Disclaimer : I do not own either Oregairu or Re:Zero
Sometime during the talk Puck had disappeared even before the woman had intruded which meant that sun had set. Hachiman looked at her and then at Reinhard expecting him to accept the orders of his superior. Surprisingly he didn't.
"I respect your position and integrity, Karsten-sama. However your qualification as a royal candidate creates a conflict of interest in this matter. Hence as a neutral party, the knight code prevents me from just handing it all over to you."
The woman stared into his eyes for a long time, before she retracted her hands. So she was also a candidate? Just how many of those were there? Did they grow on trees? The catgirl beside her said
"You're right nya. If the knight of knights says so, then it will be more credible to have all the candidates for this. Besides if they are targets of assassination as well then it concerns them too nya. Luckily it seems the other two candidates are here in capital as well so we can discuss things in a meeting. So could you two tell your masters nya?"
She directed her head towards two more approaching knights, one was completely in white with violet hair while the other was in a full body armor and one hand with helmet covering his face. So there were four candidates? No, five if he included the unknown one that only he knew about.
"Julius, Al, hmmm. That should be reasonable."
Reinhard also easily agreed this time after nodding towards them. That should have been the end of the matter but unfortunately the two new knights weren't so kind.
"What were you even doing in the slums? That is no place for a young Princess such as yourself to be at."
The armored knight teasingly directed the question to Emilia and yet it was with a voice full of suspicion. He was really throwing off Hachiman as there was no face to observe. Emilia looked like a child caught stealing candy, she really was bad at hiding things.
"I saw the shine of the dragon gem and also heard it. Looks like her insignia was stolen nya."
The duchess and the butler looked at the catgirl in surprise despite having come together. It seemed like sharp cat eyes and ears were at work. This was looking bad for the half-elf.
"Even though this does look bad on the candidate, the bigger issue is the thief. Where is the culprit?"
The violet haired knight asked with narrowed eyes. Regardless of whether he was trying to make things easy on Emilia out of chivalry or just a stickler for rules, this was getting bad for Felt now. It was looking more and more like someone needed to take the fall, whether it was Emilia, Felt, or someone else.
"There is no need for that! It has already ended so we can let it go."
Emilia tried to calm things down but was rejected by Karsten.
"We cannot do that. This grave event shows weakness of not only you, but the country and knight order in general, a result of our complacency and reliance on the Dragon which needs to end. Making an example of this thief with a trial and perhaps even a public execution is precisely what we need wake up the public. Perhaps we could have spared them if you had captured or killed the assassin but now we need a scapegoat."
He had realized by now that she wasn't as much like Yukino as he thought. Her idealism had already been tempered by reality, which make him idly wonder if Yukimama was like that. He knew it wasn't fair that he was associating everyone with people from previous world but it allowed him to stay sane and grounded.
Things were getting really bad though. Emilia could still say that she had only lost it instead of it getting stolen but that would show her as far more incompetent than she actually was, effectively ending her ambitions. If Felt got involved however, her life would be in danger. There was only one person who could afford to die here.
"I stole it."
Words came out of Hachiman's mouth before he could stop them. Emilia wanted to call him out and stop him from lying but she realized that she didn't even know his name. They had never done introductions. But how did he know their names then? Maybe Puck told him?.
"I saw the gemstone and thought that it would sell for a high price. Then I was targeted by the assassin and realized that I was dealing with dangerous stuff. She saved my life so I returned it to her."
The violet haired knight Julius directed an intense glare and moved towards him, probably to arrest him but was stopped by Karsten.
"Your lie is surprisingly convincing, unfortunately it doesn't work against me."
He should have figured that the one time he decided to outright lie, a living lie detector would show up.
"Now why would you risk your neck for the thief? No, prior to that, who are you?"
"I am called Hikio."
He remembered Emilia screaming Hikitani-kun in the first loop and he would be damned if he made Reinhard do the same.
"By whom?"
She smirked upon his surprised face. She wasn't as reliant on her ability as he thought.
"Did you think I would only rely on my ability? I know what half-truths are and they might have worked on me in the past. You would have to be either really lucky or a prodigal genius to fool me now. Now let me rephrase my question, who are you, where are you from and what is your allegiance?"
He had no choice but to completely stand in her opposition now.
"My name and such is irrelevant. All you need to know is that the thief's crime is not big enough for what you are planning so I cannot tell you where he is."
The gender bias he introduced should deflect them from Felt for a bit. It also wasn't technically a lie as old man Rom was involved. He valued a young life of that girl over the old giant and he was sure that the man himself would agree.
Julius did not like this one bit.
"We can catch the thief even without your cooperation. However you shall be punished for obstruction of justice and aiding the criminal."
He was ready to accept whatever punishment came but a blond blur jumped to him, grabbed him and tried to escape making him angry.
"What the hell are you doing?"
"ME? What are you doing sacrificing yourself instead of just selling me out?"
"You should be running if you heard all of that!"
"I don't like being in debt, even my virginity is not enough to repay this."
"Ugh, children should not talk like that."
"I AM 15!"
She shouted. The moment however was lost as the old butler easily stopped their momentum in air and pressed them both to the ground. Surprisingly the butler had reacted faster than any of the knights to subdue them and neither got hurt in the process. In the end they both got arrested despite Emilia and Reinhard's protest.
As Hachiman sat brooding in prison of the palace guard station, he finally had time to properly think about this whole matter. His prior assumptions were somewhat shaken so he reviewed what he knew.
- Someone had ordered Felt to steal the Insignia for royal selection, following which Elsa was supposed to retrieve it.
- The client was someone who had observed Emilia well and knew her strengths and weaknesses beforehand.
- Killing Emilia was likely not part of the plan or Elsa could have killed her with a sneak attack in the city itself and just taken the Insignia.
- Elsa's clothing was enchanted, which meant that there was likely at least one magician involved in all of this.
- The client might not have known about Felt being a royal selection candidate living in poverty and obscurity, Elsa certainly didn't. He couldn't even say if killing Felt was part of the plan or not.
- This meant that the client of this whole mess was intelligent but not smart. There was no consistency and there were moments with ridiculous amounts of stupidity. Unless they counted him in the plan but he wanted to believe that was impossible.
This did not paint a good picture, the enemy was unstable and dangerous. Either it was masterminds in plural with different levels of control, or the person had split personality, or they were receiving orders from someone above them and some of it was lost in translation, or perhaps even all of these things.
For now, he assigned chances to it being one of Emilia's allies playing games, rival royal selection candidates or the whole witch of envy business or anyone else he didn't know.
In short, he might be in a potential enemy's den. He wondered how many times he would die here.
A.N - This was a very important part of Re:Zero's first arc which I feel was never explored. Please let me know if there is a fanfiction which explores this. Its like Roswaal said, if the theft of the dragon gem insignia became known, it would badly hurt her chances at the throne with a point that she cannot complain about, unlike the whole half-elf discrimination.