After crying their hearts out for what felt like hours, the black-haired young man and a certain blue hair maid finally released their mutual embrace and smiled gently at each other, with teary eyes and immeasurable happiness.

Noticing that the hopeless but adorable couple had finished their long-awaited reunion, the rest of the cast decided to take their turns to greet, apologize, admire, praise, and even scold the boy.

Showered with all these loving words, shows of affection, and concerns for his own safety and well-being, Subaru got overwhelmed easily.

"Wait, slow down a minute! What is it with all of this? You guys look like you have just watched me die and return!? Have I really been out for that long!?"

He said jokingly while waving his hands around, gestured everybody to give him some breathing space. Yet another joke about his deaths and sufferings, what used to be desperate attempts to share his burdens with those around had become so familiar with the way he spoke that it turned into one of his questionable 'quirks'.

Usually, his friends, upon hearing so would either ignored them completely, acknowledging them as his odd pattern of speaking and dwelled no further in; or shook their head at his poor choice of words but let them pass anyway thinking of them as merely harmless jokes.

But now, now that they had known everything? All of his sufferings, all of his pain, his deaths and how broken he was inside, so much so that it took the Witches, beings that they deemed as the pinnacle of evil to tell him the simple advice that he should take a better care of himself? What used to be viewed as nothing more than meaningless words coming from quite a silly and strange person, now hurt their broken hearts so much so that they all were taken aback, bewildered with many powerful emotions and thoughts.

Feeling unease at the sudden silence and drop of mood, Subaru tried another approach to ease the situation.

"Wait, have I really been out for that long? Damn, he he, guess I make you all worry huh, well, then worry no more because I, Subaru Natsuki has come back! Though I didn't remember being dragged into an oddly familiar theatre … What is with this place anyway, where are we?"

Misunderstanding the saddened faces surrounding him and their discomfortable frown for not quite the correct reason, the nasty-eye knight tried saying random things to cast away their worries and to calm his inner self down as well.

Realizing they had been spacing out, being deep in their own thoughts, everyone composed themselves as quickly as they could to get a grasp on what was happening. Having heard his question with a very confused tone, they all reach one conclusion: they must inform their friend about everything.

But it was always easier said than done.

The younger members of the cast tried to say something, but it all came out as wordless stuttering for they don't know what to say or how to help their new favorite person.

The maids and knights were all reluctant to make any move, fearing that it might provoke their friend and thus worsen the already confusing situation.

The Royal Candidates themselves were lost in their own worlds again:

Emilia, with her self-deprecating mentality, started blaming herself for being unable to help him once again.

Crush trying to put piece and piece together to form a proper plan to solve the mess.

Anastasia scheming greedily to take advantage of everything happening around to ultimately capture the man she knew she strongly desired.

Felt worried for her big bro but hesitated to do anything.

And finally, Priscilla, who for the first time deemed the matter to be important enough for a more careful approach.

But there was one person in the room who would act, with his centuries worth of experience and knowledge, he knew, he knew for a simple fact that was this silent to be kept longer than it already had, trouble would arrive and may worst come to worst. So, with a shaky voice, not due to nervousness but rather a much simpler reason, the beaten clown voiced himself to break the growing silence:

"Ah, Suuuubaaaaaruuuu – kun, to answeeer your question, we were traaaansported to this place by a bright light. To watch youuur journey from the moment you visited this wooorld!"

Aside from him physically struggling to speak, his tone remained annoyingly indifferent, as if this all was still a game to him. However, such bluntness left them little to no room to intervene the coming exchange between the most hated and the most loved person in this mysterious place.

"Visited this world?"

Subaru repeated that three words again, slowly, not because of his inability to decipher their meaning but rather disbelief or denial that after all these times his little secret had been found.

"Oh, ha ha, so you know I am from another world?! Well, not like I was trying to hide it as a secret or something, but I thought you wouldn't believe me! Wait, are you going to experiment on me or something, I swear I don't taste good, I think? And no, I don't think my world gonna invade yours anytime soon! So-"

"Suuubaaaruuuu Natsuuukiii"

Stopped in the middle of his ranting, hearing his own name being called had always given him some chills, but this literally froze his spine. He probably had already known, but still he denied, his mind certainly had figured it out, yet he continued to dismiss it, but his heart could never lie, this fear, they may knew something about him more than just a 'little secret'.

Still, he would keep denying it, for their sake, for his good.

"Y-yes?"

"We knew about Return By Death"

But before he could even attempt to fight back, those words alone had shattered any walls he hoped to put between them and that Truth.

"W-what do you m-mean!?"

Still denying, for it's his nature, but he knew now, for certain:

His secret had been found.