Subaru was living the best life he could ever ask for. He was wealthy, famous and most importantly, happy.
After the incident with the loot house, he narrowly dodged the bowel hunter's attack and made it out of that situation unscathed. He wished everyone involved luck before he left so he could find his own place in the world on his own.
He had a rough start of course but after a few days of getting by, he encountered a short girl, about the same size as Felt, with tan skin. She was singing songs and they sounded beautiful. The only problem was that it was in the slums and she wasn't really drawing in any crowds.
That was when Subaru had an idea. He knew plenty of songs from Japan and he had a fair amount of popular songs saved on his phone. With this girl's help, he could teach her those songs and they could make a fortune if he markets this right.
The girl's name was Liliana and she was the biggest didtz he had ever met. She apparently thought singing in the slums would bring out a wider variety of people and she ended up getting robbed.
Subaru was thankful he was there to help her out. She was quick to agree with the idea and they hit it off. They started street performances in the noble districts and they were quickly recognized by high standing nobles and began to perform private events.
Thanks to Subaru's people's skills, he made sure they didn't get scammed and got good gigs. Overall, the two made an excellent duo and within a few months, they were able to afford their own manor and by then, they were known all across Lugnica.
Currently, the two were in a public garden as they gazed upon the setting sun within the city.
"Woah! The sun's really orange now!" Liliana pointed out the obvious.
Subaru let out a soft chuckle. Hearing Liliana say such silly things seemed to make his days twice as better. "Yep, it sure is beautiful, isn't it?"
Liliana nodded energetically as she turned to Subaru and pumped her fists in the air. "Totally! I'm already getting tons of ideas for my next song!"
"Wow, do you even need to listen to the songs on my phone anymore?" Subaru mused. She never used any of those songs when it came to making money. She really only used them either as tributes or to find inspiration.
"W-Wha?! No! I still want to hear them! I haven't managed to copy the sounds from Crazy Frog yet!"
Subaru cringed. "Trust me, I'd appreciate it if you didn't do that…"
Liliana crossed her arms and puffed out her cheeks in disapproval. "Booo!"
"Hey you brat! Trust me when I say this but you'll lose all your cuteness points if you ever manage to utter a single syllable from that cursed song!"
The airhead placed her hand over her mouth and gasped loudly. "A-All my cuteness points?!"
Subaru nodded. "That's right! You'll be as forgettable as a background NPC!"
Liliana cocked her head to the side and poked her chin. "How many cuteness points do I have?"
"Ehh, I'd say 95."
The short bard gasped in surprise. "Woah! That's a lot of points!"
"That's right! So if you manage to sing that song, that number will be a big fat zero!"
"Oh no!" Liliana briefly panicked.
After some time, the two laughed. Liliana smiled as she turned her gaze back to the sunset. "Subaru? There's something I want to tell you."
"Huh?" Subaru looked worriedly at the tanned bard. She sounded serious and one thing about this airhead was that she hardly ever sounded serious. "Yeah? Is something wrong?"
The tan bard turned back to Subaru and her cheeks reddened after doing so. "W-Well… You know… I just wanted to say that… Erm…" The flustered girl twiddled her fingers together and shuffled her feet around as she couldn't think of the words.
Fearing that she was feeling uncomfortable, Subaru spoke up. "If this is about the curry incident, then I'll be sure to not make your curry spicy this time."
Liliana frantically flailed her arms around as she shook her head. "N-No! This isn't about that! It's just… Ughhhhh! This is so hard!" Just then, she smacked her cheeks together before standing tall. "You can do it, Liliana." She reassured herself.
The short bard bowed her head quickly, not making eye contact with Subaru anymore. "I love you!"
After Liliana had finally said those words she's been meaning to say, Subaru got taken aback a little. "W-wait, what?"
Liliana's flustered behavior vanished instantly as she seemed very eager to explain herself. "I mean, you've helped me a bunch these past few months! When I moved to Lugnica, I couldn't find anyone who wanted to listen to my songs. You swooped in like some kind of hero and even made us super famous! You changed my life, Subaru."
Subaru began blushing. "Lilly… I don't know what to say…"
She pointed at Subaru after he said those words. "That too! You even gave me a nickname! You really make me feel like I matter."
Subaru chuckled a little as he stepped closer to the short girl and carefully took her by the hands. This affectionate act caused Liliana to blush a lot deeper. "Lilly…" Subaru started, "I love you too, you dork."
"Wait, really?!" She shouted, sounding completely shocked.
Subaru simply nodded before giving the bard a hug. She happily let herself be held in Subaru's embrace and leaned herself in, hoping to at least steal the first kiss.
CRASH!!!
The sudden loud noise made the two lovebirds jump in place. From the nearby houses, countless knights were swarming out of them as if they were some kind of swat team.
Before the two could even question what was happening, they aggressively pinned Subaru to the ground and started cuffing him.
"H-HUUUUH?!?" Both Subaru and Liliana yelled out.
"H-Hey! What are you doing to my Subaru?!" Liliana yelled out as she tried to stop the knights. However, she was stopped by one of the knights and was pulled off to the side.
"Ma'am, please remain calm. We're arresting this man for a very serious crime." The knight briefed.
Liliana blinked a few times in confusion. "Crime? What did he do?"
"We just witnessed him trying to make sexual advances on a minor. Luckily, we came just in the nick of time."
This only confused the short girl even further. "What are you saying? You're making it sound like I was gonna be the victim."
