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The following is a fan-based

FICTION

Re:Zero and other products related to the this series are all owned by Tappei Nagatsuki.

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Chapter 11: Rowdy Elections

The Royal Election was about to begin and Emilia was terribly frightened by the notion of messing up.

Yes, she had spent entire weeks studying the same things over and over again, but she felt like her confidence was hardly going to pull the best out of that. The only elements that dragged her to keep a sane composure were Puck and Subaru. Speaking of the young man, he looked slightly unnerved when he returned from his brief trip in the market square they met in, but while she had all reasons to inquire what happened, his 'just tripped and fell' plus him bringing to her a worthy sacrifice in the form of succulent Appas to devour, Emilia found herself unable to bring out the many questions she had over his current mood.

The sweet fruit cheered her up, her mind feeling less hurting and less 'heating up' due to the excessive stress she was subjecting herself in and... then she ended up finding an old acquaintance passing by the halls of the castle. Julius Juukulius was someone Emilia had met a few times in the past. All these encounters ended quite positively, yet it would be a lie to say she considered him a proper friend.

Mostly because there wasn't much interaction between them and that he was polite to her due to her status and not due to her overall personality. He was fairly tall and with a well-built muscular stature, with yellow eyes and intense plum-haired hair that were arranged neatly with a strand hanging down his face. He was wearing the formal Royal Guard uniform, a common sight from a knight.

She was surprised when he walked up to her with a pleased smile, greeting her with utmost care. Wasn't he already supporting a camp? An enemy? Despite the many thoughts suggesting caution before this individual, the more he got closer the more Emilia felt somewhat trusting of this individual. Mostly because he had seen into his own plights and he had been fairly open about his own dilemmas. In a way, she could relate to his struggles, but it was just a feeble and partial connection which still failed to become a proper friendship.

"Emilia-sama," The man politely greeted as soon as he got close enough for it, soon kneeling down and reaching for her left hand to deliver a polite kiss on her knuckles.

Emilia didn't hesitate in having him reach out for a kiss and wondered what Subaru was thinking of this sight. He looked quite surprised, but overall not upset by the sight. Somewhat that left her relieved and a bit annoyed. Maybe she wanted him to be irked by the sight, but the overall calm he showed was good as it confirmed he wasn't going to be the jealous type. And... that made her even more awkward about her past efforts to 'attack' any potential love interests trying to snatch him away from her.

"This is Rem, I'm sure you remember her from our latest meeting, and this is Natsuki Subaru, my current advisor."

Both introduced individuals bowed, but Julius' gaze stopped by Subaru for a few more seconds. At first she didn't think much of it, expecting this reaction to be driven by the notion the fellow young man was a new sight for the knight but-

"Your advisor? I don't see how someone with those eyes and at his age can provide you insight you already possess," Julius remarked. "I suppose he's not a proper advisor."

Now, Emilia was not an idiot when it comes to indirect jabs. After years of dealing with people throwing insults at her and making a bit of a thick skin about it, the girl just knew when someone meant to insult more than they made it sound. And right in that moment, her mind was just translating it in blunt words, with the results leaving her in quite the miffed state of mind: "He looks like a thug, he is too young to be wise, and he was given the role out of pity."

...

Oh~? Did Julius just mock my Su-ba-ru~?

The response to that was instantly perceived by the knight as the plum-haired young man found his hand unwilling to leave the suddenly harsh grip of the girl over it. A brief flash of unease appeared on Julius' face, but he managed to hold a fair amount of control over his current reaction.

"E-Emilia-sama, you're- you're holding my hand a bit too-"

"Apologies, Juulius," She interrupted with a tight apologetic tone. "You see, I tend to get partially crossed when someone accuses close friends of things that are unfound and fairly distressing."

"M-My deepest apologies, I was just trying to be cautious with-"

The half-elf yanked her hand away from him, releasing him from her vicious grasp. "I understand you have your own opinions on people, but it's mostly displeasing that you seek to insult someone I trust and care about out of prejudice, Julius. I thought you were above that."

Hurt flashed momentarily from Julius' eyes, especially since she knew how ironic that situation felt when thinking about the young man's own background. Ironic and... distressing at times. Seriously, why can't people keep up a sense of decency when it comes to committing to the very pains that hurt them in the past?

"Uh... Emilia?" Subaru asked with a quiet tone, his voice snapping her out of that irritation that took over her. "Isn't it a bit too..."

"Much?" She asked with half-a-squeak, realizing she had gone a bit too hard on Julius. She was miffed, yes, but perhaps her nervousness was giving her a bit of a sharp edge in this instance. "I-I guess. I'm sorry, Julius- it's just I tend to get quite protective of those I care for."

The knight merely bowed, showing no genuine upset at this. "It's alright, Emilia-sama. I should have been less straight-forward about my grievance and more... understanding."

