You opened your eyes, and saw Echidna smiling down at you. You had been sleeping in her lap for who knows how long.

"Ah. I see you are awake now. How do you feel?" Echidna asked.

You sat up, off of her lap. "Actually, I feel way better than I have in a long time. Thanks for the... um..."

"Lap pillow," Echidna said with a grin. "And as you are awake now, I believe that you should return to the physical world. It will almost be time for you to wake up, so this would be a good time to leave."

You fumbled the pendant from under your shirt and grasped it. You soon vanished from the Tea Party, and Echidna stayed on her spot on the ground.

"If he falls in love with me, I will be able to observe his mannerisms and come closer to understanding this emotion. Of course, comforting him was done in order to advance this, but I also believe that he is more damaged than he believes he is. Since we are in a contract, I suppose that I will help tend to his psychological state." Echidna finally stood up, stretching her legs.

"But I cannot help but doubt that I can understand these feelings that seem to come so easily to others. Love? I have not seen a need for it, but all living beings seem to yearn for it. Therefore, I have wanted to understand it, so..."

She grinned in a way that could have been taken as either mischievous or excited. "I am counting on you, (Y/N)."

You didn't hear these words, but what you did hear was Echidna telling you something else.

'(Y/N), come back to my Tea Party. You will remember what happened if you drink my tea.'

You weren't dumb, so this immediately let you know that something had gone wrong and Subaru died, causing you to forget what you had done in the previous loops. You grasped the pendant again and put aside the discomfort that came from going to and from Echidna's Tea Party.

When you reopened your eyes, you gasped. This time, you and Echidna weren't alone.

All of the Witches, except for Satella, were present, and they were all looking at you.

"Oh, look! It's (Y/N)!" A short, green-haired Witch walked up to you. "Hello! I'm Typhon! The Witch of Pride!" She held out her hand, but you knew better than to take it. With her ability, she could destroy your body, and unnecessary pain was... unnecessary.

You looked at each of the Witches, wondering why they were here. To see you? But why would they do that?

"Hey. Just like Typhon just said, my name is (Y/N) (L/N). It's nice to meet you."

Daphne, the Witch of Gluttony, licked her lips. "Mmmmm. He smells good!"

Sekhmet, the Witch of Sloth, sighed. It was too much effort for her to respond.

Minerva, the Witch of Wrath, pointed at you. "My name is Minerva, but my name isn't worth giving! And don't take Typhon's hand! I hate this world for making her try to hurt you!"

She seemed pretty... special.

Typhon huffed and stepped away from you.

Carmilla, the Witch of Lust, hid her face in her scarf. "M-my name i-is Carmilla."

Echidna waltzed over to you. "Now, I will explain the situation. Firstly, this is the fifth 'loop', as you would call it, since you left the Sanctuary. After you drink my tea, you will remember everything that you experienced during that time. After all, this space defies time." She then gestured to the other Witches. "And they are here because I recently talked to Subaru, and they all decided that they wanted to help him."

Minerva stomped in place. "You aren't telling the whole truth! You tried to get him to go into a contract with you!"

Echidna sighed, and you could probably tell what she was thinking. You already knew about what happened with Subaru and the contract since you saw the anime, so she didn't need to explain everything.

Echidna didn't want to have to explain this to the other Witches, so she said, "Of course, I wanted him to reject me. It served to spur his growth, and it steeled his resolve to stop abusing his ability. As I see it, my intent was not harmful, so please do not be so harsh, Minerva."

"A-and what are y-you planning t-to do with (Y/N)?" Carmilla asked.

"Yeah!" Typhon added. "I know that 'Dona and (Y/N) are in a contract, but why? I hope that (Y/N) won't be sinning! And you too, 'Dona!"

You gulped as the loli Witch stared you down. She may not look it, but she was a powerful being who could kill you with ease if it wasn't for your regeneration.

Echidna laughed. "Why, do not be like Subaru and assume that I am nothing but evil! In fact, (Y/N) finalized the conditions of our contract, and we both swore our souls to uphold it. We will help each other, and we cannot hide anything without good cause, in which case the cause needs to be explained. This is a mutually benefitting contract!"

