Once again, I'd like to thank my beta readers, including Saito, Anonymion, and supertone4671. (:


Ram, steering the carriage, brought it to a halt upon noticing the smoke illuminated by flames a few kilometers away in the night sky. At the same time, Emilia let out a stifled yelp while peeking out the window, immediately waking the former knight sleeping across from her.

"Emilia-tan! What's wrong?!" Subaru was by her side immediately, carefully peering out of the window by the half-elf's side. Noticing her discomfort at his closeness, he moved a bit away from her. "Uh, sorry if I made you uncomfortable," he chuckled nervously, but his expression quickly turned more serious. "We need to get out of the carriage. The village is likely in danger."

...What was that he added onto my name? It would be a question for later, I think… "Let's disembark then," she responded and shifted towards the door upon hearing Ram also step off the land dragon on the outside, wondering at his regain of composure right after waking up. How old is he? I thought he was twelve or thirteen at first… but he speaks similar to someone just a bit older than that, maybe fifteen?

Subaru took hold of a shortsword secured in the carriage and followed Emilia out of the caravan, hopping onto the ground, raising his head to look at the pink-haired oni. "Ram, can you use your Clairvoyance? We need to know what the problem at the village is before we head there."

"Understood," Ram responded after appraising the black-haired foreigner with a sharp gaze, Emilia also quietly filing the knowledge of the teenager's intel away.

As the technique passed down within the oni lineage came into effect, the demihuman's legs soon began to tremble and her eyes turned dark crimson, going out of focus. After a few moments, Ram's eyes regained focus, and her legs… kept on trembling.

"Mabeast have breached… the village's boundaries…" Ram spoke with a cough, to Emilia and Subaru's collective horror.

Emilia turned back to the carriage at once. "We need to get there immediately, the villagers are in trouble," she spoke, but was stopped by Subaru reaching out and holding onto her shoulder.

"It's too dangerous," he almost spit the words, like he didn't want to believe them or the situation they were in. "We have to focus on getting to the Mansion."

For the first time since meeting him, Emilia glared in shock and anger at the stranger. "What are you talking about, Subaru?! There are little children in trouble! The villagers are the priority right now! As the candidate of the area, I'm the one expected after Roswaal-sama to take care of the region!"

Ram cleared her throat and spoke, "Emilia-sama, if I am permitted to speak, I must say that the… man is correct on this. Without Puck, the amount of Mabeasts that are present will end up killing us all. We should confirm Roswaal-sama's presence at the Mansion and confirm my sister and the caretaker of the Forbidden Library are safe."

The silver-haired girl turned her glare to the maid. "That doesn't matter at the moment! There might be some villagers left-"

Ram cut her off and bluntly responded, "No, it's too late. I saw… no one left alive."

Emilia stiffened at the words she least wanted to hear and angrily stepped back over to the maid, clenching her fists at her sides. "No, there's no way that's true! I'm sure someone's left," she insisted. "Check again, Ram!"

Subaru clenched his jaw before attempting to convince her of the danger of walking into a Mabeast attack, "Emilia-tan. I know and understand how much you want to save the villagers. But if you can't protect yourself, it would all be for nothing. You can't die. You're a royal selection candidate, for goodness sake!" he shouted in frustration at the time they were actively losing- that he, too, was contributing to. "Get a grip. We need to confirm the safety of Beatrice and Rem, along with finding Roswaal-"

"I'm sure Beatrice and Rem should be able to defend themselves! Also, if Roswaal was here he already would have put a stop to this, we need to look for the survivors!" Emilia yelled, close to the angriest Subaru had ever seen her over the year or so he had served the half elf. "And who are you to tell me what my goals should be? I'm the only one who decides that. If we even manage to save one person, it'll be worth it, so just follow me or leave! Why are you even here bossing us around?!" she glowered at him, furious at the thought of letting the village continue to burn.

Subaru slightly paled upon seeing the anger he had rarely had ever witnessed. "I'm here to keep you safe, on the knights' behalf. Reinhard quite literally sent me here to make sure nothing suspicious is going on - I can't let you get hurt on my watch," he tried to respond but it was to no avail.

