Update! I'm not dead! Seriously, I'm sorry this took so long, a combination of being sick, writer's block and refamiliarising myself with canon kept pushing things back. In the end, I decided not to change how I do Roswaal because no one seemed to have a problem with it and stretching out the words can be annoying to read.

First Week

Roswaal had called everyone back to his office after the fights. He lounged in his chair with Ram and Rem standing attentively at his side, and beckoned Subaru and Emilia over to some spare seats.

"Congratulations~, Subaru-kun, on your triumph. As promised~, you will be made Lady Emilia's official knight. The soonest~ we can hold the ceremony is in one~ week. That is also~ when your official blade should arrive. Until then, you may feel free~ to busy yourself however you like in your free time~."

Subaru was shocked, however. "Wait, knight? I thought I was gonna just be some low-paygrade guard! Don't I need to go through some sort of intense training to be a knight?"

"I believed~ knightship was implied? Normally, you do~ need training, but as you've already proved~ your incredible power, we can skip past~ all that and head straight to knighting. So there should~ be no problem… unless, of course~, you don't want to be Lady Emilia's knight?" He had a slightly worried expression on his face, like he'd planned for every scenario except for this one.

Emilia looked really guilty at this, and held out her hand in a placating manner. "It's alright if you don't, Subaru. I can understand why being a half elf's knight would be a bad thing to happen to you, don't feel bad if you say no."

He shot out of his chair, arms flailing. "Whoa, slow down, I never said no! I'd love to be Emilia's knight! I was just wondering why I barely had to do anything for it, that's all."

Rem remained impassive, but internally she was seething. 'That damned cultist thinks our duel was "barely anything"? I'll show him…'

Both Roswaal and Emilia were immensely relieved, and the former even regained his signature smirk.

"To be fair~, you did single-handedly drive off Elsa Granhiert~, the Bowel Hunter. Not to mention sweeping the floor with my dear~ maids here. I think you've done more~ than enough for a passing grade, Subaru-kun. But more pressingly, how much do you know~ about the current political state of this country? Those clothes don't seem~ to be from around here."

Subaru sheepishly rubbed the back of his head. "Ah, you see… I'm actually kind of new around here, but I know all the royalty died off and Emilia's a candidate to be the 52nd king. Yeah?"

"42nd~ king."

He snapped his fingers. "Right. So apart from that, there's some Sage council with Dragon stuff that tells them things to do with the Royal Selection. People don't want some old dudes running the country, so the council had to do the Selection? Basically, things are pretty crap right now. Wait a minute, didn't Puck say that the disease only killed off the royal family? And then I rock up from outta nowhere? I'm totally suspect here!"

Roswaal was sat with his hands clasped and a look of pride on his face someone might have if a child accomplished something. Combined with his oversized seat, he was the very image of condescending. "Why yes~, it does indeed~ make you appear mistrustful. But as you have the confidence of Lady Emilia~, and apparently Sir Reinhard, I'm inclined to believe~ you just so happen to have some rather unfortunate circumstances."

Literally wiping sweat off his brow, Subaru gave a lopsided grin. "Yep, that's me! I'm guessing before I can be a knight or interact with other people I'm gonna have to read up on history and Lugnica in general, but step one might be teaching me to read in the first place… I don't actually know how."

A chorus of facepalms filled the room.

Emilia gave a small smile and said, rather optimistically, "That's fine, I'm sure we can figure something out for you. I guess it isn't even that odd if I think about it, seeing as you're in unfamiliar surroundings."

"Yes~, I suppose Lady Emilia is correct~. We only have a week to prepare you so you'd better soak up information like a sponge~, Subaru-kun, and then you'll need to study~ as fast as possible for when the fifth candidate~ is found. Ram, would you go and prepare a room for the newest~ member of our household, and Rem, could you go and finish up today's work?"

The twin maids nodded and hurried out the door.

"Now~, we'll begin your learning tomorrow. Feel free to make full use of my humble~ abode, and you two may now go."