After sighing, Sekhmet flatly stated, "We know." 'sigh' "All of us saw you when you made it except for Typhon." 'sigh'

Your eyes widened when you heard this. "Wait... so all of you were watching me every time that I came here?"

All of the Witches gave a collective nod of their heads.

"Well, I listened. I can't really see... Unless you want to take my restraints off!" Daphne, who was confined in a mobile coffin thingy, used it to come dangerously close to you.

"No!" Yelled Minerva.

Echidna agreed with the Witch of Wrath. "I would advise you not to take anything off of her. It would only result in harm for you, so I would like to avoid that."

"Y-yeah. If (Y/N)-kun is g-going to teach Echidna-chan l-love, he needs to be sane." Carmilla shuffled her feet, and avoided eye contact when you looked her way.

Daphne stepped back, but drool was still coming out of her mouth. "But he can iiiiinfinitely regenerate! I can finally be full if he stays with me!"

Echidna tapped your shoulder. "And about your regeneration... drink my tea, and you will remember something about it."

This made no sense. How could you remember something about your regeneration if you already knew about it? Did something bad happen to you? Did you die because your regeneration couldn't save you from mana depletion or something?

There was only one way to find out.

You approached Echidna's table, and swiftly brought your tea cup to your face. In one gulp, you consumed all of the tea.

"Ewww," you heard Typhon comment.

That didn't matter, because you suddenly got a severe headache as memories flooded your brain.

1st Loop

Waking up

Patrolling the mansion

Scouting good places for traps and battle

Moving Rem to Beatrice's library

Sleeping

Waking up

Patrolling the mansion

Elsa found

Sudden darkness - Subaru must have died

2nd Loop

Waking up

Tea Party

Preparing for battle the next day

Moving Rem to Beatrice's library

Sleeping

Waking up

Moving Petra to Beatrice's library

Ambushing Elsa

Elsa decapitated

Elsa still alive - Echidna suggested she was a curse doll

Frederica killed by Mabeast

Repeated death by Mabeast and Elsa

Being taken somewhere

Sudden darkness - Subaru must have died

3rd Loop

Waking up

Patrolling the mansion

Tea Party

Thick miasma absorbing everything

Witch of Envy came

She was angry

She left

Sudden darkness - Subaru must have died

4th Loop

Waking up

Tea Party

Stay in Tea Party

Moving Rem to mansion

Prepare trap for Elsa

Sleeping

Waking up

Moving Petra to Beatrice's library

Elsa crushed to death

Mabeasts overwhelm Frederica, she died

Staying in library, protecting Rem and Petra

Sudden darkness - Subaru must have died

Now

You fell to the ground. The memories of death - yours and everyone else's - were disturbing, and it was not easy to take in the fact that you 'died' many times and you didn't even remember it until now.

But there was something very, very pressing that you found in your memories.

When the Witch of Envy came to the mansion, she said some words before leaving.

' . Why aren't you helping him? He keeps dying. I gave you what you wished for. I told you to help him. Why? Whywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhy? You have wasted it. Subaru... SubaruSubaruSubaruSubaruSubaruSubaruSubaruSubaru!'

She left rambling, but encountering her had left you shaken for the remainder of that loop.

And in the next loop, when you were fighting Mabeasts, you noticed something.

Your wounds were taking longer to heal. Your regeneration was becoming less effective.

"Oh no... Does that mean that I'm losing my ability?! This is bad! How am I going to fight? Without my regeneration, I-"

Minerva, the Witch of Wrath, huffed. "Good! Now you can't rely on an ability that makes you fine with being hurt! It makes me angry when you want to use harming yourself as a strategy! So don't be sad that you're not able to use it!"

Echidna sat down next to you. "I share a similar sentiment. Now, you have to rely completely on the abilities of yourself and your allies, not an ability that was granted to you with the condition that you had to sacrifice yourself for another. And you have me, the Witch of Greed, on your side! Why worry? As long as I am supporting you, you will not have to be healed from a life-threatening injury!"

Sekhmet sighed again. "She's right." 'sigh'

Carmilla meekly added, "A-and w-we can help t-too, right, Echidna-chan?"

