Re:Zero Saving Life In Another World From Zero

by Jude Warble

We can never predict the future, but with one's actions, the future can be controlled, and a new universe is created. When 2 twin siblings, drowning in despair, and an entity, shot by betrayal, are teleported to another world, their actions and unpredictability will decide the future of All Creation. Main pairings Subaru x Emilia. Shadow x Rem. Other pairings will appear later.

5. Of Doubts And Horrors

Hello. This is your pal, Jude Warble.

And with that out of the way, please enjoy this fanfic, and as always, stay breezy!

---

Kremaldy Forest. Nighttime

Meili had nothing to say.

Whatever transpired back then made her speechless and unable to think.

Her eyes were wide open in shock, and her own fake smile was nowhere to be found on her face.

She felt as if time stopped all around her, and at the same time the entire planet spun at an extremely fast pace.

She couldn't think or comprehend anything that just happened to her a few hours ago...

---

Flashback. A few hours ago

"Huh? What did you say?"

"I said you're free to go. Aren't I clear in my speech?"

Meili asked for Shadow to repeat his request of her, and repeat he did.

A few hours ago, she was considered the spoils of war, now she earned her freedom, just like that.

"What do you mean?" She asked.

"You haven't done anything to me. I have no business with you, and the fact that you're weaker than me makes it even more ridiculous to think about imprisoning, let alone killing you" Shadow answered with a shrug.

"W-What? Then where should I go?" Meili asked, fear completely apparent on her face.

"How should I know? Or the more accurate question is why should I care?" Shadow replied, before seeing tears starting to build in the corners of her eyes and that she was shivering slightly while having her eyes casted downwards.

"Elsa Granheit was from the Assassination Organization, so judging from the fact that you were accompanying her, then that means you are her partner, correct?" Shadow asked.

"W-What are going at?" Meili asked.

"It's this 'Mama' that you fear, right? If so, then you can just tell me where she is. I have a bone to pick with her" He said, causing Meili to gasp in horror, her body shaking even more rapidly.

"No! No! I can't! She will torture me! I can't! Impossible!" Meili exclaimed in terror, causing Shadow to blink, before releasing a sigh.

"...Very well. In that case, to ensure your safety, I shall entrust you with this" Shadow said, before opening his palm, causing a fist-sized stone to appear in a small flash of light. Said stone had strange romanji inscriptions, and they were glowing purple in color.

Meili stared at the stone in awe, its glow was so beautiful and warm that it made her feel so happy, completely forgetting about what she assumed to be her inevitable fate that was worse than death. The stone's glow was pulsating rapidly, as if it was eagerly calling to Meili, and Meili seemed to be in tandem with this, as her hands unconsciously reached for the stone.

And without warning, something unexpected happened.

"Here. It's yours"

"?!"

Faster than Meili could even comprehend, Shadow shoved the stone into her chest, right where her heart was.

And in that instant, Meili felt it.

Overwhelming, immense and burning power roaring inside of her, as if she was reborn. She felt that she could take on hundreds of Mama at once.

And then...

"Rune Stone Skill: Animal Path"

The weird sound echoed within Meili's head. Power shook up her entire core. She felt her body temperature rise immensely to the point that she feared that she will melt, but in the next instant, he body cooled down, before she felt lighter and stronger, invigorated as if she was reborn.

"Alright. You can go now"

"?!"

Meili's stupefied expression was priceless.

"Huh? Wait, that's it?" Meili asked in confusion.

"Yes. Well, you won't tell me about your leader, and if you are by yourself, she must subject you to a fate worse than Death judging from your horror upon mentioning her name. So this is my memento to you. Use it well and goodbye" Shadow said, before gently pushing Meili, causing her to fall into the pale purple spherical portal that manifested out of thin air behind her, and once she passed through it, the portal disappeared.

"She'll come back. All we have to do is wait" Shadow said.

Flashback End

---

"No tricks? I thought that my life was gone" Meili said to herself, before sitting on the grassy ground, releasing a breath she didn't know that she was holding.

She then laid on her back and closed her eyes, before her mind was swarming with mythical creatures that she have never seen before, ranging from weird humanoid animal creatures to...Dragons?

"Huh?" Meili snapped her eyes open at this and stood up. Dragons? She can summon dragons? What was that? How can she do that?

"Hmm? Should I give it a try?" She hummed before closing her eyes, trying to imagine a creature of those that cane into her mind. Then, she called out.

"Tsunami Drake"

...

...

...

"Hm. A fraud. Figured as much" She said when she looked around her, not seeing that anything has changed...

...Except for the fact that the sun seemed to be going down.

"Huh? Last time I checked it wasn't even 12 past lunar time" Meili said before she looked up...

"Eh...?"

...Only to see a blue humanoid dragon-like creature towering above her.

"Eek!" Meili yelped before crawling away from the creature, to which the creature simply stared at her and didn't move.

Meili simply stared in shock at the newcomer. Further inspection has shown that the creature was clad in what looked like a futuristic armour, something that Meili speculated that it was from a different era. It was indeed a humanoid armoured figure with a blue dragon head, light blue armour, and a cannon for a right hand. He was also the size of a building so Meili was surprised that no one has noticed it.

"Umm...Can you...Uhh...Shrink a little bit?" Meili asked the creature, before she saw in amusement and surprise as the creature's size gradually decreased until it became as large as the trees surrounding her. The creature, now known as Tsunami Drake kneeled towards the still stunned Meili, showing absolute loyalty and respect.

"Oh...Thank you..." Meili said, feeling excitement rolling inside of her. This power was given to her for no reason...

No.

This man gave her that power to protect herself from Mother, from the tyranny of the bitch, and she will use it just like that.

She has to grow accustomed to it and quick, but if there was anything that she knew, then it's the fact that this ability...Animal Path, was it?

Yeah, but anyways, this ability was a far superior version than her Divine Protection of Mana Manipulation. The creature that Meili had summoned wasn't a Mabeast and Meili has never seen it before. So if she had to guess...

"Could it be...That I have the ability to summon creatures from different dimensions?" Meili muttered to herself.

And even when she said this, she herself couldn't believe it. Parallel universes exist? So what Mother said about three individuals coming from worlds beyond the Great Waterfall was true?

Meili sighed at this. She was only 13 for crying out loud, and yet she was thinking about rather complicated stuff. Then again, she is an assassin, just like Elsa...

"Elsa..." Meili muttered in sadness under her breath. A few hours ago, she lost her sister figure and the ones who were responsible just released her, just like that, without even throwing her to the authorities of Lugunica.

At first, Meili thought that she will be safe if she was thrown behind the bars, but after remembering that it was Mother that she was talking about, she immediately dismissed this idea. This deranged twisted bitch was literally invincible and immortal. When she outright stated that she conquered Death, she wasn't joking. Meili saw her a few times in action, not even crushing her heart or looping off her head will be enough to put her down.

But now, Meili felt different.

This power was indeed the best. With it, she was confident that she can defeat her Mother.

"..."

But first, before that, she has to answer her doubts.

This man helped her, gave her a power that she could never dream of having despite not giving him the information that he wanted about Mother.

This made Meili confused, as while this man didn't have his information, he gave her this power for free, something that rose all the question marks that can be found in the world.

Reaching for the inside of her cloak, Elsa picked out a Reinhard plushie and kept on staring at it. This was the first plushie that Elsa made for her, and the only thing that reminded her of her big sister figure.

"Elsa...What should I do...?" Meili muttered while staring at the doll, her mind wandering to the white haired and black haired males that fought both her and Elsa. They were strong, so strong in fact that Mother, let alone the Sin Archbishops, will not be able to stand a chance against them. Not to mention that it seemed that the Sword Saint is also on their side, so there is nothing in this world that can stop them.

"Hmm?" Humming in confusion, Meili felt slight rustling in the grassy ground that she was sitting on, causing her to look, only to see a small white rabbit with crimson red eyes and a horn. It stared at Meili with its big red eyes, as if inspecting her.

Now, normally, any other person would be tempted to pet such a cute creature, but not Meili, as she knew better when it came to the difference between puppy eyes and killing intent.

Meili then made a distance between her and the rabbit, before she saw something shocking: Another rabbit popped into existence beside the first one, follow by another two, then four, then eight, then tens, then hundreds, then thousands, until they became a huge army. Realizing that she was in danger, Meili shouted her command.

"Tsunami Drake! Take them all down!" She yelled, before the blue humanoid dragon raised its arm cannon towards the horde of rabbits, before a massive water beam came blasting towards the rabbits blasting them all apart. The water blast was enough to obliterate all the rabbits except for a few, which in turned multiplied once again, causing their numbers to increase once again, as if Tsunami Drake didn't do anything to diminish their numbers.

"So, they are able to multiply if at least one of them is alive...Wait" Meili was muttering her analysis regarding the Mabeast in front of her, when realization suddenly struck her like a lightning bolt.

Just like in the legends, the Three Great Mabeasts: The Hakugei, The Kurohebi, and...

"...The Oousagi" She muttered under her breath, before a sweet smile came across her lips. She then wiped her head towards her otherworldly summon.

"Tsunami Drake! Eat away at their numbers until only one is remaining!" Meili commanded, and the summon complied, before shooting water bullets at the army of rabbits, shooting them faster than their multiplication process. This continued until there were a few rabbits, but Tsunami Drake didn't stop there, as it kept on firing out bullets of water at the few rabbits.

At the same time, Meili ran as fast as her small legs could help her towards the Oousagi, reaching out behind her cloak and pulling out a Y-shaped wooden staff. The water humanoid dragon kept on sniping at the numbers of rabbits, and by the time Meili has reached them, they were already diminished to just one rabbit.

"You're mine!" Meili exclaimed, before thrusting her staff towards the rabbit, her target being the rabbit's horn.

The sound of a snap could be heard echoing throughout the forest.

Meili fell face first on the grassy ground, before rolling in the grass to face the sky while lying down on her back, where she was exhaling deeply due to the enormous physical effort that she made. While yes, running a few meters was indeed something light, Meili wasn't an assaulter, meaning that she wasn't the one for action and close combat quarters.

She then got slightly startled as a white rabbit, with its broken horn being miraculously fixed after it was broken, rubbed its fluffy white fur at Meili's face, causing her to sit up and take the rabbit in her arms, to which it snuggled deeper into her embrace. She then smiled at her achievement.

She had just tamed the Oousagi, one of the Three Great Mabeasts.

She then looked at Tsunami Drake, where the summon bowed to its master in courtesy, causing Meili to nod at it in acknowledgement, before it vanished in a burst of white light particles.

