A Dance with Death
Subaru was flicking a knife in his hand, as he was trying to connect his thoughts.
Subaru: "So... You are telling me that, the all powerful red haired knight is called Reinhard?"
Subaru stepped on Chin's head.
Chin with a muffled voice: "I told you already! That's all I know."
Subaru: "Well that was rude. Make sure you don't scream this time, or you will share the same fate as Ton and Kan over there."
Subaru pointed a finger at the two bloodied up corpses.
Subaru grabbed the knife he was playing with in mid air, and stabbed Chin's finger. A faint scream could be heard as Chin bit down his arm, desperately trying to suppress his voice.
Subaru: "Good boy. Well then, that concludes the research, I appreciate your cooperation."
Subaru smiled at Chin, as he pulled out the knife, then he proceeded to slash his own throat. Blood spilled all over the ground and on Chin. Confused and horrified of this entire situation, Chin got up and ran, while screaming: "SOMEONE! PLEASE HELP ME, THIS FUCKER IS CRAZY!"
Subaru had snapped back to the checkpoint, once again. He brushed his hands against his throat, he felt slight pain transfer over from the last loop. Unlike most other times, Subaru's nervous system finally got used to this phantom anomaly, thus he just simply brushed it off.
Subaru: "Well, I have all the info I need. Time to get started."
Subaru ran towards the guard tower in which he had previously met Julius. He wasted as little of his energy as he could, however he made sure to build up some sweat, and also slightly bruising up his arms, after all he need to convince Julius.
Subaru made sure to keep the encounter as close to the original as he could. He told a similar sounding story, guards refused to help, he begged on his knees, and yet again Julius decided to help him out.
As Julius rushed out to track down Felt, Subaru focused on his body, it was not long until Subaru felt a warm sensation above his shoulder.
Subaru: "Bingo."
Leaving the guard tower, Subaru made sure to brush off any dust and debris from his clothing. He tidied himself up and let the sweat dry off, he had to look somewhat presentable for the plan to work.
Subaru slapped his hands together and said : "Oh boy... Time for the main event!"
Subaru was leaning against a old crate, not too far from the loot house. His stomach rumbled, he was clearly stressed out.
Subaru: "Any minute now."
As Subaru uttered these words he heard the sound of heels approaching in his direction, this was the person he was looking for.
Subaru put on his best poker face and readied himself. A tall voluptuous woman walked past him. He made sure to give her a bit of time to walk past him before he said anything.
Subaru: "Well, well, well. what brings the bowel hunter here?"
Elsa had stopped in her tracks, clearly this stranger had caught her attention, but she had yet to turn around. Subaru by simply glancing at her could feel the murderous aura emanate from her body.
Subaru: "What business do you have at the loot hou.."
Elsa in an instant dashed at Subaru, stopping her blade only few millimeters away from his eye.
Elsa in a intrigued tone: "Not even a flinch, huh…"
Subaru: "Why would I flinch, if you were serious about killing me you would have went for my stomach, Elsa."
Subaru made sure to give Elsa a death stare, locking his eyes with hers. One of Elsa's eyes twitched slightly, then she licked her lip and put on a large smile.
Elsa: "My, you have quite the guts, I would love to cut you open and see them for myself."
Subaru gave Elsa a sinister smile, but it soon faded.
Subaru: "Well Elsa, I came here to make a deal, give up on the Insignia and your target."
Elsa: "Wait, How do you..?"
Subaru interrupted her with a loud chuckle.
Subaru: "Very unprofessional of you to confirm it, regardless of that, your mission has been compromised."
Elsa: "I don't know what your talking about."
Subaru: "You are concealing a small sac near your hip. It contains 20 holy coins which your employer gave you in order to buy the stolen insignia."
Elsa was speechless, she clearly tried saying something but then stopped.
Subaru: "You see Elsa, I came here prepared, unlike the idiot who employed you. He clearly did not do a good job to prevent the information from getting leaked. Thanks to him the mission and your safety are both in jeopardy. The thief was caught, the insignia recovered, and your target is under heavy guard, by Reinhard van Astrea no less. I think even someone as strong and as capable as you would not want to cross her blade with him."
Subaru then cleared up his throat.
Subaru: "I know what you are capable of bowel hunter, you are a skilled assassin, you also posses a power to regenerate wounds instantaneously. However, I'm sure that even someone as monstrous as you would not walk away unscathed after an encounter with the sword saint.
He gave a pause as he took a large breath.
Subaru: "All you have to do is follow my simple instructions. Tell your employer that mission is a no go, as the thief has been apprehended, and Reinhard himself got involved in this whole situation, due to the seriousness of it. The person who hired you is clearly not very bright, but I'm certain even he would not want you to get involved with the sword saint."
Subaru put on a smug look as he continued his speech.
Subaru: "In the end you don't really lose anything. You get to walk away unharmed, with 20 extra holy coins on top. The employer cant blame the operation's failure on you either. Clearly a win scenario for you."
Elsa: "Why should I believe you?"
Subaru let out a maniacal cackle.
Subaru: "After all I told you? Clearly you must be in denial."
Elsa took a step back.
Elsa: "What if I just kill your right here."
Elsa in an instant appeared behind Subaru, now her knife pressing against his throat.
