AN : Well hello there. The last chapter of the story was received well by people. I think I am getting in the groove of things now. Also, I made Subaru's parents not recognise him in the starting of the speech, since Subaru himself was not able to identify the voice of Kiritaka.
This chapter, The Natsuki's finally meet their son. I don't know if emotionally it is gonna be good or not, because good writing and grammar can only take me so far. With that said, here is the long awaited chapter 4!
I do not own Re:Zero. It is written, and I guess owned, by Nagatsuki Tappei.
"Patience is also a form of action."
Natsuki Kenichi and Natsuki Naoko were overjoyed. Their only son, Natsuki Subaru, was alive. They could not put the sensations, the feelings they were experiencing into words. Their dreams, their hopes, were finally realized. Naoko's mind could not think of anything else except the fact that they finally found Subaru, after a year of pain. How much she wanted to apologize to him, for not making the dinner herself that day, for not going out to get the packet of corn chips for him herself…
Kenichi was similarly relieved. He had never given up hope on his son, but even he had his doubts every day. His usual smile was coming back, the light in his eyes were brighter than ever before, even if you couldn't see it through his tears.
Truth be told, they both wanted to rush out of the shelter, and try to find Subaru as quickly as possible. However, Kenichi calmed down Naoko. He thought upon the words in the speech once more, seeing as it was their son who spoke them. He couldn't help but be worried. Subaru already had been going through the phase of being a shut-in before being isekaid.
Here, it looked like he lost almost all of his self esteem, if some was even left after being left in Kenichi's shadow for so long. Being a parent, he could not help but be worried for his child.
However, the bigger questions on both of their minds were that Subaru apparently had made himself a reputation for himself. Naoko saw how people reacted to Subaru introducing himself, even if it was very late in the speech. The name of their son filled them with hope too, and many people started crying in relief. It was the reason why so many people ignored them crying.
"Hey, uh do you know what Subaru did that he's so famous here?" Kenichi asked the old man, who earlier was sitting in his seat, and now standing up and cheering in joy.
"Huh? You don't know the Lolimancer? You aren't from around here, are you?"
Kenichi and Naoko were shocked, once again. What kind of activities was their son doing that he got himself a nickname of that type?! Kenichi decided that he would have to help Subaru get a proper girlfriend for himself. He needed to be educated in the ways of a man!
"Well, for starters, he slew one of the Three Great Witchbeasts, the White Whale, alongside Duchess Crusch Karsten, with the Sword Demon Wilhelm calling him his benefactor! And then with help from the famous businesswoman Anastasia-san and the Duchess Crusch, he defeated the Witch Cult's Archbishop of Sloth! And there are those unconfirmed rumors that he also defeated the Sizable Hare, which has been plaguing the world for four hundred years!" The man continued, heedless of the bombshell he just dropped on them.
Kenichi quickly realized that Subaru must have done a lot of things of importance in this world, even if he didn't recognize a single one of them. However, he felt it would be suspicious if he asked the person more about seemingly common knowledge topics here, so he quickly let it go.
"Ok Naoko, so here is the plan, as soon as the attack is over, we start searching for Subaru, okay?" Kenichi whispered to Naoko.
Naoko quietly agreed with Kenichi, after gaining control over her emotions, which were still threatening to run rampant once again.
Aldebaran was helping Schult load up the carriage, so that they could start departing this hellhole of a city, with their liege, Priscilla, to her mansion. Quite simply, he had enough of this city. Fighting against the Sin Archbishop of Lust of the witch cult had tired him. He did realize it was going to take a lot of time to rebuild the city. The sadness on the people's faces upon seeing the various buildings that had been destroyed was pitiful. As he was lost in his thoughts, he saw two people, who looked like a couple, with hauntingly familiar Western dresses, ask a stranger something with a box-like device that was emitting light in their hands.
Under his helmet, his eyes widened, and he went slack-jawed.
Their faces were eerily familiar too. The man was good-looking, relatively tall, middle-aged with short, combed-back black hair. He had drooping black eyes with angled was wearing average-looking, rectangular glasses.
The woman had brown eyes along with shoulder length brown hair which was tied into a side ponytail with an orange ribbon. She had an evil gaze…
One look, and Al was able to determine they were Subaru's parents.