Letting out a breath she didn't know that she was holding, Meili looked at the Great Mabeast cuddled in her arms. While Tsunami Drake was indeed strong, years in the battlefield ever since she was toddler has taught Meili to be cautious of her surroundings and situations presented to her. Just because she had stronger summons doesn't mean that the outcome will not be flipped on her head in an instant when presented in the battlefield, so she has to be careful.

Her resolve strengthened, Meili cuddled the Oousagi closer to her lap, a look of determination plastered on her face, a look that was so serious that it completely contradicted her fake smile, showing the seriousness of a true assassin.

She will master this new power bestowed upon her, she will recruit new summons and Mabeasts along the way. Even if it took her days, weeks and even months, she will quickly get used to this power and form an army great and powerful enough to even topple the entire Witch Cult, not just Mother.

There was also those two. The white haired and black haired boys. They defeated her, yet didn't kill her, or at least throw her behind the bars, despite the fact that Meili knew that people like those two will never leave an enemy behind, as the enemy that runs today would stab you tomorrow.

She wanted to clear those doubts. She wanted to know why didn't they finish her off, and she will reach her conclusion, no matter how hard the road to it was.

Tsunami Drake and Oousagi were just stepping stones, and Meili Portoutte knew that.

---

At the same time. Margrave Mansion

"You're the worst, Natsuki-san!"

"Huh? What have I done?"

Seated in a luxurious dinning room, Otto yelled at Subaru.

After Shadow saved him from being sucked dry of Mana, Otto started to release his frustration at Subaru, who, after having recovered from his previous loop, completely forgot about the unlucky merchant.

"Ugh! Stop whining, crybaby merchant! You're so annoying, Yup~!" Shaula exclaimed, insulting Otto with a rather sweet and childish voice.

"The tone of your voice completely contradicts the assault!" Otto exclaimed loudly, before being hit on the head by Shadow, who was seated next to him.

"Shut up. So annoying" Shadow muttered.

"Once again, I would love to thank both of you, Subaru, Shadow" Emilia said.

"It's cool. I just happened to pass by" Shadow said casually.

"No probs on my side as well. Figured that I can do some actual battle for my 1 year worth of training. Although my Gate was destroyed as a result..." Subaru slumped over on the dining table while saying this.

"Are you alright? I'm sorry for what happened" Emilia said, causing Subaru to lift his head up immediately and flash the most exaggerated smile ever, though his entire face was twitching to keep the smile on.

"It's fine, Emilia-tan! I'm not sad or anything! Seriously! Everything is cool!" Subaru exclaimed.

"Don't push yourself too hard. You'll get wrinkles like that" Shadow muttered.

"So, those are the two young men that helped Emilia-sama against the Bowel Hunter and the Sin Archbishop of Sloth?" Julius asked while staring at both Subaru and Shadow.

"Yup! And it seems that Natsumi-chyan dragged both of us out of our sleep because she was worried that Subaru-kyun might die or something. I think she said something like 'If Subaru dies, bury me with him!', something like that, nya~" Felix said, causing Natsumi, who was seated next to them to cover her face in her gloved palms.

"Stop it already! It's embarrassing!" Natsumi said, making Reinhard pat her back gently with a nervous smile on his face.

"By the way, when will Roswaal L Mathers come?" Shadow asked the pink haired maid that was standing behind him with her twin sister and the blonde taller maid being next to her.

"Roswaal-sama is arriving shortly, Dear Guest" Ram simply answered.

"Excuse me, but can someone describe that Roswaal guy to me?" Subaru asked, before everyone witnessed Puck pop out from Emilia's hair.

"Well, you will get to know once you see him" Puck said.

"Huh?! Is he too plain to describe?!" Subaru exclaimed in shock.

"No. Quite the opposite" Emilia, Puck, Natsumi, Rem, Ram and Frederica all said at the same time.

"Great Spirit-sama. It's an honour to meet you in person" Julius said, standing up from his seat and kneeling in front of Puck.

"Oh. You must be Julius Juukulius, The Spirit Knight that has this Divine Protection of Tempting Spirits" Puck said while looking at Julius.

"Actually Puck, it's called the Divine Protection of Gathering Spirits, not Tempting Spirits" Natsumi corrected.

"Same to me. Just do me a favour and don't get close to Betty" Puck said.

"Huh? Who is Betty, if i may ask?" Julius asked in confusion.

"Puckie!"

"?!"

The familiar sound of a small girl was heard as Beatrice rushed towards Emilia, her aim was Puck.

"Hey, Betty. Short time no see" Puck said waving at the little girl.

"Puckie! Are you going to spend time with me?" Beatrice asked with the sweetest smile that could ever exist in the world.

"Yeah, sure. Both of us can take it easy for a day" Puck answered before flying towards Beatrice's hands, where she started to fondle his fur and hug him in delight.

"Wow...Whoever sees you right now won't say that you were trying to suck me dry of Mana a few hours ago..." Subaru muttered.

"Is that what humans call 'Sibling Bond'?" Shadow asked.

"Well...Those two aren't human to begin with, Shadow-san..." Natsumi said nervously.

"My oh my. A rather elegant and charming lady you are, Beatrice-sama" Julius said, before flashing a gentleman smile and giving Beatrice a courtesy bow. Beatrice simply cringed away from him with a blush on her cheeks and her lips quivering uncontrollably.

"D-Don't you dare think that you can captivate Betty just because you're able to sway her maidenly heart, I suppose!" Beatrice yelled at Julius in an extremely cute manner while pointing her small pointer finger at him, with her other hand occupied with cuddling Puck to her underdeveloped chest.

"Captivating and swaying hearts pretty much hold the same definition!" Subaru yelled comically.

"Even that stupid, weak, putrid, lousy and good-for-nothing merchant is more bearable than you, I suppose!" Beatrice continued insulting Julius, who was still smiling charmingly at her, while insulting Otto for no apparent reason at the same time.

"Why do I have to take the insults without doing anything?! Also, thank you! I think that I've taken enough emotional wounds!" Otto exclaimed with comical tears running down his cheeks.

"Master! Master! The crybaby merchant is weeping pathetically! Yup~!" Shaula whispered loudly to Subaru.

"Shaula, like I said, this is the kind of people who will never be able to have a girlfriend" Subaru whispered back to Shaula with the same volume degree.

"I can hear both of you! You guys aren't trying one bit to hide the insults!" Otto yelled at Subaru and Shaula.

"Ugh...Shut up. So annoying" Shadow muttered.

"Oh myyyyy...We have some lively guests heeeeere. It's greaaaaat~! Very greaaaaat~!"

"?!"

Right in front of the dinning room entrance stood a new figure, but to say that he was rather peculiar was...An understatement.

He was a rather tall man standing at 186 centimetres. His well-toned body was slender and appeared delicate despite its impressive musculature. His very handsome face was ghastly pale which gives him the impression of a classic pretty boy. However, his physical beauty is somewhat concealed by his peculiar makeup and getup.

He had heterochromatic eyes; The right was blue, and the left was yellow. His straight indigo hair was long enough to cover his whole back and is tucked behind his ear on the left side of his head. His face was decorated with a light-lavender powder, purple lipstick, and purple eye shadow that is adorned on his right eyelid. His yellow left eye is also bedecked with eye shadow that is more elaborate than the right's eye shadow and covers the whole area around the eye rather than just the eyelid and accompanies his unusual outfit comparable to those similar to a clown or jester, consisting of a black hat, a top and bottom with different shades of purple, along with red and black boots and a cape. He also had a chain surrounding his right ankle.

The surrounding reactions were different.

Rem, Ram and Frederica bowed in respect, Reinhard, Felix and Julius delivered a courtesy bow, Natsumi waved her hand at the clownish man nervously, Emilia blinked with an innocent smile, Shadow glared angrily at the newcomer, Felt stared in disgust, Subaru sweatdropped, Shaula hugged the white haired boy's arm affectionately, Otto stared with wide glistering eyes at the clown-like man and Beatrice was cuddling with Puck, not even paying attention to her surroundings.

"Hey, are you bringing a clown to entertain us before breakfast? I'll never understand you, rich folks" Subaru said.

"Well, you see..." Felix trailed in his speech, apparently not knowing what to say.

"It's fiiiiiiine, Felix-kun. I don't miiiiiind at all" The clown man said with a rather calm smile. For some reason, it sent shivers down Subaru's spine.

"Hey, Master! Should I kill this man? He looks like weirdo that came out from a Jack-in-the-box! Yup~!" Shaula said to Subaru.

"What the hell are you saying?! Also are you sure you're from this world?! How the hell do you know Jack-in-the-box?!" Subaru yelled at Shaula.

"Uhh...I'm so sorry, Mr. Clown. My companion is rather ditzy and air-headed sometimes" Subaru turned to the clown and apologized.

"Umm...Subaru, this man is not a clown" Emilia said.

"Huh? What do you mean?" Subaru asked.

"In ooother words, she meeeeaaaaaans...I'm Roswaal L Mathers, lord of this mansion" The clown-like man, now identified as the Margrave, introduced himself.

"W-What...? Seriously?!" Subaru gaped at the shocking revelation.

"Now then, why don't we siiiit down~?" Roswaal asked, causing everyone to grow silent, and only the sounds of plates, forks, knives and teacups clattering was heard. In only half an hour, lots of stuff happened.

Julius was trying to strike a conversation with Beatrice, but in vain, as Beatrice was focusing on Puck so much that Julius' Divine Protection had absolutely no effect whatsoever.

Reinhard and Natsumi were doing their best to teach Felt table manners, but the slums girl just kept on chugging food and tea down her throat like a barbarian due to how delicious it was, with both sides of her cheeks literally flattening like a balloon.

Felix was purring happily as surprisingly, Shadow was silently stroking his ears. At first, Felix found it weird, but afterwards, he started purring like a real cat while lying backfirst on Shadow's lap, with said person still opting a comical cold look on his face while stroking Felix's ears.

Subaru and Emilia were silently eating, but Emilia couldn't help but smile in amusement as Subaru was trying to desperately dodge Shaula's attempt at forcibly feeding him, as for some reason that is completely unexplained by both logic and common sense, Shaula literally balanced everything on her plate on the tip of a fork. Subaru tried to avoid her, but Shaula's vice grip was stronger than anything in this world, to the point that Subaru felt like his arm was placed inside a hydraulic press.

All the while Roswaal and the maids were watching silently. Roswaal was opting a smile of amusement, while the maids silently stood beside their master, awaiting their next command.

Half an hour later, the three maids started pouring tea and serving cookies to both their lord and their guests, which in turn was the sign to break the ice regarding important matters.

"Umm...Hey..." Subaru started to say.

"Yes, what is it, deeear guest?" Roswaal urged the white haired youth to continue.

"Well, I just noticed that only three maids are serving in this extremely huge mansion. Isn't that weird?" Subaru asked.