Subaru pumped his fist. "Sounds great! I'm gonna head off to bed soon to make sure I'm up to train tomorrow."

"Wait, Subaru! Let's go to the garden so I can talk to the spirits!"

Dashing off, Emilia had to run to keep up with him. Neither of them saw it, but Roswaal had a smug look on his face as they left. 'It seems like everything's working out so far…'

The duo made their way back to the garden, and Emilia walked a few steps away before closing her eyes. Clasping her hands in front of her and muttering inaudibly under her breath, glowing orbs of light started appearing around her.

Subaru's jaw hit the floor and, with the sunset illuminating her from behind, he admired just how beautiful Emilia really was.

"E.M.T."

She cracked open an eye and frowned at him.

"What was that, Subaru? I'm trying to concentrate here."

"Nothing! I'll tell you later… maybe!"

She let go and turned to face him fully, the spirits dissipating save for a few who fluttered around Subaru a few times.

"Honestly, you're so silly. But I don't think I've ever seen anyone with such a high affinity for spirits! I'm one of the more powerful spirit arts users, and even I have to concentrate to call them. With you, however, they just came straight over! Puck also took a liking to you, and he has really high standards."

"Ooh, how lucky I must be for the father to approve. Anyway, you saying these spirits like me? Does that mean I can contract them and use spells or stuff?"

"Well, technically you could, but they seem more attracted to boost or heal you of their own free will than contract with you. They probably see you as a power figure to try and assist rather than a person to obey. And I don't think you would be able to summon them, they likely only came to you because they were already here."

"Crap. So I'm a pity magnet. Well, no matter. I guess it's better than nothing. Goodnight, Emilia!"

At that, he headed back to the mansion. After two circuits of the building searching for his room, Subaru found a tiny note stuck to a door with his name on it and promptly ripped it to shreds with a curse. He walked in and crashed on the bed, asleep.

Meanwhile, back in Roswaal's office, Ram and Roswaal were staring at each other in surprise. He'd just began administering her nightly mana treatment, due to the loss of her horn, when a bright pink glow filled the room.

Said horn was protruding from Ram's forehead, fully formed.

"Whatever~ could have caused this, Ram~? Not even the greatest~ Lugnican healers such as Blue~ could regenerate your horn. Could it have been~ Subaru-kun?"

She nodded slowly. "It's… plausible. When he did whatever that was to reattach my arm it did feel like my whole body was invigorated. But even with the use of witch magic, is that possible?" Ram hopped off his lap and they both turned, looking out the window to see Subaru running off.

"We shall see~, only time will tell."

—

The next day he was roused by Ram's unimpressed face. She was holding a box tied shut with string

"It's already dawn, Barusu. Time to get up."

He burrowed down into the bedding and groaned. "So earlyyyyyy, why can't I just go back to sleep for now? After all, I did just recover from a fatal injury…"

The covers were thrown back and he was dragged by his hair onto the floor.

"Ow! Ow! Ow!"

"Pathetic. Lady Beatrice's magic healed you fully, and you were fine yesterday. Get up and try to make some use of the air you're currently wasting."

"Harsh, man. But I gotta hand it to ya, that was a pretty successful wakeup." Chancing a look through his open curtains, Subaru could just about see the sun peeking over some trees. "Wait a second, the hell do you even need me for at freaking sunrise! I'm a soon-to-be knight, not some peasant servant!"

"In your words, 'the hell I need you for' is something necessary before you even think of being knighted. A tour of the mansion, education on the language, this country and its history, learning about the Royal Selection, its candidates and proper knightly etiquette so you don't offend people by merely existing, physical training, and setting a good morning schedule you don't act like a this every day."

He blanched. "That… is a surprisingly well thought out answer. I can't really argue against that. And like the gracious person I am, I shall ignore those insults you snuck in there and get straight to work."

