"Archbishop of Pride…"
That title was announced with each syllable holding the speaker's full loathing. Their voice was oozing with contempt and utter hatred. He could not resist the urge to look towards it, granting the speaking figure his full attention.
He saw someone that looked just like him, his dark hair ruffled and his eyes nasty. But that person was dressed oddly, wearing the clothes of a noble. A tired, subdued fury was clear in his expression, and an eerie black crystal was draped around his neck, gleaming a soft green in the sunlight.
"You lay upon the blood soaked death of this ruined land."
He followed the glare of disdain downwards, the hatred in those words still lingering in his mind. He found a kneeling figure beside the furious man. It was… yet another him, clad in dark, bloodied robes, a mad smile on his face. That man took pleasure in the speaker's contempt and seemingly felt no fear nor shame even with his head lodged in a guillotine.
"Castles plundered, dominions in ruin, cities destroyed; all to spread the hellfire with which you sought to cover the world."
The speaker gestured angrily at the madman, seeming only a moment away from killing the kneeling figure with his own two hands. But he did no such thing. Instead, he pointed to the broken and charred city around them, a nearly demolished castle struggling to loom in the distance.
"A bloody conquest—having consumed tens of millions, countless villages razed to the ground, and an entire hopeful generation of once great men wiped out by you and you alone—to strike horror into the hearts of mortal men!"
A deafening roar came from the crowd around him at the speaker's words. He could see the desire, the need for revenge in all their eyes as they stared down the other him being admonished by the speaker.
"WHAT SAY YOU, MONSTER! DEMON! DEVIL CONCEIVED BY THE BLEAKEST WOMB! WHAT SAY YOU NOW!?"
A quiet hatred filled the air. The speaker's words hung over the crowd, over him, and even over the other him just as ash covered the ground they all stood upon. The other him's smile widened to an unnatural extent as he croaked out a single phrase.
"I regret nothing."
With a swift motion the blade was released, the guillotine dropped, and he watched as the other him lost his life with a satisfied smile on his face; that madman hated by the crowd, the speaker, and even himself.
Subaru jolted up from his bed in a cold sweat. His breathing was heavy and uneven, his heart was racing, and his head was spinning as he recoiled from the contents of yet another odd, nonsensical dream. Normally, he'd be able to shake it off and continue with his day, but the raw emotion of every person that it had held - from intense hate to twisted elation - resonated with him in a deep, unsettling way. The sensation of all those mixed feelings flooded his entire being. Regret, Hatred, Determination, Necessity, Unnecessity. He felt all these things and more all at once.
Overwhelmed, he brought his hands to his arms—instinctually sinking his nails into his skin to find even a moment of reprieve from the storm in his mind; to overpower the tempest with a tidal wave of pain—when he felt something wetten his neck.
"Subaru…"
Bringing his eyes into focus, he now saw that there was a little blonde girl in a pretty pink and red dress clinging to him, desperately trying and failing to tear his arms apart as tears flowed freely from her butterfly-patterned eyes.
"Beako…?" muttered Subaru, dazed by the sudden interruption of his confused thought process.
He released the grip he held on himself and brought the girl close into an embrace, her body relaxing but her tears flowing even faster and harder than before.
"Subaru…" the girl repeated, the desperation in her shaking voice clear as day. The pain he heard in it prompted him to hug her even tighter.
Through her sobs, she eventually muttered out, "Is… Is Betty not enough?"
He moved to refute her, "That's not—"
But she cut him off, her grip on him grew more stern as her body trembled, "Betty is unable to even keep her Subaru together in the face of a single nightmare, I suppose."
After a silent moment, she concluded her statement, "Betty really is a disappointment."
At this, he pulled her as close as he could. He held her tight and hoped it would keep the shattered remains of her neglected, broken psyche together.
"Maybe…" she continued, her voice muffled through his shirt.
"Maybe it would have been better if Betty just—" She was cut off by the hug being interrupted. Subaru had pulled her away from his chest and met her eyes for a moment. Hazel and butterfly-patterned irises alike were obscured by tears.