"How so, if i may aaaaask?" Roswaal asked.

"You see, I find it weird that there aren't anyone else serving in this mansion. It's so big, I think that they may die from overwork, unless of course, the lord of this mansion is pressed that he can't hire any more people" Subaru said, causing Roswaal to chuckle slightly, before directing his attention towards Subaru.

"You're truuuly a mystery, areeeen't you? Coming here to the Margrave Mathers reeeesidence, in the Dragon Kingdom of Lugunica whilst knowing so liiiitle?" Roswaal asked, causing Subaru to feign confusion, since he already knew the gist of the situation from Otto. His fake act didn't get unnoticed by Shadow, who raised an eyebrow in amusement while still maintaining his cold expression.

Taking in a deep breath, Roswaal continued his speech.

"This country, the Dragon Kingdom of Lugunica, is in a rather perilous situaaation. After aaaall, Lugunica currently laaaacks a king, so negotiations of peace are crumbling apaaaart" Roswaal said.

"But, won't the heir of the Royal Family inherit the throne under normal circumstances?" Shadow voiced out his opinion, speaking to Roswaal for the first time. Roswaal's smile expanded in a sickening manner whilst directing his attention towards Shadow, causing the black haired Highest to cringe in disgust, before he heard the Margrave continue his explanation.

"That would be nooormally so, but six months ago, a mysterious disease struck the Royal Faaaaamily, causing all of them to sucuuuumb to it" Roswaal answered Shadow's question.

"Then, who is leading the country in place of the Royal Family?" Subaru asked, grabbing a cookie before taking a bite from it.

"Well, the Sage Council is taking care of this maaaatter. They consist of men with names that are gloooorious throughout hiiiiiiistory. However...If there isn't a King, then the country will soon be brought to its inevitable doom" Roswaal finished his explanation, with his last sentence being completely devoid of his verbal tick of elongating words, symbolising the seriousness and the graveness of the situation.

"Oh...I see." Subaru said, finishing his cookie, before taking his cup of tea and proceeded to gulp it.

"I get the gist of the situation. The country is in utter chaos and desperation in trying to find a new king and domestic relations with other countries are crumbling apart...So, a mysterious person like me popping out of the blue in the country is..."

Before finishing his sentence, Subaru placed his teacup on the table, before pointing at himself while sweating bullets.

"...The absolute sign of suspiciousness!" He completed his phrase.

"Furthermore, by making contact with Emilia-sama, you have officially became associaaaaaated with the house of Mathers. Well, under normal situations, this would be brushed off as mere circumstantial evidences, but in this current peeeeeril the country is going through, this will be all that is needed to guaaaaarantee an immediate dispoooosal" Roswaal said, mimicking a chopping motion with his hand, causing Subaru to gulp loudly.

"By the way, why are you addressing Emilia in a higher status than yourself?" Shadow asked, causing another sickening smile to form at Roswaal's face, which in turn made Shadow's left eye twitch in discomfort.

"Isn't it nooooormal to address soooooomeone of higher status than myseeeeelf?" Roswaal answered, causing Subaru to stand up in shock, his eyes widened in realization while looking at Emilia. Shadow in turn facepalmed upon realising what he just placed himself into.

"Y-You mean... Emilia-tan is..." Subaru muttered the words out to Emilia, who was shyly poking her fingers together.

"I-I'm one of the now five Royal Candidates for the throne of the 42nd King of the Dragon Kingdom of Lugunica" She answered.

Subaru gasped with a comical shocked expression on his face, with Shadow literally slamming his head on the table, cracking it, having just realized that he placed himself into an even more attention.

"I try to run away from the attention of this world, only to have its mundane affairs biting at my ass. Karma is really a bitch..." Shadow grumbled under his breath. He then looked as Emilia took out the small insignia that they literally fought one of the Seven Princes of Hell for.

"Isn't that the small insignia from back then?" Subaru asked.

"That's the Dragon Crest drawing on it. The symbol of this very Kingdom. It's found everywhere. Castle walls, weapons, armours, shops. You name it" Shadow added.

"But this insiiiiignia is uniquely impooooortant" Roswaal said.

"Huh? Why?" Subaru asked, before hearing Emilia muttering something under her breath, but he couldn't make out the words as she was talking with a very low voice.

Again, this caused Shadow to once again facepalm himself, having realized the stupidity of the situation that could have been avoided.

"Royal Candidate Qualification..." Emilia muttered in an even more louder voice, causing Subaru to gasp once again in shock after realising the stupidly hellhole that they could have easily avoided yesterday.

"W-What on Earth...?! This small thing is your qualification ticket for the throne of the country?! And you lost something that important?!" Subaru yelled in shock.

"T-That's putting it too crudely! A light-handed thief stole it from me!" Emilia yelled back cutely.

"THAT'S LITERALLY THE SAME THING!" Subaru yelled.

"Hey, Big Sis...I'm still here, y'know..." Felt said, annoyed, as she was the 'light-handed thief' that she was talking about.

"Furthermore, if you haven't lost it, we wouldn't have been fighting for our lives yesterday. Not to mention that Subaru's Gate is officially obliterated..." Shadow noted, causing Emilia to have comical tears lined on the corners of her eyes.

"I'm sorry! I'm really sorry!" Emilia exclaimed.

"Hmph" Shadow huffed, before turning towards Felix and Julius.

"Don't you dare tell your camps about it. Get it?" Shadow asked.

"And who are you even to tell us something like that?" Julius asked while brushing his hand through his hair.

"Oya Oya~Juuuuulius-kun. You probably didn't noooootice, but Shadow-kuuuuun is the man known as the infamous Black Aaaaangel of Irlam" Roswaal replied, causing everyone's eyes, except for Subaru, Shaula, Beatrice and Puck to widen in shock.

"What?! Him?!" Julius asked in disbelief.

"Believe me. I don't like the nickname. The kids from the village are the ones that chose to call me that, and the grownups followed suit..." Shadow grumbled in annoyance.

"Weeeell, you have my woooord that noone will knooooow about Emilia-sama's aaaaaacident" Roswaal said while looking at Julius and Felix.

"Okay, Margrave-sama. We swear not to tell anyone about this" Julius said, causing Shadow to narrow his eyes at Julius.

"I vouch for their word, Margrave-sama. I also swear not to use this into Felt-sama's advantage, and to battle for the throne fair and square" Reinhard said.

"Umm...Sorry to interrupt you guys, but..." Subaru trailed with his words, causing everyone, except for Beatrice who was still playing with Puck, to direct their attention towards him.

"Elsa and Petelgeuse...Both from different factions if what I heard was right. I honestly don't know much, but I can say that both are working for different factions. Petelgeuse attacked us before our arrival at Lugunica, and when we arrived at the Capital city, we confronted Elsa, who was hellbent on killing us for the insignia, and from what I've seen, Petelgeuse seemed to have latched himself on either me or my companions, before he possessed the dead Elsa, and the rest of the story is known. What I'm trying to say that Sloth had nothing to do with it as he was just passing by to kill me for unknown reasons, but Elsa wanted to take the insignia, so she hired Felt to steal it. This could only mean one thing: Someone tried to prevent Emilia from becoming Queen. Ain't I right?" Subaru explained.

"Why yes. That is most likely. There is no other way that is mooooore simple than that" Roswaal said.

"Well, under that note, shouldn't there be some sort of bodyguards around Emilia?" Subaru asked.

"Well, Ram waaaaaas with here, so this is rather weeeeeeird" Roswaal said while looking at Ram, who simply stood in silence.

"Umm...It wasn't her fault. It was mine. I got curious and wandered around...Sort of..." Emilia said while nervously poking her fingers together.

"What's with the moe excuse here?!" Subaru yelled.

"Anyways, I indeeeeed share the blame, but at the same time, I knooooow that you must be rewarded, you and Shaaaaadow-kun" Roswaal said.

"I only want one thing: Look after the people under your territory. Don't ever ignore them. Because if you do, I'll go after your head" Shadow said.

"Acknowledged and understood" Roswaal answered Shadow, before turning to Subaru.

"Honestly, I never thought about getting rewarded at all. It never really crossed my mind...Well, I already found my sister and honestly I don't know what to do next, but if there's anything that I want right now, it will be standing by Emilia-tan and helping her, so..."

Subaru then stood off from his seat and smirked.

"...I have three demands. First, Shadow, Shaula and I are to be members of Emilia-tan's camp..." Subaru spoke, causing Shadow to gasp.

"What the hell?! I never agreed to this to begin with!" Shadow yelled standing up while looking at Subaru.

"Well, we'll need all the help we can, and I can tell that you're way too strong" Subaru said.

"I don't want to intervene with the mundane affairs of this world more than that!" Shadow exclaimed angrily.

"We had a deal. If you want me to accept your proposal, then you will have to accept mine as well. Don't you think?" Subaru said with a grin, causing Shadow to glare at him for a few seconds, before sighing, his neutral cold expression returning to his face.

"...Very well, but I expect of you to hold your part of our deal" Shadow said to Subaru.

"You got that! Scout's promise!" Subaru exclaimed, before turning to Roswaal.

"Second: I want you to hire Shaula as a maid here. She's childish due to being locked for so long from the outside world, so I want her to know proper etiquette and manners, as well as work like normal people" Subaru laid out his second term.

"Consider the two terms done, and the third?" Roswaal confirmed his affirmation to Subaru's two terms, before asking him of the third one.

"The Witch Cult" Subaru answered.

"Hmm?" Roswaal hummed.

At the mention of the villainous organisation, everyone, even Beatrice and Puck, stared at Subaru. Rem in particular directed a death glare at him.

They all, except for Shadow, waited with ragged breath for Subaru's words, when...

"...I want to eradicate the Witch Cult"

"?!"

This caused stupefied expressions to form on everyone's faces, except for Shadow, but especially Rem, who seemed to have never expected this reply.

"The Witch Cult nearly killed me and harmed my companion. And for some reason, they sent one of their big numbers to capture me. If left alone, who knows what they will do when they capture me, let alone the entire Capital. Don't be mistaken. I'm not saying that I'm special or something, but that's what appeared to me when that freak Petelgeuse tried to capture me on the Lifaus Highway. Not to mention that they're terrorising the world from what I've heard about them. So I think that I'll be doing you guys a favour by getting rid of them. However I can't do that alone, so I'll need help" Subaru said.

"Consider it dooooone, but in turn, I would looooove to reward you with sooooooomething else" Roswaal said.

"Huh?" Subaru asked in confusion.

"I will make you Emilia-sama's Knight" Roswaal said.

"What...?" Subaru immediately answered in confusion.

"A Knight is the personal escort of a Royal Candidate, and their right hand in need. You're lucky, Subaru" Natsumi said.

