Disclaimer: I do not own Re:Zero or Oregairu

With the matters at capital resolved, he and Emilia booked a ground dragon carriage to return to the Mather's estate. Well, return for her, he had never actually been there.

Nothing of importance happened before they left except for a change of gaze that he felt from the armored knight 'Al' upon seeing his plastic bag. He could not be certain because the man's face was covered. He kept it in the back of his mind that it could mean certain possibilities, though he hoped not as he had no interest in dealing with that bitch of a blonde princess that he served.

He had also promised Felt that he had no intention of joining Emilia's camp immediately and would only make a decision after visiting her later at the Astrea mansion. So she should do her best in endeavors if she wanted to pick up stragglers like him and bring them to her side. Library was his first priority as he had no intention of being a blindly led around isekai protagonist.

They were traveling along the regular road. There was apparently a shortcut that would take a lot less time but the carriage driver said it was desolate, dangerous and the path was unpaved road making it not good for carriages. Well, it wasn't like he was in a hurry.

"Are you sure about not joining any royal camp after making such a big scandal?"

Emilia asked him while eating some dry bread. Evidently she hadn't lived the life of a spoiled princess if she could eat frozen stuff like that without a grimace. Or did it have something to do with her magic?

"I am a scholar. Knowledge is my first priority, the power plays of your country come second and only as far as they effect my life."

"I have never seen someone as uninterested in everything as you. Its like you are not even a part of your own life. Like you are watching everything from above."

"Heh, I wish that was true. That would make me like a god. Or a witch, I guess. No, as a man would warlock or demon be a better term?"

"..."

She turned quiet. He took the chance to ask the carriage driver if he could learn to drive as well but was rejected and scolded in very colorful language making Emilia giggle. He had forgotten that he was not in a tutorial where NPC's would be all helpful. Red faced in ducked back inside to resume the conversation.

"The trial took too much of day time. Sun has already set, not only an ideal time for any bandits to attack but Puck won't be there to help us."

"I'll take care of anyone who attacks us, don't worry."

She said with bravado but became a bit tenser all the same. They continued like this for a while until the carriage suddenly crashed along with the ground dragon and the driver.

He too might have died if Emilia hadn't embraced him and jumped out like a superhero. He felt pain in his heart, not for the driver but the ground dragon. Why did animals have to suffer for them?

His breath stopped as he looked around to see the creepy sight of being surrounded by hooded figures. His head had blanked but Emilia's had not.

"Witch's cult ..."

She immediately fired icicles with gritted teeth. These people were fast but not nearly as much as Elsa or Felt. In just a few minutes of combat, some of them had been impaled while others ran inside the forest with Emilia chasing after them.

"That idiot, this is clearly a trap."

Hachiman facepalmed as he ran after her. They were clearly after her and likely knew about her strength. It made no sense for such weaklings to attack her without any plan. He knew he wouldn't be of great help in combat and might even hinder her from using large scale magic but just having knowledge would help him if he died.

He could not keep up with the ice-skating girl but it served well enough as a trail to her destination, a cave. He entered huffing expecting to see her stuck in some trap but relaxed as she seemed fine, at least physically. In front of her was a super ugly guy with green hair and priest robes.

Emilia seemed frozen in time, her face looking like she was seeing a nostalgic face and yet could not really remember where she knew him from. A single word slipped out of her mouth as she grabbed her head in pain.

"... Geuse ..."

Juice? Hachiman stupidly thought that she was thirsty at a time like this.

The green haired man who seemed to about to make some grand villain speech with his twisted face also froze in time.

"... YOU, YOU DARE TO SAY THAT NAME, WITCH! DO NOT USE THAT WORD FROM YOUR DIRTY MOUTH."

Nothing visibly happened but some invisible thing struck her as she was sent flying and crashed into the opposite wall. The man looked at him and his anger suddenly disappeared replaced by a smile. He wished he could show it to his clubmates or classmates, they would never again call his own smile as creepy.

"Given how much you are sweating from running all the way till here, you don't appear to be slothful. Will you teach her that my name is Betelgeuse Romaniconti-DES. To shorten it like that is very slothful of her. Only one person is allowed to do that."

Hachiman wanted to shout at him or attack him or check to see Emilia's state but he had higher priority. This man was crazy, which made him dangerous but also opened avenues to collect information compared to sane enemies.

"Forgive me for not teaching her that. I'll do it right now. In fact I'll also tell her of the greatness of the only person allowed to shorten your name if you tell me about them."

"Ah, you truly are not slothful, to go into such detail in educating people. In fact you even have such strong scent of her love. Pride is the only vacant position, could it be you? But then where is your gospel?"

"... I had to keep it hidden in case she saw it. I was tasked to bring her over here to you."

"Such diligence, I can see why you are so loved. But don't worry, I don't want Emilia-sama's name coming out of her filthy mouth."

Hachiman looked at him gobsmacked. He could have been smarter but his mouth had a habit of running faster than his brain when confronted with too much stupidity.

"This is Emilia ..."

"LIAR, DO YOU THINK I CANNOT TELL APART WITCH'S VESSEL AND EMILIA-SAMA?"

The next thing he knew, he felt all four of his limbs getting gripped and twisted by an invisible hands. He screamed in pain like he had never felt before. Then he was dropped to the ground as he saw a huge ice block fly over his head. It didn't hit the target though and was shattered in mid-air. Emilia was up from her nap.

"GET AWAY FROM HIM!"

"Oh, is he precious to you? Then instead of ripping apart your limbs, how about I make you fight him?"

The next thing he knew, his body was moving on its own to attack Emilia, his mouth twisted as a foreign presence invaded his mind. Not that he could do much even as a puppet with his limbs already damaged. With the last of his strength he whispered.

"Shamak"

Just like before, he felt submerged in darkness as his senses were cutoff. And yet he could somehow see the outline of invisible hands in his mind. He projected the looks and feeling of Emilia as strongly as possible, not for any reason but to sense and get away from her. The hands felt that projection in his mind and froze. Then it silently receded along with the darkness.

He looked around to see Emilia standing around not capable of attacking him while Betelgeuse seemed like he had lost his soul with tears flowing from his eyes.

"How? Why? Why? WHy? wHY? WHY? WHY?"

He looked twisted and deranged as he looked at Emilia, then shook his head as of to clear an illusion and jabbed fingers of his very visible regular hands into his eyes. Then he ran away from there, blood leaking from his sockets.

Hachiman watched him till he disappeared before blacking out from the pain of his twisted joints. His last thoughts were if this was too easy and he could call this a zero death victory stage.

What he didn't know was that Duchess Crush Karsten and her camp had gone along the shortcut path that he hadn't taken based on a sudden information. There they faced the alternate obstacle named white whale and got annihilated.