparing the water for her next meal, the shortest gap she had between them for years, she should keep her distance and respect him since her life at the moments is in his hands, but she can't resist the urge to belittle him and tease him. Truly, children, like animals, sense a hierarchy.
"You wound me Elsa, if I didn't have to stay holding the pot, I would be caressing my poor heart from the words you launched at me"
They both laugh at this exchange, a good way to pass the time and forget momentarily about the cold, or the raging snowstorm outside the cave.
"Ha…well, while the water boils, care to tell me the rest?"
"Sure, well, Lugnica has a problem with discrimination apparently"
"Yeah? Doesn't sound like a place I would like to visit, honestly"
"The discrimination was so big that a war exploded, a lot of the people of Lugnica or with knowledge of Lugnica I met where descendants or directly people that fled from the war"
"Yeah, definitively not going there soon"
"And that's about all I know"
"Uh? Isn't that a bit too little?"
"There aren't that many slaves of Lugnica"
"Uh, I suppose that if they are rare, you wouldn't know that much… wait, this is only knowledge you got from slaves? Haven't you interacted with anyone else than the slaves?"
"I also heard bits from the slavers, but after escaping I have been running most of the time, so I haven't heard more, and my memories are fuzzy about that time as a slave, is only what I heard the most or heard again while escaping that I remember"
"Okay, what about the last one?"
"The Sacred Vollachia Empire is a na- "
"Wait a moment wait a moment"
Subaru puts down the pot on the floor, the pot makes a hissing sound when touching the ground, Subaru stretches his arms and runs for a bag made of cloth that he opens to reveal a pile of food not perishable in the near future.
He picks up something that looks like yellow peas and puts it in the pot, then he adds a bit of garlic and finally throws in the pot something that looks like slices of pasta. After doing that he takes the pot again and returns to his uncomfortable position to boil the soup. (1)
"Did you finish, Subaru?
"Yeah please go on"
"Alright, is a nation ruled by power, they love strength above all else, so much that is called the land of wolves, they say they have an excellent climate, the total contrary to here. Ah, but don't think of visiting that one, is at war almost all the time with the Kararagi and especially Lugnica, and when not at war it has its borders closed, I'm not sure how the slaves even got here, considering Vollachia is at the south… Well and that's it, so… where are you from?"
The girl had a suspicion from where this boy could be, but she wanted him to confirm it.
"Wait is that it?"
"Yes"
"There is nothing more?"
"Yes"
"What about the rest of the world? What lies beyond this 'continent'?"
"What's a continent? And there is no more world, after that there comes the Great Waterfall, the end of the world"
Elsa's guess was becoming more possible by every second Subaru stood silent.
Until…
"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHA OH THAT'S GREAT, THAT'S RICH, I have been summoned to another world, I have been Isekaid, to a fantasy one no less… AND ITS FUCKING SET IN DARK SOULS HARDMODE DIFFICULTY FOR FUCKS SAKE!".
Subaru starts laughing, he is laughing so hard is body starts shaking making him almost lose his balance and drop the pot, or fall into the fire. After tiring himself from laughing he stop shaking and begins speaking, only to scream before breaking into crying.
The whole time Elsa is looking at him with wide eyes, completely confused by his mood swings, sometimes he looks fine, only to look like a madman seconds later. No, she finally recognized something that she didn't before, this whole time since she woke up, his eyes looked magnitudes more tired than when she first met him, something had happened and he keep quiet about that.
It made sense now, why his behavior and actions were different at those he showed before she fell unconscious.
But, she didn't fail to notice something important that he said while breaking down "Summoned to another world", so, she was right, this boy, didn't belong to any place she knew, because… he isn't from this world… that, awoken something in her, a thought that has been whispering from the start, but she ignored, suddenly grew stronger once she came to this realization.
'I wonder, how the insides of a outworlder would look?'.
'Would they be more warm than the shopkeeper?'.
'Would their blood be prettier?'.
'Smell better?'.
'Taste better?'.
Her thoughts are interrupted by a voice calling at her between sobs.
"Hey Elsa... can... can you look to the other side… I don't want you to see me this pathetic"
"oh, Okay"
Elsa decides to follow the request of Subaru, only then noticing the wide smile that she had on her face, she became worried that Subaru also noticed it, but it appears that Subaru didn't get a good look at her face, so he didn't register her deranged expression, realizing this, Elsa let out a hold breath.
'What was that just now?'.
They spend the next 20 minutes in silence after Subaru finally stopped crying. The first person to break the silence was Subaru, that after putting down the pot said a simple:
"It is ready"
"Okay"
"I'll go get some bowls"
"Okay"
"…"
"…"
Subaru puts his improvised soup in two wooden bowls and hands out one to Elsa, who took in silence. They stay that way without moving another whole minute. This time is Elsa who speaks first.
