Hello everyone!

Before you read this. I just wanted to give a warning that this chapter is extremely dark and graphic. So fair warning to ya.

This one is even darker than chapter 4. So if you thought that was dark, this one takes the cake.

And like I said in chapter 4. If you don't want to read it then stop here. Otherwise read at your own peril.

That said, enjoy I guess.

- Early evening. Outskirts of Miload's Mansion-

"Sir, Margrave Mathers' estate is within sight." One of the knights called out to inform the ones inside the carriage.

There were seven of them in total in a carriage. A small group, but one that could easily and efficiently handle bandits and other threats on the road especially for their given task. Searching for Subaru Natsuki.

It was a strange assignment to say the least, the knights thought. The last time they had heard about Subaru Natsuki, was when the camps reported an invasion on Priestella over 8 months ago.

Now all of a sudden the Knight Commander assigned them this specific mission. With very clear objectives.

Their orders and objectives were:

Firstly they needed to ask the Emilia camp regarding the Lady Emilia's trip to the Pleiades Watchtower, what they witnessed there, etc. If Lady Emilia has not returned yet, then they were to ask for an estimate of a possible return. Then their other priorities were all about one man. Subaru Natsuki. The knight of Lady Emilia.

Their main objective was finding him. Marcos had not divulged much information regarding his disappearance, only the need-to-know basis, with the main clue of finding him was asking his camp. Should that not work, then they are to search the surrounding area for clues. Once they find him, they are to escort him back to the Capital to meet with the Sages. Marcos had made them swear to be discreet with this mission and to not hurt nor harm Subaru Natsuki.

These were their priorities.

Their task made all 7 knights feel uneasy. The most unease they felt was right before they departed. Marcos Gildark spoke to them in the most serious voice he had. Telling them that should they act with dishonor then they will be answering directly to him. It frightened them how serious Marcos looked with his threat.

It left them perplexed. They wondered if Subaru Natsuki had done something or was needed for something of extreme importance, this was the only reason why the Knight Commander would act that way. They had all discussed with one another regarding the last whereabouts of Subaru Natsuki, looking to confirm if all of them had similar knowledge, before deciding ahead on their journey.

"Thank you, Beric." Their Leader's voice called out. He then spoke towards all of the knights within the carriage. "Remember. We are not here to cause a disturbance. We are only here to ask the whereabouts of Subaru Natsuki and inquire if Lady Emilia returned from the Pleiades Watchtower, understood?"

"Understood, Sir." The knights responded.

Reaching the Margrave's mansion. The knights departed from their carriage, leaving it a small distance away from the main entrance.

"Darius, Gideon and Mathias. You're with me. The three of you stay here to guard the carriage. This shouldn't take long, keep an eye out nonetheless. I believe mabeasts roam around this area."

The three knights saluted and stood in their positions. While the Leader and his assigned troops would go on to ask the denizens of the mansion and hopefully get a meeting between them and Lady Emilia or the Margrave.

The door was knocked loudly.

Soon enough it was opened and a blue haired maid stood at the other side of the door. She looked at them with surprise at first which quickly became hostility, anger and suspicion.

"Knights." She said that word with clear disgust and disdain. "What do you want?" From her tone it was made obvious they were not welcomed at all.

"Excuse us for this late visit, Miss. I assure you we come in peace." Their leader spoke to the blue haired girl. Curious at why she seemed resentful of them but didn't pay it heed as they were not here for that.

"I'll ask again. What do you want?"

"I would watch your tone if I were you." One of the knights spoke up against this disrespect shown to them. "Do you have any idea who yo-" The leader interrupted by putting his hand out to stop him from talking.

"Mathias." He said, before turning his attention to the woman. She was staring very coldly at the knight named Mathias. Almost as if challenging him to make a move or daring him to finish that sentence.

"I apologize for the rudeness of my subordinate, Miss. Allow me to clarify our visit." The leader spoke to her calmly. Making her look at him again with hostility. He was confused why she looked at him like that. "We are merely here to inquire if Lady Emilia has returned from the Pleiades Watchtower. Do you happen to know if she did?"

"She has."

"Allow me to extend my happiness at her return and my wishes that it was a safe one. Having said that, could I request a meeting between us and Lady Emilia? Or perhaps Margrave Roswaal?"

"I won't."

"In that case, would you be kind enough to inform us of what Lady Emilia has witnessed while there? And as a follow up, how long has it been since she returned?"

"I won't." She repeated in the same tone.

He sighed as this was going nowhere. "May I ask why?" The Leader questioned. He was wondering why this girl was behaving like that as it was getting tiring.

"I have no reason to do or say anything to the likes of you."

The leader's brows furrowed in slight annoyance before it passed. Clearly this woman has bad relations with the knights almost as if she has a deep-seated grudge against them. Mathias looked at her with anger, how dare she speak to them like that? This damned woman was testing their patience. He thought. The other two knights frowned but like the Leader, it passed quickly.

One of them whispered to him. "Sir, perhaps we should request if we could speak to the other denizens? She is not being cooperative."

The leader shrugged him off.

"It's fine, Darius. As long as Lady Emilia has returned and in good health then all is well. Best to move on to the main topic of conversation."

He turned towards her again. "Miss, I meant no disrespect if my questions offended you. I forget that the royal selection candidacy is still ongoing and that any discovery Lady Emilia and her camp had found within that place could be used as an advantage. Regardless, may I ask another question? It is also the real purpose for why we are here."

The woman didn't say anything nor did she react to his words. However her curiosity was piqued.

The Leader took her silence as a sign of consent. "I apologize if this question may seem insensitive, given who's camp we're speaking to." He cleared his throat. "I would like to ask if you have any knowledge regarding the whereabouts of Subaru Natsuki."

The moment the woman heard that question, the Leader and the knights felt a chill in the air. The way she looked at them had intensified.

"What. Do. You. Want. With. Subaru-kun?" The hostility of her tone matched the way her eyes looked.

Mathias gripped the handle of his sword. "This damnable woman.." He whispered in annoyance. "You should speak to us with more respect before I-"

"Mathias." The Leader said his name in a harsh tone, before turning his eyes towards the girl. He spoke calmly to her to diffuse the heavy air. "At ease, Miss. We are only here to find and escort him to the Capital. He is being summon-"

"YOU WILL NOT TAKE AWAY SUBARU-KUN!" She yelled out in outrage and took out a Morningstar out of nowhere. Making the knights act wary around her, and backed away a little. One of the knights, the one named Darius, spoke out.

"Calm down please, Ma'am! We're not here to-" She didn't care and immediately sent the ball in his direction, he dodged it with some difficulty.

"Darius! Are you injured?!" The leader said to his soldier, who shook his head at him. "Close call, Sir, but I'm fine."

"What is the meaning of this, huh?!" Mathias grit his teeth in anger at seeing his friend getting attacked all of a sudden, before evading the spiked ball himself. Forcing the Leader to yell at the angry woman.

"Miss, stand down! We are not here to fight! I urge you to listen to reason!" He was trying to calm her down before things escalated beyond their control. They were not here to fight, they were here only to retrieve Subaru Natsuki. Marcos would completely have their heads if they were to report that their task went very off the rails all within the span of a few minutes.

"Shut up." She spoke coldly while creating several massive ice crystals. "Ul Huma!"

"Gideon!" The Leader called out. The knights immediately gathered around the knight named Gideon. In an instant several walls of earth formed, which the ice crystals shattered against. Pieces of ice and stone were splattered around the floor, before dissipating.

The knights were all unharmed, making the blue woman grimace.

After recovering from the attack. The Leader was going to talk sense into her, before someone else beat him to it in an aggressive way. "This bitch!" Mathias unsheathed his sword in anger all the while yelling at her. "I will teach you a lesson in manners!"

Rem glared with utter disdain at him. Her eyes started to glow and a horn protruded out of her forehead "I won't allow any of you to touch a single hair on him!"

"An Oni?" The Leader spoke with a surprised tone. Oni's were thought to be all but extinct a decade ago, after the Witch's Cult exterminated their clan.

Meanwhile Mathias launched himself at her. "No, Mathias! Wait!" Darius tried to stop his fellow knight, since their Leader was still surprised that he was seeing a living Oni in front of him. Mathias didn't listen and instead rushed towards the blue haired Oni.

She launched her Morningstar at Mathias. The speed with which she launched it made him unable to evade it in time, until Gideon made an earth wall in front of Mathias just before the spiked ball hit. It easily shattered through the earth wall, however it gave time for Mathias to evade it and get closer to her during the confusion.

Darius and the Leader were about to interfere and stop Mathias, before he was sent flying away a few meters and land hard on the ground. She had punched him just before he could land a hit on her. She also leaped a distance away to get some room for her chained mace.

Darius then drew his sword at seeing his comrade on the ground and groaning in pain. "Gideon! Maneuver six."

"You got it!"

Gideon created spikes beneath her feet, making her continuously on edge. He also created walls to cover Darius from being hit by the mace or spears of ice, as well as blocking her line of sight. Darius, taking advantage of this, got closer towards her.

"Stand down!" The leader called out to no avail. They ignored him. Mathias recovered and roared in frustration and fury. "You dare disrespect the royal knights?!" He charged at her again, fully intending on killing her.

Just before Darius and Mathias could reach a hitting distance of the blue haired girl, a gust of wind blew them backwards.

"Don't you dare touch my sister!" A new woman yelled as she joined the fray. She looked exactly like the girl with the Morningstar, except for her pink hair and red eyes. She glared with intense animosity at the knights. Making them all surprised by the sudden appearance.

The Leader took advantage of the silence created by the pink girl.

"ALL OF YOU STAND DOWN!" His voice boomed and was laced with authority. Darius and Gideon immediately relaxed their pose. Mathias didn't listen. He looked very angry and was going to resume his attack before the Leader grabbed his shoulder tightly. "Mathias! Stand down now! Remember what the Captain said!"

"But, Sir! She dared to attac-"

"Enough! Do not make me repeat myself." He glared hard at Mathias. Making him flinch. "You are lucky that I haven't killed you myself for escalating the situation. Once this concludes, we will have a long discussion regarding your conduct. Now fall in line." He spoke very sternly towards him. Mathias huffed in anger and disappointment however he did as he was told.

The knights subconsciously began shuddering and sweating all of a sudden, their hands tightly held the hilt of their weapons. They had all felt that something was very, very wrong. Almost as if a very high killing intent was unleashed in the air and a truly horrific being was heading their way unopposed. They stared at each other wondering what that horrendous feeling was and who it came from. Before anyone could ask, Ram's voice took them out of their stupor.

"Rem, wait!" Ram shouted to her sister who still had her horn out and was preparing a large pillar of ice.

"I will not! Rem's hero questions his own reality because of them!" Her eyes shed tears at that statement. She turned to face them with a demonic glare. "They're here to take him... As long as I breathe they will not take him. Either Rem dies or they do!" She declared with determined eyes. She wanted revenge on his torturers, revenge for daring to make her hero question whether she would hurt him. She launched the ice pillar at them a second later.

"Gideon!"

"Ul Dona!"

Gideon formed a massive dome of earth which the ice pillar collided with. A few seconds later and the dome dissipated, showing that the four knights were still alive, with some small bruises.

"Sir! Are you all alright?!" The three knights shouted in the distance as they witnessed the battle and the large pillar of ice crashing on the dome. They were running in their direction. The leader simply waved a hand at them, he kept his eyes locked on the blue haired woman and her lookalike.

The Leader spoke out to her. "Miss. I warn you to cease your hostilities at once and reconsider your approach. Do not force us to take drastic measures. Currently, I am only lenient because I was ordered to be so, which means I shall let this attack on us be merely a very grave case of misunderstanding." He took a deep breath to calm himself.

"Sir?! You can't be serious!" Mathias exclaimed in frustration. "This bitc-" The leader silenced him with a hard glare before turning towards Rem.

"Now, I am not sure what incident has occurred that made you hostile towards us. However, you have my word that neither me nor my men are here to harm anyone. I swear it by the Divine Dragon. We are only here to find out where Subaru Natsuk-"

In an instant all four knights were lifted off the ground and into the air. "Wha?!" Huh?!" The four knights yelled out simultaneously.