And then, before she could even complete the vile thought she almost uttered, he slammed his head against hers in a violent headbutt.
Instinctively reaching a hand up to touch the suddenly pained spot, she looked up to see him scowling, tears beginning to flow down his face.
"Are you dumb?" he said to her, deeply frowning, a quiver in his voice.
Again, not letting her speak, he continued, "Yeah, you are dumb! You made a choice, Beako."
He brought her hand to his chest. "You chose me."
He placed his own hand on hers. "And I chose you."
His scowl faded as his sharp glare shifted to a softened gaze. "And we both know that I'm too prideful and greedy to give up on that choice…"
"To give up on you," he said, pulling her into yet another hug, this time gentle and calm. Neither of them wanted to let go.
They remained as such for several long minutes, comfortable in each other's arms, the only thing on both of their minds being the safety and presence of the other. Eventually, he opened his eyes to gaze down at the back of her form, taking in the sight of her curled blonde hair and the elaborate dress she always wore.
Subaru wondered to himself, noting her still slightly shaking back, "Has she always been this fragile?"
He frowned slightly, ruminating on a strange sensation deep within him and thinking, "I've been so focused on Emilia-tan that I've neglected her… Wait, has she been—"
Suddenly, his stomach growled loudly, interrupting his thought process and prompting Beatrice to break slightly from the embrace. She took a deep breath, steadied her form, and spoke to him calmly, "Subaru, you haven't eaten well in your whole time here, I suppose."
She pushed herself up and off the bed, the lost warmth of their broken embrace saddening them both.
"We'd best be off to breakfast now, in fact," Beatrice continued, her voice steady.
Subaru stared silently at her for a moment. All that weakness and pain that laid plain just a second ago vanished in an instant. She now stood tall and confident. There were no tear marks on her face nor signs of sadness in her expression. She seemed perfectly stable, content, and even happy… but he could tell now that it was all an act.
"I really am a worthless contractor, then," he decided, reflecting on his relationship with his nameless fire spirit in his old timeline.
He too stood and took her hand in his.
"Beako," he called to her, his tone stern.
"Yes, Subaru?" she responded, confused.
"We-" he said before cutting himself off. He was about to sit her back down and have a serious conversation about her emotional state, but something lodged deep within him urged him to reconsider. Some Greedy force told him he ought to hold off on it and focus on other matters first.
"What the hell is this?" he thought, reflecting on the odd sensation. This was not the first time he had felt it and it was becoming clear that it was something oddly foreign to his soul, something detached from his identity yet intrinsically linked to it.
"What is it, I suppose?" Beatrice asked, bringing his attention back to reality.
He looked into her beautiful, butterfly-patterned eyes and said, as seriously as he could,
"In my many, many years of existence and after having seen every corner of this fantasy world, I can say with absolute confidence that you are not only the cutest being to currently live but to ever exist, Beatrice."
For a moment, she stared at him, confused and processing his words. And then, a second later, it clicked and her regal, noble-like expression did a total 180. A blush spread across her entire face.
"I— You— Betty—" she stammered, struggling to gaze back into his eyes. Normally, they just looked scary but the intensity with which they studied her now made her feel unparalleled embarrassment, like she had just found herself on stage without a clue as to her next line.
"No, actually. You're cuter than any fictional character too," he added, after a moment of further thought, still drilling a hole through her with his eyes.
"V-vita, in fact!" she stammered out, yanking her arm away from him as he suddenly fell to the ground, unprepared for the sudden increase in weight.
Still a blushing mess, she crossed her arms and turned away from him, muttering,
"Hopeless, I suppose."
Pushing open the grand wooden doors of the dining room, Beatrice and Subaru were greeted by a rather peculiar sight. The central table was exactly centered in the room, adorned with a spotless white cloth that showed no signs of the various stains and damages that it had endured over the past few days. The beautifully patterned floor too was spotless, not even a single speck of dirt visible to the pair.