"How did you even know about this, that seems more suspicious to me. It hasn't even been long since I left the Mansion, also. Why are you acting as if you know everyone, if something's suspicious, shouldn't you be going to investigate it? How do you expect me to trust you when you're happy to throw away people that could be alive?! I know Reinhard well enough to know he would already be at the village!"

Subaru gritted his teeth as he glared at the ridiculously stubborn girl - a quality he had grown to love in his time serving her. He had single-handedly been saved many times by her refusal to give up on him and the rest of her camp… be it the lap pillow in the mansion or the speech in the tower, he knew her unflinching kindness, and sometimes her naivety, were present no matter the situation. And here he was trying to change her. But it was Subaru's responsibility to keep her and her camp safe, whether he was her knight right now or not; the boy decided to alter his strategy.

"You're failing to understand the situation. I'm familiar with these attackers, which is why I knew that something could be occurring here. In fact, I've… seen my closest friends killed by them," Ram watched him more carefully at this statement. "At one point, every single one of the people that I cared about in this entire world were killed by these people! Also, I'm not a Royal Knight like Reinhard. I barely even know how to use the sword here." He raised the small blade a bit. "It wouldn't even be useful against who I think is attacking! You're failing to understand just how bad the situation is that we're in. Rem and Beatrice are the people most likely to be safe and able to survive with us that we can find right now. To be honest, the village is done for. If the Mabeasts have already attacked like Ram saw, I can't let the three of us walk into our deaths - I, too, want revenge on those monsters. But Reinhard entrusted you with me, and I fully intend to protect you until my death," the former knight asserted, his eyes reflecting the shocked face of his former liege.

Emilia opened her mouth to continue arguing, but her voice lacked the conviction it had earlier. "But… still, I can't let the villagers- " her now faltering voice was cut off by a yelp from Ram, who once again had activated Clairvoyance under Emilia's previous order.

"Someone is heading toward the mansion," Ram hissed, coughing blood upon the second use of the ability as her senses returned. "We need to go now. Emilia-sama, make your decision now."

Giving in, the girl responded guiltily as she averted her eyes from the demon's blood on the grass. "... Let's make haste." She hesitantly turned to the foreigner, averting her eyes, and began to apologize. "I'm… really sorry for my words. I didn't know that you had been through something like that," she paused, "I'm grateful that Reinhard-san sent you here with us. I'm glad to have someone reliable here."

Subaru smiled warmly at the young girl who had once been far past him in terms of emotional development. "Don't worry about it. Your feelings are understandable, but I just can't lose anyone else, especially you. We will certainly return to the village after confirming the status of the mansion. Hopefully by then Julius-san will be here, too." Emilia nodded in understanding, although she still seemed a bit uncertain. "I'd also like to apologize; my words were quite harsh back there too. We don't have too much time, though, so let's save the extended apologies for later." She seemed relieved at this and the two of them headed over to Ram, who was already beginning to move the ground dragons.

"How long were we in the carriage?" Subaru asked Ram as they collected their needed belongings and guided the ground dragons to the side of the road.

"I think… ah, you are curious about the reinforcement arrival time, are you not? Ram believes it will take nine hours at maximum for Julius and Ferris and any others they decide to bring to arrive."

With that, the trio made their way into the forest surrounding the path to the village and mansion.

On the trio's way on foot through the thick underbrush, with the help of the numerous lesser spirits Emilia was contracted with, Subaru contracted with quasi spirits of yin and fire to avoid using his gate while it was still undeveloped. The more menial task of communication and connecting him with willing spirits had served as a good distraction from the village they were now passing by for the half-elf, and she was interested in his high affinity for the spirit arts. The half-elf had also not spent much time in the forest recently and despite the situation, it was undeniably a beautiful location at that time: the illumination of the darkness of the middle of the night - the bright glint of the moon effortlessly seemed to weave through the web of wood that was the understory of the Kremald Forest. A pale glow cast a dusty light over the floor of the woodland that made the half-elf feel oddly nostalgic while she ran through the knitting of trees. At the cathartic sense of freedom she wasn't sure why she was experiencing, her mind floated away from the horrors occurring in the village just a few kilometers away to lighter thoughts.

