"Mmmm"

"Umm Subaru? don't you feel like your trying to hard?"

"Mmmmmmm"

"Lia's right, strengthening your gate isn't something you just force. Your supposed t-."

"MMMMMMMMMMMM!"

"...I don't think he's listening."

"MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM PWUAH!!"

Subaru exclaimed after dispelling the shinya spell after continuously using it for several mintues. It had been over an hour sense Subaru boldly asked to be the apprentice of Puck, Beatrice, and Roswaal. Beatrice didn't say a word after his declaration and immediately departed from everyone much to Subarus dismay. Puck was eager to help him as repayment for helping his daughter and Roswaal was surprised about his decision but agreed to teach him nonetheless.

Puck was the first to teach him along with Emilia. His first lesson, Gate strengthing.

"Damn huff huff that took alot out of me huff huff"

"You shouldn't force yourself like that Subaru"

"Lia's Right, progression in your gate is a marathon, not a race. Besides your already doing great considering you've never used your gate before."

"huff huff sorry you guys. Im just so ready to get into the more advanced stuff y'know"

Emilia and Puck looked at him with stern look but then immediately softened as they saw the giant smile on his face.

"love the eagerness Subaru but you learning the "advance stuff" will be a pipe dream if you keep pushing your gate like that. It's not a bicep it's a hamstring, working it to the max every single time will only get you hurt."

"UNDERSTOOD SENSI-PUCK" he said with a dramatic bow.

Emilia giggled at his antics as she began to sit on the grass with her knees tucked into her arms.

"Gosh Subaru your enthusiasm is just neverending huh. With how crazy you are about magic its weird that your just now learning how to use it."

Before Subaru responded he sat criss cross on the grass and looked to his left to face Emilia.

"WELL OF COURSE I AM! Where I come from magic dosen't even exist!"

A damn near visible question mark appeared over Emilia and Pucks head once he said that. What was a casual explanation to him was a mind boggling concept to them.

"Hmm, Subaru I know I'm preaching to the choir here but your sense of humor is very strange" Puck tried to brush off what he said as another one of Subarus weirdness but said boy remained firm in his statement.

"Im serious Puck-sama. Magic were I'm from is considered fantasy. Things like conjuring light or ice from your hands dosen't exist there."

The royal candidate and great spirit were at a loss of words for a moment. They knew the boy was strange but this was reaching the realms of pure fiction.

"Subaru that's fundamentally impossible, magic runs through every living thing like blood in your veins. Honestly as a spirit I can't even wrap my head around such a thought. How would life even function without it?'

"Welp that's just how it was back were I'm from. We kinda went a different route altogether. Once we got electricity it was pretty much gameover from there."

"al-lek-tris-ite? I don't think I've ever heard of such a thing, have you Puck?"

"It... sounds familiar actually. But I can't pinpoint where exactly I heard that word."

Puck was visibly straining g himself trying to recall were he heard that word but every attempt at it was met with a fog clouding his mind.

"Well regardless, you guys don't have it. I might go into further details later on it but right now I gotta get back into training!"

"Actually that's enough for now. Anymore and it'll strain your gate. For now I'm giving you homework. I want you to rest for 3 hours. After that I want you to imagine doing the shinya spell but instead of releasing the mana, try and move it back and forth between your arms and legs. That will get your body more accustomed to the flow of your gate."

"You got It Puck-sama! I got lessons with Roswaal-Sama in about 2 hours so I should probably take a look around the mansion since I've got freetime."

Emilia perked up once he said that. She had been waiting for the perfect opportunity to finally have a casual conversation with him outside of business or urgency. She had a million questions for him regarding who he was and were he came and showing him around the mansion was the perfect way to do it.

"Oh! I don't mind giving you a tou-"

"Hate to say it Lia but you've got your own lessons regarding the election to tend to."

There was a visibile shift in her usual upbeat attitude once he said that and it did not go unnoticed by Puck either.

"B-But I...*sigh* your right. Sorry Subaru I reeeeeally want to be your guide but I've got to study."

"Don't even worry about it Em-san! There's always tomorrow."

Emilia flinched once he said that. He had no idea how much weight that statement held.

"S-Sure..."

Emilia was currently reading on all the major generals during the demi human war. While the contents of the book were extremely bleak and depressing, you wouldn't guess it from the unknowing smile on the girls face.

Puck took notice of this and immediately connected the constant smiles on her face to the new guest.

"Lia your emotions are at a all-time high around that boy yknow." He said with a neutral tone, not giving his own feelings towards the subject.

"Hmm, well considering he's the first friend I've ever had it's kinda hard not to be excited."