Even more surprisingly, every single crack, dent, and hole that had once marred said floor were totally absent. Somehow, the entirety of the dining room was fully repaired and cleaned such that it was even more impressively ornate to a picture-perfect extent than it was when Subaru had first seen it three days ago.
Rapidly scanning the impressively tidy room, Subaru's gaze quickly landed upon the singular thing out of place there: the yellow maid. She was on her hands and knees on the far right of the room with her back facing the door. There was the soft sound of distant scrubbing coming directly from her.
Subaru immediately wanted to call out to her, both to question her about the notable lack of any of the mansion's other occupants and to congratulate her for her continued excellence as a maid that never ceased to impress him, but…
"Damn, I still don't know her name."
With no other option, Subaru marched right up to the working maid, Beatrice in tow. Standing only one pace away from the woman, she had still yet to turn to greet them. Subaru would have been content to wait patiently for her to conclude her duties and notice them without prompting, but something was making him oddly anxious and was pushing him to call for her attention immediately. Before doing so, he made a mental note that this something was the same feeling he had had several times before. And not understanding it was beginning to get on his nerves.
Marking that strange compulsion as something to consider more deeply later, Subaru bent down a tad and gently tapped on the maid's shoulder.
Immediately, she jumped up from her lowered position with a loud yelp. She swung her form around, turning towards the source of the tapping and looked upon Subaru with widened eyes.
"Huh, it seems she didn't even notice us come in, let alone walk up to her. What's wrong with—"
That was when Subaru noticed it. The yellow maid had pronounced bags under her eyes, her body language screamed exhaustion, and her usually perfectly in-order maid outfit was ruffled in various odd ways that Subaru never would have expected from someone so dutiful.
"Subaru-sama?" she asked, her voice slightly hoarse. It was obvious that she was tired beyond belief, as if she hadn't slept all night and was trying her hardest to both stay awake and keep her maidly demeanor intact.
"Ah, I get that. I've never been particularly good at long nights either," he thought, an unusual hint of genuine compassion and understanding crossing his mind.
"Are you okay?" he plainly asked.
"Y-yes, I'm quite alright, Subaru-sama. I'm just a little tired's all," the maid replied, tilting her head slightly and forcing a smile onto her face. It was clear that this conversation was even more draining than the work she was just doing, but Subaru tried not to pay it any mind. That strange anxiety welling up inside him was a more pressing issue than the sleep exhaustion of this maid he still didn't know the name of.
"Where is everyone?" he questioned further, taking her answer at face value.
"Everyone?" she shot back, raising a brow.
Subaru threw a glance down at his contracted spirit—who stood just to his right—but she was also giving him a rather confused look.
Subaru noted this and returned his gaze to the maid, that odd anxiety in his chest building up to an even greater extent than before.
The maid sluggishly shook off her confusion and answered Subaru's question, "Well, Petra left for Costuul before dawn as we need even more provisions to clean up this… mess."
She glanced to the still dirty spot on the floor behind her for a moment before meeting Subaru's eye again.
"And Roswaal-sama and Reinhard-sama departed for the capital yesterday," she stated, matter-of-factly.
There was a moment of silence as Subaru waited for her to elaborate further. She did not.
He pressed on, unease filling him, asking, "What about Emilia-tan? And your brother and Ram?"
The maid stared at him with a blank expression for a moment before narrowing her eyes. She placed a hand on her head, as if in pain, and did not respond to his remark. She seemed too confused for words.
Abruptly, the spirit girl at Subaru's side asked, "Who's Emilia, I suppose?"
His breath caught, his eyes went wide, and his blood froze. He cautiously met Beatrice's eye. She seemed totally sincere in her question.
But, before Subaru could even react to such an insane remark, the sound of the dining room doors creaking open once more rang out. The trio's heads turned at the noise.
Another pair of figures emerged from the doorway, the lead of which was dressed in what seemed to be rags, those commonly donned by slaves. The individual who followed behind him was far better dressed, almost seeming like the spoiled child of a noble. Both were rather short and child-like, but Subaru knew better.
"How excellent, how good, how delicious, how satisfying, how enriching, how elegant, how wonderful a meal we've been presented today ~tsu!" the lead figure spoke out, a delighted look spread across his face.