"Wait Wait. I don't wanna be bound by this country" Subaru said.

"Have no feeeeear. You'll be only a Knight by naaaaaaaame. Only dedicaaaaaaaaaated for Emilia-sama, not bound to the orders of the Empiiiiiiiiiiire" Roswaal said.

"And how does that happen?" Subaru asked.

"Three months from today, the Royal Selection Conference in the Capital will commence, and all the Royal Candidates will be there. I think Ros-chi will announce you as Emily's Knight when that time comes in front of the Sage Council" Natsumi answered.

"Hey! No one here is the Sage other than Ma-OW!" Shaula was about to babble again, causing Subaru to pull on her cheeks, causing her eyes to be shaped as a comical 'X', with tears building on the corners of her eyes.

"How many times do I have to tell you NOT to open your mouth with unnecessary stuff?!" Subaru comically yelled at Shaula.

"Wow. Subaru and Shaula are reeeeeeaaaallly close. It's like a daddy and his daughter" Emilia noted.

"What?! No! Shaula's Master's personal Sex Sla-OW!" Shaula was yet about to say something embarrassing, only for Subaru to increase the strength of his pinching on her cheeks, causing her to shut up.

"Again, you're saying stupid and unnecessary stuff!" Subaru scolded angrily in a comical fashion.

"I'm shorry! I'm shorry!" She said, her words slightly off due to Subaru stretching her cheeks.

"Heh. You're the worst, Bro" Natsumi said with a mocking chuckle.

"Wha?!" Subaru gasped comically.

"Wow, Natsumi-chyan. I didn't know that your brother, Subaru-kyun is a shameless ladies man" Felix followed.

"Hey! I don't wanna hear that from a crossdresser!" Subaru yelled at the cat Demi-Human.

"Hmm. Pathetic" Julius muttered in arrogance.

"What's your problem, classy asshat?!" Subaru yelled at the purple haired Knight, who just 'hmphed' at the white haired boy with closed eyes.

"Wow, Natsuki-san. You're quite the fiend..." Otto muttered while looking at Subaru with an expression of mock disappointment.

"I don't hear that from you, crybaby merchant!" Subaru yelled at the platinum haired merchant.

"I can't believe that I asked for help from a hardcore pervert to save the world..." Shadow grumbled with his face being covered by one of his palms.

"Not you too! I thought that you were the reasonable one here!" Subaru yelled at the black haired Highest.

"Subaru, isn't sex is the gender? Does it have another meaning?" Emilia asked, causing Subaru, Shadow, Felt, Otto, Julius and Felix to look at Emilia with stupefied expression and eyes wider than dinner plates, where only Reinhard and Natsumi chuckled nervously at this, Puck mysteriously disappeared from Beatrice's hands, and the rest of the seated people just looked in silence.

"She doesn't know the meaning of sex! How the hell someone like her was nominated for the candidacy of the throne of an entire country?!" Subaru, Shadow, Julius, Otto, Felt and Felix all thought at the same time.

"Oya Oya~ It sure is becoming so liiiiiiiively" Roswaal chuckled, before placing his stares at the three maids, where Ram blushed slightly while still maintaining her neutral expression.

"Rem, Ram. Be a dear and help Shaula-kun find maid clothes that suit her. Frederica, you will help in her training alongside both Rem and Ram" He said, causing the three maids to bow to their master.

"Umm. By the way, It just dawned on me, but what's with you backing up Emilia-tan, Ros-chi?" Subaru asked Roswaal as he released Shaula's cheeks, where the three maids proceeded to take her away to prepare her fro her maid training.

"Subaru, he's the court magician of the Kingdom" Natsumi answered while chuckling nervously, with even Reinhard doing the same.

"He's the...Foremost magic user...In the Kingdom of Lugunica..." Even Emilia had the same expression while saying those words.

"Huh?! This clown?!" Subaru exclaimed in shock.

"That's riiiiight. I'm Emilia-sama's paaaaaatron" Roswaal exclaimed.

"Patron, huh? Well, I hate saying this, but... Couldn't you pick someone else?" Subaru asked Emilia, who nervously smiled with her head down to the ground.

"It couldn't be helped. Only an eccentric man like him would be willing to help me so..." Emilia muttered.

This in particular caused Shadow to glare silently at Roswaal, but no one noticed him.

"That is quiiiiite the thing to say to someone's paaaaaatron" Roswaal said with a wide smile.

"Now then. If you'll excuse us, Margrave Mathers. We have to depart to our mistresses as to not worry them any longer" Julius said as he and Felix stood from their seats and kneeled in front of Roswaal.

"Very well. Say my greeeeeetings for Crusch-sama and Anastasia-sama" Roswaal said to the two Knights.

"Umm...Julius, Felix...I hope you two are not mad from what I did" Natsumi said while poking her fingers together.

"Natsumi-chyan, don't beat yourself up. Ferri-chan would've done the same thing for Crusch-sama. In fact..."

As Felix trailed in his speech, his expression suddenly turned dark, but in a rather comical way, and others around him swore that they saw steam coming out from his partially opened mouth.

"... Ferri-chan would Kill for Crusch-sama" He completed his phrase.

"Felix...Calm down..." Reinhard nervously chuckled his response.

"Woah! The kitty cat turned to a liger in an instant!" Subaru exclaimed.

"Don't beat yourself up, Natsumi. You did what you should do for your brother...Even if he looks like a measly commoner" Julius said.

"You could've made the insult less obvious, Knight Boy!" Subaru yelled at Julius.

"Well, then. We'll be departing now. Thank you for your hospitality" Julius greeted once again before he and Felix walked away.

"Geez! What's wrong with that Pretty Boy?" Subaru grumbled.

"Don't worry. He's always like that" Natsumi said patting the shoulder of her brother. She then directed her gaze at Reinhard.

"Umm, Red? I'm sorry, but I want to spend the day with my brother. I'll come back to the Astrea Manor tomorrow" She said, causing a smile to appear on Reinhard's face, before he walked towards Natsumi and held her hands in his own, causing a light pink blush to appear on Natsumi's cheeks.

Subaru could swear that he saw a rose garden appearing around those two.

"It's fine. I'll talk to Shadow-san here for a while before departing myself. I understand that you want to spend some time with your brother, so I'll talk with Captain Marcos about this" Reinhard said, with both of them staring at each other in affection.

"Oya Oya~ You two are getting along veeeeeery well" Roswaal said, causing the two to snap out from their imaginary world, before they noticed that they were holding hands, causing them to immediately back away with pink blushes on their faces.

"Wowsers. You two are really chummy here" Subaru said grinning ear to ear towards Natsumi, who had a verbal tick appearing on her forehead, before she slammed her fist at Subaru's head, causing the head of the white haired boy to be planted into the concrete ground of the dinning hall of the mansion.

"Stupid brother! I hate you! You should've just died!" Natsumi exclaimed with a blush and in embarrassment as she stomped outside the dinning hall. After she exited, Subaru took out his head that was stuck in the head-sized crater that his sister formed with his face, grinning comically like an idiot.

"I love you too, Sis" He said before his head dropped to the floor, his mind drifting immediately into unconsciousness.

"They are reaaaally brother and sister" Roswaal pointed out, causing Reinhard to chuckle.

Shadow simply stared at the knocked out form of the person that will be the stepping stone of his attempt to save the multiverse from danger.

Little did he or anyone present here, that this will be only the beginning, and danger is already having its eyes on them.

---

A few minutes later

"Do you feel pain here?"

"Yes. It is painful"

"Okay. You need to bear with me. I'll try something"

A few minutes after finishing breakfast, Shadow and Subaru were in the room that now became Subaru's room, with Subaru lying on his back on the bed.

Shadow was trying to make Subaru retain his ability to use Magic, and in order to do so he had to find the remnants of his Gate, and then rearrange them together like a jigsaw puzzle.

But it wasn't that easy.

Like any kind of puzzle it requires two things: Concentration and Patience.

Shadow had to concentrate in order to find the scattered shards of Subaru's Gate inside of him and piece them together, and had to be patient so as to keep them in place, before 'glueing' them with his Mana.

The second thing that Shadow wanted to do was to create another energy source beside Subaru's Gate, but that was even harder, as he has to fix Subaru's Gate first or else everything will mix up and his body will deteriorate even more.

A few minutes afterwards, Shadow lifted his hand from Subaru's stomach, prompting the white haired boy to cover his abdomen and sit up.

"So, how did it go?" Subaru asked Shadow.

"I fixed your Gate. You'll be able to use the Magic of this world normally and even better" Shadow answered.

"Sweet!" Subaru exclaimed in joy.

"But...There is something that I want to test out" Shadow said.

"Oh! Something else? Like, another power up or something?" Subaru asked.

"If that's how you want to call it, but basically I'll insert another power source within your body to enable you of using Demon Magic. It's called an Essence" Shadow said.

"An Essence? What's that?" Subaru asked.

"Normally, a Demon Summoning Program wielder will be normally able to use Demon Magic due to the existence of an item called the Harmonizer in it, which allows the user to ingest the powers of Demons within them. However, due to the frail state of your body after using a Death Fusion Spell three times in a row, the only thing that you're able to do with the Harmonizer is to contract with Demons. So while I did fix up your body to its primal state, we can't risk having it collapse again when you use Cadenza or any Death Fusion Spell again should you acquire any in the future. And that's where the Essence comes into the play" Shadow explained.

"How so?" Subaru asked again.

"Basically, a Harmonizer allows the user to connect to Demon Magic Spells in order to freely use them. An Essence is basically the information of the Demon itself. For example, think of the Demon as a glass of water that you can fill. The Essence is basically the water you fill the cup with, and by ingesting it, you make your body gain the benefits from drinking it, and this is practically the usage of the Essence: The ability to use the power of Demons without resorting to them" Shadow completed his explanation.

"I see. So it's something like fusionism in some video games" Subaru concluded the topic in a rather crude explanation.

"Well, that is actually accurate, considering the fact that there are some cases where the Essence evolves into an Alter Ego inside the brain of its user, especially if it was the Essence of an extremely strong Demon" Shadow said.

"So, what Essence are you gonna place in me?" Subaru asked Shadow, before he saw the black haired boy taking out his phone and started to rummage in it, before showing it to Subaru.

"This one" He said.

What Subaru saw was the face of a human-shaped alien with grey skin and black tattoos with green linings all around them, with his eyes being pale golden in colour.

"This one is..." Subaru trailed, unable to find words from his confusion.