"Well, that happened"
"Uh huh, sorry for showing that shameful spectacle"
"I hope that you don't have more of those"
"Yeah me too, sorry again, I needed to vent a little"
"You call that a little, Subaru? I don't want to see when you make bigger ones"
"Oh you little… thanks for trying to lift the mood"
"Oh no I was serious"
"…"
"…"
"You were serious…"
"No, maybe yes, I'm not sure, I want this awkward feeling to go away"
"We better eat before the soup gets more cold"
Elsa nods and starts eating using a wooden spoon, Subaru waits to see her reaction, she appears to have no problem with it so he starts eating too, only to make a disappointed face at the moment of tasting his soup. It was bland, really bland, but that's to be expected, he didn't get the chance of using salt even, and some of the pasta slices that he put on were stick to each other from the lack of oil, he wouldn't call it delicious, but it would have the job done.
"How it is it Elsa, bad, I suppose, but it could be worse, no? Elsa?"
Hearing no response, he turns his sight to the girl only to find her eating in all fours like a dog. (2)
"Elsa what the hell are you doing?!"
Subaru puts his bowl aside and picks up Elsa, lifting her in the air.
"Hey what are you doing Subaru, I was eating!"
"You were eating? That way? No, I don't think so"
"Put me down Subaru"
"…"
Subaru ignores the demand to be put down from the girl and sits on the floor, putting the girl on his lap, immediately Elsa starts glaring daggers at Subaru, who promptly ignores her and takes her bowl and spoon, then speaks in a commanding tone she didn't expect to hear from the boy.
"Open up".
"You aren't going to treat me like a baby".
"Open up Elsa".
"I can eat perfectly fine on my own".
"You were dropping soup on the floor, we don't have that many foods to be wasting it that way, eat like a person Elsa".
"I can't, that's the only way I know how to eat".
"Then I'll have to teach you, but now open up, the soup is getting cold and we don't have that many time, we will have to go soon".
"Go soon?".
"I'll explain later; we are eating now, Okay?".
"Okay…".
And so, Subaru feed a spoon to Elsa, then one to himself, one to Elsa, one to himself, until they both had finished their meals. Elsa was freed as soon as her bowl was empty, and she didn't waste any time on getting up from the lap of Subaru. Subaru also stood up as soon as he finished, stretching a little before starting moving.
"My legs are a little numb… Elsa come here".
She pauses a little before going next to him, vowing that if he pulls any similar stunt now he will receive a punch or kick, since her body doesn't hurt as much as before.
"You'll need it".
Before Elsa can question what she will need, Subaru takes out his jacket and puts it on Elsa, before going to the familiar coat and putting it on himself.
"Uhhh… Thanks? Why giving it to me now?".
"We are going out, the storm is ending and we need to travel to another town or cave before the people of this town find us, we can travel in this blizzard now that isn't that strong and it will hide our trail".
"I guess that makes sense".
"We can't stay here, so follow me, take that one bag and carry it with you, I'll take the rest".
"Oh, Okay".
"Let's go".
Author notes:
1 I actually wrote that soup thinking in the foods we eat in my family when the cold makes its presence known. I had to butcher and mix several foods thinking that Subaru and Elsa don't have that much to eat. I also took advantage of Tappei's decision to make our vegetables exist in the Re:zero world, so I don't have to think in new vegetables. Don't worry, eventually Subaru and Elsa will get better meals.
2 Elsa when is "adopted" by Featherrun is stated to eat like an animal, and I thought that was funny, so I keep that trait.
Man what a pleasure to be here again, anyway, today is a short chapter (is 6000 words short?) well compared to chapter 1, but I think is a bit unfair, I was demonically inspired while writing that one.
This chapter was written in something similar to a rush, i'm going to be busy soon and i wanted to post a new chapter before that, so this chapter is not that proof read, so there may be a lot more mistakes than the last one and i'm scared that a "soap" left out alive and Subaru and Elsa eat soap in one line. The rush I feel also made my writting be very different from the first one chapter.
Anyways, Arc 2 "Staying alive is seriously hard!", Yeah, you can see where this is going.
I wrote this chapter as a continuation of the last chapter, but you probably have already noticed that this chapter is written in its majority from the perspective of Elsa, while also showing a Subaru in not his first loop from her perspective, I wanted to start developing her relationship with Subaru, while also adding a bit of Fluff to compensate for all the Sufferu in chapter 1. I in fact fear that while trying to develop their relationship and add fluff I went a little bit OOC with Elsa, for moments I was feeling like I was writing Felt.
Apologies if that is the case, I hope to be better in the future, or getting some beta testers that can point that out for me.
Next chapter I'll start writing about Subaru's failed loops, so more Sufferu, and no, it's not going to be something intercalated, it's just that Subaru is starting to learn how to survive and Gusteko, and Gusteko is not being kind.
I'll like to see what clues about the failed loops you got from Subaru and what you think will happen based in those clues.
I think that's all, have a great day!