Chapter 6

Jon sighed, when he sat down on the chair across from Subaru and waited for Roswaal to taste the food first. When he did so, only then Jon followed by eating the surprisingly good soup. And again, Subaru had shown no manners, while eating, whatsoever, which still irritated Jon a bit.

And then, it came again: the time to choose a 'reward' for saving the half elf back in the capital city of the country. Jon knew that leaving the mansion and wanting nothing would give him the chance to better protect the villagers from the dog-like beasts, but at the same time, he won't be able to gain further trust from Rem and by extension, margrave Roswaal, so he has only one option left.

"You may chooose anything you deeesire," Roswaal said and Subaru stood up in a way that annoyed Jon more with each time he did it. "I like it here. Hire me as a butler," the nasty eyed boy responded and Jon resisted the urge to roll his eyes. And of course, Ram sneezed at hearing that.

"And you, Jon Snooow?" Roswaal asked after a few seconds of silence. Jon looked at the mansion's lord and sighed. He was the last citizen of the whole Westeros by now for all he knew and he was angry at not being able to stop the Others. So, he sighed once before answering, knowing that there were things he can't ask for, lest he wanted to anger everyone in the room.

"I… well…" he started, playing that he was uncertain, before sighing. "Weeell?" Roswaal parroted him with a small glint of… something dangerous in his eyes.

"My family is all but gone by now and they had a myriad of their dreams, but there's one thing that I want," Jon said and tried to not show his unease as everyone looked at him. "And whaaat is it?" the fool-like margrave asked, the glint even more dangerous now.

"I want to become a knight to honor my three younger cousins' wishes," he finished with a well fabricated half-truth. Arya wanted only to become a warrior and Rickon… well… no one knew what he truly wanted, except being with Shaggydog. Only Bran wanted to be a knight from the trio.

And as he looked at Rem and Ram, he could see the conflicting thoughts in their eyes. From what little he managed to gather about the Witch cultists, he knew that they were lacking compassion and had a black book called "Gospel" on them at every time. But then, the sound of Ram sneezing again broke him out from his thoughts.

"Graanted. You knighting ceremony will be three weeeeks from now," Roswaal announced and after finishing his meal, he went on the same tour around the mansion as he did on his first "loop" (as Subaru called them) here. He was somewhat familiar with the layout, but it had never hurt to refresh his memories. And he could almost feel his uncle's approving nod at that decision.

And once again, Jon decided to stay in the music room and play the lute, but he played and sang a much more depressing song than The Dornishman's wife was.

High in the halls of the kings who are gone

Jenny would dance with her ghosts

The ones she had lost and the ones she had found

And the ones who had loved her the most

Jon put as much emotions as possible behind the song without thinking and was so engrossed by playing the song that he didn't notice Rem not so blatantly spying on him, a small tear escaping her eye, when he was singing, before steeling herself and walking away.

Subaru was peeling yet another tatoe, when he noticed that Rem's glare was softer than in his previous loops, which kinda scared him. He was used to her hard stares that would be able to kill him a million times over, if a simple stare could do that. What happened? He wondered in his mind, but he got the answer soon enough, when he saw Rem's lips move in a slow pattern, as if she was singing something quietly.

It took him a while to recognise it as something Snow would sing. And then, he heard her saying - no, singing - some words. They matched with the pattern her lips were moving a few moments ago. To be completely honest, he had never heard a singing voice as good as was Rem's and he managed to hear something along the lines of:

High in the halls of the kings who are gone

Jenny would dance with her ghosts

The ones she had lost and the ones she had found

And the ones who had loved her the most

That brought curious looks from Ram as well as him. "Where did you hear this?" the meaner maid asked. "I think she heard it from Snow," Subaru answered instead of Rem and earned a weird mix of surprised and angry looks from the twins, which also resulted in an uneasy silence.

"Nobody asked you, Barusu. Please go kill yourself," Ram said after a while, breaking the silence. "Isn't that a bit harsh?" Snow's voice queried from the direction of the door leading to the hallway. Subaru looked at him and noticed that his companion was looking tired, as if he was practising more magic and nearly overexerted himself.

"Snow-sama, were you practising magic?" Rem asked with what seemed to be genuine worry in her voice. "A bit. I think that I'll reach [El Huma] and [El Goa] in about a moon's turn and a few days," he responded, causing Subaru to raise an eyebrow at the term "moon's turn", which he hadn't heard ever before. And yet, he felt like he should know its meaning.

"Snow-sama, we use the term 'month' here, not 'moon's turn'. It is an outdated term," Ram informed in her 'sensei' mode and Subaru quickly returned to peeling tatoes, trying to not think only about getting cursed by that critter and talking with Beatrice more about it in order to get permission to save the kids from a very painful death. For now, he has to earn good marks with the maid twins and their lord too after all.