It's reaaaally strange, no matter how I think about it… Emilia pondered Subaru's unique situation of having no contracts yet having an oddly high affinity for spirits. Puck said he has a yin attribute, too. That's even more strange… Eventually, she gathered the courage to voice her questions aloud. "Your gate is sooo weak, why haven't you contracted with a spirit already? I expect someone who is reaaaaally good at spirit arts to do that, and you know about your affinity, so why?" The question naturally slipped out of Emilia to the now contracted foreigner after about two hours of travel through the dense bush.

He had begun to respond when the first attack came from a large wolf-like Mabeast that attempted to pounce on Ram.

"El Fula!"

"El Goa!"

Ram and Subaru both shouted their incantations, the fire quasi-spirit providing Subaru with the pseudo-gate to activate the spell. The Mabeast was set alight by a fire bullet and had its throat cut with a wind blade; a successful victory.

Grrrr…

GRRRrrrr….

GRRRRRRRRRRRRR!

The three began a mad dash. It seemed that the mistake of not deciding on who would attack in a specific order had come to bite them as they had made quite the ruckus. Quite literally, in fact, with at least… that's six Mabeasts right there, Subaru thought, sending a flash of Goa in the direction. Emilia in the front made sure to head in the right direction based on the surrounding spirit's directions. And Ram brought up the rear, sending an occasional Fula at their pursuers.

Continuing on with this frantic dash, they had eventually lost the majority of the Mabeasts chasing them after about half an hour. The trio had slowed to a fast jog, Subaru bringing up the rear by this point, when Ram suddenly gasped in pain.

"Rem… is… in danger…" she spoke in short spurts through heavy, pained exhales. "The attacker has definitely reached the mansion by now."

"We should be close by now," Emilia reassured her. "We passed the village at least an hour ago."

Subaru had been struggling to keep up and had comfortably settled at the back by this point, but upon hearing Rem's peril, adrenaline kicked in for all three of them. They sped up their pace for the next twenty minutes or so before finally arriving at a viewpoint to see the mansion, from the same cliff from which Subaru had once appraised a stolen knife in one of his early loops.

The scene before them was shocking. This can't be happening. Emilia thought frantically as Rem, bleeding heavily from a gash in her forehead, stumbled out of the courtyard of the Mansion when the front door exploded in shrapnels of wood as a black haired woman burst through at an almost imperceptible speed. The Mansion itself seemed mostly undamaged other than several shattered windows.

Luckily, in preparation for such a situation, Subaru had informed them of the plan this time around.

"Where is Roswaal-sama at a time like this…" Ram murmured, frustrated.

The three jumped from the cliff, a bit of wind magic cast by Ram breaking their fall, although Subaru landed a bit heavily on his right leg, and ran towards the bloodied maid chased by the assassin.

Elsa and Rem had both noticed their presence by now and Rem immediately ran in their direction, having regained her footing by now.

Elsa just caught up to Rem and was about to plunge her knife in the maid's back, but was luckily stopped in time. Several ice shards plunged through the air past Elsa, who dodged around all but one, which obliterated the anti-magic cape she quickly pulled in front of her torso. Emilia had channeled a lesser spirit's gate just in time. Elsa froze just long enough for Ram and Subaru to throw their own magic at her, of which a wind blade only cut her right arm— it was clear that the ice had been a lucky shot.

Both sides had come to a stop by this point, but Rem stumbled upon getting to Ram, who was the closest to Elsa from the trio, and immediately fell face first in the road as Elsa watched with a smile. Ram stared in horror at the knife protruding from the back of Rem's left calf. Elsa had thrown and procured another knife almost instantaneously.

"Damn it," Subaru muttered as Emilia looked on in horror while throwing a few more ice crystals that didn't affect Elsa, able to dodge them with relative ease. Rem's screams of pain were slightly muffled by the dirt and dark blood was pooling around her foot. The combination of pain from Synthesia, Clairvoyance, and the mana Ram had used by now were causing her to step back in shock beside Emilia.

"Grab Ram and run!" Subaru quickly informed Emilia of Plan B right before charging straight at the assassin, becoming the new target, although Elsa hung back a bit as Emilia kept her off by flinging ice shards.