"This is one of the strongest Essences ever to exist. I will ingest it all i to you. However, it will take time to ingest both its skills and defensive affinities, so it will require training. At your current level, you can cast Tier One elemental spells and supporting spells, as well as low tier healing spells. I can teach them to you now" Shadow said, before pressing a few buttons on his cellphone, then proceeded to place his palm on Subaru's chest, then started to mutter something that Subaru couldn't hear.

Suddenly, Subaru's entire body felt like as if it was lit on fire. It felt like Shaula frying him with Hell Snipe, or like someone or something sucking out all of the Mana inside his body.

And not before long, he felt his entire body being extremely light, as if nothing of the previous near-Death loop has ever happened to begin with. All of his fatigue and pain was all gone in a flash after this wave of unbearable heat inside of his body.

"What...Was that? I feel amazing" Subaru said opening and closing his fist a few times.

"Naturally, you have a Demon's common attributes, like infinite stamina, supernatural physical abilities, inhuman durability, and so on. However, you're still yet to achieve the Essence's full potential. You're still at 1% of it, which is great, but nowhere near the levels of the big guns here, let alone the opponents that we'll face in the future" Shadow said.

"Okay. Let's take it step by step. When do we start?" Subaru asked.

"We can start today if you like, but I suggest to relax your muscles for now to give time for your Gate to be accustomed to the foreign changes that the Essence had made to your body. So for now, take a shower to calm down your body...And also because you stink" Shadow said, plugging his nose at that final part.

"Did you really have to say it like this?!" Subaru yelled comically.

"Hey! Shut up, Barusu! It's already so unpleasant with you around!" Ram exclaimed from in front of the door.

"Wow! So casual for addressing a guest! Also, what's with you rephrasing my name?! It sounds like an insult!" Subaru yelled at Ram.

"Of course it's due to your stupid shape, Barusu. So it's normal and befitting to call you Barusu, Barusu" Ram huffed out at the white haired boy.

"...What have you done to Miss Flat Board over there for her to hate you like this?" Shadow asked Subaru with a cold face.

"Hell if I know!" The white haired boy yelled his answer.

"Everyone agrees with me. Rem, come here and state your opinion" Ram said snapping her fingers, and right afterwards, Rem appeared from behind Ram as if the latter duplicated herself instantly.

"You called, Nee-sama?" Rem asked elegantly.

"Woah! That's twins power for you!" Subaru exclaimed in awe.

"Isn't that what the humans call 'Dublets Symmetry'? It's actually astounding" Shadow said with a monotone voice and a blank expression.

"You don't look astounded at all! Try to be more expressive!" Subaru yelled at Shadow.

"Hah! I happened to see her passing by and called out! Perfect timing!" Ram exclaimed while huffing arrogantly.

"Why does it sound like you're rubbing it off?" Subaru asked with a sweatdrop on his forehead.

"What is it, Nee-sama? I don't have much time for Subaru" Rem said calmly.

"Hey...I'm the new member of the camp. Be gentle with me, please..." Subaru muttered.

"Rem. What do you think of Barusu's pathetic appearance?" Ram asked her sister, causing Rem to look at Subaru with slight fear.

"Umm...His shoulders rotate oddly, his legs are short and his gaze is terrifying?" Rem asked.

"You just had to poke at two things I can't do anything about!" Subaru yelled with comical tears at the corners of his eyes.

"Anyways, I have so much to do other than taking care of you, Barusu. I hope you a slow recovery" Ram said.

"Isn't that like wishing for me to stay unhealthy?!" Subaru yelled at the pink maid, but she already walked away with Rem. After they walked away, Subaru sighed out.

"Geez...This Ram...Acting as if she was a hotshot..." Subaru muttered.

"Actually, I've been watching the mansion for a long time, and I have to tell you: The blue haired maid and the blonde maid do all of the housework in the mansion" Shadow added.

"The life purpose of the elder sister suddenly vanished!" Subaru yelled in shock.

"Well, to be fair, she specializes in something" Shadow said adapting a thinking pose.

"Really? What's that?" Subaru asked.

"Cooking steamed potatoes" Shadow answered.

"That's not a speciality! That's only a lame excuse to keep herself in the picture!" Subaru exclaimed in comical anger, before sighing once again.

"Okay. Okay. Can we start training on Demon Magic after I take a shower?" He asked.

"Sure. I'll be waiting. The Sword Saint wants to talk about Demons before departing to his home anyways, so I have some time to kill before training" Shadow said before walking towards the entrance while waving his hand to the side to Subaru without looking back at said boy, then he left the room completely, leaving Subaru alone, who didn't sit there for a long while, as he immediately stood up and exited the room, heading towards the bathroom.

Unbeknownst to him, a certain blue haired maid was glaring daggers at the back of his walking form.

---

A few minutes later. Mathers Mansion Bathing Hall

"Aah~This is amazing. I'm in heaven"

Subaru sighed comfortably as his naked body was soaked up to his shoulders in the large bath tub filled with warm water.

His body, while comforted by the warmth of the water, his mind was in haywire.

After figuring out this weird ability, Subaru later discovered that his Gate was shattered beyond repair, but as if Karma just decided to both bless and curse him at the same time, he had his Gate fixed and now he can use another unique kind of Magic that is foreign to this world.

However, yesterday he found out that he had some mysterious ability that allows him to rewind time should he face the instant right before the time of his Death.

"Last Second Retreat..."

And apparently, he can't say it in front of anyone, or else, his heart might explode.

But weird thing is, that only Shadow seems to be aware of it, as if he was aware when time froze around him...No, he was aware when time froze around him, but even with his knowledge of this matter, this entity that gripped on his heart didn't even reach for Shadow.

"...So that means that there are certain people that this penalty is ineffective on?" Subaru muttered to himself.

"Suuuuuubaru-kun"

"?!"

Roswaal's familiar voice rang in Subaru's ears, snapping him from his thoughts and causing him to look behind him at the source of the voice, only to see Roswaal, without his makeup, and completely butt naked.

"You won't mind if I jooooooooooined you?" Roswaal asked, only for Subaru to immediately turn his face away.

"I refuse" He said.

"Oya Oya~ I'm the looooooord of this maaaaaansion. Yet you decline my freeeeeeedom in it?" Roswaal asked, causing Subaru to sigh, before Roswaal slowly dipped himself inside the water tub.

"This is reeeeeeaaaallly the best thing to do after a long daaaaay of work" Roswaal sighed his words as the warm water seeped through his aching body.

"Say, Ros-chi. What's exactly your job at the Capital?" Subaru asked the blue haired man.

"Well, I manage poliiiiiitical affairs in the Capital. After all, I'm one of the moooooooost important figures in it" Roswaal answered.

"I also noticed that Natsumi seemed to be so familiar with you" Subaru said.

"Indeeeeed. After all, I was one of her Magic tuuuuuuutors" Roswaal answered.

"I see" He said.

"Though I heard her saying things like that I was a weeeeeeird man. It hurts ever siiiiiiiiince" Roswaal said, causing Subaru to cringe at those words.

"Well I can clearly see why..." He thought, before looking at his reflection in the water. A thought crossed his mind, which in turn caused him to activate Royal Judge, which caused the time to halt, and for his right eye to glow white as he concentrated on his reflection on the water.

"Huh. My spells are still the same, and...Huh?" Subaru analysed his stats, before seeing something new in the Special Abilities section.

[Authority of Sloth]

-Invisible Providence: The user can conjure up to nine forcefields that take the shape of hands that can reach up to dozens of kilometers in range. The hands are invisible and can be intangible, allowing them to pass through both animate and inanimate objects. Eight hands sprout from the user's back, with the ninth hand protruding from the chest area.

[Authority of Envy]

-Last Second Retreat: The user can travel to an uncontrollable point in the past upon experience the instant right before their Death. There are several penalties that can activate sever consequences should the user ever so tries to reveal this ability. First, the user's heart can be squeezed by the Witch's Hand, which may cause the user to forcibly rewind. Second, if the user persists on revealing the Authority, it can result in the Deaths of those who heard of it, and this penalty can depend on whether the victim is weaker or stronger than the Witch herself, since if it was the latter, the Witch's Hand will forcibly activate the first penalty. Third, the usage of this Authority or even thinking about mentioning it will result in the increase of the Witch Miasma around the user, causing Mabeasts to gather around them like moths to flames.

Subaru blinked at this. He has learned a lot about the ability, and even confirmed his doubts, as the second penalty didn't activate around Shadow due to Subaru directing his speech to Emilia, which in turn activated the first penalty. So if he ever insisted on telling Emilia while disregarding the first penalty, Emilia would have died. In addition, it seems that the second penalty can be used as a weapon, and a lethal one at that. He literally can summon the power of the very Witch that was considered an unthinkable walking apocalypse.

However, Subaru also noticed that this will never work on beings stronger than the Witch, like Shadow and Reinhard. Subaru has seen that Shadow is completely aware of what happened in the first two previous times that the world was rewinded in, and that the Witch's Hand never reached for his heart, and that he saw the full scenario of the Witch's Hand squeezing his heart, so Shadow was immune to its effects.

But Subaru has to be careful. If he, by any coincidence, told anyone that was on the same caliber as Shadow and Reinhard about Last Second Retreat, and while completely ignoring the first penalty of said Authority, his heart will immediately pop, causing him to loop back.

"Huh? Royal Judge sure is handy indeed..." Subaru thought, before deactivating said Authority, causing his right eye to reclaim its original colour, and for time to resume its flow.

"By the waaaaay, what do you think of the place heeeeeere?" Roswaal asked, causing Subaru to shrug his shoulders.

"I don't know what to say. It's good and all, but the thing is, I'm indifferent to all of this luxury despite not being a noble. I'm the type of person who is self-content with anything as long as it keeps me alive" Subaru answered.

"I can seeeee that. Judging by your hands, you seem to be a surviiiiiiivor" Roswaal said, causing Subaru to raise his palms and look at them.

He saw his formerly soft skin became rough and riddled with callouses as a result of knife training for a whole year. He worked so hard for the sole purpose of being strong enough to find his sister.

However, there were problems here.

The first problem is that with this weird ability to rewind time right before the instant of his Death, Subaru had realized that he was still lacking compared to seasoned fighters. Shadow and Reinhard were pretty much the ones that did most of the work on handling Belphegor. Subaru only handled secondary support on the other hand, and that spelled to him how much weak he was, and that he is still a long way to reach the level of seasoned and more refined fighters.

The second problem, however, was more...Personal.

As mentioned before, Subaru originally trained for an entire year in the middle of nowhere just to find his sister. Now that he found her and she was very okay, so much in fact, to the point that Subaru felt that he was unneeded during the events of yesterday.

Now what?

After he found Natsumi, Subaru has pretty much lost the goal to continue, and now he couldn't think of anything other than his parents. What happened to them? Are they okay? Did he and Natsumi get erased from their memories when they were summoned? And if not, then that must mean that they're worried sick about both Subaru and Natsumi.