"HAHAHAHAHA! GOOD EVENING NEW SOURCES OF ENTERTAINMENT! HAHAHAHAHAHA!"

A man with white hair made his entrance. His face was of pure and utter bliss at the four knights he had lifted into the air. The four were then slammed into the ground hard. Knocking out all of them in an instant.

"Ahhh this is such a pleasant surprise! What a lovely evening it is for some pranks!" He said excitedly, a very big smile on his face.

"Subaru-kun?!/Barusu?!" Rem and Rem exclaimed with a surprised look at his sudden appearance.

Subaru didn't pay them attention and instead lifted the four knights into the air again ready to try a prank, before noticing they were all unconscious. "Hmmm~ I may have gone too hard there in my excitement. That's no fun, and here I've been playing a good boy." He spoke in a bored tone at how hard he went.

...

Shouts came out that immediately drew Subaru's attention.

"Lieutenant Varric!"

"What just happened?! How are they all flying in the air!?"

"You! What have you done to them?!"

Three knights had just arrived into the scene and were slightly panting with tired breaths.

"Oh there's more! Hahahaha what a wonderful gift this is! Truly TRUUUUUUULY~ magnificent!" His excitement was restored and gone up to an 11!

He greeted the newly arrived ones with a warm and friendly tone. "Hello there newer sources of entertainment. This is a very fine evening for some pranks, wouldn't you say? Wouldn't you agree?"

"Whoever you are, I demand that you let them go. Now." One of them spoke in a threatening tone.

"Tell you what my new imagination. If you beg and bark I will, how's that sound?" Subaru taunted making the knights put their hands on their swords. Ready to draw them out.

"Last chance."

"Oooh, I like that. So commanding." He said teasing before switching his tone to one of fright. "I-If I g-g-give you them, do you p-p-promise you won't hurt or be-betray me?" He asked pleadingly.

"Yes. Now hand them over to us."

"P-P-Promise me."

"I give you my word."

Subaru descended the four knights slowly into the ground and in the direction of the trio. Just before they reached touching distance, where the trio lifted their hands to catch them, Subaru lifted them up in the air again.

Subaru started laughing wholeheartedly. "Pfft HahahaHAHAHAHA! Got you there! Such an easy prank! I admit I didn't think it'd work on knights who always liked to dangle things in front of people. Whether it be Divine Protections, high ideals, healing skills or just a piece of food."

The trio drew their weapons in anger at the strange man. He was not being cooperative while holding their comrades hostage.

Subaru aimed his hand at one of them. Clenched his fist and said. "Hopeless."

However nothing happened. He clenched his fist and said it again. Again, nothing happened. He inspected his hand and wondered what's going on.

"Wait, give me a sec. There's a performance issue going on here, then again it's not that uncommon. You know, I remember reading that every one out of five-"

"Enough! You've had your chance." One of the three said, as they all marched towards him.

A spiked ball stopped them in their tracks. "Get away from Subaru-kun." Rem spoke coldly while glaring at them intensely. Ram stood next to her and aimed her hand at them, although she was very perplexed by what's happening and how it all started. From the knights' arrival to now.

"Nice save, Rem-rin." He gave her a cheerful thumbs up before staring back at the three. "How about a joke to set the mood?" Before he could tell his joke. A fireball exploded in his face. One of them had said "Ul Goa." While Subaru was speaking.

"SUBARU-KUN!"

Rem was in panic mode as there was too much smoke to see anything. 'Please be alright. Please be alright.' She prayed to everything that was dear to her that he wasn't hurt by that. Although she was losing hope.

"Barusu.." Ram whispered in sadness and guilt. She didn't want to believe that Subaru died before any of them could make up. She glared murderously at the trio who seemed to be confused that their comrades were still floating in the air.

She was about to attack them when a laugh was heard from within the smoke.

"Hahaha, not bad! I personally give that a six out of ten in terms of enjoyment, too much smoke though. The branding iron is still the clear victor ofcourse. Ahh that one makes you just lose your mind from it! So good and satisfying! Especially when the name 'Pride' is carved!"

The smoke then dissipated. Showing a Subaru who was completely unharmed, including his clothes.

A mixture of surprise and relief washed over Ram and Rem. Meanwhile the three knights had their eyes wide that this man survived a fireball to the face.

"What...How?!"

Subaru just shrugged. "Cor Leonis courtesy of Regulus Corneas. Anyways, my newest sources of entertainment, I was going to show you something funny but it's not where it was. I truly apologize for that my wonderful friends. As the saying goes, 'It's not you, it's me.'" He bowed his head and placed a hand on his heart as he said that in an apologetic tone.

"In the meantime I hope this makes up for it."

He slashed his hand across the air a few times. A second later and two of the three knights' legs were separated, while the third one had his hand that held his weapon fly into the air along with his sword.

"Aaarghhh!" The trio let out a scream of agony in unison once the pain registered in their mind. All three were on the ground. Two clutching their knees while the third grasped where his hand used to be. A second later and the knight's other hand went flying away. He started writhing hard on the ground alongside his two comrades.

Rem and Ram looked on in genuine shock. Their jaws were opened completely in disbelief at what just happened. Rem at first thought Ram had done that

Subaru looked at the three writhing knights with disappointment.

"Now I bet you're all asking yourselves. "Why am I on the ground? Why am I suffering while my friends are joyously in the air?" And fear not for my enlightened self will answer you. You see, I was going to be merciful and generous and allow you to become my newest friends. However, I think attacking someone with.. 'Ul Goa', was it? Isn't a sign of friendliness in the slightest, rather, I detected immense hostility and animosity from it. Launched at me with the intent to maim or worse. Not a single regard for my, nor my modesty's, well-being... Such a shameful display. A pathetic display. Utterly pathetic." He shook his head with disapproval at them.

"As I was saying. Attacking with spells and drawing your swords against a great person who only wanted to joke and have a laugh with you, and was in fact entirely friendly, patient and kind with you is the ultimate sign of disrespect, don't we all agree? As such, I, Subaru Natsuki aka Pride, feel as if my rights have been violated by you and yours. Am I not right? Am I not correct? Are my rights not trampled upon by you and yours? To have the audacity to assault the most exalted, satisfied, diligent, beloved being your eyes has ever had the blessing to witness. It is purely and utterly unacceptable. Undeniably, unmistakably and unquestionably so. Normally I would applaud vigorously at the audacity you have shown, however, it is an unfitting behavior for ones dressed as knights. In fact, I would go on further and say you lack the basic decency and refinement required of a knight. I am humble enough to share part of the blame ofcourse, as I understand the fault lies within my own kind heartedness for attempting to joke with your friends, however, I feel as if you misunderstood the whole thing and chose to simply attack me without explanations or provocations. Impolitely demanding of me and yelling at me... I am deeply wounded by this and thus I feel as if the punishment is well-deserved. Now, I want you to take this momentary respite to observe and reflect on your misguided actions against a satisfied existence."

Subaru looked towards the four unconscious knights that he still gripped in the air, then looked back at the trio that he just spoke to.

"Hahaha look at that, another long winded speech. I guess what I'm trying to say is." He cleared his throat. "You were good, great even! But unfortunately you didn't make the cut. Thank you all for coming and auditioning for this wonderful prank!" Subaru said in a deeply grateful tone.

"That said, let me give you a participation award. An award that will make you weep from joy. The best award you will ever receive hahaha"

He summoned shadow hands that entered inside each of the three knights' stumps. Then started to destroy their bodies from the inside. Almost as if they were being devoured. Sounds of bones breaking, limbs crunching and organs being squashed filled the quiet air. They couldn't even scream as they started convulsing and shaking intensely. Vomit, tears and other leakage spilled out of them alongside rivers of blood. The grass was dyed red. Luckily Subaru was standing a bit distant, so no blood or anything spilled on him.

Subaru took on a more seductive tone. "Are you so captivated by my divine beauty that you're dripping already~? Or are you thinking of licking this handsome one's feet? I bet you're all trying so hard that you can't restrain yourselves, hahahaha"

"N-no...S-S-Subaru-kun.." Rem stuttered a horrified whisper. She could not believe what was happening. The gruesome scene in front of her made her involuntarily turn her face, shut her eyes and put both of her hands on her ears. Wishing for the noises to stop. Her face was drained of all color.

She wanted to kill the knights for his sake. But she never imagined such a way... Cruel was the only word she could describe it, beyond cruel even. While she has experienced the side of Subaru that seemed to laugh at everything before turning emotionless all of a sudden. She has never seen Subaru behave in such a way before and it frightened her. She never imagined her hero would do this.

Ram didn't say anything. She was extremely sickened and horrified by this. A part of her kept thinking that this was a horrible horrid nightmare. She was no stranger to acts of cruelty, as she remembered the Witch's Cult's attack on her village. However, this was crueler than anything she has ever witnessed. She could never imagine Subaru of all people would do this.

The three knights were then lifted off the ground in a scarecrow position staring directly in the face of Subaru. They couldn't make any noises outside of wheezing and croaking. They all looked on the crossroads of life and death. their eyes were lifeless, almost pleading for Subaru to kill them and for the pain to stop.

"Inner me has his way of making dolls and I have mine. Although mine are more life-sized, well, give or take a leg or two."

An idea crossed his mind. "How about a round of applause for your performance and ofcourse for your lovely host? Oh, woops. Unintentional double entendre there."

He made them clap by using his shadow hands to control their limbs. He picked up the hands of the knight and clapped with it in the meanwhile. "Thank you. Truly thank you! I also applaud the marvelous performances from such filth-ridden meatbags! Ahh such a good day! Such a good source of entertainment!"

A second later and they stopped clapping as he dropped them unceremoniously to the ground and resumed breaking every single bone and crushing every organ.

"Subaru!" The silver bell voice of Emilia yelled out in emergency. She was panting hard at the pace she ran in.

She sighed in relief as soon as she was out of the door and saw Subaru.

"Subaru, thank goodness you're alr-" She paused what she was going to say as she looked at the battlefield that seemed to be the front garden. Rem and Ram were nearby and seemed to be frozen in place. Then she heard a croaking noise. Looking in it' direction. She immediately let out a loud gasp and covered her mouth with her hands.

She couldn't take in the sight that was happening in front of her. She saw the convulsing knights with missing limbs and their bodies were being twisted by something from the inside. It made her sick to her stomach. She instinctively turned her head upwards and there she saw knights that were floating in the air, almost as if something invisible was grabbing them.

She turned her head away once again. Not knowing where to look, she stared at Subaru who seemed to be laughing and relishing this in its entirety. Clapping with two severed hands.

Her eyes dilated in fear, her heart beat fast, her breath hitched and her mouth felt dry. She almost lost strength as she could barely stand. "S-Subaru...n-no...s-stop...P-Please stop..." Emilia whispered in a shaky voice at the horror that was happening in front of her.

She continued whispering in a weak voice, pleading for him to stop. Her legs and hands were shaking, she wanted her legs to walk to him. She wanted to shout for him to stop but she couldn't.

Subaru eventually heard someone faintly whispering to him to stop. He looked behind him and noticed Emilia, Rem and Ram's horrified expressions.

Emilia was looking at the ground and seemed ready to faint at any moment. She seemed to be holding back the urge to vomit while weeping silently and continuously saying "P-please.. s-stop..."

Rem had closed her eyes and clutched her ears, her lips were quivering and tears were leaking out of her closed lids. Her body was shaking from head to toe. She was also whispering "S-Subaru-kun...stop.."

Ram looked completely speechless and horrified. Her eyes were opened wide with fear, a sight that Subaru has never seen before from her.

"Is this what they call 'A picture that says a thousand words'? Cause I'm definitely seeing it!"

"B-Barusu w-what did you d-do..." Ram asked in a frightful tone once she noticed his stare falling on her.

They don't have to see this. Look how scared they are. Anymore and they might get a long-lasting panic attack, if they haven't already. Take them out of here before the innocent ones see them. You should've killed them far away from here.