In an instant, Subaru's expression of shock contorted to rage. Complete and utter fiery rage. He grit his teeth at the ragged child's words and adopted a murderous scowl.
"LEY BATENKAITOS!" Subaru screamed, immediately grabbing Beatrice's hand and bending his knees, adopting a battle-ready position.
Seeing Subaru's stance and attitude, Beatrice went to work casting her magic.
"Murak, in fact."
The pair jumped to the side, throwing themselves from the middle-right of the room to back-left, near the side doors to the kitchen, in a graceful arc.
The yellow maid was confused for a moment, but quickly read the room. She effortlessly leaped over the dining room table to join the black haired boy and spirit girl. Swiftly, she asked, "Who is this child, Subaru-sama?"
Subaru quickly explained, hatred plain in his words, "That is no child. He is one of the three Sin Archbishops of Gluttony and the bastard has already eaten everyone else in the mansion."
Not even giving the maid time to process that information, Subaru immediately pulled Beatrice up into his arms as he bolted through one of the many side entrances of the dining room, running straight into the kitchen.
Ley, an even wider smile on his face, gave chase, making a b-line for the fleeing Subaru.
"Ahhhh how Gourmet! Our hero knows our name, knows our face, and remembers all our meals!" the ragged boy remarked, speeding towards the door Subaru had ran out of.
The yellow maid, her arms transforming into beast-like limbs, jumped at Ley, attempting to intercept him. Before she could even reach the boy, another figure appeared before her: the better dressed of the two brothers.
Thinking quickly, she slammed her foot into the ground below and attempted to thrust herself back, away from the boy. Unfortunately, she could not properly dodge in time.
"Palm of the Fist King," Roy stated, raising his open hand to the air only a few centimeters from her stomach.
Still within the range of the attack's shockwave, the maid was instantly thrust backwards and flung into the dining room's wall, producing a sizable dent.
The last thing Subaru could see of her while glancing back was blood spewing from her mouth and her legs barely allowing her to stand and fight.
Turning his attention back towards the kitchen, he remarked, "Oh great, now there are two of them."
The kitchen of the Roswaal mansion was a rather large one. It was not nearly as grand as the dining room, but it was still sizable in its own right.
There were a number of tables, chairs, counters, sinks, cabinets, and various other pieces of furniture throughout the room. Every drawer held numerous articles ranging from cutlery to pots and pans to cooking supplies. The room was dense with items and was stocked with enough provisions to feed a small town several times over. Subaru knew this, and he knew he'd need every small advantage he could get to even stand the smallest of chances against the likes of Ley Batenkaitos.
Running into the kitchen, Subaru quickly scanned the room. He'd surmised what it looked like, but he'd never actually been in it before. Luckily, it met his expectations fairly well.
With Beatrice still in his grasp, he hoisted her weightless body over his shoulder such that she was looking right behind him. The great spirit did not very much appreciate being carried around like a sack of potatoes, but did not object. She was nearly face to face with the fast approaching threat that enraged her Subaru, after all.
Raising her hand as he continued to dash further into the kitchen, weaving his way between the various countertops and tables, Beatrice cast yet another spell.
"Minya, in fact."
A purple-pink shard of yin magic—gleaming in the light provided by the kitchen's windows—flew from her outstretched palm and right towards the pursuing archbishop. And then another. And another. And another.
Ley effortlessly dodged out of the way of each one, barely slowing down in the process. He easily contorted his small body left then right, only making the most minute of adjustments to his gait, silently ensuring that he maintained the same short distance between himself and his meal.
Beatrice grew frustrated at this, firing shards at the boy faster and faster, repeating her incantation as necessary. And yet, none seemed to hit him no matter what she tried. He simply dodged again and again, an infuriatingly smug smile never leaving his face.
Subaru knew that a few Minya shards from a whole three meters away stood no chance of defeating the strongest Sin Archbishop of Gluttony. He trusted Beatrice to hold him off, but he knew that she could not achieve victory alone.