"Ugh..." Subaru grunted while clutching the sides of his head.

"Oya Oya~ Is something the maaaaaaatter, Subaru-kun?" Roswaal asked Subaru upon seeing his pained state, causing the white haired boy to shake his head violently, before opting a fake smile and directing it towards Roswaal.

"I'm fine. Just a little dizzy from staying in the bath for a long time. I'll get out right now" Subaru said, before walking out from the bath. He then used his towel to dry his damp body, before wearing his freshly washed clothes, and then he proceeded to walk outside.

However, Roswaal's voice stopped him a few steps in front of the door.

"Subaru-kun, if you have any prooooooblem, don't be shyyyyyyyyy to ask for heeeeeeeeelp" Roswaal said, causing Subaru to nod lightly while still not facing Roswaal, before he exited the bathroom.

"You're a really interesting person, Subaru-kun. The perfect man for my goal" Roswaal said, his lengthy tone is gone, replaced by the tone that resembled an evil anime antagonist, with a smile that threatened to split his face in half.

Thorns are already laid around Subaru, it seems.

---

A few minutes later. Margrave Mathers Manor Garden

"Alright. I need you to first concentrate on pulling Magatsuhi by imagining a secondary source of power inside you"

"Heh...Easier said than done, dude..."

"..."

Sitting with folded legs on the grassy ground was Subaru, and standing behind him was Shadow, who was instructing him how to unlock the ability to use Magatsuhi, and Reinhard, who was standing silently beside Shadow, staring with full attention at Subaru.

Emilia was a few steps away, with beautiful glowing light bulbs dancing around her. Those bulbs were nothing more than minor Spirits, as Subaru was informed a few minutes ago that a part of her pact with Puck was to talk with minor Spirits.

However, that wasn't the center of concentration at the moment.

"I feel like there's something wrong. Are you sure we're doing it right?" Subaru asked.

"Be patient, Subaru. It's natural for Humans not to have the ability to utilize Magatsuhi, but the Demon Essence that I gave to you solves this situation. Just try to concentrate on your emotions and desires, and you will unlock the ability to use it" Shadow instructed, causing Subaru to take a slow and deep breath, before releasing it slowly.

"My emotions...Melancholy...Wrath...Sloth...Envy...Vanity...Lust...Gluttony...Avarice...Pride..." Subaru hummed within his mind, where he somehow found himself thinking of the Seven Deadly Sins, along with the other two additional sins melancholy and vanity.

"My desires...Mom...Dad...Sis...Shaula... Emilia..." He hummed within his mind again, thinking of his parents, sister, his companion and the beautiful angel walking on the ground that he met.

Suddenly, crimson red light started outlining Subaru's body, before the outline started branching from Subaru in the shape of crimson lines. The lines swayed in the air as if they had a mind of their own.

Subaru felt something form beside his Gate, something extremely hot, yet warm. Fierce, yet gentle. Brutal, yet patient.

He then snapped his eyes open, a massive amount of sweat bursting from his entire body and he was gasping heavily for breath.

"See? It wasn't that hard" Shadow said placing his hands on his hips.

"Seriously? I can't even feel my legs. They resemble jelly to me" Subaru said sarcastically.

"Okay. Now to learn Demon Magic" Shadow said clapping his hands together.

"At least let me take my breath!" Subaru barely yelled at Shadow due to the fatigue.

"Do you honestly think that I can leave you be? You agreed on my proposal after all. You help me, and so I shall do the same" Shadow said, before extending his hand to Subaru, to which the white haired boy accepted and rose up to his feat.

"Now, much like this world's Magic, Demon Magic relies on imagination. So let us use basic spells. Let's start with Agi" Shadow said, before standing beside Subaru, then he extended his right arm forward.

"Agi is the Tier One of the fire spell family. Basically, you shoot a tennis ball sized ember from your hands. So stretch out your hand and imagine a flaming ember bursting from your hand" Shadow instructed, to which Subaru extended his arm towards a nearby tree. He then started imagining a flaming tennis ball bursting out from his palm, and after a few seconds, his hand felt warm, and he heard a small explosion sound. He was closing his eyes so he didn't see anything, just heard his surroundings.

Opening his eyes, Subaru was shocked to see that the tree he was aiming at was turned to ashes, with traces of fire everywhere.

"Okay. You've seen Agi. Now try and use Bufu. This time, imagine a small block of ice being fired from your hand" Shadow instructed, and Subaru obliged. This time, Subaru was opening his eyes. He then imagined a block of ice forming, before an ice block the size of a football found itself materialising in thin air, before it was shot at the burning ashes of the tree in front of Subaru, causing steam to form upon contact and for the small fire to be put down.

"Amazing. I've seen the Magic of this world, but Demon Magic is versatile and easier to use and understand" Subaru said in amazement. He did mean it. It took him a few weeks to properly master the usage of Shamak so as to not risk overexerting his Gate.

"That's because of the Essence that I've placed inside of you. Demon Summoning Program users are capable of freely utilizing the Harmonizer in order to easily use Demon Magic. Essences are basically the same, excluding the ability to summon Demons. Basically, you have a Harmonizer inside of you" Shadow explained to Subaru.

"I see. Any other spells I should know about?" Subaru asked.

"Well, we still have Zan, Zio, Hama and Mudo. They are the respective Tier One spells of Wind, Lightning, Light and Dark. There is also Almighty Magic, Healing Magic and Ailment Magic, but let's put those aside for now and let's focus on the other four Tier One Spells" Shadow said, before taking a breath, then continued on speaking.

"Alright. Let's start with Zan. Basically imagine a Fura, but shaped in a ball, then shoot it out" Shadow instructed, causing Subaru to do exactly what he was told, before a ball of ethereal green wind shot from his palm at the remains of the tree that was hit earlier, resulting in a small pillar of violent wind bursting out upon contact, dissipating a few seconds afterwards.

"Next is Zio. This time, however, direct your Magatsuhi towards the sky and visualize a lightning bolt being fired from the sky" Shadow said.

"Huh? But it's not even cloudy" Subaru said, confused at Shadow's request.

"Just do it. Believe me, it works...Somehow" Shadow muttered, confusion was also plastered on his face, despite him being the one to explain the mechanisms of this spell.

"Subaru is right, Shadow. How can you summon lightning from the sky if there isn't even storm clouds to support their descension?" Reinhard asked, speaking for the first time after being silent for the past three Demon Magic spells.

"It does work. Just cast the spell and you'll see" Shadow said to Subaru, causing the white haired boy to sigh in confusion and for Reinhard to focus his gaze at Subaru, intending on seeing the spell to himself.

Subaru then did as Shadow instructed, directing his Magatsuhi towards the sky, before imagining a lightning bolt being fired at the spot that the tree was standing previously on, and then, a yellow lightning bolt came descending from the heavens, making a straight line towards the remnants of the tree, striking it so hard that it created a small explosion, and yellow sparks briefly flew in midair before disappearing just as they appeared.

"Wow! Sick!" Subaru exclaimed in awe.

"Lastly, there is Mudo and Hama. Basically, for the former, imagine the colour black and the scent of rot. As for the latter, imagine the colour white and the brightness of light" Shadow instructed once again.

Subaru took his positions, imagining the repugnant scent of rot and corrosion, alongside envisioning the colour black in his mind, before a dark purple ball of Magatsuhi found itself shooting off his palm. The ball made contact with the ground, causing a good portion of the grass to wither and die instantly.

"Good. Now try to cast Hama" Shadow ordered, causing Subaru to execute the steps of Mudo, but this time instead, he imagined the the brightness of light and the colour of white, before four white talismans manifested from thin air around the tree ashes. The talismans shone brightly for a second, before a small pillar of light bursted out from the center, smiting the pile of ashes to oblivion, erasing them away as if they never existed to begin with, and the talismans disappeared shortly afterwards.

"Woot! That was amazing!" Subaru cheered with a smile, before he fell on his butt on the grassy ground, and released a ragged breath from his throat.

"And exhausting...This took a tool on me!" Subaru exclaimed, panting heavily.

"Obviously. You've just unlocked your ability to utilize Magatsuhi. It's the same as unlocking the ability to use the Magic of this world" Shadow said.

"Hey, Shadow" Subaru called.

"Yes?" Shadow raised an eyebrow at his name being called.

"What have you done with the girl that accompanied the Bowel Hunter? You know, the girl that can manipulate Mabeasts?" Subaru asked, to which it brought Reinhard's attention, and Emilia, who finished talking to the Lesser Spirits, walked towards them and was staring at Shadow for his answer.

"I released her" He asked with the most comical apathetic expression one could ever imagine.

"You did WHAT?!" Subaru, Reinhard and Puck, who popped out from Emilia's hair yelled in shock. Even Emilia couldn't hide her shock.

"I released her" Shadow repeated his reply.

"You didn't have to repeat it!" Subaru yelled.

"Why did you do that, Shadow? This girl was a member of the Assassination Organization of Gusteko. She is extremely important" Reinhard complained, causing a scowl to appear at Shadow's face as he directed his eyesight at Reinhard.

"An evidence that Gusteko is planning war on the country, right? And what will the Sage Council do about it? Send you to destroy the country?" Shadow asked.

"Well, no. I'm bound to Lugunica by a law called the Reinhard Law. If I enter any country other than Lugunica, a war will erupt between the Four Countries" Reinhard answered.

"I see, then how about trying to solve the problem in Irlam Village? They're the ones who always get assaulted on a monthly basis. They almost kidnapped a kid last year if it wasn't for me passing by" Shadow said in a firm tone. He didn't yell out his words, but his anger was clearly apparent in his tone.

"I... Don't know what to say. I'm sorry" Reinhard bowed his head in shame, causing Shadow to shake his head and sigh.

"Nevermind that. The past is gone. Just focus on the future and make sure none of that happens again" Shadow said.

"Back to the Mabeast girl..." Subaru trailed in his words, reminding those around him of the main topic.

"Her name is Meili Portroute. She has a Divine Protection that allows her to manipulate hornless Mabeasts. I sent her off because she poses no threat to us at the moment, but she will come back, I assure you. But anyways, I have confirmed my suspicions" Shadow said.

"Which are?" Subaru asked.

"The one leading the Assassination Organization is called Mother. Her real name, however, is Capella Emerada Lugunica, also known as the Witch Cult's Sin Archbishop of Lust" Shadow answered.

"Emerada...Lugunica? That's the name of an ascendant of the Royal Family" Reinhard said in shock.

Upon the mentioning of Emerada Lugunica 's name, Shadow's Rune Stone Skill kicked in, which in turn gave him the indication that Emerada Lugunica was dead.