Subaru passed Ram being pulled back into retreat by Emilia, and hurled his small sword in Elsa's direction, following through with the motion fully. Unfortunately, the athletic peak he had reached in his dream didn't translate over to what was now the real world, and the sword flew off mark enough for Elsa to immediately begin to close the distance between them. Even worse, Emilia was unable to continue to attack Elsa due to the proximity of the boy and assassin.

Luckily, Subaru did have a plan in mind. A shout left his lips the moment Elsa began to move, not having any time to react after that.

"Shamak!"

Elsa's eyes widened at the unexpected use of yin magic and she stumbled, eyes unfocused and unseeing. Not to be deterred by the nausea that was induced by the spell, she kept moving, waving her extra knife around her in wide, sweeping arcs that would have immediately gutted Subaru if he didn't dive to the side.

"Ahhhh! If I knew you could use other types of magic, I would have been more careful. Such a shame," the woman cried out. "I want to see your guts even more now…" She continued to swing her knife in almost imperceptibly fast arcs around herself, although Subaru was able to maintain a distance of roughly eight to ten meters.

Subaru readied the incantation, knowing Elsa would pounce the moment he made a sound. "Ul Goa!"

Elsa tried to turn in his direction and move towards him, but the dizziness inducing yin spell had left her off-balance enough for the fire bullets to fly true, striking her right shoulder. Ram from her position more far away had regained her composure, casting a wind spell that also struck Elsa. The semicircle of air pressure opened a giant gash on her torso, splattering dark blood over her body.

The incantations knocked the assassin back for long enough for Subaru to pick Rem up in his arms and hold her bridal style, the young man forced to ignore her pained cries, sprinting as fast as he could back to the forest where Emilia and Ram were headed. Within moments, Rem fell unconscious. Subaru gritted his teeth and tried to maintain the Shamak on Elsa, knowing that was the only thing preventing her from extracting his intestines while Emilia and Ram were slowing to let him catch up.

"She can regenerate," Subaru hissed, "We need to hurry, attacking her more right now won't help."

"Ram, let's hurry," said Emilia as she and Ram sped up, and the four passed into the trees safely, leaving Elsa behind.

After a minute of running, Subaru could hold onto the Shamak no longer and let it go. They heard a shriek from the general direction of the mansion, meaning Elsa was still some distance away.

"We need to heal and wake up Rem," Subaru let down the injured maid, answering the alarmed eyes of Emilia and Ram. "The assassin doesn't know where we are, get her stabilized."

"Where is Roswaal-sama?" Ram muttered as Emilia called on a few spirits to help her channel the mana required to stabilize Rem's wounds and remove the knife from the blue-haired oni's lower leg.

"Hand me the knife," Subaru alerted Emilia as he handed her his jacket, "We need every weapon we can get right now. I won't be able to cast magic for a while after maintaining Shamak for so long." Emilia handed him the bloody blade after tightly wrapping Rem's leg with the black jacket.

"Then, I'm going to wake Rem up now," Emilia used a contracted spirit again to force Rem awake. The maid coughed and sat up, rubbing her eyes.

"What… happened… oh!" she jumped to her feet and looked around, remembering the recent fight, and lost her balance the moment she put weight on her left leg. Ram caught her before she toppled completely.

"What's going on in the mansion?" Ram implored Rem to answer, "Where's Roswaal-sama? What about Beatrice-sama?"

"Roswaal-sama… left for a business trip yesterday. Beatrice-sama should still be inside her library. I held off the woman for some time, but she caused a lot of damage inside of the building."

"As expected," Subaru interrupted. Rem looked quizzically at the stranger, remembering that he had carried her before she fell unconscious. "We need to head to the village to look for survivors. We can lead Elsa away from Beatrice, wait for Julius to come back, and look for any survivors."

"The village was attacked?!" Rem yelped.

"Yes, that's right, and now we need to help whoever is in trouble," Emilia affirmed. "Let's hurry."

Ram moved to let Subaru pick up Rem again and the four began to run back to the village, all hoping that the assassin wouldn't be able to catch up to them before they arrived.