That is why, as he reached the far end of the kitchen—only a short time after the chase began—Subaru stopped abruptly, knowing Ley would not end the fight so quickly.
He spun himself around as he released Beatrice from his grasp, allowing her to float to the ground. When he caught sight of Ley, who too had stopped moving, he was greeted by a wholly unexpected sight.
Floating completely still just in front of Ley was the last of the Minya shards Beatrice had shot his way. It was suspended mid-air and, squinting, even Subaru could see a distortion in the air around it.
"Wind magic, maybe Ram's," he thought, quickly processing the odd situation.
But before the tracksuit-clad man could do more than understand the nature of what he saw, the ripples vanished as Ley released his magical hold over the purple shard.
It instantly flew straight towards Subaru's head. Instinctively, he attempted to duck, but could see that it would hit him regardless of what motions he made or actions he took. He was totally helpless as the crystal came speeding towards him faster than he could think.
He felt his perception of events slow as his death drew near. The only thing he managed to think in that short window of time was: "Well this'll be a whole new way to die."
But just as quickly as the shard approached him, the space between him and it warped, rippling violently for a split second before completely tearing. Where he once saw the distant still-smiling Ley obscured by a shimmering crystal of certain death, he now could only perceive a deep-purple tear in reality as wide as his head.
A moment later, the tear was gone, his perception of time returned to normal, and he was—miraculously—still breathing; his heart beat incredibly quickly and adrenaline rapidly pumped through his veins.
Subaru looked at his partner for a short moment. Her arm was outstretched, her palm wide open as her eyes seemingly focused on the exact spot where he saw the shard disappear. Thinking quickly, he realized that the spirit girl had used her magic to teleport the attack away, saving his life.
"I love you, Beako. You really are the best," he remarked, genuinely thankful for the girl's intervention. Sure, he would have been fine even if he died. But there was surely more to be learned in this loop and he was glad to have the opportunity to gather additional information.
Beatrice, still under the effect of her own adrenaline, or some kind of spirit equivalent, took a moment to calm herself before processing his words. As she realized what he had said, a blush grew on her face at the sudden confession. She was totally unprepared for such a thing in the midst of battle, especially after their earlier conversation, and could not hold together her usual elegant demeanor at the moment.
"Truly, Betty's Subaru is helpless without her," she responded, embarrassed and exasperated, unable to think of an appropriately witty remark.
Subaru smiled at the sight, appreciating this interaction while he could before he inevitably cut this doomed loop.
He then turned his attention back to the ragged child they had been running from, finding Ley standing about four meters away from them. A large meter-wide and kitchen-spanning counter stood between the combatants.
"You love her, Subaru-kun? Of course our hero loves her, cherishes her, adores her. Our hero has a heart big enough for everyone in his life ~tsu. We wish more adults were like you," Ley said, his eyes fixated on Subaru, regarding him with unparalleled intensity.
The madman merely scowled in response, refusing to be bated by further taunts. He took hold of Beatrice's hand once more and raised his own at the boy.
"El Minya," the pair said in unison.
A wide barrage of well over a dozen yin magic shards manifested in front of the pair, the light that passed through them giving a purple tint to the kitchen, before launching straight towards Ley.
The boy smiled even wider and muttered something under his breath, not moving from where he stood.
A meter away from their target, the shards were suddenly stopped. Every single crystal had slammed right into a newly manifested wall of ice that nearly cleanly partitioned the kitchen in two. Embedded in the icy defense, the shards could no longer hold their forms and dissipated within a second of making contact.
Subaru narrowed his eyes at the ice wall, thinking, "Knowing Ley, that's Emilia-tan's magic and he's doing this to get under my skin."
He immediately tried his utmost to suppress his anger at that thought. The Sin Archbishop of Pride refused to be manipulated by some hungry brat.
Placing his fingers on the bridge of his nose, Subaru began to wrack his brain for a solution, any solution.
"Problem: Gluttony Brothers, everyone in the mansion is likely eaten. Tools: Beako, Authority of Sloth, Yellow Maid… Fuck, this was a lot easier when I had that clown on my side."