Echidna narrowed her eyes. "I will take that into consideration. Of course, this will be up to (Y/N), but it is possible for each of you to offer your assistance, though it may not be helpful, to (Y/N)."

There was still one thing that was confusing you. "Hold up. Why are all of you wanting to help me out anyway? I can understand Echidna, but I have no idea why the rest of you would be interested in helping me."

Typhon answered first. "You want to punish sinners, and so do I! And you seem to be a good person, so why would I not help you?"

Next was Minerva. "I hate to see people in pain, so I want to help you stay away from it!"

Carmilla stuttered, "I-I think t-that everyone should b-be able to learn about love, so I-I want you to be able to help Echidna-chan feel it. I can't explain it that good, s-so I was hoping t-that you could do it."

Great. The Witch of Lust didn't even know how to teach someone about love. That makes the odds seem waaay better.

Daphne interrupted your thoughts. "I don't really care. I'm just hungry, so I'm just going through the motions!"

And finally, Sekhmet answered. 'sigh' "I'm just here to make sure things don't go out of control." 'sigh'

So this was why the Witches of Sin wanted to help you. Not because they cared for you, but they all held beliefs that they wanted to hold through you. That, or they didn't care about any of this. Well, Minerva might actually care about your well-being, but then again, she cared about everybody.

Echidna was also doing the same thing. It was obvious, but maybe that would change. If you were successful, and she could finally feel love...

"Why (Y/N), you are having some ambitious thoughts, aren't you?" Echidna chimed in.

You blushed, once again forgetting that she could hear your thoughts. For a second, you thought that it was unfair that you couldn't hear her thoughts, but it became clear that being able to see what's going on in her head would probably not be the best thing for your mental health.

"I agree. Now, I do believe that you are about to be awakened," Echidna informed you.

"Wha-" Before you could finish the question, your whole body pulsed, and you could feel yourself being pulled away from Echidna's Tea Party.

As your conscience was slipping away, Typhon was waving her arms in farewell. "Bye bye, (Y/N)!"

You opened your eyes, and saw Petra gently shaking your body. "(Y/N), breakfast is ready! Get some before it gets cold!"

You kept a straight face even though you felt like crap, and nodded your head. "I'll be there soon. Thanks."

Petra beamed a smile, and quickly exited your room, making sure to close the door behind her.

You saw your cleaned clothes neatly folded on the chair that was next to your bed, so you changed into them. Thankfully, you remembered from the previous loops that you wouldn't have to do any butler duties, so you didn't even bother to check on your butler clothes.

Though it had been Rem who tailored them...

Speaking of Rem, you needed to pay her a visit.

'If you can find your way to her room, that is,' Echidna teased.

You wanted to say something back, but you had nothing. It would be a miracle if you could find your way to the dining room, and Echidna knew full well that this mansion screwed with your sense of direction.

Thankfully, you were able to navigate your way to the dining room.

Or so you thought. When you opened up the door that should have led to the dining hall, your face was immediately met with a book.

"You keep on annoying Betty, in fact. Go away until you actually need something, I suppose." An irritated Beatrice crossed her legs and her arms, waiting for you to exit her library.

In response, you closed the door. "Actually, there is something that I need to ask you. There will be an attack on this mansion tomorrow, so I was wondering if you would hide Rem and Petra in here until we can safely evacuate them."

Beatrice hmph'ed. "And how do you know that we will be attacked, I suppose."

This time, you relied on your memories from previous loops, and you replied, "Well, you just have to trust me. Would you rather watch as those girls get slaughtered, or take them in here? Even if I'm lying, at least nothing can possibly happen to them."

Beatrice looked even more irritated. "You won't explain to me why you are doing this, but you are forcing me to do it anyway. How rude, I suppose."

You smiled apologetically. 'Echidna, can I say what I'm about to say?'

'You haven't said this before, but why not? We will have to reveal our contract one day, so it will inflict no harm for you to say this.' Echidna could read your mind, so you didn't have to give her context for what you were about to say.

"Beatrice, I promise that I'll explain it one day. But right now, you will just have to wait."

When you said 'wait', Beatrice froze.

Faint traces of tears welled in her eyes, and she exclaimed, "Betty has done nothing but wait, I suppose! I will help you, but leave right now, I suppose!" She raised her hands, threatening to cast a spell. You took the hint and bolted out of her library and slammed the door shut.