Subaru's inner self sounded in his head. He had a cold, hateful and angry tone. Although his anger and hate were directed entirely at the knights. Almost as if hearing the word 'Knight' made him snap.

"They look very entertained I would say." Pride responded to his inner self before turning his gaze towards Rem. "By the way Rem-rin, doesn't this seem familiar to you? Doesn't it remind you of a certain night in the forest? I think it's a very VEEEEEERY~ good reminder." Pride said with a big smile as he lifted the three, by now very obviously dead, knights in the air. Wanting to dangle them in front of her, before he felt something gripping his heart.

Pride. She isn't going to betray or hurt us. Remember her promise. Remember the doll.

"Fine, fine. I was just teasing, jeez. Hey, who knows? I might've gotten a kiss aswell." He sighed as he summoned two shadow hands that knocked out Rem and Emilia. "What a shame and here I was providing utter entertainment." He said in a disappointed tone.

"What did you do to Rem and Emilia-sama?!" Ram asked in outrage after biting down her terrified nerves and getting rid of her horror. She was kneeling next to Rem to check on her status.

Pride rolled his eyes at Ram. "Calm your nonexistent horn, Neesama. I only knocked them both out. I'd take them inside if I were you. Nothing good happens when it's dark and you're outside of a mansion. I should know hahaha"

Before Ram could say anything, a voice joined their conversation.

"What has occurred here? I heard shouting and sounds of fighting. Alert. What has-" Clind asked as he arrived and froze once he saw the extremely graphic scene and the four men that were in the air.

Subaru eyed Clind hungrily. "My Lolicon imagination. I'm really and I mean REAAAAAAALLY~ glad you showed up when you did." He lowered the four sleeping knights into the ground.

Clind looked confused and alarmed by his tone. "Natsuki-sama.. What is the meaning of this?"

"Oh you know, just making new friends around.. my age." He gave a knowing smirk to Clind. "You know how it is sometimes... Or I guess you don't." Subaru chuckled to himself at that joke as he started walking towards Clind with slow purposeful steps.

He was confused as this was Subaru but he seemed to be completely different, just like earlier at breakfast when he exclaimed how much he liked the food. His soul seemed different aswell, it had gotten considerably darker. Watching Subaru approach slowly towards him made Clind assume a fighting pose. "Natsuki-sama. Stay where you are. Warning."

"Tell me a joke and I'll think about it."

He aimed his fist at Subaru. "Natsuki-sama, this is not who you are. Exclaim. I urge you to stop and to not force me to do this. Plead." Subaru didn't stop, making Clind clench his fist. "Melancholy."

Subaru was unfazed and simply smiled at him.

"It was good, but.. not that good. Too bad you didn't make a new knock knock joke. The first one was hilarious!" Subaru laughed in remembrance.

Clind was shocked beyond belief. "Impossible.. Disbelief."

Subaru then stopped and looked seriously at him. "Clind. You won't die." He said mysteriously before mouthing off. "... I think?"

"Wha- ghk!" Clind suddenly felt something was gripping his heart. He looked with wide eyes at Subaru. Unable to speak or make a sound, any words he had were muffled with pained wheezing.

"I wouldn't move around much if I were you. This takes a bit of concentration. You wouldn't want me to rip out your heart or anything, right?" Subaru said with a mischievous smile as a shadow hand stopped the beating of Clind's heart.

"Barusu! Stop! What's gotten into you?!" Ram yelled in fear as Clind's form was bowing with his hands on his chest. He almost seemed to want to claw at his heart and get it beating again.

"Don't worry, this is all for a good joke. He'll be back to his usual Loliconning in no time! I promised Inner me after all. Such a generous guy I am. Such a divine and kind being." Subaru replied to Ram while he was fully focused on Clind.

She aimed her hands shakingly at Subaru. She didn't want to do this. If she were to hurt Subaru then her sister who just recently started reconnecting with her again would forever hate her. Not to mention her own guilt at forgetting Subaru.

"R-Release him." She tried to sound threatening.

"Or what? You'll use wind at me? You're too late, I already took care of the legs." He gestured with his eyes towards one of the three knight' corpses who looked nothing more than empty husks at this point. "Although one of them still has both."

His cheek was suddenly cut.

"Barusu. Release him." She sounded more threatening this time.

Subaru's head craned towards Ram with a look that made her flinch and instinctively avert her gaze. "Do you wanna hear a joke with a good punchline, my Neesama imagination?"

He activated Cor Leonis while looking at her leg. However just before he could do anything, a shadow hand appeared out of him that knocked her out.

"Boring. What a buzzkill." He said in a bored tone and deactivated it. "Oh calm down. I wasn't going to kill her, I was just gonna prank her back. I did promise I won't kill them, remember?" He spoke as if someone was berating him for going too far.

"I think I deserve a gift for not killing our imaginations. No, I'm definitely owed a gift for that."

He looked at Clind whose eyes seemed lifeless and his face was turning a shade of blue. "You agree, don't ya Clind? Don't you also agree that I deserves a gift for being such a lovely guy?"

A second later and Clind stopped moving or making any noises. Falling lifelessly to the ground. Subaru felt like he received something again. He aimed at one of the knights' corpses that he had just killed and said "Hopeless."

The already crushed corpse was pulverized even further two seconds later. Subaru sighed loudly in satisfaction.

"Thank you for this great gift again my Lolicon imagination. Such a nice butler." Subaru said in a grateful tone. He then looked at Clind and remembered his heart had stopped completely.

He began compressing Clind's chest and heart from both the outside and inside. Soon enough his heart started beating again and Clind gasped loudly while he was still unconscious. Color slowly returned to his face. "Told ya, you won't die. Technically speaking."

Subaru stood up again and looked at the four knocked out knights. "You guys wanna go on a small hike? Nod once if you agree."

He used Invisible Providence to lift all four knights, including the three corpses and made them all nod. "Hahaha thought as much." He then carried them alongside their body parts and headed off into the forest. As he walked away he heard yells and loud talks of other denizens of the mansion.

"Is everyone alright?! I heard screaming from all across the mans- Emilia-sama!? Rem, Ram, Clind! Oh thank goodness they are still breathing!"

"Ram! Th' fuck happened here even?! Why 're th... that smell.. blood?"

"Frederica-san! Wha- Wait, did you just say blood?! Who's blood?"

"Frederica-neesa-"

"Petra! Go back inside this instant! Otto-sama, help me carry them to Beatrice-sama just incase. Garf, go check on the others."

-Subaru's old room-

Beatrice was as usual the past several days. On the bed of Subaru, lying on his side of the bed and hugging the pillow he used to sleep on.

"F-Forgive.. Betty, I suppose..S-Subaru...sorry.." Beatrice murmured in her sleep. Whenever she slept, she would see the hurt and betrayed look on her contractor's face when she separated their contract right in front of him while accusing him of being a Witch Cultist.

"Beatrice... Please.."

That way he said that made her heart break. She clutched his pillow tightly and sank her face deeply into it.

"Betty's sorry, in fact..." She repeated in desperation. She begged for the dream and the visions to end however they didn't. It always replayed the same event in her mind.

Her dream showed how because of her, everyone turned on him. Which led to him unsheathing a knife and aiming it at his neck. Steeling his nerves and attempting to do something.

'This.. better fix it.'

"N-No, no.. S-Subaru.. d-don't.." She pleaded to stop him from what he was trying to do. Which seemed to be trying to kill himself? She never knew what he was trying to do at that moment. She dreaded if he wanted to kill himself because they didn't believe him.

Then the visions and noises increased. He was intercepted by the knights

'NO! LET ME GO! LET ME FIX THIS! LET GO OF ME! DAMMIT! I HAVE TO FIX THIS! LET ME GO!'

She recalled his shouts and screams, all the while she looked at him with disgust.

He was then dragged away by the knights. His shout echoed in the distance as he got further and further away from them. How he called out for their names.. For her name in desperation.

'WAIT! EMILIA! BEATRICE! WAAAAAAIT! IT'S ME! I'M NOT A WITCH CULTIST! IT'S MEEEEE! IT'S SUBARU! PLEASE BELIEVE ME!'

Then she would wake up drenched in tears.

"Pathetic spirit, In fact. Worthless, idiotic, useless, moronic..."

Beatrice started scratching herself once again, to feel better, to block those noises, to not remember that day. Healing herself then repeating the process. Her mana had been steadily going low without her replenishing it.

The others have tried to stir her into action to get her to talk or react to them. However Beatrice either didn't say anything or simply told them to leave. "Get out, I suppose." She would say in a depressed tone. Some days she would imagine her old life with her contractor and weep at the memories. She wished more than anything to go back in time. To stop herself from doing any of those things.

The door was knocked on her room.

"Beatrice-sama! Please respond, this is urgent!" Frederica's voice sounded.

"Go away, I suppose." Beatrice replied half-heartedly. She had no energy to move nor did she want to.

"Beatrice-sama, listen to me. Emilia-sama, Rem, Ram and Clind are all unconscious. They might be wounded and require healing, so please."

Beatrice didn't move a muscle. She didn't want to do anything other than simply stay laying on the bed, hugging her contractor's pillow and waiting for either death to claim her, or her contractor to magically forgive her.

"Beatrice-sama?"

"Go away!" Beatrice shouted back. "Betty doesn't want to see anyone, in fact." 'Except for my Subaru..' She wanted to see him but she couldn't find it within her to get up from his bed and go to him. She had no idea how to speak to him, or what she would even say. She wanted him to forgive her more than anything. To become her contractor again. To save her from this extreme guilt and loneliness.

"Beatrice-sama, I understand you feel bad for what happened to Subaru-sama, but this is not the time for that! They are hurt and are in need of your assistance. Will you not care for them?"

'Why should I care, I suppose? Why should I do anything?' Beatrice thought as she buried her face into her former contractor's pillow.

Hearing no response. Frederica turned to Otto and Petra.

"You two watch over them. I will call Garfiel here to see if he could tend to them."

"U-Understood, Frederica-san/Frederica-neesama." They replied simultaneously as they watched her head off.

Petra looked at the four unconscious people then back at the door. "Why won't Beatrice-sama help them?" She asked Otto, who couldn't think of a good answer. He knew it was because she likely blamed herself for his friend's fate, however he couldn't tell Petra that. He took too long in thinking of an answer, as Petra called out to Beatrice.

"Beatice-sama. Are you really not going to help?" She asked in a sad voice.

Beatrice didn't respond. She had her eyes closed and was simply waiting to go to sleep again.

"What do you think S-Subaru-sama would do when he sees how badly hurt Rem-san and Emilia-sama are?"

Beatrice hugged his pillow tighter. However she couldn't help but think about how her former contractor would act.

'What would my Subaru do, I wonder? He would immediately rush in to help them with no regard for his well-being, I suppose.' She answered herself, before her thoughts broadened.

'W-Would he f-forgive me if I help them? I-I...' "..Sorry..." She sniffed, wiped her eyes from the fresh new tears that were forming and weakly got up.

She opened the door. Otto and Petra were staring at her with surprise. "B-Beatri-" Otto tried to speak before Beatrice interrupted.

"Inside, I suppose."

Once they were inside, Beatrice, because she was contracted with Emilia, began drawing mana from her to replenish herself to heal them. Although she felt more miserable that she was contracted with her, her left hand subconsciously scratched her right for a few seconds.

She then checked over their health. She noted that Emilia, Rem and Ram were all alright. Clind had it worse. He seemed to have had a major heart attack with his heartbeat being irregular and his breathing was unstable. Beatrice's eyebrows furrowed in confusion as to how he was still alive however she healed him to her best ability. After a few minutes his breathing steadied.

She spoke without looking at Otto and Petra. "They are all fine, in fact. There were some bruises on the back of their heads, but no concussions. Betty ha-"

"Thank goodness!" Frederica responded. She had just arrived with Garfiel and Annerose, who seemed to have woken up disturbed from the yelling and was shivering in her bed when Garfiel arrived to check in on her.

"Clind! Emily!" Annerose exclaimed. "A-Are they alright?" She asked Beatrice in worry.