Ram stared at Barusu, when he wasn't looking, just to make sure that he wasn't a spy. For now, he was useless, but dedicated to his job. Like too much. Just like Rem, she thought and cringed mentally at the involuntary reminder of how her sister acted. But even then, Barusu made her want to vomit just by acting like that.

And sure enough, she heard him vomiting in the bathroom not too long after that. Overexerting yourself leads to that, she thought and walked away, disgusted by Barusu even more now that he acted like Rem did those years ago. Only Snowflake - or Snow-sama now - managed to earn just a sliver of her own respect so far. And even that was a combination of his fighting prowess and dedication to honor his dead relatives - something that someone with that miasma won't normally do even if forced to.

But then, she heard a faint sound of a lute being played from the musical instrument storage, as she called it, which surprised her a bit. Ram slowly walked towards the room, recognising the tune by now. It was a tune that matched with the strange song that Rem sang a while ago, soon followed by the knight-in-making's voice finishing the song a few moments later.

And Ram after that went to the yard to try and fix the mess that the newcomers to the mansion caused by magic training. It also helped her to deduce that the knight wasn't lying about being a Fire and Water magic user, while Barusu had Yin… Just like the Witch was said to have, she thought and shivered with both anger and fear at the mere thought of the devil, who's cult destroyed her village and took her horn.

Roswaal smiled as he looked into his Gospel. Everything was going according to his plan, so killing off both Subaru Natsuki and Jon Snow isn't an option… for now that is. They are crucial pieces for his plan to succeed after all. I can dispose of them later, he thought and smiled.

And then, he put down his Gospel, thinking about making the planned Mabeast attack a bit harder for the duo. Elsa alone was not as good as I thought, if Snow managed to match her speed. It still angered him that the assassin tried to haggle the insignia as her payment, until he said that she can keep the money and kill everyone in the loot house.

"Sensei, your reincarnation is drawing near," he whispered to no one, but himself and smiled. When Echidna returns, he'll be able to confess to her and become the husband to the smartest, most powerful and even more beautiful woman that the world has ever seen.

Meanwhile, Echidna's tea party, unknown location and time

"Achoo!" Echidna suddenly sneezed and glared angrily at no one in particular. "You okay, Dona?" Minerva asked with worry in her voice. Leave it to the Witch of Wrath to care about your feelings. Ironic, she thought and forced a smile to appear on her lips.

"Yes. I just had a feeling that someone talked about me behind my back," she responded, leaving out the fact that it was most likely that fool that was Roswaal Mathers. Oh, how she hated his advances on her person. And it started after she sealed his unstable magic! She wasn't kissing him! Sealing! She was only sealing! And yet, that fool didn't listen. Like most of the time, she remembered and suppressed the shivers that threatened to travel down her spine.

"Ah, alright then. If you say so, Dona," Minerva said after a while and Echidna finally returned to drinking her favourite tea, coated in her saliva - not the more intimate fluids that many believed were there - , and some cookies she made with magic.

Rem sat down in her room, somehow not willing to smash some training dummies, while imagining they were Subaru and Jon Snow-sama. It must be that song, she realized and sighed. She had never expected both the song and its singer to use so much emotion, the most prominent one being sadness. But not a normal sadness. It was a sadness that came from loss of home, friends and relatives. The very same she has.

To be honest, she had never expected that to happen to someone else than her and her sister. No matter what people said, she was still inferior to Nee-sama. She did everything perfectly and Rem… she only corrected the very few slip-ups Nee-sama did. Other than that, she was useless.

But then, something else came back to her mind and she remembered Subaru's innocently sleeping form, his head on Emilia-sama's head. A lap pillow, she remembered as the half-elf's words echoed in her mind. He's a good boy. And only then she realized that she wanted to harm innocent people and curled into herself, quickly devolving into a crying mess.

Four days later, outside Roswaal's mansion

It was the fifth day again and Jon accompanied Subaru and Rem, instead of Ram, to the village to meet with the villagers (again), help with carrying the supplies, scout for any differences in the barrier he saw in his previous life and possibly make the dog show its true form and kill it afterwards. Or, if the latter doesn't happen, kill it later in the night.

The walk itself to the village took them only about twenty minutes and was spent in relative silence. But, it was soon broken by the kids as they spotted Subaru and dragged him to… somewhere. And so, Jon sighed and went to help Rem with shopping.

Suddenly, he saw something strange with one price. It was definitely lower, but also… "AAAAAUGH!" Subaru's sudden scream broke him from that train of thought as he rushed towards the idiot, who got bitten by the critter itself. Luckily, he didn't draw Longclaw from the sheath, or the kids would get a trauma easily. So he just slapped Subaru over his head and roughly bandaged the bleeding palm.