Ram rolled her eyes and dropped the package on his supersized desk. The room was packed full of frankly unnecessary furniture and decorations, but that was neither here nor there. "First, get dressed. You mustn't be seen wearing that unsightly outfit. Until your knight's attire is ready, you'll be wearing this. Though it's a suit that would normally be for butler's, it looks respectable enough to surpass for now. I'll be waiting. Don't take long, Barusu. And yes, I did indeed measure you while you were sleeping." She took up a perch in the hallway outside, smirking.

"H-hey!" Pulling some neatly folded clothes out of the box, he grumbled, "Some nerve for someone who got beaten into unconsciousness yesterday…"

"I heard that!"

—

The whole morning was spent memorising the manor layout and teaching Subaru how to read and write, both of which he picked up fairly quickly. By lunch he had the whole language down. He once again thanked whatever entity was god in this world for his Authority of Pride, seeing as his memory was normally nowhere near as good. When he was around thirty minutes into the origin myths with Emilia, like the Dragon and the Witch, Ram barged in. She looked slightly unnerved and had a notably confused expression.

"The Sword Saint has just arrived. He… asked for you, Barusu. Specifically."

"Oh, Reinhard! Makes sense he'd want to check up on me after what happened back there. Where's he waiting?

"I don't even want to know how or why you're on a first-name basis with the Sword Saint. He's in the foyer, best not keep him waiting."

Subaru jogged through the estate and rounded the corner into the lobby, raising a hand to the redhead sitting in one of the chairs.

"Hey, Reinhard! Glad to see you again after what, three days? I don't actually know how long I was out."

He smiled at him. "Three, Subaru. I came to visit to make sure you're alright after that fight. I believe she was the assassin known as the Bowel Hunter, but the Margrave may have already informed you of that. Whatever you did to her doesn't seem like it lasted, however. We received reports of multiple gutting incidents the next day, along with one of her knives left behind in a body."

"Ah, damn it. So that means Lust has some sort of time limit or countermeasure. Still powerful though. Oh, guess what! I'm officially gonna be Emilia's knight! Roswaal said he'd knight me in a week or so. Until then I have to do a bunch of boring crap like learning about this country and etiquette. But on the bright side, Pride increases my memory a ton so I've already memorised the entire written language and every room of this giant mansion!"

"That's great to hear. Although I don't know how happy some of the other knights may be, as it usually takes quite a while to get knighted and to earn their respect… one week, you say? I'll see if I can take some time off to be there."

"That would be great, but don't feel like you have to. I dunno if you were planning to head back straight away or what, but do you wanna practice hand to hand fighting for a bit? I could do with some training so I don't get sliced open again."

Reinhard offered a small laugh and waved him towards the door. "As a matter of fact, today is another one of my days off. The commander didn't take kindly when he heard I was still patrolling last time. Though we probably shouldn't in here; let's head outside."

They walked out to the side of the courtyard, and Reinhard swept some leaves to the side.

"Ah, before we begin, can you tell me what being the Sword Saint means? I've heard it a few times now, and I'm really confused. I guess it means you're super strong?"

"Apologies for not telling you beforehand. That title belongs to the holder of the Divine Protection of the Sword Saint, which is unlike other Divine Protections as it's passed down through a single family: the Astrea family. It allows the user to use the Dragon Sword Reid and also draw out any latent potential they have with the sword, but that isn't the only reason for my title. I have an unparalleled amount of Protections from the Od Laguna, so I'm a comfortably above-average fighter."

'Talk about humble…'

"First of all, let's try to have you hit me. I can point out ways to improve your technique, and my Divine Protection of Training Mastery can help you grow even more."

Subaru clapped his hands delightedly. "That's great! My Authority of Pride makes my muscle memory really good too, so I'll be swinging perfect punches left right and centre soon!"

He ran at Reinhard with a fist cocked, like he was going to hit him right in the face, but at the last second brought his left up and swung for the stomach. It seemed like it was going to connect until Reinhard blinked and was suddenly standing a few metres away.

"Good idea for the feint, but you were too obvious. Your left hand was clenched the whole time and you were glaring at my gut, not my face. You need to be able to control every aspect of your body in a fight, not just your fists. Try again."