"As Betty was saying. They have no injuries in need of healing. Clind was the most injured but he is fine now, I suppose." Beatrice assured them in a depressed tone.

"Still, th' hell happened to 'em?" Garfiel asked outloud.

"Your guess is as good as mine. I had been in the dining room awaiting Emilia-sama's return from Subaru-sama's room when I heard noises from the other side of the mansion." Frederica answered him. She shared a stare with Otto who was with her when that happened.

Beatrice immediately perked up at hearing her former contractor's name. "W-Where is...H-he, I wonder?" Beatrice asked weakly. "W-Where is... S-Subaru?"

"GAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!"

All of them were alarmed by that unnatural shriek. It seemed a bit faint, as if echoing from somewhere nearby.

"W-what was that..F-Frederica-neesama?" Petra asked nervously. She wondered what that was. Annerose felt nervous as well once she heard that.

"Calm down. It was probably mabeasts." Frederica said to assure Petra. She had her suspicions though. Tonight was extremely peculiar.

Otto said nothing, he walked towards the window in the hopes he could see anything.

Garfiel looked alert, that scream sounded almost... human-like. He hated that it was too dark outside for him to investigate that sound. He thought back to the blood he smelled earlier, then looked at the sleeping forms of Emilia, Rem, Ram and Clind.

'What the hell's happening? Are we being attacked? No, wouldn't make sense since they're alive. The fuck is going on then?' Garfiel thought to himself. Otto and Frederica shared the same thoughts.

"Garfiel, the blood you smelled earlier. Was it from them or anyone you know?" Otto whispered to Garfiel, away from the two girls.

Garfiel shook his head. "No, it was somethin' else. My..cursed self ain't got 'n idea who it belong'd to. I also smelled Cap'n there but his smell coulda been on any of 'em" He gestured to the four unconscious ones.

"In that case shouldn't we-"

"AAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

Another faint scream sounded in the distance. Disrupting all of them.

Petra and Annerose jumped at hearing that. "W-Wh-what was that?!" They both asked simultaneously. It almost sounded like a person was screaming in agony from a distance away and their voice was carried by the wind.

"I assure you, it is nothing. Please remain calm." Frederica tried her best to assure the two children, hugging them closer and caressing their hair and backs gently. She was nervous as to what that sound was.

Otto seemed a bit shaken up as well with his throat tightened. He took a gulp and a big breath to calm himself. While Garfiel looked very alert by that.

"We should check on everyone in the mansion and make sure they are all present and safe." Frederica said to Garfiel. "I will head over to Subaru-sama and-"

"N-no." Otto said. He gathered his courage. "They need you here, Frederica-san." His eyes were on the two panicked girls. "I will go for Natsuki-san and Roswaal-sama. You go for Meili-san." Garfiel nodded at that suggestion and the duo headed out.

"Please take caution." Frederica said after them.

Beatrice was confused. What on Od is happening outside the mansion? She thought to herself. She wanted to volunteer to go and check on her former contractor, instead of Otto. Before she remembered his behavior throughout the trip which made her think he would simply laugh at her, tell her a horrifying story or simply not open the door for her.

And so in sadness she went to hug his old pillow again.

Few minutes later Beatrice's nose scrunched up as it picked up on something. She faintly smelled the Witch's scent although it was a distance away.

Meanwhile Frederica stood on guard as she heard someone approach. She instantly relaxed once she saw who it was.

"What's going oooon? I heard shouting, then nii-san came up and asked me about mabeasts." Meili said as she entered with a wary Garfiel. Meili then noticed the four sleeping individuals. "Ummm. Why are they asleep here?" She asked but she didn't receive an answer.

"Big Sis, Brotto ain't 'ere yet?" Garfiel asked once he took a look at his surroundings. He thought Otto would be back before him.

"No, he is still retrieving Roswaal-sama and Subar-"

"NO! NO! GET AWAY! G-GET BACK! HELP ME! PLEAAAAAAAAASE! PLEA-HYAAAAARRRRGGGHHHHH!"

This time it was obvious that the voice it belonged to was a human. At hearing that anguish-filled shriek many of them felt a certain dread as they could only imagine the scene.

Petra and Annerose immediately squealed in panic and started trembling and breathing rapidly.

Frederica had a frightful look as well. She bit it down once she saw how afraid Petra and Annerose were. She hugged them tighter while speaking with calmness to them. "It will be alright. Nothing will harm you. I am here, Garfiel is here and Beatrice-sama is here. I assure- no, I promise nothing will harm you." She said to soothe them.

Meili was also afraid. Those screams reminded her of when Mama played with someone. Her body was trembling without her knowing it.

Frederica noticed how frightened she seemed and dragged her in to join the hug. She caressed her softly. "You too, Meili. I promise nothing will harm you as well." Meili cried into her embrace.

Garfiel looked anxious but he bit it down. He gave his sister a stare that told her to remain highly alert. She nodded at him wordlessly. Something odd was going outside and they needed to stay close.

Beatrice was on edge. Those were clearly human sounds that she heard in the distance. What made her on edge was why her nose caught a faint smell of the Witch just before that scream sounded. It reminded her of her former contractor. She wondered if the Witch's Cult was attacking or something.

At that moment. The others stirred from their sleep, mainly Rem and Emilia. Ram and Clind were still asleep.

"Subaru.../Subaru-kun!" Emilia whispered in a quiet voice as she opened her eyes and took a look at her surroundings. Rem exclaimed with her eyes frantically searching the room for him the second she woke up.

"Are you two alright? We found you unconscious outside of the main entrance." Frederica asked them while still calming down the children.

"W-Where is Subaru/Subaru-kun?" Emilia and Rem asked simultaneously. Completely disregarding the question about their health. They saw the children looking afraid and Beatrice was looking at them with curiosity.

"Otto-sama went to retrieve him from his room. Is something the matter?"

"N-No...H-He.." Emilia couldn't finish off her sentence as she remembered that gruesome scene. Hoping it was a very bad dream.

Rem stayed silent, her thoughts were all about what she witnessed. Rem saw more than Emilia since she was there from the start and so she hid her expression once she realized it wasn't a nightmare.

Otto soon came back with Roswaal. He mentioned he didn't find Subaru anywhere and that the only thing he saw was shattered glass from the broken window. Emilia's face twisted in fear and sadness. She stared at Rem and noticed they both had the same look.

Beatrice's curiosity reached her limit as she asked them.

"What are you not telling us, I wonder? W-What happened to Betty's... S-Subaru..."

=Several minutes ago=

-The forest around the vicinity of the region-

Subaru had carried the four knights and the three corpses deep inside the forest. He had heard the growling of mabeasts and other animals, however he didn't pay them any attention. They were no threat to him at all. They, however, were a funny reminder of the time where Meili decided to prank all the villagers, the children, Rem, Ram and ofcourse.. Himself.

"What a sweet and innocent angel." Pride said in nostalgia while still walking. He tossed the legs and hands around for any mabeast that gets nearby. A good act he thought to himself as the beasts were likely starving from all the protective wards around.

Once he reached a good spot. He hid the three corpses behind a tree, inside the bushes and away from the line of sight of his new friends. Then he sat there, waiting for his new friends to wake up. The moonlight was thankfully shining through. Otherwise, Pride would never find his way through the forest.

"I wonder why they're here. I'm pretty sure I didn't meet any hungry wiseman this time around. Or, or, or. Maybe Juli and Ferris miss me so much! Awww~ This is truly a wonderful gift they sent me. I can't wait to get introduced!" Pride spoke in admiration at the sleeping knights.

A minute or two later and the knights started stirring up.

"Ugh.. my head.."

"Where are we?"

"What the hell happened?"

"Are you all alright?" The Leader asked his men. Before realizing he couldn't move and that he was floating in the air alongside his men. "What is happening..?"

"Good evening gentlemen." An unfamiliar voice called out to them. Immediately drawing all eyes on him. "Good to see you're finally awake. I was really worried, you know?"

"Who are you? Where have you taken us?" The Leader asked him while taking a look around his surroundings.

"Oh you know, just a little outing between new friends. A bonding trip if you will." He looked around in genuine interest before clearing his throat. "Anyways, why don't we get introduced?"

They looked at him as if he said the weirdest thing possible. Who is this man? They all thought.

"I guess I'll start to set us off. I'm Subaru Natsuki" Their eyes opened wide with shock at this. "Aka Pride. Formerly a shut-in neet, dear guest, butler, self-proclaimed knight, A blue haired Oni's hero, slayer of the White Whale and Sloth, disciple of Greed, a Great Spirit's contractor, a Half-elf candidate's knight, Lolimancer, but don't tell that to Clind, hahaha!" He paused to laugh before adjusting himself.

"Anyways where were we? Oh right, ahem... Speech giver to Priestella, tasty feast, Witch Cultist, dog, guilty... And finally, also currently, the Champion of Sin representing En-.. Pride. " He corrected himself with a disgusted tone. He doesn't want to reveal that yet to them. "Sin Archbishop representing Pride. According to my good friends."

They were all completely speechless. They had no idea what to say. This was the man they've been looking for and yet he looked completely different than what they heard from his description. He had a head full of black hair and yet the one in front of them had white hair. His eyes also looked as if he had died a thousand times. His body was thin.

However, his speech confused them. Why is Subaru Natsuki calling himself a Witch Cultist and saying he's the Archbishop of Pride?

Pride sighed as they didn't speak. He needed to re-do the introduction in a better way.

"Alright, alright. That was a long one and I kinda botched it a little I would say. My bad, let me shorten it for you." He struck a pose. "I'm Subaru Natsuki! Not only am I completely innocent, but I also got pranked to the point of losing my mind from begging for death! Nice to meet ya!"

"What happened to you Subaru Natsuki?" The Leader asked. He was confused why Subaru Natsuki talked like that and looked like that. The last time he saw him was in the capital, he looked more healthy and more... different.

However Pride simply ignored his question. "Gotta say. It's weird for brave, honorable, gallant knights to call me Subaru. I'm more used to Pride from those type of friends. I believe it's your turn to introduce yourselves."

They all stared at one another, wondering how to continue this. One of them chose to speak up.

"I'm Darius, Subaru-dono."

His introduction was followed by another one.

"G-Gideon, Subaru-san."

One of them didn't speak at all. Instead staring at Subaru with a mix of confusion and anger.

And the last one simply asked him. "Why have you taken us captive? More importantly, where are the rest of my men?"

"What men?" Pride asked in confusion and took a look around. "I don't see anyone aside from us."

"There were three other knights with us. Where are they?" He asked him again.

Pride thought about it before getting an idea. "Hmmm~ tell me your name first and I'll tell."

"Varric. I told you my name. Now tell me what happened to my men."

"And what about you, beautiful?" Pride looked at the one who didn't speak and seemed to stare at him in a funny way. "Mathias." He said in a defiant tone.

He had an amused smile as he heard their names. "How stunning! How astounding! How breathtaking! How bewildering! I know a certain hungry wiseman who would be fulfilled with those introductions hahaha"

He then started pointing at them one by one.

"Alright. Let me see If I got them right."

"Darius." The named knight looked with confusion at Subaru.

"Gideon" He looked apprehensive.

"Varric" He had a stoic expression. Waiting anxiously to hear what happened to his men.

"and Mathias." He simply huffed in annoyance. This is what they had to deal with. A lunatic who captured them and kidnapped them into the forest, all the while saying he was an Archbishop and a Witch cultist. A lunatic whom they were ordered to bring to the Capital.

Subaru looked at them with admiration. "Such wonderful names! Lovely names! Names worthy of being a wonderful offering for friendship."

"Anyway, your friends really wanted to be here but they were torn heavily on the inside from that big decision. Not everyone wants to camp in the forest at night after all, so they decided to take a raincheck instead." He assured them with a smile.

They stayed silent as they all stared at one another. They likely thought the other three were knocked out just like they were.

"You. Natsuki." Mathias spat in a hostile tone. "I demand that you put us down this instant and come with us peacefully. You are hereby summoned to appear in front of the Sages. I would also have words with you regarding your involvement with the Witch's Cult."

