Chapter VI

[]

Pride and Hector dragged their feet to Pandora, who looked somewhat bored and melancholic. Twirling her hand through the floating Essence of Greed. It was a black blob of shadow with a disgustingly green aura at its core. "So we've ran into a problem."

"Can't you just tell uuuussss?" Hector said, dejected. With bags under his eyes from not sleeping since half an hour ago, he asked annoyed.

"Let me guess, you want us to go on an errand?" Pride tried his best to sound non-hostile, but there was a glitter of poison in his voice. Pandora took note, but ignored it.

Opening her mouth, her seductive voice reached their ears, "To revive Regulus-san, we need his remains. That should be fairly easy to accomplish. I can handle that myself, but…"

"Buuuuut what? Areeee you hesitating to speeaaaaak for the sake of the ploooooot?"

"To revive Betelguese-san, I need both a power source, aka the spirit Puck here," She spawned a small green crystal constantly emitting sparks, "And the material to make a spirit, aka a spirit of equal or greater quality of Betelguese-san's own soul." Putting away Puck's crystal, Pandora donned a fierce expression, "Find and capture Zarestia. Then I will be able to bring back Betelguese-san."

"Zaressstiaaaa? You mean the big-booooobed spirit?" Hector asked with a slight tinge of red in his face.

"….Yes." Pandora agreed awkwardly.

"And the others?" Pride asked, glossing over Hector's pervertedness.

"Let's start with the simplest. It's not good overstretching," She said as she stood up, cracking her hands. "Right now, we need firepower equal to the Sword Saint. Well, at the very least, to stall him for an indefinite period of time. And if we remove the contract the knight Julius has with his newfound spirits, we can have Betelguese-san possess him."

Pride cucked an eyebrow. Sensing this, Pandora reiterated, "We don't have to defeat the Sword Saint. We just have to incapacitate him somehow."

Glaring, Pride snarled at the witch, "I am not satisfied with beating him that way, Pandora. I want to kill him. I want to strike the sword down his throat, and watch him as he drowns on his own blood." Putting some distance between him and the witch, he moved his lips, "I'll help you resurrect the Archbishops only because you have a collar on me and on the premise that Reinhard dies. But the moment that changes, I'll be taking your head, Pandora."

"I'll be looking forward to it, Pride."

[]

As Pride left the hidden mansion and departed from the barrier hiding said mansion, he remembered what Pandora told him.

"There is a way to defeat Reinhard. Granted, it's no easy feat, as it requires forceful implantation."

"Implantation?"

"If someone with a blessing absorbs an authority, they lose their blessings."

"That sounds extremely easy."

"It's anything but easy. Now, go to Kararagi. That is where Zarestia is located."

"So this Zarestia spirit is somewhere in Kararagi. The least Pandora could do is tell us a more concrete location rather than just an entire country," Pride complained, "How does she even look like? I've never met her." Surprisingly.

"She has big booooooo-"

"Apart from breasts, Hector-san. The only breasts I want to caress are Emilia's," He responded, grinning grossly, like a perverted old man. Drool fell out of his lips gracelessly.

Scratching his head, a confused Hector said, "Uh…..sheeee's…..thiiiiiiick?"

Goddammit.

Grabbing a black hoodie, he pulled it over his face. The hoodie itself was enchanted by powerful stealth magic, making him unrecognizable by the majority of people. It was colored black with stripes of dark orange, similar to Pride's jacket and pants.

Hector wore a similar hoodie, with weird cat ears attached to it. Unlike Pride's black-orange color scheme, it was black and purple. "Pandora gave me two tickets for a boat ride to Kararagi. We gotta head there in about two hours."

"Uuuugghhhh…what a paaaaainnnn. I haaaaate booaaaaaats."

"Stop being a little brat and let's just go."

Clicking his tongue, Hector kicked a pebble below his feet, and placed his hands in his pockets defiantly. "Is this what it's like to have a little brother?" Pride mumbled. "Well…the ages are switched though...A shouta grandfather who acts like a little brother? What kind of flag is that…."

"I feeeelt like you thought something stuuuuuupid. Stuuupid Pride."

"Yep. Definitely little brother material."

