Reviewed and edited by Turacoveredin and Mobotium.
"Excuse me, sorry to be a bother, but we're here in regards to the private business matters of Margrave Roswaal L. Mathers."
On the outskirts of a small village stood a pair of young half-elves, explaining their business to the rather gruff, scraggy old man sitting within the patchwork checkpoint shelter.
"The Margrave, huh… yer mean Roswaal… what does he want 'ere, and why send you youngins after his business, eh?" the man said, leaning out the window slightly. A less than delicate aroma of cigarettes clung to him, his lack of basic bodily hygiene highly noticeable. He was obviously nothing more than a security guard, his dominant stature and cruel, crushing atmosphere not giving him the warmest appearance. He was…scary.
'This is why he works on the edge of the town, huh,' Subaru thought to himself, grasping Emilia's hand within his own once more. He took a step back to avoid the pungent, overwhelming scent. Despite being a prideful child of a prideful race, he was genuinely intimidated by a stranger many times bigger than himself. Although he'd never admit that.
"Y-Yes, he gave us an address and an instruction and that's really it," Emilia replied, showing the slip of paper to the man, also doing her best to stay as far away as humanly possible without appearing rude. In a similar vein to her male companion, Emilia was also fairly uncomfortable around this stranger. He seemed pushy; everything about him was intimidating and alarming.
"Eh…oh, I guess that makes sense then, though it's odd hours fer what he's wantin'," the man grumbled. "That all he says? Nothin' more bout owt else? It's early even for the big man."
Both Subaru and Emilia looked beyond confused at the checkpoint guard's peculiar wittering. He seemed awfully familiar with the Margrave's business, yet neither of them dared question it. Roswaal was a man of secrets and delving into them with a total stranger was not something they wanted to waste their time on. It was hard to understand his weird accent anyway.
"N-No… we just have to do as we're told," Subaru replied, the suffocating scent of tobacco beginning to cause him issues he couldn't quite comprehend. He recognised the smell from somewhere, and knew for a fact it wasn't just unpleasant on the surface—something else about it deeply bothered him. Subaru once again took a healthy step backwards, easing the unbearable smell slightly.
"Ey ey no need t' run away, I'm just askin' t' be safe, never seen you kids round 'ere before, and Margrave tends t' deal with this himself," the man laughed, his general demeanour continuing to unsettle and intimidate the pair. All Subaru could do was awkwardly fiddle with his long hair, habitually tucking a long strand of silver hair behind his pointed ear. He averted his gaze towards the relatively quiet village, noticing the small congregation forming around one of the buildings nearby.
This was his first mistake.
Like a switch, the man's facial expression, initially warm and somewhat cheerful, fell away into abrasive discontent. It was obvious cogs were turning in his mind, processing newfound information he hadn't noticed before. 'Intimidating' no longer fit this person's demeanour.
He was dangerous.
Emilia, who hadn't taken her eyes from the man, noticed his sudden, unexplained change in attitude. His once casual smile had fallen into a deep frown. His eyes, once welcoming and honest beneath their frightening veil, were now spiteful and cruel. Her accidental eye contact with him sent deep jolts of fear down her spine, fear she didn't understand, fear that didn't make sense to her.
"So can we… go about our business?" Subaru asked, oblivious to the obvious change in the situation. His quaint smile was warm and excited; he was so close to his wonderful day. So close.
"Well just hang on a minute, ain't you's hiding a pretty big…secret?" the man said, standing up inside the shack—once again leaning right out of the window. His hands gripped the windowsill tightly, his knuckles white from the force he applied to the wood.
Both children looked on in confusion. He was almost shaking in anger, yet they had absolutely no idea why. Suabru's grip on her hand tightened considerably, he could feel the gentle shaking of hers within his own.
"I don't care what business yous have got in these parts, but we don't wan' it. Tell Margrave Mathers to shove it, keep his creepy little pets home and come speak to us himself," he scowled, droplets of spittle hitting them in the face.