Subaru completely lost it. He started laughing hard, alerting all four knights. "HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! What a good joke! Nice one... Mathias, was it? Such a comedian! Hahahahaha!"

"I am not joking with you, you imbecile!" Mathias sneered in annoyance which increased the laughter of Subaru. It had reminded him of a certain knight who always brought him food and taunted him.

"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"

Mathias looked further agitated. Meanwhile Subaru was clutching his stomach from that funny joke. "..Hahahaha..hahah... hang on let... me catch my...hahaha...breath...hahaha... So SOOOOOO~ funny! Thanks, Mathias! You reminded me of something funny. Ahh to be interrogated again." He had a very delightful smile once he paused his laughter. Genuinely satisfied with that joke.

Mathias was going to shout at him, before his leader stopped him.

"Mathias." Varric said seriously, before eyeing Subaru. "Subaru Natsuki, what my subordinate said, while callous, is true. We are only here to escort you to the Capital to meet with the Sages. There is no need for any of this. I will forgive you for your, and your lady's camp, words and actions if you let us go and come with us. We have wasted enough time as it is."

Subaru's eyes suddenly changed. He stared at them very coldly, his face became expressionless and he spoke in an emotionless tone. "You say the Sages want to meet with u- me. Why is that? Give me a good reason why I should go there."

Varric was confused over the shift of demeanor. "I have no answer for that one. Captain Marcos only ordered us to find you and bring you back to him, according to the Sages' orders. They want to meet with you to discuss something in private."

Upon hearing that answer. Subaru's eyes changed into a joyful one and he had a big smile plastered on his face.

"So what you're saying is that the Sages love me so much that they want me on stage? Ooooh I can't wait to perform there! Hey, this is a cause for celebration. Why don't we all sing?" Subaru offered to his newest friends in excitement.

"Subaru-dono, please come with us. I assure you we're not here to hurt you, Captain Marcos Gildark even made us swear it. We're only here to take you to meet with the Sages and back." Darius spoke in a gentle and soothing way to him.

"Darius, was it?" He nodded at Subaru. "Very lovely voice you got there. A good singing voice. I like it! Have you ever thought about being the lead vocalist?" Subaru asked him, making all four confused.

"What is this buffoon talking about?" Mathias asked his fellow knights.

"S-Subaru-san, I beseech you to listen to reason." Gideon spoke up.

"Another good singing voice, hahaha. You know what? I really think we should have our own little concert."

"Subaru Natsuki. Let us go. I will not ask you again. I have neither the wish nor the desire that we come to blows." Varric spoke to Subaru with a threatening, commanding tone.

"Oh me too. Wholeheartedly. Why'd ya think I'm offering us to sing and cast aside any hostility? I think it's a very generous and peaceful way of resolving things." Subaru smiled joyfully as he answered him.

"Sir, please give the order to knock this fool down a peg or two and drag him by the heels to the Sages. He's mocking us while testing our patience. He even said he was a Witch Cultist or what not." Mathias spoke to his Leader in exasperation while Subaru was talking about something irrelevant.

"Believe me, Mathias. I am considering it, however Marcos will have our hides should we harm him. We have to try negotiating before taking that option." Varric then turned towards Gideon and Darius. "You two, stand by should negotiations fall."

"Yes, Si-..Divine dragon..."

"Understood, Si- By all that's holy..."

-Few seconds ago-

Subaru looked at the four knights with delight. "Oh I get it! You're all shy! Hahaha it makes sense now. You're all having a case of stage-fright. It'll be fine, gentlemen." He then summoned three shadow hands that reached behind the tree and slowly pulled out something, while Mathias and the Leader were discussing how to handle Subaru.

"Here, I brought us a small audience even. Very considerate of me, no?" Subaru said as he showed them familiar faces.

"Yes, Si-..Divine dragon..."

"Understood, Si- By all that's holy..."

"What in hell..."

"Beric..Reed..Marren.. Y-you... Did you do this..?"

"Wonderful audience members, right? What better audience members than our own friends to show us their support." Subaru said with full love and adoration at this.

"Answer me! Is this your doing Subaru Natsuki?!" Varric was seething at what he was shown. The three knights were barely even recognizable, he dreaded what he would tell their families.

Subaru used shadow hands to control the bodies. He made them shrug before answering Varric.

"Who knows?"

The four knights tried to get out of their confinements, however nothing worked as much as they struggled.

"LET US GO N-" Varric couldn't finish as the thing that was holding him tightened, making them all gasp as breathing became difficult.

"MMM!" They shouted simultaneously.

"Shhh. Don't speak. It's a hard decision to see who's going to be the opening performance of the night. The one that's gonna charm our audience members with his lovely voice." Subaru said in a thoughtful tone. He made all the corpses place their crushed hands, stumps from one of them, on their chins in thoughtfulness.

His tone then switched into excitement. "I got it! How about I start with an old song and then one of you take the lead? That's a good solution, am I right? Would also build up the confidence. Alright," He clapped his hands.

"Let's get that confidence surging!"

He loosened his shadow hands' grip to let the knights breathe again and hear their reactions.

Then he cleared his throat and started to point at them one by one all the while humming. "Eeny, meeny, miney..." His finger settled on one of them.

"Mathias."

"GAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!"

"NO!" "MATIHAS!" "STOP THIS FOR OD'S SAKE!"

Pride started clapping his first singer's performance. "Well done Mathias! Those high notes would make all the local bards jealous!" Subaru noted in excitement at his singing.

He then casually dropped him to the ground after the song was over. He looked at the knights. Darius and Gideon were sweating in shocked horror by what they've witnessed. Varric kept staring at Mathias's body.

They were in complete disbelief at the sight of the broken body of their comrade.

"Hey you guys alright? Was his performance that good? You're all sweating and we haven't even started our next song." Subaru asked them out of the goodness of his heart. His voice brought them out of their shocked silence.

"No...M-Mathias..." Darius managed a whisper and was staring with wide eyes.

Gideon didn't know what to say. His mind had words but his mouth wouldn't obey him.

"HAVE YOU LOST YOUR MIND?! YOU WILL BE EXECUTED FOR THIS!" Varric shouted in outrage at the loss of four of his men now.

Pride looked excited by this. "Oh my! This is exciting! We're skipping straight to execution and not the interrogation, that never happened before. Well, not unless I go sightseeing with good friends and make Juli and some other ones jealous because I forgot to invite them. That's always an instant death sentence." He sighed in nostalgia.

"SILENCE! SHUT YOUR MOUTH YOU FILTH!" Varric yelled, he was filled with hatred and rage.

"Oh, filth! That nickname makes it's return." He laughed in delight at Varric's anger. He tightened the grip on them again. "Gotta say that was such a delicious reaction! I love, I absolutely LOOOOOOVE~ those expressions I'm getting hahaha. I owe it all to Mathias, what a good singer."

He noticed how Varric's face formed into an intense scowl. He wanted to assure his singer that all is fine. "No need to look so concerned, Mathias isn't actually dead. His singing was just so good that he broke every bone in his arms and legs into a million pieces. His tongue and teeth were fully ripped out from the intensity of his vocal range, it was jaw shattering you could say. Then he broke every single rib from how passionate he was. I, being the amazing singing instructor that I am," He pointed out. "Am aware that while his singing broke his ribs, they didn't touch his lungs or penetrate his heart. And I think that's what we should take from this, really." Subaru finished off with a genuine smile. He looked at his singer with pride.

"Hope you recover soon from that amazing singing, Mathias. He really gave his all in that performance. How about a round of applause?"

He made the three corpses applaud Mathias's singing. Making the three still alive knights watch in genuine disgust and horror.

Varric had enough, he used all his strength to get away from that invisible grip and landed harshly on the ground. Recovering an instant later he gripped his sword very tightly and rushed full speed ahead at Subaru.

Subaru could say he was genuinely too shocked to react to that, he didn't expect that would happen.

"Marcos and his oaths be damned! YOU WILL PAY FOR THIS!" Varric roared once he reached Subaru. Aiming a slash directly for his neck, he managed to make a very small cut before the sword stopped being effective.

All three knights were wide-eyed that Subaru survived through that. "H-H-How... HOW?! HOW?!" Varric shouted despairingly. He had just struck what he knew was a very lethal area. No one could have survived that.

"Hopeless"

"GUH!" Varric was launched a distance away, he felt many organs shatter. He started groaning on the ground and vomiting blood. "agghh!"

"MMMM!" The two knights shouted at the sight of their Leader in that state. Meanwhile Subaru ran his hand through his neck finding small blood droplets. He started laughing at that.

"How incredible! So incredible! Very incredible! Isn't it incredible?! I think it's incredible because it's incredible! What a GLOOOOORIOUSLY~ incredible performance!" He looked at Varric who seemed to be laying still and breathing with difficulty.

"Hats off to you, Varric. That was one of the most exciting performances I have ever seen! It really looked like you were doing a desperate charge there in order to save your men and avenge the ones that died. And boy did it pay off. My hands are shaking from that performance, well, metaphorically speaking." Subaru complimented him. Then he used Cor Leonis to cut off a branch from a nearby tree. He picked it up, admiring it for a moment.

"Anyways onto our next tune. How about an opera to compliment that incredible performance?"

He started waving the branch around like a music conductor would. A second later and the music started.

"AAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

"Yes! Perfect! Well done Varric! That is good! What a leading man you are! Good at swinging swords and flexing your vocal cords!" Subaru complimented his singer once he reached his crescendo. He kept on conducting by waving the branch around artistically, almost as if he was envisioning the lyrics. Meanwhile Varric was screaming nonstop.

...

Once the screams stopped. Subaru dropped the branch and wiped imaginary sweat off of his forehead from the hard work he was doing. "I'm truly proud. You boys are making me proud. This is definitely some of the best singing I've ever heard!"

He took in the appearance of his singer. "I think the phrase 'Sing your heart out' works perfectly here, don't you think? Or was it 'Cry your heart out'? Hahaha"

Subaru then looked at the remaining two singers. Utter hopelessness appeared on their visages. Darius looked very sickened, while Gideon was emptying the content of his stomach. He loosened his grip on them.

"L-L-Lieutenant V-Varric..." Darius spoke in hushed whispers at the fate of his leader. He had to bite down the urge to vomit then and there. Darius looked at Gideon. He knew one of them would die next and it made Darius's heart sink to his stomach.

"Od have m-m-mercy..." Gideon was crying his eyes out while vomiting. He didn't want to die, or atleast not in a cruel way like that. Mathias was barely alive, although both him and Darius knew he would die at any minute. And their leader.. Was completely twisted and bent in unnatural ways before a grisly scene happened. Varric's heart came out of his mouth.

Subaru fixed his gaze on Gideon and gave him a smile. "Gideon, right? You had a nice voice. Let's see what genre of music you'll be singing to our audience."

"NO! No..no...p-p-p-please ha-have m-mercy.." Gideon begged Subaru with his lips quivering. Subaru simply shrugged it off. Thinking it was a good authentic performance from his next singer. He started slowly lowering Gideon towards him. Gideon started sweating bullets

"Wait! P-Please! D-Don't kill him.. I-I'm just a recruit w-with no f-family. S-So take me in-instead! I beg you! Let him live! Spare his life!" Darius pleaded with Subaru to save his friend. He wanted at least one of them to live and he wanted it to be his friend.

"Oh? Gideon's getting heavy stage-fright? No worries, happens to everyone! What's your reason then, Gideon?" Pride asked his next singer as he paused his descent towards him.

"I-I'm t-t-too young to d-d-die..."

"Hmmmm~ I'd say we're the same age. You're even growing a moustache." Pride pointed out. "Not a good excuse to skip today's practice session. You're not trying to be slothful are you?" Gideon was lowered even further in Subaru's direction. Making Gideon whimper.

"W-wa-wait! Wait! Please! I-I-I'm my p-parents' only son!" Gideon cried out, hoping it would spare him.

"I'm also an only child. Well I was, now my parents probably think I'm either dead or long gone. Love our similarities. How about a song to make both our parents proud?"

