Chapter 2:

"Alright," Clement said as he finished closing up their stand that day. A tarp was over the boxes of his merchandise in the back of the stand. He had taken all the money they had earned out of the counter. Clement had done his best to make the stall look bare. Subaru tilted his head and asked, "Do people... steal a lot around here or something?"

"Yeah... Life is hard here for a lot of people. The environment is tough and it can be hard to make a living."

"Ah, I see."

"Gusteko is a pretty dangerous place, you should be careful. As much as I hate to say it, there are quite a few people like Hans all over this country."

Subaru's eyes widened. "R-really?"

Clement nodded, "You don't really have to worry, though, as long as you stay here in Inorandum, it's relatively safe here."

Subaru slowly nodded, still shocked at the statement. "Are the other countries in this world less... dangerous?"

Clement thought for a moment, before saying, "I haven't been outside of Gusteko, but I know that Lugnica is pretty safe, other than the large presence of the cult there..."

Subaru asked, "Cult...?"

Clement answered, "Yeah, they're called the Witch's Cult. They occasionally show up in Gusteko too. Uhm, not much is known about them other than that they're terrible people who bring destruction wherever they go. They worship the Jealous Witch."

"...I heard Hans talking about that Witch... what is it?"

"The Witch of Envy... is a Witch who went mad and destroyed half of the world about four hundred years ago. It's now known as the Great Calamity. She was sealed up by the Three Great Heroes and still resides trapped."

"Okay..." Subaru thought about what Hans told him in this loop, According to him, I have her scent...?

The two returned to their original topic as they began to walk back home. "Then there's Kararagi, which is to the South-west of Gusteko. It's a relatively safe place, and it's a pretty rich country. Although slavery is very common."

"Mhm."

"The last of the four great nations is the Empire of Vollachia. Strength is most important down there, and it's a pretty hard place to live."

"Mhmm... So... Gusteko is cold and dangerous, Lugnica is pretty safe but a lot of the Witch's Cult is there, Kararagi is pretty safe and rich but slavery is present, and Vollachia is hard to live in."

Subaru sighed and said, "None of them seem like too good a place to live."

Clement laughed while scratching his cheek.

They made it back to the house a little while later. Clement let Subaru inside, before saying, "Well, I'm going to go take a walk around."

"Mhm, okay."

Clement left Subaru alone in the house.

Subaru realized how cold it was inside the house without the fireplace lit. He found some matches nearby the fireplace, so he easily lit the logs within, which were still pretty warm. Subaru sat down on the couch and stared into the fire now blazing in the fireplace. Once again the memories of last night came back to him. He squeezed his eyes shut. "Stop. Stop. "Stop. Stop. Stop. Stop. Stop. Stop." He took a large shaky breath and forced himself to think of all the times Hans had killed him.

"He deserved it. He did… he really did."

"Ghk... He did..."

Subaru forced the bad thoughts away and forced himself to realize how tired he still was. He laid onto his side and squeezed his eyes shut. After a little bit of struggle, he fell into the recesses of sleep.

A girl with platinum hair stood before the sleeping black-haired man. Her long straight hair reached to her waist, a blue ribbon was tied in her hair. Pure beauty resonated off of her snow-white skin. Her beauty was so great that even God would hesitate to touch her. A single white cloth was all that she wore, it hung over her shoulders like a poncho. Blue stitches ran across the top of the cloth. A blue ribbon was attached to the cloth. Her dark blue eyes framed with long eyelashes were staring down at the sleeping man.

Her eyes showed an array of emotions. However, in the end, they settled on a single emotion. She smiled down at the man. She let out a breath laced with excitement, and whispered the man's name, "Natsuki Subaru..."

Her smile grew, and she continued, her voice soft and gentle, "The one who Envy has decided to love."

She sighed in slight admiration, "Such a powerful authority you've been given..."

She reached down and caressed the man's warm cheek, her eyes alight with excitement. "Natsuki Subaru... I look forward to our future meeting." She stopped touching his cheek and sighed an excited breath.

The girl vanished suddenly as she said, "I am now standing within-"

Subaru woke up to Clement opening the front door. He yawned and rubbed his eyes. He looked around, as he felt like someone had watched him while he slept. He shook his head and looked over at Clement. He said, "Welcome back."

Clement nodded, saying, "Hello."

Clement got to cooking dinner, while Subaru lazed around. He felt like he should do something to help, but he wasn't able to cook well and he didn't know what else could be done to help out.

Soon after they ate a simple dinner, and after talking with Clement for a while, Subaru went to his room. He was still tired from everything that happened yesterday despite his earlier nap, and he was really beginning to doubt that he would ever really be able to go back to his carefree old self after all the trauma he faced yesterday.

He shook his head as he laid down. He still didn't have any other clothes to change into before he slept. Clement said that they'd go shopping tomorrow. Subaru sighed, and closed his eyes. He soon fell asleep.

A knock came from Subaru's door.

"Come in!"

Clement opened the door and stepped over to Subaru, who was sitting at the desk in his room, diligently studying the language here.

"How's it going?"

Subaru sighed as he set down his pen. "Fine. It's really similar to my own language, so it isn't too hard to learn. I'm picking up on it pretty easily."

"That's good. Hopefully it doesn't take too long to learn."

Subaru nodded.

A few days had passed since Subaru's loops. He was getting more used to the intense cold and just the fantasy elements of this world in general: Demi-humans, the occasional group of spirits, and all the other things that were different. But, in general, he was adapting to this world easily. He did miss the internet, but it wasn't too hard to let go of it.

Clement looked down at the sheet of paper, which had a number of glyphs repeated over and over, along with the occasional scribbling in Subaru's own language.

Clement smiled at the man's hard work and said, "I'll go get you some tea."

"Yeah, thanks."

Clement left the room. Subaru picked up his pen and began writing glyphs while sounding them out, "Ra…Re…Ri…Ro…Ru…"

He was beginning to think that just maybe life in this world wouldn't be quite as bad as his first experiences. A soft smile formed on his face.