"I'm glad to hear that," Emilia said while offering a smile. "Now, I believe we have a ceremony to take care of before turning up late to it, right?"

A nod, no more words were exchanged as the four resumed to move towards the ceremonial room where the main event was meant to unfold. Nervousness was back, and where she was ready to break down and panic, Emilia's mood and determination soared as she felt a familiar hand squeeze by her shoulder.

"Good luck, Emi."

Her soul exploded in bliss and the smile plastered on her face refused to back down before the terrifying setting that was the Royal Election.

Subaru was a bit clueless on how to handle the overall situation.

The room was filled to half-point by people that were divided between knights, officers, administrators and foreign dignitaries. It was so incredible to see, and, in a way, reminded him of the powerful portrait he once saw about the Versailles Treaty, except there were more people in there. He had to keep away from Emilia as the half-elf was approached by a waiting Roswaal into taking 'position' for the beginning of the election with Rem in tow.

Every single candidate was set to go through the process... all except Felt. Was she running late? Why would Reinhard be fine with it and why was he already there? As her knight, shouldn't he be attending her and guiding her to the throne room? And while they waited for something to actually happen, Subaru's gaze started to take notes of the two unfamiliar candidates, having already gotten enough of a sightful out of Priscilla before this instance.

The first one to appear in sight was a petite woman with blue green eyes and long, wavy light-purple hair that reached down to her hips. She was wearing a curious long white dress with a fur hat and scarf along with a large purse shaped like a wallet. It reminded him of a fancy Russian noble lady. She also donned a star-shaped hairpin on her hair and a small teal pendant around her neck. That was definitely Anastasia Hoshin- he had heard of her from some people due to her mercantile background, and how her products were considered premium items in the kingdom due to how rare it is to trade with Kararagi.

The other one was also peculiar due to her... masculine approach. A fairly beautiful woman with almond-shaped amber eyes and long dark pine-green hair that stopped down to her lower back. The formal outfit she was currently wearing consisted of a marine purplish-blue long-coat trimmed in white with golden epaulettes on the shoulders with a white blouse and scarf visible under it; blue trousers, black white-laced knee-high heel boots, white gloves, and a blue cap with a single horizontal white stripe along the middle.

"Oh~, you have been staring at Crusch-sama for a while nyow~," A soft voice called from behind.

Subaru almost jumped when he noticed a knight leaning right by his shoulder behind him and giving him a smug look. The young man had flax colored hair and yellow eyes, he wore the standard knight uniform which gave him more of a masculine air compared to the rest of his appearance. Subaru knew he was looking at a guy, he just had enough experience with the notion of femboys to know what was up.

"I-I was just-"

"Ogling~?"

"S-Staring at the candidates. It's just I never saw them before now," He admitted bluntly, but his embarrassed blush was met with a teasing smile.

"Neh~, it's alright. There is nothing wrong in admiring perfection."

He frowned. "And I suppose you are her knight, sir...?"

The cat-boy blinked in surprise. "Wha-? Sir? Nyah! What if I was actually a chick- Actually, I am a-"

"Man?" Subaru interjected and caused the demi-human to pause once again. "I mean, you are feminine but you are definitely a guy."

"...How?"

"Well, you have a neck protrusion that is known as Adam's apple, which is quite common in men," The advisor explained nervously, seeing the cat-boy's ears twitching a fair bit. "And you literally proved it with your... reaction."

The fellow dude stared at Subaru intensely and... smiled. "I like ya. My name is Ferris."

"Nice to meet you, I'm Natsuki Subaru."

"Oh, a polite one~. So, who's your boss here?" Ferris hummed, but before Barusu could have offered an answer to it, the doors opened and revealed Felt and... Rom right behind her.

It was an interesting sight to see a very short individual as the former thief being escorted by the half-giant, and his presence acted as a solution to two problems. First being the guarding issue being actually handled by Reinhard, but the young man having no chance to defend his lady without conflicting with his usual morals; and Rom's intimidating size nullified any bad comment coming at Felt when she was introduced as the final candidate to the election and given a quick rundown explanation of who she was and where did she came from. Usual introduction stuff.

After that, the rest of the candidates went on to 'greet' the sages and explained their motivations driving them. Priscilla wanted the kingdom because... 'why not?'. It wasn't exactly the precise reasons, but the paraphrasing did do some justice to the true reasoning being around it; then it was the turn of Crusch and she worked more on a tougher platform in breaking the oath to Volcanica for good due to the recent crises the kingdom had to go through without any protections from the dragon; then it was Anastasia's turn and she literally admitted being a 'greedy girl, and that she wanted a nation. That's all~'.

Emilia was the last one to speak and the one that drew more condemnation than the rest. Her message could have been misinterpreted and so Subaru thought it was just that as she spoke of equality, not exactly something nobles were so keen to hear when it can easily relate to rebellions. However that didn't seem to be the case as he would soon learn.