"Subaru? Are you alright?" asked Rem, when she got to the scene a few moments later with the bags full. Jon saw Subaru nod in response and he quickly grabbed a bag that threatened to fall from Rem's grasp, earning a nod as the only response from the maid. "Let's go back," Jon suggested and the trio went back to the mansion, Subaru carrying the rest of the bags.

But, the biggest surprise came, when the trio saw Roswaal in… a travelling outfit? "Are you going somewhere, Ros-chi?" Subaru asked about the obvious thing. "Well yeees. I have an urgent meeeeting with someone," he responded and Jon wondered about who it might be, completely zoning out, before Subaru shouted something, causing him to turn and see Roswaal… flying?!

Well, that is strange, he thought as he turned back towards the mansion and went to the kitchen to put the supplies there, not forgetting to go meet with Ghost in his room afterwards... Only for Subaru to rush in and say something that wasn't making any sense. Until he repeated words 'curse' and 'danger' that is, causing Jon to jump in surprise and grab Longclaw.

"Ghost! Let's go!" he commanded and the trio left for the main entrance, only to be stopped by Rem and Ram just a few feet away from it. "Where do you think you're going, Barusu?" Ram's sharp voice was the first to undo the silence like a hot knife would slice through butter. And then Jon made a quick gesture to Ghost, before opening his mouth to answer.

"Rem, do you remember that dog?" he asked, surprising both maids, and gained a nod from Rem again. "It seems to be one of those Wolgarm dogs, because the bite was cursed," Jon explained, causing Ram to snort at something, but he ignored whatever she said, knowing that it was yet another insult aimed at Subaru.

"I believe that the villagers are in danger," Subaru said after explaining how he found out about the bite being a curse, adding Jon's part about the now named Wolgarm dogs (heavily altering it, of course).

"It might be a trap, so only Rem is going with you. Be glad Barusu that you'll have two guards and a giant wolf against more dogs biting your ugly face," Ram answered, nearly making Jon snort at that retort. Subaru just glared at her and turned to the main entrance, when…

"What's going on?" a tired voice suddenly asked, which Jon recognised as Lady Emilia's. "No need to worry, Emilia-sama. Just a simple pest control," Ram quickly answered and Jon nodded, when the half-elf looked at him for confirmation. It was at least partially true after all. And Jon wasn't one to tell or agree to a full lie.

And after Emilia gave Subaru a goodbye blessing, Jon, Subaru, Ghost and Rem set off to the village, the tension between them so thick that even a valyrian steel knife would have trouble cutting through it. And it got only worse with each step towards the village.

Subaru stood before the fence as Snow and Rem were inspecting something on the trees, while he told the villager to get help ASAP. And then, he heard the black-clad man curse as he grabbed a… gem with a hole in it.

"The barrier is broken. We should hurry. Ghost!" he said and jumped on his wolf, soon helping Rem on it and looking at Subaru in a 'you coming?' way, causing the nasty eyed boy to curse under his breath and jump on the big wolf too.

Its fur was fluffy and warm, but its speed… it was simply unbelievable that a big beast like Ghost would move like that. And soon, after avoiding dozens of branches and roots that threatened to stop their advance, they reached a small clearing, where…

"There's the kids!" he suddenly shouted and Snow maneuvered Ghost to the top of the small hill with the sleeping forms of the village kids. But… They were bitten by the critter. "Can you remove the curse?" he asked Rem in hope that the kids won't die.

"No. All I can do is ease their pain," she responded and Subaru's shoulders sagged. Guess none Water magic users can do that, he thought as he noticed that Petra started stirring, pain evident in her expression. "Petra!" he called out happily as she looked at him, attempting to make a small smile upon seeing the nasty eyed butler.

"Su… ba… ru…" she tried to say, but he shushed her so she could save energy to stand a better chance against the curse. "Meili is missing," he stated as he noticed the lack of blue hair put into a braid. "It might be a trap. Beware of your surroundings. I and Rem will take the kids to the villagers and join you afterwards," Snow said and Subaru nodded, before departing for the deeper parts of the forest.

He had to duck under low branches and jump over some roots, sometimes doing both at the same time, for about five minutes, when he saw a small clearing with a log that had a single sharp-looking branch on it, right in front of him. And right behind it…

Were Meili's legs. Subaru walked over to her and as he tried to examine, if she was playing being cursed, he heard a growl that only the largest of dogs could make right behind him. And as he turned around, he saw a very disturbing dog-like creature. A Wolgarm! he realised and a single drop of sweat fell from his forehead.

Subaru then took off his jacket and tied it around his arm to provide at least a sliver of protection against its bite. Only for the dog to blend in with the shadows, light rustling of some leaves being the only sound that could be heard. But, the feeling of being watched remained, allowing him to turn around in search for the Wolgarm.