"I see. She's dead. What about her do you know?" Shadow asked Reinhard.

"Actually, no one has met her, but all that I know is that she was alive fifty years ago, during the era of the Demi-Human Alliance War. However she succumbed to an unknown illness, dying at a young age, but there was the fact that she was a cruel and dark, to the point that the entire Royal Family resented her" Reinhard answered, causing Shadow to nod solemnly.

"I see" He said.

"Anyways, what does that have to do with the girl?" Subaru asked.

"Capella is the leader of the Assassination Organization, an organization that has multiple branches across the Four Countries. Meili is one of them. I tried extracting more information from her, but she was extremely horrified. So I gave her...Something to protect herself with, then set her free. I'm sure she will come back, though. Don't worry. It'll be even sooner than you think" Shadow said, before Subaru stood on his feet and scratched the back of his head sheepishly.

"If you say so. I just hope it doesn't backfire" Subaru said.

"Very well. Training ends now for today. I gotta say, though. You're a fast learner. It seems that everything will go smoothly on that pace" Shadow said, before stretching his arms, causing the sounds of bones popping in their places to be heard by Reinhard, Subaru and Emilia. Shadow then turned to Reinhard.

"I hope my explanation about Demons has given you a sign, Reinhard" Shadow said, causing Reinhard to nod firmly.

"Now then, if you'll excuse me. I have business to do in Irlam Village. I'll be right back" Shadow said as he started walking towards the direction of said small village, only for Subaru to place a hand on his shoulder.

"Huh? What do you want? You should rest for now" Shadow said, not even turning his head to face the white haired boy.

"Hey. Let us go with you" Subaru said, and this caused Shadow to turn his head to look at him.

"By 'us', you mean..."

"Me, and Emilia-tan, of course. If Red and Natsumi want to go, then that's cool too"

"H-Huh?! M-Me?!"

Emilia was flustered and shocked at Subaru's declaration.

She never went out to meet people, as they always label her as the Witch due to her being a Half-Elf, the same race that the Witch who swallowed half of the world was.

And Subaru's proposal to her felt impossible.

"I-I don't think that's a good idea. I'll stand out greatly" Emilia said poking her fingers nervously.

"Yeah. You will stand out in a way that is so great it will make me jelly of the people in the village, Emilia-tan" Subaru said.

"...He doesn't get it" Shadow, Reinhard and Puck thought at the same time.

"But Subaru-" Emilia was about to protest, only for Subaru to yank her by the arm.

"Come on! Don't be a slowpoke!" Subaru exclaimed with a toothy grin, before dragging Emilia with him, only to fall face first on the ground, releasing his grasp from Emilia's wrist.

"Idiot. You've just finished training, and you will force your hand like that? You do realize that your body is at its limits at the moment, so just take a little rest, then we will be going" Shadow said rubbing his temples, before marching towards the mansion, with Emilia, Puck, and Reinhard who was supporting Subaru walking right behind the black haired Highest.

---

Unknown Location

Where was it?

Who was it?

What was it?

How was it?

When was it?

As the shining small lime green sphere wondered all of that, it shifted uncomfortably in the infinite abyss of blackness. A void where it felt like everything would get devoured by it, including concepts.

Its identity was vague to the void, as it held no meaning. It just stood there, unable to move. All it can do was shift its small form around to find another colour other than black, but in vain.

Existence and non-existence were null and void to the monstrous infinite sea of black, completely incomprehensible and unidentified by the normal mind, with the poor little light bulb spinning around its tiny shining oval form to find answers, but nothing could penetrate its forcefield of confusion and anxiety.

"Well, Well, Well. Look what we have here inside the Stale-Abyss..."

Suddenly, a voice resonated in the eternal darkness. The voice was laced with pure unadulterated bloodlust. The mysterious voice, while calm, was covered by insanity, evil and unbearable, suffocating desire to she blood.

The small green lightbulb desperately span its small figure around itself to see the source of the voice, only to finally see it.

It was a short figure that was blue from head to toe. It looked like a hedgehog, but with human hands and legs. It had blood soaking its white gloves, wide eyes with black sclera and crimson red irises filled with bloodlust, and his teeth were resembling deadly spikes with crimson blood seeping uncontrollably from them, and his mouth was formed into a wide face splitting grin that exuded insanity and irrational hunger for murder.

Then, as the figure opened its mouth to speak, the green lightbulb finally knew what it was.

"I suppose that lots of questions are spinning inside that tiny brain of yours, but let's start with the most simple. My name is Exeller, and I have a really beneficial mission for you...Betelgeuse Romanee-Conti"

---

Two hours later. Irlam Village

Subaru wasn't having the day of his life at the moment.

First, he got summoned into the middle of a large desert inside a massive tower surrounding with nothing but man eating monsters and a planet devouring Witch underneath said tower, and had to be strangled inside this suffocating place with an air-headed shameless exhibitionist that was annoyingly clingy around him for an entire year in order to prepare for the outside world and to find his sister.

Second, on the way to the nearest country, he was attacked by a lunatic man that came from a cult which apparently worshipped the Witch that was taking the tower's basement as her official room, and tried to take him hostage.

Third, the batshit insane cultist turned out to be a Spirit that followed him to the country of Lugunica and still tried to kidnap him for the sake of 'Diligence' or whatever bullshit that he was spouting at that time.

Fourth, after defeating the lunatic cultist, it turned out that he was housing a Demon that represented the Deadly Sin of Sloth, and that thing gave them a hard time and harder nightmares, given that he was naked and was sitting on a literal floating big-ass toilet.

Fifth, He discovered that he had an ability that allows him to reset the timeline whenever he is faced with the instant right before his Death, which was also annoying and heavily taxing on his body and psyche, but he managed to overcome it and defeat that nuisance called Belphegor.

Sixth, his Gate collapsed and he had to have it fixed, but then he found himself teleported to forest-like location, and was forced to reset by some sort of a rude assaulter, before being noted that a war on a higher dimensional scale was about to find itself in three years ruining this world and other neighboring ones, and he had to train to become even stronger in order to repel it.

Seventh, and currently his most greatest problem were the deadly threats of this existence, a terrifying species that were far more dangerous than that gruesome Belphegor, a threat that was so foul that even the greatest of heroes would drop their weapons in shock and fear, and curl into a ball of pure unadulterated horror upon being faced by it.

The name of this threat: Bratty Children.

"Get the hell off of me, you brats!" Subaru yelled with a comical angry expression.

"Hey mister! You look funny! Like a newborn Earth Dragon!" Lucas exclaimed, rubbing his runny nose on Subaru's shoulder.

"That's so disgusting to even think about!" Subaru yelled.

"Hey mister! Are you a real human like us?!" Petra exclaimed while hugging Subaru's waist.

"What kind of question is that?! What do you think I am?!" Subaru asked.

"We think that you're a new species of Mabeasts!" Mild exclaimed with hugging one of Subaru's legs with his four limbs.

"I'm not an animal!" Subaru comically protested.

"If it isn't bothering you, Ram thought that you were a skunk" Ram exclaimed.

"That's rubbing salt on the wound! Also skunks arent white and green, Nee-sama!" Subaru yelled at the pink haired maid accompanying him, Shadow, Reinhard, Natsumi, Rem and Emilia, who was hiding her face inside Shadow's jacket from behind, as she forgot to bring her Concealment Cloak with her.

"Hah!" Ram scoffed at Subaru with a mocking smirk.

"To be fair, I think that the villagers and children are really amazing and lovely" Reinhard said while speaking to some villagers, as some children clung to Reinhard's neck, but he wasn't bothered by them.

"I never interacted with children, but I must say, a calm atmosphere like that in here doesn't look so bad" Natsumi said, showing her ability to turn small splinters of wood and rocks to small knives and harmless crackers respectively to children, causing their eyes to glimmer in amazement.

"Define 'Calm' in what I am experiencing!" Subaru yelled, struggling against the children as they pinned him to the ground.

"Fufufufu...It sure is lively. I'm glad that you found some company with you, Shadow-dono" Muraosa, who later turned out to be the brother of the village chief and not the chief, said with a gentle smile directed towards Shadow's calm expression.

"Well, I didn't take much time to get to know them because it was pure coincidence. If I didn't enter the slums at that time, I wouldn't have met them" Shadow said.

"Why are you implying that you would've left us for dead at that time?!" Subaru yelled comically at Shadow.

"Hmph" Shadow huffed, as Subaru managed to struggle his way out of the the children's grasps. It was then when a small beautiful light brown rabbit with hazelnut brown eyes came into Subaru's view.

"Oh! A rabbit! So cute!" Subaru exclaimed, before extending his hand towards the rabbit in order to pet him and feel his fur.

CHOMP!

"?!"

Suddenly, the seemingly docile rabbit turned livid, before he bit Subaru's hand with its long sharp teeth, causing Subaru to release a small groan of pain, before the rabbit released his hand and sprinted away as fast as it could.

"Sheesh. What's wrong with that rabbit? Why did it do that?" Subaru asked himself as he stood up while rubbing the bloodied bite mark on his hand.

"It appears to me that you're so popular with both children and animals, Subaru" Rem said as she emerged from the depths of the village with bags filled with multiple food rations in both hands.

"That isn't popularity, Rem. This is simply because children are just like animals, and they can sense their inferiors. Nothing more, nothing less" Ram interjected and added her two cents of insult in Subaru's slot machine of tears and humiliations

"That doesn't sound like a praise at all, Ram-chi!" Subaru exclaimed with comical tears building at the corners of his eyes.

"Ramchi! That's mean!" Petra said.

"Ram-chi! That's cold!" Mild said.

"Ram-chi! That's harsh!" Lucas said.

"You never cease to amaze me, Barusu. You managed to spread your germs all around the children of this village" Ram said to Subaru.

"So now I'm a plague?!" Subaru screamed at the pink haired maid.

"Hah!" Ram scoffed with a mocking smirk at Subaru's face.

"Emilia, you can come out, nothing to fear here, you know" Shadow said, feeling Emilia shivering comically while hiding inside the back of Shadow's jacket.

"Don't worry, Emilia-sama. Everyone here knows about you" Reinhard said.

"You're not helping here, redhead" Shadow grumbled, before Emilia slowly emerged from behind Shadow, revealing her face to the publicity of the village, causing horrified gasps to appear at the faces of the adults, and a defeaning silence to scream around the village, to the point that if anyone threw a pin on the ground, the sound of it clanging would echo throughout the entire village.

For what appeared like a minute, the village was hushed completely, before...

"Woah! She's beautiful!"

"?!"

The delighted voice of Petra broke the ice of silence that froze the village solid, before running with her little feet towards Emilia, followed by Lucas, Mild and the other children of the village as they all surrounded Emilia.