"Your first friend? You wound me Lia!!" He said in a sarcastic tone.

"Y-You know what I mean! Your like a father to me! He's just..."

"I get it I get it. If you like him then so do I. So long as he doesn't cause you harm you won't hear any complaints out of me."

'Still, I seriously get the feeling somethings amiss here. Nevermind why the witches scent lingers on him as there can be a multitude of reasons, but a place with no magic? That's simply unheard of, it's like a world without water or oxygen. And then there's his mannerisms and point of origin. He said he was from the east despite this being the eastern most territory and his mannerisms remind me of kararagi which is to the west of here. So many inconsistencies without a hint of malice, a true enigma."

"Thank you Puck. Knowing you approve of him reeeeeally makes me feel better."

"Anytime Lia."

'Man even without those looping door shenanigans this place is still huge. I've been walking forever and all I've found was the bath house and the kitchen. I really should've asked one of the maid's t-'

"Subaru-sama, do you require any assistance towards your room?" The blue maid appeared seemingly out of thin air on Subaru's right with a professional and distant sort of tone.

Subaru was startled from the maids sudden appearance but immediately regained his composure.

"Speak of the devil your just who I was looking for, Rem right?"

"Yes Subaru-sama. Is there anything you require?"

"Actually yeah I've got about an hour and 30 before my lessons with Ros-Sama so I wanted to get a tour around the mansion if you don't mind."

Once he said that a brief scowl appeared on her face but immediately went away before he noticed it.

"Very well, come with me"

5 minutes passed as they traversed the mansion. They were half way done through the mansion but that 5 minutes felt like an eternity for Subaru. The tension between these two was so thick you could cut it with a knife and Subaru had no idea why she was being so distant from him.

"So uhh Rem... how long have you been a maid here"

"long."

"Ah."

"..."

"..."

"...Say Rem I get the feeling tha-"

"Here is your room Subaru-Sama, Roswaal-sama will be expecting you shortly"

"Um... alright then. Oh but before you go one more thing"

"Yes?"

"That "Subaru-sama" thing is way to formal for me. Just Subaru is fine."

"Very well...Subaru"

'Man talk about cold. And I thought her sister was unreadable, she's a total enigma. Well it doesn't really matter, thats a problem for tomorrow Subaru. Right now I've gotta psych myself up. This is my first day under Roswaals tutelage so I can't disappoint!

Somewhere in the Arlem village forest

"You will be stationed here until further notice, understand? Make sure the mabeasts are spread evenly amongst the forest so you can focus them towards the main target. Don't get greedy while we wait. We only need 3 of them to separte the villagers once they notice the missing children. Also make sure to-"

"Yes Yes onii-san we've been over this a million times already sheesh."

"...You'll excuse my caution as we both know what lies in store for us should we fail."

"You worry to much. That isn't going to happen. Besides I got the easy job, you should be more worried about yourself."

"While easy it is incredibly important. This operation hinges entirely on you and you wont have backup for damage control like ususal so you can't afford any reckless moves. No one will be able to cover for you should you fail. She won't be there to take mama's wrath should the plan go awry."

"I-I know that, you don't need to remind me! Seriously your pep talks are terrible onii-san, this is why sister dosen't like you."

"...*sigh* your right. I don't even know why I'm being so adamant about this. Just... be careful alright?"

"You too onii-san.

'OK that was by far the weirdest lesson I've ever had.'

Subaru was getting ready for bed as he thought about everything he learned today regarding magic, or rather the concept of it as actually putting it into practice would have to wait till tomorrow according to Roswaal.

Throughout his session he learned the nature of the basic 4 elements and what each element root abilities were.

Fire instead of having domain over only pyrotechnics, is actually anything that is formed through the rise and fall of temperature. Essentially anything regarding fire AND ice fits under fire spells apparently. It is also the reason why puck is considered the great spirt of fire despite only using ice attacks.

Earth magic was even stranger as not only did it have dominan over earth, it is also the enhancer of internal divine protections, something that Subaru still couldn't wrap his head around. Earth magic is capable of bringing out the true potential of a divine protection that affects the body but is not capable of directly buffing the person, truly a strange element.

Wind magic is essentially the polar opposite of earth as it affects external divine divine protections. All wind magic is external without exception unlike earth and fire and have a tendency of being incredibly sharp. Forcing a wind spell to form something that dosen't resemble a sharp edge in some way shape or form is considered incredibly difficult.