They kept at it for a few more hours, until Subaru called a break and literally collapsed. He was sweating buckets, while Reinhard just stood there without a single hair out of place. But during the training, Subaru had notably gotten better. To the point where he was a fraction of a second away from socking the Sword Saint right across the jaw, until he used what Subaru calls "god-mode cheats" to back up. If Subaru was just an average boy then he would have a promising amount of potential; with his Authorities Reinhard had no doubt he'd be a powerful warrior with due time.

Picking himself up, he wobbled slightly before hitting the ground again. "Maybe we could go eat now? You got here right before lunch and I think the maids were too scared to come near us…"

They both glanced over at the hastily erected barricade, separating them from the rest of the mansion.

Reinhard nodded sheepishly and set off to the doors. When it became apparent Subaru couldn't follow, he lifted him into a princess carry and walked them both to the lobby, ignoring the complaints. A large plate was set out, packed full of sandwiches, along with a jug of water and paper cups. While Reinhard took a meagre helping, Subaru gorged himself on so much food that he could hardly walk afterwards, now for a different reason than exhaustion.

He groaned, but nevertheless stood up and stretched. "Can I use my Authorities now, and you defend against them? I don't think I can take much more of attempting to hit an impossible target."

"Sure." Reinhard also stood and followed him back outside. "We may as well go through them in alphabetical order. To start off, attack me with Greed. And don't hold back; my Divine Protections should be able to keep me safe."

Subaru gave a mock salute and scraped up some loose dirt and stones. He hesitated slightly, but ultimately threw it all at Reinhard. However, when the junk came near enough, it warped and spun around him before continuing on its way.

"Ah, that was the Protection of Arrow Evasion. Despite being called that, all thrown weapons curve around me. I'm assuming that it wasn't any ordinary mud?"

Grinning, Subaru nodded and picked up another handful. He held out his hand and just dropped it, but didn't predict where all of it would land. Reinhard could only watch in confusion as some of the soil splattered over his foot and he squealed like a girl, before hopping around clutching it like an idiot. But upon closer inspection, Reinhard could see the various pits in the ground and the blood dripping from the shoe, and realised the stuff dropped hadn't slowed down at all.

A second later Subaru kicked the shoe off and ripped away his sock, and the Sword Saint could only watch in fascination as the flesh seemed to coalesce and fill the holes. Blood stopped leaking out and the skin seemed to smooth over, and then Subaru tentatively put it back on the ground to test it out.

"Don't get me wrong, healing's great and all… but why does it have to hurt so freaking much in the first place!"

"That was an incredibly powerful ability before, Subaru. Would you mind explaining to me the specifics? Of course, if it's sensitive information you wish to keep private then I'll respect that."

"No prob, man. It's called Stillness of an Object's Time, and it can… well, freeze the time of anything. I can stop rocks, water, air, and even my own body! But if I'm gonna do that last one I can only hold it for around five seconds before I'm in danger of a heart attack. If I stop, it's only logical my heart does too, right? But what the heck happens to my other organs? To get rid of that timer, I need to stick my heart into someone else who I have to consider a wife. Bit weird, I know, but I don't make these rules. Then, because my heart is no longer inside of me or something, I never have to stop being an invincible tank." Throughout the explanation, he made various nonsensical poses and hand motions to further confuse his one-man audience.

"I… think I see. Shall we do Gluttony now?"

Subaru's eyes widened and he shook his head hastily. "Nonono, no! If I use that then either the entire world will forget about you, or you'll forget about the entire world! And I don't even want to think of how bad things would be screwed up if the entire population suddenly forgot you, that would leave a huge hole in everyone's memories."

"Oh. Yes; that would be rather unpleasant. Which Authority would you prefer then, Subaru?"

He scratched his head. "I mean, I guess we could try Sloth. Unseen Hand, the name pretty much gives it away. I can use invisible limbs to smack people around a bunch. Like… this!"

Reinhard flipped back a few meters, but wasn't sure why. However, he did know that his Divine Protection of First Sight had activated. Then Second Sight triggered and he felt like he urgently needed to move again, so he took a small step to the right and something whistled past his head.