Luckily for you, that door led straight into the dining hall.

Time Skip

After eating breakfast, you decided to move Rem to Beatrice's library before doing anything else. If, just by some terrible chance, Elsa showed up early, you wanted to make sure that the blue haired maid stayed safe.

Without getting lost, you found her room. You turned the brass knob on her door, and slowly cracked it open.

Rem was still sleeping peacefully in the exact same position that you and Subaru had left her in.

You had asked Echidna if she knew of a way to restore Rem in a previous loop, but she said no. Until she saw one of the Gluttony trio in action, she would not be able to come up with an accurate answer.

Since you wouldn't ask the same question again, you closed your eyes and imagined a light covering your body, and strength flowing through it. With this visualization complete, you uttered, "Akra."

Using the strength-enhancing spell, you picked Rem up gently. You made sure to straighten up her bed sheets before exiting the room and then proceeded to look for Beatrice.

Luckily, Beatrice allowed for herself to be found. In a silent exchange, you placed Rem in a chair and mouthed 'thank you' as you dispersed the spell.

Beatrice turned her head away, and you left her room before she could decide to act on her anger.

'Are you not upset with me for telling Beatrice to wait for 'that person'? Subaru was furious, and I expected you to share the same feelings.'

'Well, it's not like I can understand how she feels, so I can't feel sorry for her on that level. And I know that she has been waiting for 400 years, but I think that by knowing that Subaru will come and somehow make her come with him makes me feel like everything is alright. That, or maybe because I'm dead inside...'

'So you experience difficulty in feeling emotions as well?'

'Well, I think that the right term would be depression. Jokes aside, my world really beat me down. I might have experienced a lot of pain in this world, but my world just hit different. I always felt alone, and my family didn't help with that. Let's just say that my parents... could have been a lot better. And don't even get me started on getting a girlfriend. I had crushes, but I never mustered up the courage to ask them out, which hurt. A lot. And of course, I had some friends, but I couldn't help but feel like I was missing something. And looking back, I wasted so much of my life. Instead of actually doing productive things, I just gamed and watched a lot of anime. Of course, in this world, those might be helpful, but if I wouldn't have come here...'

'I see. By coming into a world in which society was not seemingly built to crush the non-wealthy, but one in which somebody could make an actual living by simply using their skills, you finally found a place in which you were happy to live in. Your passion in your world may not have led to an enviable or enjoyable life, but here, you can lead a life that you can have joy living. Am I correct?'

'Yeah, I think so. Here, I actually feel like I have a purpose. In my world, I didn't even know what I wanted to do after school, so I didn't even know where my life was headed, and it was scary to think about. Here, I actually make a difference, and I matter. There are people who I actually care about, and we've been through many trials together. I genuinely consider them as friends, and not just some characters that I talk to every now and then. So now, I just want to be able to help them, and take out the Witch Cult. That's my goal here.'

'How ambitious... I like it! Your life will be one that will be most entertaining to experience by your side. I look forward to our future together.'

'Me too. And thanks, Echidna.'

'Why are you thanking me?'

'I haven't been able to talk to anybody about that, so it felt nice being able to say all of that to you. I kind of feel like something has been lifted from my chest, so it really helps.'

'If it truly helped that much, then feel free to tell me everything! There is no need to hide any part of yourself from me!'

'Um... no. Trust me. There is some stuff that I really don't want you to see or hear from me, so I'll just not think about it as hard as I can.'

'You can try, but you can't hide it forever! My Greed will be satisfied!'

"(Y/N)?"

You stopped talking to Echidna and faced Frederica, who you almost ran into. "Oh, I'm sorry. I was just thinking about some things, so I wasn't paying attention."

Frederica, who had been cleaning vases, shrugged off your apology. "There is no need to apologize. Although, would you like to share what you were contemplating? You looked as if you were very deep in thought, as if you were thinking about something very serious."

You looked back into your memories to see if you ever told Frederica about the attack on the mansion.

The interesting thing is, you told her in half of the loops, and in the other half, you didn't. But in the end, things tended to work out better when she knew that you knew about the attack on the mansion.