"W-wait please! Spare him! T-take me instead! Let Gideon go!" Darius yelled, hoping it would spare his friend. He didn't care if he dies, as long as he could sacrifice himself so his friend would live on

"Think about our audience, Darius." He gestured towards the corpses. "They want to see Gideon singing unless he has a good excuse."

Gideon stammered to think of anything. Any excuse he could think of for the man in front of him to spare his life.

"I-I'm g-g-getting ma-married a-and go-going to be a f-f-father s-soon.. P-please...I-I beg you! Have mercy! I-I'll do anything! Anything..." Gideon pleaded with him with his eyes closed from fright.

Subaru paused the descent. "Oh! Congratulations on both!" He said in a friendly tone.

"I'm invited to the wedding right?" He had a look of adoration as he asked that.

"O-Ofcourse! A-A-Anything you want!" His descent paused.

A bright smile appeared on Subaru's face after hearing that. "Great! You know, as an accused Archbishop, I could officiate it I think. But anyway! Let me give you an early wedding gift since I'm going to the wedding and all." He said in an ominous tone. Gideon became utterly terrified from the look Subaru was giving him.

"Please spare his life.." Darius said in a desperate tone. He was on the verge of tears.

"Calm down, Darius. You'll still be the best man at your friend's wedding. We'll just practice dancing. You should cheer him on, you know?" He then looked at the terrified Gideon. "I'm sure you'd want to impress your future misses on her first dance, right?" Subaru asked Gideon who didn't respond as he was shaking with fear.

"I wouldn't mind being the bride role in this dance, although I've walked a lot today so I feel a little tired. But don't worry! I know a good solution!" Subaru exclaimed in happiness at how helpful he's being.

"I can return by dea-"

To the knights nothing happened. However Subaru was giving them a bright smile while waiting. Elated at the best wedding gift he could give to his new friend.

In about twenty or thirty seconds they started hearing the growling of mabeasts headed for their direction. Darius felt his breathing pause, while Gideon's face lost color.

"My wedding gift to you. The perfect dancing teachers. I once had a big rave with five or six of them at once! So much fun! I guarantee you will master dancing in no time!" Gideon nearly fainted as several Ulgarms showed up and were snarling angrily at them. He looked at Subaru with heavy pleading eyes and started to beg even louder.

"PLEASE SPARE ME! PLEASE! I DIDN'T DO ANYTHING! I-I WILL D-DISAPPEAR! I-I-I WILL GIVE YOU ANYTHING YOU DESIRE! I BEG YOU!"

Darius couldn't even open his mouth to speak as tears started dripping down his face at the way his friend is going to die.

"Oh my! You like my gift so much that you want to gift me back anything I want? Awww this is truly the start of a lovely friendship. I wonder what your gift would've been if I showed you rabbits instead. In the meantime, go break a leg!"

Subaru threw Gideon towards the Ulgarms and watched as they all approached him.

"NO! NO! GET AWAY! G-GET BACK! HELP ME! PLEAAAAAAAAASE! PLEA-HYAAAAARRRRGGGHHHHH!"

His screams and shrieks filled the air around them and echoed throughout the forest as they began tearing him apart. All the while he was thrashing in vain. Subaru looked at him with glee. He was taking this dancing lesson really well!

"You got this Gideon! Don't forget to place your hands on her waist! Or well... Hand at this point.. Hmmm~ I don't remember their dancing being this chaotic, then again I'm no dancing expert like they are. Anyway, always remember when dancing you need to look into her vicious, feisty, ferocious, hungry eyes at all times!" Subaru cheered him on.

Darius fainted from the gruesome sight. His mind couldn't take in the screams of his friend as he was being eaten alive. He had muttered "Please spare him...please...please.." Before losing consciousness.

Meanwhile Subaru was clapping at the way Gideon was screaming. "Not only is he good at dancing but he's good at singing as well. What a talented man! You're definitely a hidden gem! Incredible showmanship from you, Gideon! Hahaha you don't need musicians to hire at the wedding when you can sing like that."

Minutes later. Gideon's screams came to a halt. Making the only noises being the sounds of mabeasts chewing on his flesh.

Subaru eventually interfered. Stopping the Ulgarms from fully devouring Gideon. They turned towards Subaru and began growling at him for interrupting their meal. They moved to surround him. "Good puppies, you've made Mama's little imagination proud. Here I'll give you a nice treat."

He tossed the three earlier corpses towards the Ulgarms, while taking back Gideon's remains.

Then once the Ulgarms finished with the three corpses. He tossed Varric. Then looked at Mathias. "He's still alive, but you know what? You deserve him for being good dancing instructors. Here you go!" He tossed him as well. They began devouring them. Mathias seemed to croak out some noises while he was being eaten alive. He had woken up from the Ulgarms devouring him, however he couldn't move any muscle.

Few minutes later Subaru interfered again just before both Varric and Mathias were fully devoured. Making the Ulgarms start attacking him.

He simply killed them all.

"Ahh aren't mabeasts great? They work diligently, eat diligently, bite diligently, curse diligently and play their roles as a species diligently. They're just fantastic!" He said that with pride as he looked at the remains of Mathias, Varric and Gideon. Before his eyes drifted towards the dead Ulgarms surrounding him. He took on a disappointed look. "But a dead mabeast is the very definition of Sloth. Don't you think so, Dar-"

Pride finally noticed Darius was unconscious. "Huh? He must've been tired. Such a hardworking boy! He'll definitely make it big on the stage!" Pride said in admiration as he stared at the last singer. He sat him down and used a mixture of torn clothes and intestines to bind him to a tree. Leaving him there to do something important for his next act.

"WHERE ARE YOU?! SHOW YOURSELF BASTARD! I'LL KILL YOU! DAMN IT! I'LL KILL YOU! SHOW YOURSELF!"

Darius started shouting once he woke up and realized it wasn't all a dream. A few seconds later, Subaru appeared. Blood was all over him except his face and hair.

"And then there was one." He noted in excitement towards the raging knight.

"I'LL KILL YOU! BASTARD! CURSE YOU!" Darius kept shouting at him.

Pride simply laughed it off. "Someone wants to copy Varric's style. I wouldn't mind re-doing this and making someone else the lead vocalist." Pride then walked towards a tied Darius, took out the sword that Darius had sheathed on his waist and cut off the gruesome binds that held him before throwing the sword to him.

Darius immediately grasped his sword and attacked Subaru, however the sword's slashes and thrusts seemed to be completely ineffective.

"DIE DAMN YOU! DIE! DIE YOU FUCKING MONSTER! DIE ALREADY! DIEEEEEE!" Darius yelled in angered frustration as his attacks had no effect. After a few seconds, Subaru used a shadow hand to grab the arm of Darius that held the sword. And another shadow hand that grabbed his fingers.

"I feel like a punching bag would be better to let out your frustration, wouldn't you say? If you were in Priestella, I would've gladly volunteered myself." Subaru spoke in nostalgia, then he dislocated a finger. Making the knight let out a grunt of both anger and pain. "GRHH!"

Darius dropped the sword and glared at Subaru with all the anger and hatred he has.

"W-why...Why would you...WHY?! Why did you do this?! THEY WERE ALL GOOD, HONEST KNIGHTS! WHY DID YOU KILL THEM?! TELL ME!" Darius's frustration accumulated. He kept struggling to find a reason for why the man in front of him killed his friends. Anything that would justify this abominable slaughter.

"Hahahaha, oh I agree! I truly TRUUUUULY~ experienced the goodness and honesty of the knights among many, many other highly positive traits." Subaru gave a joyful grin towards the infuriated knight.

"TELL M-ARGH!"

Subaru spoke in a bored tone after he dislocated another finger. "So much yelling. Where's your knightly manners at? Don't you think it's rude to yell this late at night? What if people hear you and start thinking you're in a bad situation, when clearly you're not? This is a violation of their rights through and through."

"We have done nothing to you.." Darius said hatefully while reeling from the pain.

"You did nothing to me you say, huh?" Subaru spoke vaguely towards Darius before smirking at the defeated, angry knight. "You've been a good sport so I'll reward you. Let me tell you about the most hilarious story you will ever hear. Guaranteed to make you laugh like the knights always did."

He began explaining to him. Clearing his throat before narrating.

"Once upon a time. There was this unlucky, unfortunate, cursed person. A very faulty person with self-worth issues. The story begins when the cursed person found himself in the Capital one day without knowing how or why he got there. There he stumbled on a Half-elf girl and her cat. This half-elf girl saved him and treated him with kindness and the story goes on from that point. The cursed person ended up falling head-over-heels for the Half-elf girl, to the point of risking death three or four times. They had a run-in with a crazy assassin who liked bowels, the Sword Saint, a blonde thief, a grumpy grandpa and three stooges, etc. Unfortunately the cursed person got hurt badly while saving the Half-elf from that crazy assassin and afterwards he woke up in the mansion that the Half-elf stayed at. There he met two twin Oni maids, one with blue hair the other pink hair, a Great Spirit of Yin and a clown."

"He started to work in that place as his reward for saving the Half-elf. There he risked death more times than at the Capital... He is after all... cursed." He said that while looking at the mabeasts corpses nearby.

"He also didn't get along well with the blue Oni. She had assumed he was a Witch Cultist because of the way he smelled, keep that in mind Darius, this blue Oni had even asked him once if he was a Witch Cultist in a very VEEEERY~ funny way! Ahh what a good memory that was. Anyway, anyway. To speed things up a bit. Him and the blue Oni went through several ordeals that made her become the second most precious person in his eyes, after the Half-elf ofcourse. He went on to do great things. Heroic things. Things that no one could have ever done. He became the ultimate negotiator, a daring strategist, he risked his life to kill the Whale and the Sin Archbishop of Sloth. All of that was in order to save the Half-elf he loved, since she's a prime target for those kinds of people."

Darius was seething at this story. It had nothing to do with his friends so far. All the while Subaru was smiling in nostalgia.

"So far so good right?" He asked in amusement before deadpanning. "Hahaha nope."

"He lost the blue haired Oni after the fighting was over. She wasn't dead or anything, no need to cry, she was just in a very deep coma. She was also apparently forgotten by everyone including her own twin sister. All forgot about her except one... Him. He made a promise that he would do anything to wake her up. Moving on let me speed through a couple of fun events. He went on to contract the Great Spirit of Yin, rescuing her from 400 years of imprisonment and developing a sibling relationship. He went on to become the knight of the Half-elf, after freeing a place and saving people from a crazy assassin and a multiplying cannibalistic rabbit all at once. He made a deal with a creepy clown. He even got to kiss the Half-elf who thought she got pregnant hahaha. A happy memory that one. Anyway a year and many new imaginations later. He accompanies the Half-elf, the spirit and two friends of his almost like his brothers. To a great, hospitable, friendly city known as Priestella. There h-"

"What's the point to any of this?!" Darius shouted. He kept trying to figure out where Subaru was going with the story.

"And we were just getting around the good part. Calm down, Darius. Like any story you gotta go through the boring parts before you get to the fun, hilarious bits. I was even kind enough to speed through it! And I had to skip out on the rabbit part too... So disappointing." He sighed in boredom at skipping that part.

Another dislocated finger. "grrrhh!"

Subaru exhaled before continuing the hilarious story.

"So Priestella... Now I'm sure you know what happened at Priestella, right? Meaning I won't have to go into too much details. In case you didn't, Witch Cultists and Archbishops attack, city is in chaos, defenders scattered, citizens losing hope and fleeing to refuge shelters. There was also the meeting of the camps and all that just before the attack happened. Anyway, the cursed person had a role to play during that fun festival."

"He had a run-in with the Sin Archbishop of Wrath," He paused to roll his right hand's sleeve to show it to Darius. "An even better run-in with Sin Archbishop of Lust, corpse soldiers and other meatbags. Then he broadcast a speech to the entire city! He spoke from the bottom of his heart to inspire the people and tug at their hearts all to counter Wrath. He did it in such an amazing way too! Even though he had speech notes to help him. A moment of pure eloquence."