"Look at her beautiful long ears! And this beautiful glittering silver hair!" Mild said in excitement.

"She's like a princess out from a story!" Lucas exclaimed.

Emilia was shocked at the sudden amusement that was directed towards her. She expected everyone to freak out, tie her to a tree and burn her alive the moment that they saw her due to her Half-Elf heritage, but to her disbelief, all the kids were swarming around her, admiring her beauty with glittering eyes that shone brighter than any star in the night sky.

The adults quickly snapped out from their shock, before their horrified faces were replaced by looks of comfort and bright smiles, some even let out sighs of relief.

"Oh. I see now" Muraosa said stroking his gray beard.

"What?" Subaru asked in confusion.

"She's a Half-Elf, which would normally spread horror across everyone, but since she's with Shadow-dono, then that means that she's harmless and besides, she looks like a good young lady" Milde, the true village chief, answered Subaru with a smile.

"Well, I guess all's well that ends well. Still, I'm happy for you, Emilia-tan" Subaru said, smiling as he saw Emilia starting to smile while being surrounded by villagers and kids.

"UWAH!" He then suddenly screamed as he felt something touch his butt, only to see Milde behind him with a perverted grin plastered on her aged face.

"Fufufufu. Youth sure is something~" She hummed in delight with a rosy blush on her cheeks.

"What on earth?! Even old people are weirdos in this village" Subaru yelled with a comical expression on his face.

In the middle of their happy moment, no one noticed glittering ruby red eyes spying at everyone from the shadows of the trees surrounding the village.

---

A few hours later. Margrave Mathers Manor. Nighttime

After spending the night in Irlam Village, everyone departed to their respective residences.

Emilia was still studying in her room for the Royal Selection Assembly that was to come in three months from now, Roswaal went to the Royal Capital to attend to some political buisness with the Sage Council, Reinhard and Felt departed to the Astrea Mansion while Natsumi decided to stay for another day in the Margrave Mathers Manor in order to have some time with her brother, Shadow went to attend to some private buisness of his own, not needing to hit the hay, as he had no need for sleep, rest, breathing and eating, and Ram slept earlier than anyone due to her poor stamina.

Rem and Frederica, however, stayed for a few hours more to lecture Shaula about maid work, much to the humanoid Mabeast's chargin, as she didn't want to do anything she considered boring, even going as far as to attempt on burning the kitchen, but the two maids managed to restrain and discipline her properly, before the three of them departed for the night, where Shaula slept like a log to the point that Subaru could hear her snoring from the other side of his room, despite the walls separating each room appearing to be extremely thick.

Needless to say, she was handful.

Subaru, on the other hand, was trying to practice on controlling the level of Magatsuhi inside of him in order to properly use Demon Magic spell with less Magatsuhi and more effectiveness.

He was currently trying to use the same method as Mana/Gate Control method that he invented during his year of training inside the Pleadies Watchtower, which was by meditation and long, slow breathing in order to stabilize the Mana concentration and flow inside of his body, effectively disturbuting Mana throughout his entire body for future usages.

To further explain it, if the Gate was the primary source of Mana expulsion, this would increase the pressure on the caster's Gate, causing it to eventually rupture and shatter completely. However, if the Mana was properly disturbuted around the entire body, the burden will be significantly reduced from the Gate, as the body parts charged with Mana will act as makeshift Gates in order to reduce the risk of the Gate being shattered.

Subaru was using this method, but this time on his Magatsuhi Core by disturbuting Magatsuhi throughout his entire body in order to properly control it.

This process kept on and on for a few hours, when suddenly, Subaru started shivering.

"Whoa...What's going on? It's starting to get chilly..." Subaru muttered as he rubbed his arms with his hands in order to warm himself up. However, after a few minutes of doing this, his body didn't get any warmer...In fact, the cold was getting even stronger and greater.

"Huh?! This is weird...The cold...Won't go away!" He thought, horror slowly filling his heart.

Subaru then tried to stand up, only to feel that his limbs didn't respond to his orders, limbing like jelly at his sides.

Mustering what little strength inside of him that was rapidly decreasing, Subaru focred his mind into overdrive to make his legs respond to him. He then slowly exited his room, slowly walking to make sure that he expends the least amounts of stamina, but it didn't help that he was mysteriously growing weaker by the second.

"What's happening...? My whole body feels that it's close to hypothermia...! And that something is threatening to burst out from my chest...!" He thought as he limbly made his way to the stairs that led to the rooms of his sister, Shaula and Emilia, but his legs betrayed him once again, causing to fall face first on the stairs, but he didn't care about the pain that resulted from his forehead being hit on the stairs so hard that it split open and blood was drawn out from it. All his care was his sister, Shaula and Emilia's wellbeings.

Making his way up the stairs, Subaru forced himself to stand up and walk, when suddenly...

CRACK! SNAP! SPLAT!

"?!"

The sickening sound of the cracking and snapping of bones, followed by the bursting of blood echoed throughout the hallway, and Subaru looked in horror...As something came out from his chest.

"Ugh...Agh...!" He gasped for breath, but his lungs were already turned to mush and his entire osephagus and trachea were shattered to dust. He then watched in horror as white gloved clawed hands with what looked like his blood erupted from his chest, followed by the emergence of a short, humanoid little rabbit kid that had sickly purple skin, with its left eye being non-existent, leaving its empty socket bleeding continously.

The small rabbit kid jumped out of Subaru's chest, causing the white haired boy to start falling, but before his body could hit the ground, the sound of chains echoed in his ears, before a powerful force suddenly collided with him, sending him flying a few meters in the hallway.

After halting in his unintended backwards flight, Subaru, already unable to breath or even lift a finger, tried to look at himself in order to see what happened...

"?!"

...Only to see that the left side of his body, from the shoulder and down to the leg, was completely gone, exposing his now shattered ribcage and intestines out.

Subaru let out a silent scream, unpurposly using what remained of his strength thrash around in a hysterical fit of unimaginable shock, horror and pain. He then heard the sound of chains once again as it came close towards him by the second. Suddenly, the chains stopped, followed by something being thrown away from him. He then tilted his head slowly to see what was going on, only to see the small humanoid rabbit standing in front of Rem, who was holding a morningstar that had its spiked iron sphere hooked to a chain that connected it to the handle of the weapon.

Subaru's eyes widened in shock as realization came downing at him: Rem was the one that was killing him.

"DIE, WITCH CULTISTS!" She roared before a purple ethereal horn manifested out from her forehead, and she charged towards the small bloodied rabbit kid, swinging her chained flail horizontally to the right, causing the spike to make a horizontal line of destruction as splinters of woods, plastic and metal came raining around, with the sound barrier being broken tens of hundreds of times over due to this very one swing.

However, the corpse-like rabbit casually caught the spiked ball with her petite left hand, before applying pressure on it by clenching her fist on the weapon, shattering the spiked projectile, making Rem gasp in shock, and before she could react, Rem saw the small rabbit kid appear in front of her as if she teleported, before she swung her clawed hand at her abdome, causing blood and intestines to splatter out instantly.

Rem, in a desperate display, swung her right fist at her opponent, only for the rabbit kid to be yet again faster, and use its mouth to bite at Rem's arm, before ripping it out from its socket, causing blood to splatter out from the shoulder stump where her arm was, causing Rem to bite her tongue so hard that it bursted into blood. The blue haired Oni, however, didn't relent, and used her other arm to throw another punch, but it was futile, as the rabbit kid used the maid's ripped arm as a makeshift spear, stabbing into Rem's knuckles, before making its way through Rem's tricep and bicep, tearing both flesh and bone in a manner that resembled cutting a carrot vertically in half, with the sound of bone and flesh being torn apart echoing throughout the mansion.

This all caused Rem to open her mouth to scream in pain, but before she could release any sound, the rabbit kid then manifested a gray cone-shaped spike out of thin air above Rem, before the spike came down at the blue haired maid, piercing her skull by entering her mouth, causing the maid to twitch while still struggling to stand in her final moments of life. The rabbit kid, however, didn't stop there, and punched its hand forward, piercing Rem's chest from in between her ample chest, and swiftly ripped her heart out. A maniac grin then appeared on the face of the corpse-like rabbit, before it thrusted its arm forward, shoving Rem's heart right where her left eye was, causing blood, brain matter and viscera to burst out violently.

And not long afterwards, Rem's body stopped twit hing and the rabbit kid pulled its bloodied hand out from Rem's eye socket, causing the body of the maid to drop dead, decorating the floor of the hallway with her mangled lifeless corpse.

As Subaru watched in disbelief as his shock and horror, combined with confusion that resulted from trying to understand what was going on and what just happened being the only thing that made forget about the fact that he was also moments before his Death, he then witnessed the rabbit kid turning towards him with a fear inducing, face splitting grin, before it tiptoed cutely towards him like a 7-year-old kid. Further inspection of the mysterious figure and its outfit, which was a one piece dress that was smeared with deep red blood that almost turned black due to how much blood that stained the dress, and Subaru realized that the rabbit kid was a little girl.

The little rabbit girl said nothing. She just kept grinning madly at Subaru's dying form, before a spike appeared out of nowhere, floating in thin air in between the rabbit kid and the dying white haired boy, with its pointy tip poking Subaru's forehead, causing a thin stream of blood to drip down and hit the floor.

Then, as the spike slowly drilled Subaru's skull, he heard the rabbit kid say only one phrase. A phrase that would signify the beginning of a long horrifying nightmare.

"Ready For Round 1?"

The spike then drilled its way through Subaru's skull, pierceing it completely, but right before it could even graze his brain...

"..."

Subaru's world turned to black.

And for the second time ever since stepping foot in this mansion, Subaru Natsuki had Last Second Retreated.

---

And Done!

Oooookay. This is considered the greatest cliffhanger of all time, and it makes you want to hold your breath for the next chapter, right? It sounds like that to me.

Now then, talking seriously, as you can see, this marks the beginning of Exeller's attack on Subaru and his companions. I'm already trying to organize the characters, the places and the events in accordance to the scenes that each character will appear in. I've already chosen the six characters that will start the Death Rounds. That is considered a spoiler, but if there's one thing to say, then I'm saying that Subaru will NOT be one of them. That being said, the actual Death Rounds won't begin until earlier on in Arc 2, which will be right after the Royal Selection Candidcy, and yes, I know that I'm mixing both Arcs 2 and 3 of the original story together, but that's my own unique way.

Another topic I want to address is the fact that I'm preparing for IRL stuff real soon, so that will mean that my updates will be much slower than the usual, but I promise that I'll continue on updating this story.

Next Chapter: Defending Irlam Village.

Until Next Time And Next Chapter!

Jude Warble, Out.