Water magic seemed to not have any relationship with water at all. There are plenty of spells under this catagory to manipulate water but they are rarely utilized and even more so rarely seen in combat. Instead most water spells involve the manipulation of mana within the body. This is mostly used to condense a surplus amount of mana into a certain area to heal them with seemingly no virtual limit with the right technique. It can also be used to speed up or slow down the mana flow in a person's body to temporarily boost there speed, agility, or strength. This can be used to permanently increase your abilities but it can be extremely taxing on a person's gate and if done incorrectly, could easily kill someone.

Then there were the 2 elements outside the basic 4, yin and yang. Subaru was only given a quick overview of them as going into further detail would require another session entirely.

From what he was able to deduce a yang spell was anything that would temporarily buff a person in some way shape or form while yin magic was all about debuffing someone.

Unfortunately any further inquiries would have to be discussed later for the raven haired boy as it was nearing dusk by the time the lesson was done.

'Man it sucks that i wasn't able to learn more about yang magic. I seriously need some buffs if I want to stand a chance against that assassin. Shinyas pretty cool but man is it situational. And the way he explained all that was so...unorthodox. How he explained each form of magic seemed like he was waiting on me to answer the question for him half the time. Who the hell expects someone to know half of the material ON THEIR FIRST DAY! Still despite his weird mannerisms and his even weirder way of teaching, I gotta admit his methods are effective.'

While Subaru was thinking this he lamented on his day as a whole. The strange dream. Emilia being weirdly affectionate despite only knowing her for over a day. The crazy large library with an even crazier loli as it's librarian. The weirdly hostile twin maids. And finally his long awaited journey to learning magic. This had been the 2nd most eventful day of his life with the 1st being the day BEFORE this one.

"Welp atleast it can't get any more crazy than this."

"GODDAMNIT ME AND MY BIG MOUTH!!"

Subaru was lamenting his very poor choice of words as he dodged the mutiple non lethal ice attacks heading towards him.

"Your doing great Subaru! Give yourself about a decade and I might actually have to try here!"

"Your compliments need a bit of work sensei!"

"Hehe Im only being honest"

Subaru continued to dodge the attacks by a hairs breath. Puck ordered him to to just try and move around while circulating mana throughout his body. What he didn't say was that ice shards would be shot at him while he was doing it!

'He's doing pretty well all things considered. Already comfortable with manuely circulating mana while running despite only having 3 days of gate use under his belt. I was a bit worried that he would damage his gate with his continuous use but it seems like he's managing it just fine.'

As he said this he unconsciously sped up his attacks much to Subarus suprise. He rolled to the left but was met with shards of ice coming directly towards his right shoulder!

'Crap! I think I went a little to hard there!'

'Shit! I'm in trouble here! Can't dodge it. Can't block it. Sure as hell can't tank it. Think Subaru think!'

=Flashback=

Her arm was shivering from the punch. She enhanced her arm with mana and coated her arm with ice to make sure she did significant damage but at the cost of her right arm going limp afterward.

=End=

'Damn this is risky! Will it even work!?"

Subaru split secound decision resulted in him forcing all the mana circulating in his body, to meet in his arm.

'Ok you cant do the ice part but you dont need it! Lower back, right shoulder, right bicep, right forearm, right knuckles, and repeat!

His arm began to vibrate as his mana recycled itself around each checkpoint. As his mana became to flow faster and faster, his arm clenched into a fist and he proceeded to hit the ice shards head on!

"Gh- ACK!"

Subaru was met with pieces of ice shattering around his arm as one or two of them scratched his cheek. the rest dissipated into thin air before hiting the ground.

"Subaru are you alright! My bad I shouldn't have sped up on you like that!"

Subaru didn't register what he said as a blistering pain went into his forearm and knuckles. It just as quickly went away and was replaced with soreness similar to muscle fatigue.

"Damn I knew that was risky but I still got my arm so thats a plus hehe"

"Subaru enough jokes. Let me take a look at your arm. Lia would be furious with me if she found out you got hurt on my watch."

"My arm almost got blasted off and your worried about Em-san getting mad at you? Gotta admit ima little hurt."

Puck ignored his comment as he proceeded to heal Subarus arm. To Pucks suprise the boy was relatively Ok despite the head on collision.

"Looks like your gonna be alright. I think we should call it quits for today."

"hmmm yeah I'm pretty much tapped out, say speaking of Emilia were is she today?"

"She's... been in her room the whole day. I'm not sure why but she woke up in a cold sweat today. I tried to ask her whats wrong but she's keeps... avoiding the topic."

"You think it was something she ate?"

"Subaru I'm this close to turning you into a ice statue."

"OK OK jeez... Is there anything I can do?"

"Right now no. Just keep to yourself and focus on your training for now. If she needs you she'll come to you I bet."

"Alright...if that's what you think is best then fine."