"Damn you, Reinhard. I'm guessing you have some sort of crazy ability that lets you dodge bloody everything in existence?"

"I'm afraid I do." He was oblivious to Subaru's eye roll. "But that is certainly useful. I imagine you could catch all sorts of enemies off guard and they wouldn't even know what hit them. If you hadn't foretold me, I wouldn't either. But how good is it when the opponent knows what's coming, Subaru? Make sure to only use that!" He unsheathed a sword and charged Subaru. Not the massive, ornately decorated one hanging on his hip, but one less flashy.

It was all Subaru could do to avoid the first swing. Reinhard was a powerhouse and even though he brought up three Unseen Hands, they were sliced through like paper. Five of them compressed as much as possible to cover his ribs still left him with a small nick, and then Reinhard slammed the hilt into his chest to send him flying into the hard-packed ground.

As the wind was knocked out of him, he realised his usual five wouldn't be enough. But when Subaru concentrated and reached for the familiar sensation of pulling out another Hand, he hit a brick wall. It wasn't that he was near his limit; five was hardly straining him and he'd even managed it within a minute or so of gaining his powers.

Concluding that someone or something was blocking him, he waved his hand in a 'wait' motion at Reinhard.

"Hang on, a bit of a problemo. Despite the fact I could probably push fifty… it's weird. Stuck at five. Lemme ask Pride."

His brow furrowed as he got the answer. "Oh. 'Due to the current existence of two Witch Factors of Sloth, they must be reunited into one area or vessel for the maximum potential to take place. Until then, the capabilities of both will be severely limited. The holder must combine their Witch Factors or stay close enough to each other to make full use of the Authority. This applies to any other Witch Factors being shared amongst multiple, non-blood-related people.' I guess that makes some kind of sense. What do you think, Reinhard? Do I need to find the other dude with Sloth and nab his?"

Reinhard dropped his sword and held out a hand, hauling a battered Subaru to his feet. "It's a curious situation, as little is known about Authorities other than that they're a form of Witch magic and the leaders of the cult have them. The Sage council, some nobles and a select few knights, including myself and my friends Julius and Ferris, are the only ones aware of this; the Witch Cult doesn't seem to be too pleased when information gets out about certain things. Fifteen years ago, one Archbishop even went so far as to single-handedly massacre the fortified city of Garkla. It was a heavily defended city in Vollachia, manned by thousands of veteran soldiers. The reason was rumoured to be merely because he heard some merchants talking about a Witch's meteor being sold there. Our intel is so little that we still have yet to even confirm the Archbishop's identity, let alone if there was such a meteor and consequently what happened to it. It just goes to show how much of a serious threat we're actually up against."

Subaru's reactions had varied throughout. He went from confusion to shock, then awe, and finally back to confusion. "Whoa there, man. Few questions: the heck's the Witch Cult? Obviously, a cult believing in the Witch from those fairy tales, I guess? The Jealous Witch or something similar. But what do they do, and who's part of it? And then there's that dude who trashed a city. No idea who he is, but if I have the same Authorities as the other evil guys then I'd guess he had Greed. All of 'em are overpowered as hell, but that's the one that comes to mind when mass destruction pops up."

"The Witch Cult is an overzealous organisation comprised of lunatics who devote themselves to the Witch of Envy. Nobody knows the details of it, and as I mentioned before the amount and identities of members are a mystery. All we have on them is that they're led by the Archbishops, who have Authorities, and everyone uses Gospels. Small black books that can easily fit in a shirt pocket, and lead the user to their desired future. But the few that Lugnica has taken custody of appear to be unreadable. The brave souls who risked their lives to glimpse their pages couldn't understand anything and it looked to be random symbols, but when someone tried to apply logic to learn the language of a Gospel, they went insane. Since then it's been prohibited to open one and only the Sage council knows where they are stored."