Before he could come up with even a half-decent plan, the wall glowed and then vanished, returning back to a state of pure mana.
Across from them still stood Ley Batenkaitos, entirely unharmed, his gaze remaining locked on Subaru.
"Subaru, Subaru-kun, Barusu, oh my how Gourmet you must be for such different images of you to exist ~tsu!" the boy declared, visibly salivating.
Subaru clicked his tongue at this particular remark, revolted by the ideology the boy held, and adopted a disgusted expression.
And then, he had an idea.
"Beako! Zero-G, exempt me and you," he said, referencing a maneuver they had previously discussed the possibility of.
Beatrice immediately closed her eyes without complaint and focused her mana. Ley simply stood still and watched the pair, excited to see what else they had in store for him.
After a tense few seconds, the spirit girl opened her eyes and smirked.
"Ul Murak."
A wave of magical energy radiated across the room as mana sunk into everything it could. A moment later, the spell completed, every single object in the kitchen from the pots and pans to Ley himself was floating, suddenly weightless.
The boy gently floated just above where he previously stood along with his rags, confused but intrigued. He seemed largely unphased by this particular technique as he spun himself around, having fun in the zero gravity environment.
"Woooow… this is fun, ~tsu! Thanks, hero!" Ley said, grinning ear to ear.
He looked back up to see Subaru and Beatrice still standing across from him, unaffected by the strange magic. More notably, an empty knife block floated just to their left.
Subaru turned his body and struck a pose, somehow managing to hold no less than a dozen knives in his hands by their blades. He had an excited, almost child-like smile on his face.
"I always wanted to do this."
Subaru then cocked his arms and threw every knife he held with his full strength at Ley, shouting, "MUDA, MUDA, MUDA, MUDA."
The knives flew at a surprising speed directly towards Ley's head, totally unaffected by gravity.
Ley, having already adjusted to the feeling of zero gravity, raised his knees as he lowered his head, easily moving his body mid-air out of the way of the incoming attack.
But, a second before they were to pass through the space Ley's head had been, Beatrice canceled the gravity magic affecting them. The projectiles' trajectory curved downwards and accelerated with gravity, heading right for where Ley's still weightless form had moved to.
His eyes widened at the maneuver, legitimately impressed, before saying, "Leaper."
Ley instantly teleported out of the knives' way and to three meters to the left. He looked up to mock Subaru once more, to prepare his meal even further, to keep playing with their hero, but saw only a floating empty knife block.
Ley licked his lips. Truly, Natsuki Subaru was nearing the peak of Gourmet.
Subaru and Beatrice appeared in one of the mansion's gardens, just outside the dining room. Stepping out of the tear in reality Beatrice had produced for them, he scanned his environment once more, finding nothing out of the ordinary. He scowled at this.
"Arrogant bastard. He could've followed us instantly but chose not to. Damn it, he's mocking me."
Suddenly, the wall to the mansion right beside the pair exploded, flinging debris outwards. Subaru took hold of Beatrice and instinctually shielded her with his body, holding the girl close enough to his chest for her to hear his rapid heartbeat, but only a small handful of tiny rocks actually hit his back, lightly stinging him.
Once he stopped feeling the negligible pain of his back being peppered by pebbles, he released the moderately flushed Beatrice and turned to face the source of the comotion. As the dust began to clear, the pair could see the standing figure of Ley's brother calmly walking out of the mansion; his silhouette distinctly lacked Ley's ragged clothing.
"We're still so hungry, starved, craving, ravenous ~tsu" Roy said, approaching the pair.
Just to his left, Ley suddenly appeared, having seemingly manifested from thin air, now unaffected by the gravity magic.
Subaru tightened his grip on his partner's hand and faced this new threat with renewed determination. He knew that this fight would inevitably kill him and that any obvious attempts at suicide would be stopped by either Ley or his darling Beako. He began racking his brain once again for a possible solution.
As Subaru began pondering, Ley turned to his brother.