"Well, to put it simply, there's going to be an attack on the mansion tomorrow, and I'm trying to figure out how we're not going to die."

Frederica gasped, implying that she did not know about this. "Is this true?"

You nodded your head. "Yep. And I'm actually about to start setting up some traps, if you would like to help. I've already moved Rem into Beatrice's library, and I'm planning on moving Petra there tomorrow morning."

Frederica briefly thought about this, then asked, "Can we not simply evacuate the mansion? In that case, we can avoid all conflicts."

The only reason that you could answer that question is because she had asked it in a previous loop. "Well, they would hunt us down and kill us anyway, and going to the Sanctuary will be dangerous too. And good luck trying to get Beatrice out of her library. She's contracted to protect it, so she wouldn't leave it."

Thankfully, Frederica didn't ask how you knew about the attack, instead, she replied, "In that case, I will assist you, (Y/N). What are your plans for these traps?"

Time Skip

Echidna actually proposed a different plan than the last time you had fought Elsa. Instead of trying to crush her to death and then fighting the mabeasts, you would now burn the mansion down, and then do something that may or may not work. The reasoning was, screw Roswaal. If he wanted to kill the people in his mansion, then it would be fine if you burned it down.

Frederica didn't know about the whole fire thing, but you did have her help you with setting some interesting traps that would kill mabeasts. Some included heavy objects falling down, and some included weapons being triggered by a rope. But the interesting thing was, some of them had explosion crystals attached to them, so if they were destroyed or set off, there would be an explosion, giving away the position of the enemy or just blowing them up.

And apparently, Subaru was on the right track this loop, so he should come right after Elsa and Meili start to attack.

And of course, he will have your message, the message that you told Otto to give him.

Only come to the mansion once Emilia has passed the first trial. And when you come, bring reinforcements.

You didn't want Subaru to die needlessly, so you only wanted him to come once he's figured everything out. The only thing that might go wrong is him talking with Beatrice. Since he hasn't talked to her as much as he did in the anime, he might not be able to make her go with him.

But putting that aside, you also had your fair share of work put ahead of you. Not only would defeating both Elsa and Meili be very difficult (and it didn't help that your regeneration was probably going away), but doing what Echidna said to do might prove to be even more challenging. But if it worked, the payload would be immense.

After several hours of preparation, you and Frederica finally finished setting up the mabeast traps. No person should be stupid enough to fall into those, so you didn't have to worry about accidentally killing somebody.

"(Y/N). When the assailants come tomorrow, as you claim, will all of these traps be necessary?" Frederica finally voiced her thoughts. So far, she had only helped you since she believed that you knew what you were doing, but there had been an ever-present doubt lingering in her mind.

You nodded your head. "Yup. Trust me, you'll be glad that we set these up. Now, I guess that we should find Petra and tell her about what's going on. I'm pretty sure that she's confused, seeing all of these traps everywhere."

"There is no need for that." Holding up three fingers, Frederica counted down, "She will be turning into this hallway in 3... 2... 1..."

"Frederica-sama! (Y/N)! What are all of these dangerous looking things doing everywhere?!" Somehow, Petra actually came right when Frederica reached zero, and she had a concerned look on her face.

"We're going to be fighting some bad people tomorrow, so we're just making sure that we're ready for them," you explained.

Petra didn't react that much, which surprised you. "Ok."

Yu and Frederica just stared at her for a few seconds. "... Is that it?" You asked. Usually, when a twelve year old finds out that they're going to be in a battlefield, they're either super excited for some reason, or they're utterly terrified.

Petra smiled when you asked that question. "Yeah! I'm not scared because a bunch of strong people are with me! No matter what happens, you guys always save the day!"

Seeing this little girl believing in you like this just...

'I believe that the word that you are searching for is 'moving'.'

Yeah. You felt moved by Petra's absolute faith in you, and it made you want to succeed even more. So who cares if the Bowel Hunter and a Mabeast User came for you?

You were going to achieve a perfect victory. A victory without casualties. A victory that had only one clear winner.

And it was going to happen tomorrow night.

Hey guys, I hope that you enjoyed this week's chapter!

The next chapter will finally cover our fight with Elsa and Meili!

I'll see you next time!