Subaru: "Elsa, what good does that do for you? If you wanted to kill me, you could have done so, just as easily from your previous position. At this point you are hesitating and lying to yourself Elsa. What you just did further proves my point. So, what now?"
Elsa: "What if I refuse?"
Subaru pointed above his shoulder, a barely noticeable red light flickered.
Subaru: "This little spirit will attach himself to you, then it would be only a matter of seconds until Reinhard would track you down."
Elsa laughed loudly, then she proceeded to pull her knife away from Subaru's throat.
Elsa: "This is the first time I've been cornered without direct use of force. I'm starting to like you more."
Subaru: "So, do we have a deal Elsa?"
Subaru turned around, Elsa gave him nod. She then proceeded to turn back and leave.
Subaru: "Before you go, I have one proposition."
Elsa stopped and and looked at Subaru.
Subaru: "How about you work for me Elsa? Unlike your current employer I wont throw you in blind danger, and I shall provide far greater compensation. What do you say?"
Elsa: "How shall we communicate then?"
Subaru: "Elsa, you are an assassin, I'm sure you will have absolutely no problems tracking me down."
Elsa gave Subaru a genuine smile.
Elsa: "Before I leave can you answer this?"
Subaru: "I'm listening."
Elsa: "Were you so confident in your plan that failure was not something you had even considered as a possible outcome? What if the negotiations broke down and I killed you without even letting you say a single word. I don't sense any magic around you, so how are you so unafraid of death?"
Subaru: "Well why would I be scared? If I died, I would just try again."
Subaru gave Elsa a cheeky smile.
Elsa: "I do not quite understand what you mean by that, however I can clearly tell from your eyes that this would not be your first dance with death, would it?"
Subaru shrugged. Elsa returned a curious look, after which she proceeded to lick her lips.
As Elsa left Subaru let out a huge sigh of relief. It felt as if a large weight had lifted from his back. He took a deep breath and smiled. Being so close to death made him value the fact that he was still alive.
As Subaru was temporarily daydreaming, he heard sounds of footsteps approaching. It was Julius, he yet again had successfully caught Felt and recovered the Insignia. Subaru this time made sure to sound less suspicious. This act clearly payed off because, as Julius left, Subaru could no longer feel the warm sensation above his shoulder.
Amulet acquired and the biggest threat, Elsa, being out of the picture meant that, he was only one simple step away from finishing this taxing quest.
Subaru had made good use of RBD, he had accumulated many loops after his almost successful one. Thus, rather than looking for Emilia, Subaru instead decided to find Ram. He more or less had a general idea of Emilia's pathing, but Ram did not really follow a simple pattern, thus making her harder to find with each passing minute.
Making sure to walk carefully near every turn, Subaru finally came across the pink haired maid, he went up to her and asked.
Subaru: "Hello miss, would you happened to be with the white haired elf that got robbed not too long ago?"
Ram gave Subaru a deep stare, she observed him from head to toe, and after an awkward silence she responded.
Ram: "Yes."
Subaru: "Then I have good news. Me and my friend managed to capture the thief, we turned her over to the knights and also recovered an item."
Subaru rummaged through his pocket and pulled out the Insignia.
Subaru: "Would this be the item you were looking for?"
Ram nodded and replied: "Yes, that is the Insignia that was stolen from us."
Subaru then proceeded to hand it over to Ram.
Ram bowed down and replied: "Thank you very much. Please wait for me here. I shall find Emilia-sama and be with you shortly. My master would be more than willing to reward you for this deed."
Subaru: "Would it be okay if I followed you instead? Together we could find her faster."
Ram paused again, she then eyed Subaru even more. She specifically focused around his hip area, probably looking for any hidden weapons. After she finished, she gave Subaru a cold gaze, but it was clearly not a disrespectful one.
Ram: "Certainly, I apologize for the inconvenience."
Subaru: "No problem, its my pleasure to be of use."
Ram gave Subaru another stare as he said those words.
Subaru to himself: "Damn she is cautious."
Subaru's vast knowledge about Emilia's possible locations came in handy, as it did not take the duo too long to find her in the slums, yet again surrounded by a rowdy mob, which was yelling profanities at her.
As Subaru readied himself to swoop in, Ram without a word leaped in the middle of the crowd. The sheer shockwave this created scared most of them off.
Subaru in a perturbed tone: "Wooah…".
Subaru was kind of disappointed, as he did not get to make a good first impression.
Emilia introduced herself to Subaru, she thanked him wholeheartedly, to the point where she almost cried.
The trio then headed towards the gate, but this time no one tailing them, well at least not for the same reason as before. Subaru was still slightly on edge, he could no see her, he could not hear her, but he clearly felt Elsa's presence near him. At this point, after dying to her soo many times, he had acquired a 6th sense.
As they finally reached the outskirts of the city, Ram left and few minutes later brought back a fancy looking dragon carriage. Subaru and Emilia went inside the cabin, it clearly belonged to someone wealthy, and the sits were extremely comfortable. Emilia was talkative, but all the built up stress and anxiety overwhelmed Subaru, as he proceeded to doze off. Finally, after around 1000 hours, Subaru was finally able to get some sleep.
Sorry for the delay! Having problems with free time. I hope the wait was worth it!
Enjoy :D