"So now do you understand why it's important, integral, crucial, paramount, proper to prepare your meals, Roy?" he asked, hopeful.
Roy completely ignored his brother, totally fixated on the pair of meals just across from him. He was so, so hungry. And they seemed so appetizing.
Simultaneously, both brothers jumped from where they had been casually standing, right towards Subaru. Again, he could only watch as the threat of inevitable death, or perhaps something even worse, rapidly approached him.
But then, he felt himself falling, as if the ground under him had just disappeared. Looking down, he could see yet another tear in space. He glanced back up as his head rapidly approached the portal, his body already most of the way through. He saw Roy with a frustrated scowl, running as fast as he could, and Ley with ravenous eyes and a wide smile, pointed right at Subaru.
A moment later, Subaru found himself back in his room, Beatrice by his side. His bed remained untidy, the closet still bulged from Subaru's cleaning efforts from the previous day, and the ornate ivory and jewel encrusted knife Subaru found in his hand when he first arrived remained untouched where he left it on the couch. He considered, for a moment, taking it and cutting the loop then and there, but he knew there would not be nearly enough time. The space under his feet tore open once more and the pair fell into yet another portal.
They arrived back in the kitchen, the entire room a mess from the various objects that had gravity unceremoniously reapplied to them. Pots and pans littered the floor and over a dozen knives were stuck in the ground across from them. He again considered going for the blades, but he began to fall into another portal before he could even properly consider it. As his eyes were crossing into his next destination, he spotted the brothers suddenly appearing beside the knives.
They found themselves in the garden where Subaru had cuddled with his Emilia-tan the day prior. He would have enjoyed lingering here, relishing in that happy memory, but he began falling less than a second before arriving. This time, the brothers arrived as his chin was crossing through the portal. Roy dashed towards him, but could not make it in time.
They returned to the dining room. The once spotless location was now a total wreck. The table was snapped in half, the cloth was torn, there were no less than a dozen dents in the wall the size of the yellow maid, and there was a massive hole where the fireplace once was. Subaru noted that that must have been where Roy had burst his way out of the building. As he began falling, he spotted the yellow maid's comatose body, lifeless under the table. He frowned, both at the sight and the suspicious lack of the brothers.
As Subaru's head crossed its way into the next location, he was greeted with a single phrase:
"Palm of the Fist King."
Subaru felt Beatrice's hand detach from his own as his feet touched the ground. He turned to see that she had been flung right through a bookshelf. Flakes followed by a deluge of blue mana began to pour from her chest. They had arrived at the mansion's library and right into a trap.
Still staring at his partner's crumpled and slowly dissipating form, Subaru felt a hand on his arm. He snapped his head around to see Roy and Ley standing right beside him, the latter's palm outstretched in the direction Beatrice was flung in.
Subaru looked down. Roy's hand was touching him.
An awful sinking feeling filled Subaru. He was frozen in place, staring at the pair of gluttons. Fear of true death filled him. He couldn't breathe.
"Natsuki Subaru," Roy said, satisfaction clear in his tone. Subaru didn't make any moves to stop him. It was over. He was going to die. No, he was going to do worse. He was going to disappear.
But, right as Roy raised his hand to his open mouth, his tongue ready to lick, he paused.
Ley looked over at Roy. "What's wrong?" he asked, concerned for his brother, his usual child-like glee suppressed.
At the strange scene, Subaru let out his breath and took this unexpected chance to back up in stride, backpedalling further into the library, towards the still downed Beatrice.
Roy looked up at Subaru, his expression no longer ravenous and needing. He seemed oddly intrigued, as if looking at a strange creature he'd never seen before.
"Hey, onii-san, how did you know about us?" he asked, plainly.
"What?" Subaru replied, dumbfounded. His back was to a bookcase and answering an archbishop's cryptic nonsense was not what he wanted to be doing at the moment. He rapidly scanned the room around him, looking for any nearby sharp edge, but saw nothing.
Meanwhile, Ley's eyes widened as he looked at his brother. No, not his brother.