The couple came to him, although looking a bit intimidated at his presence, just like every other man showed him his cellphone, with a picture of a younger Subaru, with a smiling face, one tinged with such happiness he had never seen before, while the woman asked him,
"Do you recognize him? We are his parents, and we are searching for him."
"Yeah, I do. My name is Al. Am I right in my guess that you are Subaru's parents?" Al asked, regaining control of his jaw and reigning in his shock.
The couple's eyes filled with relief at the statement, and the woman nearly shouted, "Yes! We are his parents, do you know where he is? I want to meet him as soon as possible!"
"He must be here somewhere, his camp and Anastasia's decided to take on the Sage's Tower, if I recall. Check the ground dragon holding areas, won't you?"
"Thank you for your help, Al-san." The man quickly said, and rushed off with his wife to God knows where.
Aldebaran looked into the skies and quietly muttered, "What are you planning…
Satella.."
Subaru was talking with Beatrice animatedly outside the dragon carriage, as a form of stress relief. He needed it after everything that happened in Pristella. The Sin Archbishop of Lust that transformed all survivors in the City Hall into insects, Crusch being victimized by the cursed dragon blood, and everyone forgetting Julius due to Gluttony, each event took a lot out of him.
And now, they were going to head towards the eastern end of the world—an area that contained the Augria Sand Dunes, which was a plot of land with a rich history of demon beasts that have continued to exist for hundreds of years, rejecting every existence from stepping foot onto their territory.
It contained a miasma that would cause travelers to lose their sense of direction and gnaw at their hearts.
It contained groups of demon beasts as evil vanguards, who would indulge themselves in playing with people's lives.
And then there was the person who sought for world peace—the person at the watchtower who determined each and every one of the successes and failures made by those who came close. This person was the "Sage", Shaula.
"Just from knowing that, it feels like we're lining up for suicide." Subaru thought dejectedly in his mind.
Banishing these pessimistic thoughts from his mind, however, he heard two sets of footsteps, which were apparently coming towards him. He turned around, only to go into shock. His jaw slackened, his eyes widened. His body grew numb.
The parents and the son stared at each other, for what felt like an eternity.
"Mom…. Dad…. is that you?" Subaru asked them, in barely a whisper.
"Yes.. it really is us.. Son." Kenichi replied, with tears streaming down his face.
"Subaru, are these your parents, I suppose?" Beatrice asked him in a low voice.
"You mean… I am not dreaming..? You are here..?"
With tears in his eyes, Natsuki Subaru realized he was not dreaming. His parents were right here, in front of him. He thought he would never see them had so many questions, but he decided he would ask them later. He ran towards them, not holding out much longer, just glad to see his mother and father.
Naoko and Kenichi quickly realized the worries in their mind about their son not wanting to see them were very, very wrong. He had changed a lot however. He held his shoulders straight, had a light of purpose in his eyes, and had faint scars on his face. The major thing they saw was that there were bags under his eyes, his leg was bandaged, and his right hand was black.
Subaru himself made some similar observations. Both his parents were a lot skinnier than he'd remembered, his mother having a ton of new grey hair. His father had lost a bit of the muscle body he'd seen his entire life, leaning towards skinny. He suddenly felt a lot more guilty than before, he hadn't grieved about his parents a single time when he first came to Lugnica. He realized in the Witch's Trial, in that failed loop, how much his parents cared for him. This was just a reminder of that fact.
Beatrice quickly left them to catch up, as she figured out that Subaru must have not seen his parents in a long time. In that regard, he and she were the same, even if it had been 400 years since she saw Echidna, her mother. As she watched them hug and talk with each other, she was relieved for her contractor. He already had so many nightmares in his sleep, and he took on the burdens of so many other people. He needed this, dearly.
As the trio of mother, father and son finally calmed down and wiped their tears, it was finally time to talk. Subaru started by saying, "So, for how long have you been here?"
"It has only been around a day." Kenichi replied.
Now that Subaru could think clearly, he was worried for them. This world was a literal hell, and Subaru had to experience that for himself countless times. He did not even know why the Witch brought them here. Only thing he could do now was protect them with his life, like he did for all his friends.