"Insanity-inducing-books. That sounds kinda funny… actually, no it doesn't. That sounds terrifying. But ignoring the freaky stuff, I can probably come up with some ways to fight back against the Archbishops. It kinda helps that I presumably have the same powers as them."

Reinhard patted him on the back and thanked him. "On a side note, Subaru, what weapon do you use? You mentioned earlier you're getting a sword, but have you tried any others? The whip is quite powerful if you can master it."

Shaking his head, Subaru sighed. "I've not had time to do much of anything, really. I got gutted on my first day in the country, spent the next one unconscious, woke up in some fancy mansion and after meeting the new people I had to fight two of them - one of whom genuinely wanted to end me, and today I've been studying like mad. I'll try out a whip whenever I can, but my schedule is jam-packed thanks to the damn Royal Selection. It's surprising that the pink one even let me have a break today. Which has stretched on quite a while; if you don't have anything else to talk about d'you mind if I head back now? There's so much I need to do before the Selection, and I have already been warned excessively by Ram that it could kick off any day now so I need to be prepared to be 'less like myself'."

After a quick goodbye and promise to meet up again sometime soon, they parted ways. Subaru hurried back to the mansion and, just as he'd expected, Ram was standing in the doorway with her hands on her hips.

"You took your time, Barusu."

He sighed and dramatically hung his head. "Yeah, sorry. But technically I was training, so it'll be helpful in my very important and elegant knightly duties. Can't counter that one, can you?"

Turning on her heel, she set off towards the doors. "Pathetic, needing to come up with excuses for someone whose rank is far lower than your own."

"Oh come on!"

—

He dragged himself through the rest of the day, and the next. It was just more boring lessons on the country. Subaru was lying in bed at the end of his third day and honestly thought that his brain would overheat and start melting down, but thankfully Ram told him tomorrow was a break. Rem would be going to the village and he was encouraged to tag along, as a way to get some fresh air from all the stuffy learning. Rem didn't look pleased in the slightest but nonetheless agreed to let him accompany her.

Somewhere in Gusteko…

Capella Emerada Lugnica, Sin Archbishop representing Lust, simply could not comprehend the situation at hand. When one of her most fearsome and faithful children had not returned an entire hour after the Gospel had slated her mission's end, Capella herself had been forced to go out searching the barren lands of Gusteko. Alas, upon locating Elsa Granhiert, she had merely found a mangy mutt scratching at a tree with scraps of cloth clinging to its fur. Once she had reverted it to her follower, the beaten up and humiliated Elsa had explained herself and told the story of how some boy dared to mimic the power unique to the Authority of Lust - the love that she alone deserved. And as the loveliest of all ladies, she was practically snarling in anger.

But when Capella had attempted to turn into her huge dragon form and go on a rampage until she found the perpetrator, she… well, found that it was impossible. The transformation no longer existed as far as her Authority was concerned, and even when specifically changing certain small parts or tweaking minor details, nothing remotely similar to a dragon or with any of her dragon's capabilities got the green light.

Marching off towards the nearest village, she took out her fury on the unfortunate inhabitants. And by the time Capella departed, satisfied and almost an hour later, the only things left in the town were pulsating piles of meat in puddles of blood.

This was proofread and uploaded at like 3am because I don't sleep. I also added some more info to Gluttony back in chapter 1, someone rightly pointed out that the way I summarised it made Solar Eclipse seem like a shitty version of Lust. Got no idea if that stuff about the Gospel making people go mad is true or not, but I think it seems reasonable enough considering the nature of the cult. I got the idea of limiting the Authorities rather than Subaru's power itself from Re:Start, where Regulus lost his Lion's Heart, because I thought it would be better to 'unlock' more stuff as he kills the Archbishops. So he wouldn't feel weak but would also need to surpass quite a large obstacle, when said obstacle would be coming after him with serious bloodlust.

And just wondering: should I use the Japanese names for the 3 Great Mabeasts like Hakugei, Kurohebi and Oousagi, or the English like White Whale, Black Serpent and Great Rabbit (for later on). Or a mix of both to avoid saying the same thing over and over.