"I ain't your little brother, you shit-head."

Saying something so out of character, Pride was left speechless and agape as Hector's sharp tongue stabbed at his heart. "Gaahhhh!"

"Fuccckiiiiing pervert."

"Who's the pervert here?! You pubescent brat! Can't you see I'm trying to raise the loyal little brother flag?! These things come outta nowhere, y'know?!"

Arguing all the way to the boat, the two bickering villains finally sat in express seats. Pride was surprised Pandora gave him such luxurious seats. He expected to be sent in the smuggling trunk, or something similar.

Hector noticed his surprise, "Yeeeeeep. Wheeeen old hag lady Pandoraaaaaa wants to, she gooooess allllll ouuuuuuttt."

"I can tell. This is like a five-star cruise ship, I swear. Not used to this kind of thing," Pride tugged on his neck, uncomfortable, "I wonder what kinda food they sell here..."

"Whoooo givveeeees a daaaaaaamn about foooood. I juuuust waaant this triiiiip to be oveeeeer."

"Sigh…Why don't you have the heart of an adventurer? Is it because you're an NPC? Still. What a crappy way to create personality."

"Shhuuuuuuut uuuuup."

[]

"The chosen queen is…." Heavy sweat dropped down from every candidate. Subaru could feel the tension as the speaker took out a piece of paper, reading the voting results. What was only a few seconds felt like an eternity before the speaker called out the new queen's name.

Pluck Pluck Pluck. Plucked rotten beans.

"Emilia!"

Everyone in the Emilia faction screamed out their hearts. After years of bloodshed and war, they finally achieved Emilia's dream. She was no longer subjected to feared racism. Tears poured out of Emilia's soft amethyst eyes. She couldn't contain her overflowing happiness.

With a warm smile, Subaru wrapped his arms around the half-elf, patting her in the back. "You did well, Emilia. Now go up there and show 'em who's boss!" Letting go, he pulled a thumbs up, before being hugged forcefully by the girl of his dreams.

What a farce.

"Thank you, Subaru!" She cried out.

Garfiel laughed nervously, thinking that he just witnessed history in the making. Otto had dollar bills rolling in his eyes. Rem was smiling gleefully as she saw eye-candy, aka Subaru in a knight outfit.

Ram simply scoffed, saying something along the lines of, "I knew Emilia-sama was going to win," While hiding her joy.

Emotions dried out from within.

Roswaal scratched his cheek, having a genuine smile on him. Beatrice smiled at Emilia, and said, "Good job. We'll be relying on you, Queen."

"Thank you…Thank you so much. Now I can finally bring back my village…thank you so much…."

Emilia and her faction put an end to a long four-hundred-year war. They defeated the archbishops and even Satella, the Jealous Witch.

He's mine. You can't have him.

How could anyone vote for someone else? Subaru believed in those words from the bottom of his heart.

From the distance, Natsuki Kenichi and Natsuki Naoko whistled at their son. Embarrassed, Subaru hid his face behind Beatrice's drills, angering her and earning him a smack to the top of his head. His family was proud of him. So proud, they couldn't believe he became a knight.

He remembered when he first told them of his knightly status. Naoko nearly fainted on sight. Kenichi wouldn't believe it for a good six months.

I'm so happy he's here…with me.

Everybody was so happy.

It was a dream come true.

"Wait…" Subaru had a creepy feeling in the back of his throat, "Parents? Since when…where they here?" He looked up at his mother and father from afar, their eyes so proud of their son. But he still couldn't shake the feeling that something was wrong. Terribly wrong.

Even so…this isn't half bad. I hope these days will continue forever…

Yes. Forever.

Yes Subaru-kun. Forever…

…Someday.

No. Now.

Against the silver coffin, a warm smile crossed his lips as he laid there.

He's with me now.

CHAPTER END

Author Notes

This took longer than supposed to, but at least the wait wasn't as long as before.

I hope I'm right on Tia being Zarestia from the Rem What-if. Though I mean…it's kinda obvious.

Also, I was supposed to publish this two days ago but FF wouldn't let me for some weird reason. Kept giving me some weird error, so I decided to wait it out.

Sorry for the short chapter.