"Louis?" Ley asked, his voice quivering with excitement. His focus was totally on the figure beside him now, the thought of his delicious meal put aside for the time being. How could he possibly ignore his precious sister?
"Solar Eclipse," not-Roy said, ignoring her brother's remark, still focused on the oddity that was Natsuki Subaru.
In less than the blink of an eye, the short, well-dressed boy had transformed into the form of the dutiful maid Subaru had been talking to no more than ten minutes ago.
"This onee-san heard you say it," Louis said, using the yellow maid's form and voice. Hearing the usually elegant and always polite maid speaking so plainly and childishly made Subaru's skin crawl.
Coming to somewhat understand the situation, Subaru scowled and replied, "That's none of your business, Louis Arneb."
Louis smiled and repeated herself, "Solar Eclipse."
This time, the form of the dutiful maid was replaced by another, less familiar one. In her place now stood a shorter maid, her blue hair and blue eyes gleaming with anticipation.
"This onee-san loves you very much, doesn't she?" the oni remarked, an ill-fitting smile on her face.
Subaru recognized this form. It was Ram's sister, the Sleeping Beauty his other self had fallen for, the one he had failed to save. It was Rem.
Frankly, Subaru never much cared for her. Emilia was the only one with rights to his heart, he reasoned. And so, his expression did not change at the sight of Louis's new body. He was still disgusted, to be sure, but no more enraged.
The blue haired oni frowned, upset that she didn't get the reaction she wanted. A moment later she smiled again and repeated herself a final time, "Solar Eclipse."
Where Rem once stood, a beautiful half-elf with short, silver hair and striking, amethyst eyes took her place.
"This onee-san does too, but sees you very differently," the imitation of a King Candidate said, her voice sounding exactly like silver bells.
Subaru's scowl deepend even further at this. Her expression, her voice, it was all wrong. He was absolutely livid, but he was still stuck in place out of fear that he could be eaten at any moment. This only served to frustrate him further.
That something inside of him wanted to attack and to lash out at this pretender who dared to take his beloved's place. But another something—a more familiar something—disagreed.
A creeping sensation slithered its way out of the depths of his soul and a familiar shadow-black appendage overlapped with his arm.
"Hmmmm, we guess it would be faster to just eat and see," not-Emilia remarked, glancing at her hand.
The shadowy tendril reached up towards Subaru's head and placed a gentle hand on it, almost caressing it.
"Subaru…" he heard Beatrice mutter with what he assumed was her last breath, still embedded in a bookshelf, regret clear in her voice.
Louis raised Emilia's pale, beautiful hand up to her mouth, extending her tongue from those pink lips that Subaru couldn't help but want to kiss. This would be his last sight.
The shadowy hand on his head squeezed as hard as it could. His skull was crushed, shards of bone piercing downwards into his brain along with the shadowy fingers and Natsuki Subaru lost his life.
Author's Note: Yes, that is a Hellsing Ultimate Abridged Reference and yes I turned a joke into a serious moment. Fight me if you have a problem with it.
Also, I've edited every previous chapter of Pride's Greed to be in dialogue style instead of script, adding about like 11.3k words total (that's about 16% longer than it was pre-edits) if I did my math right in the process. So, please, go read all that. It took a lot of work and a lot of time and I think you'd enjoy it if you've gotten this far.
Credit to BobDoorman (writer of Shattered Kasaneru, Strands of Red, and that Al story I still need to read) for showing me how Ley uses the power of family to be the most based character in the series whose name isn't Ram is as a character along with Roy and Louis.
Thanks to LookingGlassInsect again for his nitpick-y edits. They make me feel more confident in my writing than you'd expect.
And, as usual, credit to EmiliaNatsuki (writer of Re:Incarnated, among other things) for helping me out with this chapter along with assisting with every one of the previous chapters' edits, like a chad.
Anyways, see you next chapter. That should be relatively soon but I'm no longer Barry Allen, the fastest man alive (even though technically I was never even close to being faster than either Moe or Bob at writing, come on get your facts straight) so they will come when I feel they are ready to come.
- TheColourPurple