"Then he fought the Sin Archbishop of Greed alongside the Sword Saint. Greed had kidnapped the Half-elf and attempted to make her his number. He had a thing for numbers. It's a long story, even longer if that man starts speaking. So, the Sword Saint was practically in pieces or over the moon when fighting Greed. He couldn't do anything against Greed since his Authority made him practically invincible. Oh, but don't worry because the cursed person was the one who figured out Greed's weakness."

Darius was utterly confused. The reports said that Reinhard Van Astraea was the one who single-handedly defeated the Archbishop of Greed. Was this man being delusional?

"All was going great. Until he eventually came across... The Sin Archbishop of Gluttony." He said that name with a mixture of hate and joy.

"The cursed person and Gluttony get introduced and Gluttony decided to play a little prank by mimicking the blue Oni to taunt him. You see, Gluttony was the one responsible for the blue Oni's coma and for other people's comas too. The cursed person fell asleep all of a sudden. Afterwards he woke up dazed and too emotional from not knowing where Gluttony was at. He went off in desperation towards the city hall to not only meet with his camp and make sure all of the most precious people to him are alright, including his friends from the other camps, but also to go on a hunting mission against that particular Archbishop. To fulfill the promise he made of waking the blue Oni."

"The cursed person reached the rendezvous point the defenders were using. He met with the Half-elf whom he utterly loved with all his heart. He met with the Great Spirit whom he treated as a younger sister. He met with the Sword Saint, who was his first friend. He met with the Sword Demon whom he thought of as a grandfather figure. He met the Greatest of Knights and the best healer of the kingdom. He met with a one handed knight with terrific fashion sense. He met with the Sun Princess and the Merchant princess, even glimpsed the thief princess at one point. He met with a lot of people. People that held special meaning for him."

"And yet, and yet, and yet, aaaand yet. Guess what happened." He paused with a smile at that question. Although Darius' expression was that of pain, annoyance and hostility.

"Get... to the.. point."

"You're no fun." He sighed at him before continuing the narration. He thought he would be more engaged than this.

"The Half-elf and the spirit both said they didn't know him with various expressions on both. Confusion from the Half-elf who apologized for not recognizing him. Annoyance from the Great Spirit who said he smelled like the Witch. He was confused as well, you know, but that didn't deter the cursed person! No, no, no. He tried to prove that they know him. Told the Half-elf he's her knight. Told the spirit he's her contractor... And this is where, as they say, the shit hits the fan hahaha!" He cackled in genuine amusement.

He summoned his imaginations, making them fill the entire area. He then started to walk towards them one by one. Watching their expressions intently while narrating.

"By saying he's her contractor. The Great Spirit who was already annoyed at his presence quickly turned hostile. She severed their contract in anger and summoned Minya crystals, pointing it at him, all the while yelling that he must be an Archbishop who used his Authority to trick and enforce that contract on her. That he was trying to infiltrate their ranks just to get closer to the Half-elf who resembled the Witch. The Half-elf, once she heard that, had pointed her finger at him and called him a villain. Now obviously anyone accused of that would call themselves innocent right? Innocent until proven guilty they say."

"But that wasn't the case for the cursed person. He kept denying he was an Archbishop and kept pleading that he was who he says he was, further enraging the Spirit. The yelling drew everyone's attention around them and made them focus on the main star of the day. He started shouting he was innocent, even looking at the Sword Saint.. who simply looked away... That was a hilarious moment. The knights, including the Greatest Knight, the Sword Demon and the one handed knight, drew their swords towards him in outrage for trying to trick them by pretending to be a Candidate's knight. The best healer looked angrily at him before smiling sadistically. Everyone present that day, humans and demi-humans, ones he knew and didn't know, looked at him with anger, disgust and hatred."

"They all looked at him as if he was the worst person alive that day." He whispered in a pained tone, then dismissed his summoned imaginations. He always tried everything to change their expressions but it was always the same.

He stayed staring until they were all dismissed. "In desperation that they didn't listen to him. He tried to fix it. He had a way of fixing it you see.. A very, very good way. But like I said he is unlucky and so they interfered at the last second."

Once the last imagination was gone he turned his gaze towards the speechless knight, smiling at him in an overly friendly way.

"What do you think happened to him after that... Darius?" He said his name in a sickeningly sweet tone. A tone that made Darius begin to feel very unease and lose his anger for a moment.

"I-I d-don't kn-know.. G-get on with it!" Darius exclaimed nervously. He tried to regain control of himself and his anger that the man in front of him killed his friends. His story didn't matter because he killed his friends who did nothing to him.

Subaru dismissed the shadow hands that held Darius's arm and hand. Letting him have a momentary respite all the while the knight's gaze remained focused on Subaru. He wondered why he let him go all of a sudden.

Subaru had a nostalgic look. "He got escorted to prison ofcourse, shouting and screaming his innocence. Then he spent his lovely time getting beaten, humiliated, insulted and tortured endlessly by brave, honorable, gallant knights like you and your friends."

Subaru's friendly smile turned into a cruel one, imitating the way the knights smiled. He then took off his shirt. Exposing every single scar he has on his torso under the moonlight. Watching as Darius' eyes reflected shock at how many scars were there.

"How do you think the cursed person got these scars... Darius?"

He stared at the knight as if he was the person he hated the most in the world. Making Darius instantly avert his gaze. Fear then crept its way into Darius making his anger vaporize. He began to feel an inexplicable urge to flee. His face was twitching and his teeth began chittering from the very high killing intent that seemed to permeate from Subaru. Darius recognized it as the same feeling from earlier. He was the one behind it, the one that made them all shudder.

Subaru activated Cor Leonis to slash at the air. Aiming it towards several trees that were behind Darius. Instantly splitting them in half. Darius closed his eyes by this point once he heard the crashing down of the trees. He truly thought he was going to die now.

He walked slowly towards Darius. Watching in glee at how the knight was frozen in fear and was holding his breath in. Then he bopped him on the nose, making Darius involuntarily let out a panicked gasp.

"Pfft HahahaHAHAHAHA! Such a funny story! Hilarious! Hysterical! Ahh I always wanted to share that story! Don't you agree that it's the funniest story you've ever heard?"

He sighed in utter satisfaction as he finished telling off that funny joke.

"I love knights. I love the good jokes and pranks they showed me. My favorites are the top three knights. Juli, Ferris and Rein. They pranked me in the best ways, especially Reinhard." He then realized Darius must be confused about who the Cursed person is.

"Oh yeah, incase you didn't get it by now. I'm the cursed person. I know it's such a big revelation to wrap your head around it, but it was me. It was me all along. I was the butt of the GREAAAAAATEST~ joke imaginable! Hahahaha! I love it! I LOOOOVE~ IT!" He descended into maniacal laughter after that.

Darius was completely speechless. He finally understood how far gone Subaru Natsuki was. There was no reasoning with him.

"Y-You're insane... You have completely lost your m-mind..." Darius whispered with difficulty as he couldn't shake off the way Subaru stared at him.

Subaru stopped laughing and shrugged. "Where I come from there is this saying. 'Repeating the same action expecting different results is madness'. I've spent a very, very long time reasoning, screaming, shouting, begging, pleading and yelling I was innocent. All the boring arguments and sound logic you could think of was used. In the end it became funny."

"Anyways, no need to look so gloomy down there, my lead vocalist. You should laugh instead!" Subaru said in a loving tone as he let out a giggle in order to make the knight smile again.

"Tonight was one hilarious joke after another, after another, after another."

"W-What...?" Darius asked in bewilderment. His friends' death was because he thinks everything is a joke?! Subaru Natsuki needed to be put down. He was far too dangerous to let him remain alive. He tried to shake off his fear and find a weak spot he could attack him from.

"Fine, fine. Maybe my jokes haven't hit yet." He pouted at the knight for not laughing or smiling. "Anyways, I have a big role for you. You'll be the big star of the next prank. This will be truly wonderful, I guarantee it!" Subaru spoke in a cheerful tone to him, trying to elicit excitement from the knight.

He summoned shadow hands to grab something from behind a tree to present it to the knight.

Darius fell to his knees in despair. He felt something stuck in his throat, begging to be released.

...

"Mathias, Gideon and Varric are such good offerings of love, camaraderie and friendship wouldn't you say? They were very good singers. They made really lovely melodies. Their voices were oozing with love and emotions. So much so they even cried. Some of them even wet themselves from their amazing performances. An authentic performance! A great performance!" He chuckled as he showed him his handiwork.

He had ripped out the eyes and ears of the three knights and inserted branches into the sockets, in an effort to make them appear as if they have horns. He had also carved messages on their foreheads and cheeks. Their faces looked as if they were smiling unnaturally.

"Tell Marcos, the innocent Sin Archbishop of Pride enjoyed their choir. Take those offerings with you as my gift to him hahaha"

Darius didn't respond. He let out a wail of gut-wrenching despair, then he clutched his head and started crying heavily.

Subaru started clapping heavily. "Bravo! BRAAAAAAVO~ This is exactly what I wanted to hear! You truly are a rising star, my lead vocalist. That was such an amazing symphony you've created! The best sound all night!"

The sound of clapping increased. As if twenty hands were clapping all at once.

"Hahahaha this is without a doubt the most exciting, entertaining, astounding, amazing, superb, spectacular encore I have ever witnessed!"

Darius didn't listen to him. His forehead was touching the ground while his eyes were closed. He started ramming his head on the floor, that was caked in his friends as well as the mabeasts' blood, trying to shake off the images of their twisted visages.

Subaru rested the heads on a tree stump before going to support his singer.

"Calm down, Darius. Calm down." Pride patted his shoulder. He then forced Darius to stand on his feet and began to adjust his uniform. "There, there. All better now. Face aside, your outfit now doesn't look like you've been through an ordeal where all your friends died horribly in front of you and you were the only survivor." Pride noted as he sized him up from head to toe.

"K-kill me...ki-kill me..." Darius said in a shaky, defeated voice. His eyes looked dead. He barely had any strength to stand up.

Subaru gave him a pout. "And here I thought we were having fun, sharing a laugh and enjoying the beautiful music."

"K-Kill me..." Darius repeated it again.

"Hmmm~ Tell you what, if you do all of what I told you then you will laugh at the end, how does that sound? You'll even get to see your friends again and sing as much as you want with them. It's a pretty good offer."

Darius didn't react; he almost lost strength again but Pride held him up.

Subaru sighed and began to cheer up Darius. "Alright, alright. How about this? If you do all of this then you will get revenge for your friends. That's always a good motivator, no? Revenge on the prankster who really killed your friends."

Hearing that. Darius had a surge of energy coursing through him. He launched himself at Subaru, causing them both to the fall to the ground. Then he tried to choke him out with his left hand.

"Well someone's getting passionate~ Isn't this a little bit rough and unknightly of you? Not that I mind, hahaha" Subaru had difficulty containing the knight's arm. Darius was after all physically in a better shape than Subaru.

"Ok, ok. Look. I know you think it's me but let me riddle you, who sent you here? Who ordered you and your friends to come to this place?" Subaru's question caught the attention of the enraged knight.

"Your Captain. Marcos Gildark." Subaru answered his own questions. That name made Darius's eyes have a moment of doubt.

"He wanted you and your friends to die, it's very VEEEERY~ obvious." Subaru continued speaking while holding off the assault. He had a teasing grin.

"YOU KILLED THEM! YOU DID THIS TO THEM!" Darius resumed his assault with renewed vigor. Nothing mattered to Darius at this point whether he lives or dies.

"How about we take a deep, long breath to rela-" Darius headbutted him. However Subaru reacted with joy to that.

"Nice! I like it! That was a good shot. It's definitely gonna leave a mark for later. I'm beginning to feel a little fuzzy aswell." Subaru said in admiration while Darius pushed himself further. His left hand nearly wrapped itself around Subaru's throat. His fingers were millimeters away.

Pride meanwhile had enough fun. "Alright, that's enough." A shadow hand separated himself from Darius who was grunting in anger and frustration as he moved his entire body in order to escape the grip that held him.

Pride got up and dusted himself off.