"Well, let me give you a crash course on this world then. It is a flat world, with the edges ending with giant cliffs. The people call it the Great Waterfall. So, for us guys who have been isekaid, we are from beyond the Great Waterfall. Don't go telling people this though." Subaru started teaching them with an empty piece of paper.
"So, the land is divided into 4 kingdoms. Gusteko to the north, Vollachia to the south, Kararagi towards the west, and Lugnica towards the east. The city we are in now, is smack dab in the middle, called Pristella. Do you understand this much?" Subaru asked.
"Yeah, I understand this much, even if it is weird being taught by my own kid." Kenichi joked.
"Well that's what you get for being illiterate! You guys won't even know how to write here." Subaru fired back with a retort of his own.
"We will be going to the Mather's domain of Lugnica soon. It is where I work as a knight to the candidate of the throne, Emilia-tan" Subaru continued, without even hearing Kenichi's "Hey!".
"Wait, you are a knight? What did you accomplish that you became a knight?" Naoko asked, a bit skeptical.
"Oh well, nothing special, I helped in killing a big whale, defeating a mad man, then sent a whole bunch of hungry rabbits to another dimension." Subaru replied, downplaying his involvement in his achievements. Kenichi narrowed his eyes a bit at that. It looked like he really lost a lot of self-esteem.
"Huh. Also, what do you mean by candidate to the throne?" Kenichi asked the other thing on his mind.
"The royal family apparently died out due to a disease, and so a dragon selected 5 women for the throne next. Right now, the Kingdom is being run by a council of old people. Bunch of geezers if you ask me." Subaru responded, some of the anger for their discrimination towards Emilia still left.
"So, this is a fantasy world with magic too? Can you do any?" Naoko literally interrogated Subaru.
"Well yeah, people do magic with a thing called a gate. It's really cool, you can do a lot of things with it. Mine broke after I overused it. I can use it with my contracted spirit called Beatrice. She was the cute little girl that was with me. Speaking of, where did she go?" Subaru answered nonchalantly, not noticing his parents' awfully serious faces when he said that.
"Subaru, we heard of your title from a stranger.." Kenichi started speaking.
"Oh, you mean Spirit Knight? It's cool, right?" Subaru forgot his other title
"No, we mean Lolimancer, little girl user." Naoko bluntly said, with a deadpan look on her face.
"EH! No, it isn't like that! She's like a little sister to me! Or, well, big sister, since she's around 400 years old, but you guys are getting the wrong idea!" Subaru denied with a red face at the accusation.
Kenichi and Naoko burst out laughing.
"So, where do we go from here? You have your job, but I don't have any work to do." Kenichi said.
"I know what you guys can do! You can sell the inventions of our world! I can contact Russel and get him to help you guys in marketing! Just like I introduced mayonnaise here!" Subaru replied, with a 'Eureka' face.
"See! That's my son! Our love of mayonnaise goes beyond dimensions, into the far unknown!" Kenichi exaggeratedly said with a big and proud smile on his face.
Naoko just fondly shook her head.
"So, where is the Mather's domain? Where do you live?" Naoko changed the topic.
"In a biiiiig mansion. See, it was a mansion I burnt down…."
After Subaru told them of the intricacies of this world, he introduced them to the others that were to be travelling in the carriage. They were gladly accepted by Emilia and Beatrice, who wanted to know more about their enigma of a lovable knight. Subaru didn't like their presence at all during the journey, since they spent a lot of time teasing Subaru about him liking Emilia.
Emilia herself looked at Kenichi strangely, then Subaru, then averted her gaze with a blush.
Subaru was confused at that.
After a journey of two months, they finally reached the mansion.
Emilia saw their destination afar in her eyes as she looked out the window of the dragon carriage. Subaru also saw how the view out the window was changing into familiar scenery.
"What a nostalgic path. We'll arrive at Roswaal's mansion soon, huh.." Subaru quietly said.
AN : This wasn't just going to be a simple reaction story. The plot thickens. Why did Satella bring Subaru's parents here? How will they affect the Kingdom of Lugnica with their inventions from a whole different world? So many questions, and so little answers. Give out your reviews, and stay tuned for the next chapter.