"This is just absurd! Why are we allowing the half-devil to continue with this charade!" One of the sages exploded with that hateful rant. "Are we really accepting the witch's candidacy?! What's with this travesty!"

That... that isn't right.

Subaru was no expert in this sort of political practices, but even there he could perceive a general state of distress for those that were witnessing that outburst together with him. It was surreal to imagine a politician, within a role this important, be so eager to push out a subjective view on the matter. Wasn't that negative to a degree for them?

Emilia definitely gave off a confirmation of this from the gloomy look on her face. He had never seen the girl look so down and unable to react to this sort of insults. It felt so frustrating, and it reminded him of the various times she told him about the racism she had to go through due to her appearance. And to endure this before this large public sure had to feel extremely dreadful. And Subaru wasn't willing to stand for it. No, he had to react somehow and, while he was in no position to strike, he knew that the whole room was not exactly agreeing with this view. Plus, this reminded him of something Emilia told him about the sages and how this election was meant to ensue through the few rules the sages had implemented about it.

"A-Apologies, may I ask a question?" He spoke, raising a hand up and gaining some surprised eyes at him due to it.

His voice cut through the silence, Emilia's eyes widened at that interjection as she stared up at Subaru with confused and... worried eyes. The young man replied with a confident smile which quickly morphed back in a polite look.

"A question?" One of the sages inquired, looking at Elder McMahon as the wise man threw a fascinated look back at the youth.

"Depends on the context. Is it a personal one or maybe one that would entertain the time wasted for all candidates?"

"The second kind, McMahon-sama," Subaru answered readily.

The old man gave an even longer look at that and then... sighed. "Sure."

"The Council of Sages is meant to be the group which is going to elect the new kind. Doing so by objectively judging each candidate through their merits, flaws and deeds... right?"

"That's correct. However, I feel like that's now the question you were looking to ask."

Subaru's mouth opened but noise failed to leave for a while as he realized what the old man had just told him. He had unconsciously asked a question without meaning to. Luckily, he still had a chance to still ask what he wanted to use against the jerk that hurt Emilia.

"The question is, if that's indeed the case, then why one of the sages is allowed to rant against one of the candidates due to personal bias and will this repeat with other candidates, such as those that come from beyond the national borders?"

It was a fool-proof question, and one that actively gained a few interesting reactions. The sages were mostly worried, with McMahon being the only one still offering an interested smile, Roswaal grinning giddily, Rem shaking her head and Emilia... looking ready to cry but still offering a thankful smile. Sadly, someone didn't take that nicely.

"And why would a mere courtier know about how this kind of affair works?" The same jerk from before shot back in pure frustration. "It's none of your concerns, commoner-"

"Yet it is mine!" Emilia quipped angrily, her fury bubbling up to this very point and drawing out quite the reaction out of her. And she wasn't the only one with that kind of compulsion to stand by Subaru's point.

"I agree, this circumstance doesn't paint a polite view of the sages," Crusch remarked flatly. "I believe an apology is the least it can be offered."

Soon her view was reinforced by the other candidates on their own.

"Fuh, I find this whole thing detrimental on the side that this game has been rigged. Is this even a proper election or just a joke to annoy me," Priscilla pointed out with some irritation, causing Anastasia to gasp.

"The game is rigged? That's not fair. Who do I bribe to win~?"

Out of all reactions, Felt was the most explosive of the bunch.

"Ohi, bushy-eyebrows! How about instead of squawking behind a desk you come here and tell that in front of us all? Heh, too much of a coward to do that?!" The blonde fiercely exclaimed, Rom grunting and cracking his knuckles and causing most of the room to shudder in surprise at that move.

Miklotov blinked and saw how hostile the crowd had gotten through that bad take on Emilia, his gaze turning to the sage in question and giving him a glare. "Sage Zellgef, I suggest you sit down and keep quiet. We will have a lengthy discussion about your concerns, but I find no reason to start assaulting a candidate by mere prejudice."

The man looked ready to protest, but between being grilled by the various candidates and his fellow sages quickly distancing from him, the topic died down as miserable as it possibly could.

"To answer your question, Natsuki-san, this Council will rule on objective circumstances and no by subjective ones. Your point has been made, and I wish to humbly apologize in the name of the council for this situation. I will make sure no similar scene will unfold out of it."

That was... intense.

The overall election resumed smoothly and the first session ended quite positively. Subaru was relieved that Emilia pulled through just fine but... then the issue came in the form of the many gazes aimed at him. Some were individuals that found his interruption foolish, others brave, but the group of glances he got the most heat from was from the candidates themselves. He made himself known to those that didn't know him.

And it could easily lead to some unusual scenarios for the near future.

AN

Oh my lord! What an intense election and... Emilia may take that valiant defense a bit too excitedly. Next time, Barusu finds himself in quite the situation with his first friend in this world!