Subaru used his free time to explore the mansion once again. Once he crossed his own room he was met two sandwiches laying on his desk. He devoried the first one in seconds and his face showed the look of a man in pure bliss. His face then immediately went into shock as he noticed something off about the sandwich... It was something horrifying, something unthinkable. Subaru clutched his chest and started to panic at the implications of what this meant. If it was what he expected... then his life was over.

"Subaru what is your buisness in the kitchen, Roswaal-sama is expecting you shortly."

"Jesus Rem hi! Need to put a bell on you or something."

"You still haven't answered my question."

"Right uuuhh. To be honest I was looking for something. Those sandwiches you made were amazing don't get me wrong but the lack of mayonnaise is criminal."

"mi-yo-nase? I don't believe I'm familiar with that, Is itva sort of dish?"

Subaru gasped at what she said. His earlier prediction. His horrible horrible prediction came to pass. There was no mayo in this world.

"Its just as I feared. To think this whole world has to suffer everyday not knowing the wonderful taste of mayo! This is simply unacceptable!"

Rem flinched at his words. She had been conditioned to appease every resident regardless of her own thoughts. The very thought of failing at one of her duties made her shudder.

"I-I apologies that my meal was not able to meet your expectations Subaru!"

"Nah don't worry about it. It's not your fault this world is cursed with ignorance."

He proceeded to take his arm and point it towards the maid in a dramatic fashion.

"But fear not Rem! With your masterful skills in cooking and my otherworldly knowledge, I'm sure we can recreate the nectar of the gods!"

Rem was at a lost for words after that brazen declaration. She looked into his eyes and saw nothing but conviction and determination. She couldn't help but be inspired and a little excited at the prospect of expanding her culinary talents but she wouldn't dare show it on her face. She masked her curiosity with a quick sigh and proceeded to close the distance between the two.

"Very well Subaru. We will recreate this "mayonnaise" however are supplies is rather limited at the moment so I doubt we'll get very far."

"Fine by me Rem, it's not like either of us have that much free time anyways."

"That I can most certainly agree with."

...

...

...

"Damn Rem guess you weren't kidding about the lack of supplies."

"Subaru I doubt we would've accomplished anything regardless."

The kitchen looked more akin to a war zone rather then a kitchen as the two spent over 30 minutes trying to recreate the condiment of the future. Each attempt at was met with failure but that didn't dissuade either of them. Subaru with his unrelenting stubbornness to make the food of his homeland and Rem with her curiosity getting the better of her, created an unlikely duo of kitchen maniacs trying to create something out of nothing.

"While I'll admit this was entertaining it was ultimately a waste of time. I will clean up this mess. Roswaal-Sama is expecting you shortly."

"Eh, you've gotta be kidding me? No way in hell am I letting you clean this up all on your own."

"Your assistance is appreciated but unnecessary. I assure you I can take care of this on my own."

"Weither or not you can take care of isn't the problem here. We both made this mess therefore were both gonna fix it. Besides this the most we've ever talked so I kinda wanna savor the moment."

Rem was a little shocked at his last statement. Without even realizing a slight smile appeared on her face.

"...Very well. You are truly strange Subaru."

"Hehe I get that alot."

"Hey Lia... are you sure your alr-"

"Yes Puck I'm fine."

"..."

"..."

The tension in the air was thicker than concrete. Puck had returned to his contractors side a little after training Subaru and was hoping that she would be in a better mood after he returned. She was not.

"How did it go with Subaru?"

"Just fine, he seems to have a natural talent for it."

"Thats good to here."

"..."

"..."

"..."

"Lia if you want to talk you know im-"

"I know Puck. I just... need some time to my self alright?"

Pucks heart dropped once she said that along with his ears and tail. He had been quiet these past few days to try and decipher what was going on with his contractor to no avail. Every time she seems to be getting back to normal she ends up acting completely out of character the next moment. "Something" was going on, "something" was wrong with his contractor and the fact that she did not trust him enough to share what this "something" was, he couldn't help but feel like he was at fault somehow.

"Alright Lia, I'll be here if you need me."

"I know."

As he went into the crystal on Emilias chest, said girl gave out an audible sigh. She looked at her hands for a moment and once she did she immediately tucked them to her sides. Her body started to shake and her breath became rigid as she remembered everything that happened.

'How many times... How many times did you took him away from me? He did nothing wrong and you just... No matter what I say your not convinced. No matter what I do your not convinced. No matter how many times they come here you choose to attack him first.'

As she thought this she proceeded to begrudgingly get out of bed. The bags under her eyes were heavy and each step she took lacked her usual upbeat motion but the glare she had on her face would make mountains tremble.

'Rem... I hate you.'