The knight shook his head as a worried look appeared on his face. "It was worse than we thought… Ma'am, I'm afraid this man may have been manipulating you."
Liliana just couldn't fathom what on earth was happening still. She was so confused that she didn't even notice that Subaru was already hauled away. "He wasn't manipulating me! Subaru's a really good man!" She pleaded.
"Just answer me this, was or was he not trying to start a sexual relationship with you?" The knight sternly asked.
Liliana's face lit red as she got all flustered once again. "N-No! B-But I guess I wouldn't mind if we eventually took our relationship to that stage…~"
The knight nodded. "Thank you, that's all we needed to know." And without another word, the knights dispersed, leaving a very confused Liliana all alone.
--
Subaru was currently getting hauled away by two knights and the boy in question was flailing around as if his life depended on it. "Let go of me! I swear this is all a misunderstanding!" He pleaded.
"Quiet your perverted dirtbag. We saw what you were trying to do with that young girl." The knight spat.
"You mean Lilly? I wasn't doing anything wrong with her! I swear you got it all wrong!"
"Subaru." A purple haired knight said as he now stood in front of him, still being held by the other two knights. "You're under arrest for sexually harassing a minor."
"Minor?" Subaru asked. It suddenly clicked to him what this was all about. "No wait! You got it all wrong! Lilly isn't a minor at all!"
"Desperate till the very end." The purple haired knight said. "Disgusting creeps like you make me sick. Take him to the dragon carriage."
The two knights nodded as they began to drag Subaru away in the direction of the carriage in question. The boy was flailing as much as he could the whole time. "No! You gotta believe me! She's legal! I swear to you she's legal!"
His words were put on deaf ears as the knights roughly tossed him in the back of the carriage. "Save it for the council, you perverted scumbag." The knight then looked over to the front of the carriage. "Take them away!"
The carriage started to move, leaving Subaru staring at the floor of the carriage dejectedly. "But she's 21…"
"Is that you, Subaru? It's a pleasure to see you again." A familiar voice spoke out.
Subaru slowly looked up and saw a familiar red haired knight inside the carriage with him. "Reinhard?" Subaru noticed that Reinhard was also in cuffs just like he was. "Wait, did you get arrested too?"
Reinhard nodded. "That is correct. It turns out the way I handled Miss Felt wasn't to code and I'm being taken in for kidnapping and possible abuse."
Subaru lifted a brow. "Abuse?"
Reinhard nodded again. "Draining Miss Felt's mana when she wasn't cooperating was deemed as an unnecessary use of force and it's possibly being considered as abuse."
Subaru slumped down. "Ugh… What did I do to deserve this…?"
--
It's been a month since that incident.
Subaru was generously given a chance to go out on probation and it cost him all of his fortune. He even had to sell off the manor to pay for the outrageous bail.
Subaru had no way of contacting Liliana and as per the council's orders, he had to move to a village which was looked after by a lord known as Roswaal L. Mathers.
The purple haired knight, who was later revealed to be Julius, escorted Subaru to the area. Subaru had to see Roswaal first also per the Council's orders so he went off to make sure he short that out of the way with.
He approached the manor and knocked on the large front door. He was expecting some kind of maid or butler to answer but instead some clown in while makeup and wore a cape answered instead. "Hello, sir." Subaru politely started. He didn't want to get arrested again so he was being sure to be as respectful as possible. "Can I speak to the lord of this place?"
"That would be meeee~" The clown who was apparently Roswaal replied.
Subaru wasn't in the mood to argue to see if that was true so he just went with it. "Alright, that's good." The boy cleared his throat before presenting his speech he prepared. "I'm Natsuki Subaru and I'll be living in your domain. I'm also required by law to inform you that I'm a registered lolimancer."
Roswaal just stared at the boy dumbfounded. He didn't seem shocked or anything, it was just the 'did you seriously waste my time just for that?' kind of look. Subaru also felt awkward by the silence and just nervously stood there waiting for some kind of acknowledgement.
An eerie few moments had passed before something finally happened. However, it was definitely something the lolimancer wasn't expecting.
A girl with spiral twin tail blonde hair that wore a red frilly dress seemed to be pushed out from the front door by some unknown force. As if stuck in a stiff pose, the top of her head attached to Subaru as if he was some kind of magnet for the unknown girl. The impact didn't hurt at all and there didn't seem to be any force or anything, she was just kinda there now.
Both Roswaal and Subaru looked at the girl for a moment and back at each other. Before Subaru could properly react, Roswaal smiled sinisterly before saying, "Your problem now, biiiiiitch~"
And like that, he slammed the door closed, leaving Subaru and the girl out there alone.
The lolimancer was too shocked to do anything at the moment. He just blankly stared at the front door of the manor as the mystery girl flung onto him. His attention was finally caught as someone rested their hand over his shoulder from behind him.
"It hasn't even been a day yet. Are you truly incapable of learning anything, Subaru?" The person from behind asked disappointingly.
The voice was familiar and the poor boy slowly looked back to see a very ashamed Julius. "W-Wait!" Subaru started. "This is all a misunderstanding!"
Subaru quickly turned to the mystery girl. "Cmon! Tell him this is all a misunderstanding!" He pleaded to the girl.
The short girl stood up straight before pointing to the pleading boy. "You…" she started, "Betty believes that… you are that person."
…
…
…
"Subaru…" The purple haired knight said. "Get in the goddamn carriage."