Suddenly, it sprung from the left, leaving Subaru little time to react, but he still somehow managed to maneuver the jacket-covered hand just in time for the demonic german shepherd-like creature to bite into it. "I don't feel… any pain!" Subaru shouted and put most of his strength to throw the Wolgarm over his head and impale it on the branch. But Subaru didn't let the dog free itself and after a few moments, the Wolgarm stopped struggling. It was finally dead.

Subaru silently cheered in his mind that he survived his first encounter with a Mabeast. But suddenly, dozens - no, hunderts - of red eyes stared at him from the surrounding forest. And now, Subaru sweated way more than before. Even if he somehow manages to fight against them without a weapon, they'll just overwhelm him with their numbers.

And then, three dogs jumped at him, only to end up smashed by something. What the-?! he thought before the massive frame of Ghost entered his vision with Rem and Snow cutting down and smashing the incoming dogs in tandem. "Come on! We won't be able to hold them back any longer!" Snow shouted and Subaru once again sat down on the great wolf, which then took off towards the barrier.

"You're strong!" Subaru complimented Rem, when he saw her throw her Morningstar at a wave of incoming Wolgarms, smashing them all in one go. "It's for protection," he remembered her saying before they found the kids, when she showed her Morningstar for the first time without the intent to kill him.

"That's not a nice thing to say to a lady," she responded after that, smashing his compliment in nearly the same manner as Emilia did, but with a bit more anger in her voice. But, any more argument was stopped by the sound of a puppy barking somewhere nearby.

And then, the ground shook, throwing Ghost off the muddy road, tossing the trio on it in two different directions - Subaru and Snow to the left and Rem to the right. They all managed to stand up and look behind… only to see the critter in the middle of the road with several Wolgarm dogs guarding its sides and back.

Damn it! He cursed in his mind and tightened his jacket on his hand, preparing to kill another Wolgarm by impaling it, or holding it long enough for his allies to kill it instead. But then, he got another bright (stupid) idea, stared hard on the puppy and shouted with all his might the only spell he was able to cast.

"[SHAMAK]!" Subaru shouted suddenly and Jon watched the critter and some of its guards ending up enveloped in a thick black mist, which he knew would rob it of their senses, also causing the idiot to nearly fall from exhaustion that suddenly struck him like the spell - which was casted with surprisingly much better control than before - did the Wolgarm dogs.

But, before he could fall into an unconscious state that happened after mana depletion (as Puck told them at the very beginning of Subaru's lessons), Rem caught him and put something into his mouth. And Jon watched Subaru suddenly get over the exhaustion just like those five days ago.

And Jon then engaged with some of the not-affected beasts, giving Rem enough time to reposition herself and re-engage their enemy. But what he didn't expect was the puppy going on a blind dampage, forcing Rem to push Subaru from a mudslide, taking the full brunt of the attack instead. And Jon watched helplessly as Rem's limp body flew into the air, falling hard on the ground soon after.

But, he recovered from his shock and attacked the dogs, which took the opportunity to go after Subaru. Fending a few waves of them, until…

"Ahahahaha…" someone laughed and Jon turned to see Rem's lifeless body slowly stand up, her head snapping up and a small pink-and-white horn started forming on her forehead. But, that wasn't the most disturbing thing about her. No. Her face was. That crazed look promised pain to anyone who dared to cross paths with her.

"HAHAHAHHAHAHAHA!" The laugh sounded more crazy and grew louder by each passing second and then her Morningstar flew towards the recovering guards of the critter and Rem flew into frenzy, reminding him of the tales about his grandfather and Theon The Hungry wolf Stark combined.

"Mabeast! Mabeast! Mabeast! Mabeast! Witch!" Rem shouted as she was kicking, bashing, smashing and punching the Wolgarm dogs, leaving death all around herself as she slowly - only thanks to the critter spawning more Wolgarm - made her way towards it.

But then, Jon noticed some of the surviving Wolgarm guards go to Rem's unprotected side. He knew that he'd be late to stop them from killing the maid for good, but…

Subaru leapt towards her and pushed, making the horn disappear and madness replaced shock on Rem's face, only for the idiot to take the brunt of the Wolgarm assault, screaming in pain from being made the dogs' munching toy. It was also an unbelievably bloody sight too.

Only then Jon decided to jump into action, killing most of the dogs and scaring the rest away with a quick [Goa] shot into their direction. "We must hurry and take him to the village!" If he dies, it all resets again, he added in his mind to his sentence to not trigger the taboo placed on them.

And after hauling Subaru's unconscious body on Ghost's back and helping the still shaken Rem to walk away after healing Subaru's wounds. After all, the critter decided to retreat after Subaru saved her, allowing them to escape. But, Jon couldn't help but feel that something big is going to happen soon.