"That was fun! Nothing beats a good old tangle in the mud. Anyways, I was gonna say that it makes the perfect sense. He could've sent my good friend Reinhard to find me. He could've came himself or sent better and stronger knights. Instead he sent you and your friends knowing you would all..." Pride trailed off and his eyes went towards the singers.

"Die."

"No...be quiet! Stop tricking me! He would not do that!" Darius roared out after reasoning with himself. He kept struggling to escape the invisible grip.

Pride grabbed their heads to show him their faces and their horrific smiles.

"Look at your friends and say that again. They're not dead because of me." He said with a fake hurt tone at that accusation. "They're dead because of your Captain."

He brought him closer to stare at them in the face directly, before letting Darius down on the ground and releasing his grip.

Darius's eyes flickered. His left hand held his head as he couldn't wrap around what his friends' killer was saying. "N-not possible...not possible.."

"Let me tell you a good joke." Pride rested the heads on the tree stump again. Then he approached the kneeling knight and leaned in to whisper to him.

"Marcos betrayed all of you."

"H-He did no such thing.."

"He's why your friends died one by one."

"N-No...S-s-s-shut up..."

"Your friends died screaming all the while you watched them. Who's fault do you think that is?"

"N... NO! SHUT UP! SHUT UP! SHUT UP! IT IS YOUR FAULT! YOU!" He yelled as he pushed Subaru away with all his strength.

Pride was undeterred and drove the final nail into the coffin.

"Mathias was broken. Varric was twisted. Gideon was torn apart. The other three died in their own terrible way. Meanwhile Marcos is alive and happy. I bet you, he'll betray more of your friends by sending them here to die all the while you think it's my fault.. It's a very funny joke, right? Hahaha" Pride gave a little chuckle after he said that.

Darius stood still. His face and expression showed no emotions after that last sentence.

"..."

He hugged himself and his body started trembling.

"..."

"..."

"..."

"H-h...h..h..." Noises of quiet laughter and sobs came out of him.

Darius looked up at Subaru with tearful eyes and he started laughing in a broken and bitter way.

"Ha..ha..ha..ha...ha...ha..Tr...a..itor.."

"Haha...hah..he...b-...be...bet..rayed.. us..He..betrayed...us...G-Gildark... traitor..."

It all started to make sense for Darius. He descended into unintelligible whispering after that. He finally broke.

"Looks like you're getting it! Finally you got the joke! Anyway, let's get out of here and get you back to where you belong. Oh hang on, let me fix your hand first." Subaru repositioned Darius's dislocated fingers. Making him nearly faint from the pain.

Subaru then carried Darius's sword alongside the three singers with him and brought everyone along, back to the mansion.

Once they reached closer to the mansion. Subaru glimpsed the empty dragon carriage of the knights and helped Darius get on it. He placed the three singers in a satchel, before looking at Darius.

"Remember what I told you to tell Marcos. Also, also. Say that I will perform an encore to the entire capital in about hmm.." Pride paused to think, putting his hand on his chin. He looked at the night sky again.

"It's way past midnight now, right? Yes, that's it! Tell him after midnight without any specific day or date. That'll put him on edge hahaha. Remember. Don't call me Subaru Natsuki when you speak to him. Say the Sin Archbishop of Pride." Pride said that last bit with clear disgust in his tone. He couldn't wait to reveal himself as the Champion of Envy instead but it had to wait for the grand stage.

Pride then handed Darius his sword. "Attack Marcos after you tell him all that since he will be too shocked to react. Don't fall for his guilt trips, it's all a trick to get you to die just like your friends."

"Traitor Gildark...dies...haha..haha..." He rode off after that. All the while laughing brokenly.

"See ya later, Darius! I hope you bring more friends next time!" He yelled after him as he waved goodbyes.

Pride started laughing wholeheartedly afterwards. "HahahaHAHAHAHA! The knights will think I will attack on any day now, while in reality I will just be relaxing without a care. Such a good prank! They'll stay up all night for nothing! Especially after Darius attacks Marcos!"

"Ahhh what a wonderfully performed prank." He looked on in pure bliss as Darius disappeared in the distance. "I really wonder how Reinhard will react to it. Maybe he'll finally pay me a visit.. Or, or, or. Maybe I should visit him. It's been awhile since I've seen Reinhard, Felt and the three stooges around them. I should definitely visit him at some point."

Pride then went inside the mansion with a very great mood. To the point he was whistling in happiness. He had also realized his clothes were all dirtied from performing for so long and that he left his shirt in the forest. Blood was all over him although it didn't bother him in the slightest.

Walking around the mansion to the guest room he's using, everything was completely quiet but he didn't think too much of it as he thought his imaginations were all asleep.

Upon entering his room, he took a look at the broken glass shards around the floor of the room and the cold food that Emilia brought. "I just realized something. Tonight we had both dinner and a show, back-to-back!" Pride smiled at the turn of events. He was mighty entertained!

He cleared away some of the glass on the ground, then he yawned tiredly and lied down on the floor.

"Whose turn is it today?" Pride asked himself. Before deciding on a count of his own.

'One Odin..'

'Two Thor..'

'Three Loki..'

You shouldn't have let him go. If you had just killed him, we wouldn't be in the mess you just created. You also traumatized Rem, Ram, Clind and Emilia. Well done.

An imagination appeared. It was Subaru himself with black hair and his old tracksuit. His inner self. He looked down on Pride in disappointment.

Pride spoke sleepily. "Ugh, can we talk later? Actually wait it's better that you're here that way I can fall asleep easier hahaha"

Don't you realize what'll happen now? You've just painted a very huge target on our backs by letting him go. And if we die, we'll just be back to the point before the knights' fixed arrival. Or who knows if the save point has been updated till after that knight has already left.

"Wouldn't that be exciting though? To get to prank the knights again, hey, who knows? Maybe I'll get to hear the three meatbags' lovely melodies." Pride replied to his inner self in amusement.

Subaru's inner self stared at him coldly.

*Heavy sigh* Pride. I'm being serious. Sure we can easily kill the knights at this point on an individual, or a small group, basis. Hell, I wouldn't mind resetting just to kill them again. But you know what will happen when he goes back to the Capital and shows Marcos what you've done, alongside that threat of attacking the Capital. The Sages will put a bounty on us. We won't be safe anywhere. We'll be constantly on the run and on the defensive from people coming after us. We don't have infinite stamina. We're not even anywhere close to having our old physical strength back and you know it.

Pride shrugged "Eh, we have Invisible Providence, Cor Leonis and Hopeless. We can also always get more y'know?! I wonder what Gluttony would be like!"

They all have drawbacks. Cor Leonis only lasts at most 7 seconds and we've yet to discover what else it can do, or how long do we have to recharge it for, before being able to reuse it safely. If anything we're probably putting our heart at risk. Hopeless is completely unknown other than doing a kinetic damage based on distance, has a condition of aiming our hand and clenching it and uttering that word, all the while it works only on one person at a time. It's not reliable and can be dodged. You also saw how that one knight escaped through our Invisible Providence tonight. You saw how close he was to making us reset, our neck has the proof of where he slashed and that was just an above average knight. What if Reinhard comes after us? We have no way to counter him, even if we were to get all the Authorities. He can literally resurrect himself.

While Subaru's inner self was talking. Pride yawned, rolled his eyes then lifted his hand and started moving it as if it was talking. Mocking his inner self's lengthy rant.

*Sigh* Look, the point is... We're making too many enemies that we're not not strong enough to take on. We also have a defective gate to take into account, or did you forget that? We have no contract with a spirit and we're not in the cell for Felix to draw mana out of us. How do you expect us to keep our promise to Satella when the entire kingdom will be after us all the while we slowly wither away from mana poisoning?

"Could always ask Echidna to help us out, no? That greedy woman always wanted to contract us. Also, also. If we contract her then we get both delicious self-made food and a lot of knowledge. Although a certain clown would be truly TRUUUULY~ jealous." Pride had stars in his eyes from that golden idea.

You know as well as I do that she would only use us for her advantage. She only cares about our Rbd. Are you planning on dying thousands of times just to satisfy her curiosity?

"Don't act as if we haven't already." Pride countered. "How many times did we reset in our old home? Did you keep count, cause I sure haven't hahaha"

Inner Subaru eyerolled before replying. I remember Satella told me that we had a high affinity for the spirits. We could try that now, inst-

Pride interrupted him and rejected that idea. "Hmmm~ pass. Remember the last time we contracted a spirit? We made so SOOOO~ many friends and imaginations that day. What a cute friendmaker she is!" He said with a loving smile.

His inner self shook his head at him. Are you generalizing every spirit because of what Beatrice did?

"Aren't we generalizing every knight because of our good friends' pranks?"

Inner Subaru frowned at his other self's words. One spirit doesn't compare to every single knight we've come across. Yes she hurt and betrayed us, but it doesn't apply to all spirits. Meanwhile the knights are all bad apples. They all hurt and betrayed us.

"Appas." Pride corrected him. Meanwhile Inner Subaru sighed yet again.

You know what I meant. All that aside. We need to get away from here. I reckon we got about a few days headstart before we become wanted, all thanks to you for letting him go with evidence and a big threat to top it off. If you had just killed him then months later knights would come to investigate and by then we would be far away from here. They probably wouldn't even suspect us.

Pride yawned in boredom. "You're being too over-worried and boring."

For good reasons.

"Yeah well, whatever, can we sleep now? I didn't even say my nightly prayers to Satella-tan. Though I'll probably skip that tonight, sorry Tella-tan."

He waved his hand and dismissed his Inner self, who looked at him with heavy disappointment.

He closed his eyes to sleep and restarted his count.

'One Odin..'

'Two Thor..'

"Three Loki..'

'Four Freja..'

'Five Vidar..'

'Six Njord..'

The door opened. Cutting off Pride's concentration and disrupting his count yet again.

"S-Subaru-kun/S-S-S-Subaru/N-N-Natsuki-san?" Came the stuttered nervous voices of Rem, Emilia and Otto. Who stood at the door gazing at his sleeping form on the ground. Beatrice was with them although staying silent and looking on in heavy sadness.

Pride didn't even look in their direction. He simply yawned and spoke in both boredom and exhaustion. "Hm? When did I summon you? Doesn't anyone sleep at this hour these days?"

"S-S-Subaru...w-what did..." Emilia spoke frightfully, she wanted to ask him what happened tonight. Why he did all of... that.

He simply waved his hand at them in a dismissing motion. Trying to dismiss his imaginations as they usually show up before he sleeps. He always tried to change the way they looked at him by telling them jokes, however nothing worked and yet he always persisted. Tonight he was simply too tired for jokes however the imaginations this time weren't dismissed.

He looked at his hand again. "Did you do something, Inner me? Our imaginations are still there. Or is this your prank? Oooh! So exciiiiting~ if that's the case, hahaha."

"S-Subaru-kun..?" Rem asked in confusion, she wondered why he waved his hand at them just now.

"Nice touch with Rem-rin too. I for sure didn't think you'd include her in our nightly imaginations, after the whole" His voice turned robotic. "'Don't betray and hurt me. Have a doll.' thing you did. Well played, Inner me!" He finished in an amused tone as he turned his gaze to look at them.

"Anyway, time to sleep. In before I set more flags for my countdown to be interrupted for the third time." He waved his hand in a dismissal motion once more. Again it didn't work. He focused on them noticing their worried, terrified, confused and nervous expressions. This Emilia seemed real. A hand was on her heart as she looked at him.

"Hey, Inner me. Is that the real.." He trailed off without finishing his sentence.

"W-Who is.. I-Inner me?"

Author's note.

That was one hell of a wild ride, right? This was going to be even more darker in an earlier draft (If you can imagine). But I toned it down as to not go too far too soon yet.

Shoutout and thanks to all the ones who gave me ideas for a title for chapter 5! I'm still having difficulty settling on one, but I appreciate the ideas.

Also to DashingSlayer101: Haha, it happens. Although I'm really flattered that I made an OC seem like an actual character.

Anyways, hope you guys enjoyed the concert!