What he meant by pets, they had no idea. However, both of them could tell it was not pleasant, not in the slightest. It felt derogatory, needlessly so in fact. It was blaringly obvious this gentleman considered the children subhuman, and he was doing everything in his power to make that fact more and more clear every second.
Emilia tried calling for Puck, yet he remained unresponsive. She knew not why, just that any attempt to communicate with him was met with cold silence.
"U-Uh, I'm not sure why you're so angry," Emilia said, now unable to meet the man's hateful eyes. "We just want to speak to someone and leave, we don't intend to cause any trouble."
Emilia had her hands raised to her shoulders, almost proving to the enraged man that she was harmless and wanted no problems. Her facial expression was nearing one of pleading despair, her hands just as unsteady as the rest of her body.
"Yer sayin you don't intend to cause any shit lady, but we all know yer kind can't help it. One of yous is usually bad enough, but two of ya the same is just askin' fer somethin' to go wron'," he scoffed. Subaru was now just realising what he was saying, what this whole tirade was about—and just like Emilia, his heart sunk.
Elves were a rare, mysterious species. Every sub-race of elf was shrouded in a cloak of uncertainty, nobody knew just exactly where they were, why they were there, or really anything about them. No elf was identical to the next, some couldn't even breed with humans—that was how much they differed. They were one of the only species found across the world, yet they remained the smallest population-wise.
But most importantly, they were easily the most strongly despised.
Even before the disaster that was the great calamity, elves were the subject of cruel rumours, strong jealousy, and inhumane practices. Their ethereal, god-like beauty was met with hatred and spite. Their natural strength and magic capacity was sought after. Elven settlements were hunted down and ravaged by humans, entire companies forming to capture and utilise elven men and women for intense slave labour.
Then the world changed, and the elves suffered the most out of everyone.
The jealousy and hatred was further fuelled, and had more of an 'understandable' reason behind it. The Witch of Envy was of elven blood, and that was all people needed to truly lose all reason.
To be an elf, or the offspring of one, was a disastrous fate. The once ethereal race had fallen to become the main target of the peak of human cruelty. Entire villages and subraces were eradicated, brutally murdered and tortured without a second thought. At the height of the barbarity, an elf could be murdered without further explanation other than 'they posed a threat to me'.
Despite laws and time cooling the bloodthirst down, the hatred still lingered. Elves were almost nonexistent outside of their own rare communities. They physically couldn't merge back into society. Even when other demi-humans were becoming slowly less stigmatised, elves remained an absolute evil.
And so, the minute the human gatekeeper noticed Subaru's half-elven ears—revealed when he messed with his long hair that once concealed them—all hell broke loose.
"Yer need to fuck off before I call someone yous don't wanna meet, ya get me? Scram, and don't try comin' back. If the Margrave asks, do as I said and tell his arse to get down 'ere himself."
Both of them remained silent. They hadn't prepared for any of this. They had been surrounded by people who held very little true resentment towards them for so long that it had almost become a normality again. Subaru's worries weren't even directly about his race; he had been concerned about meeting random humans again…so to both of them—especially the naive and quick to forgive Emilia—it was a shock of astronomical proportions.
What did they even do in this situation? Why had Roswaal allowed them, and even actively sent them to a place that obviously wouldn't welcome them? They had so many questions and a stark lack of answers. Emilia had only been exposed to Elior forest for a short, uneventful period of time—and Subaru, well he saw the brutality of man first hand, yet those men came and actively hunted him in his home. He had never been threatened by a random person, a random man who knows nothing about him, so this was much much different.
This random middle aged man with a balding scalp and a stained shirt was not the same as the trained and bloodthirsty criminals who slaughtered his family. He didn't wield a 30 inch blade of steel, nor did his hands carry the torch which ignited his personal living hell. He was just a person, born and raised in an obscure Lugnican town. In the flesh, the children were superior beings.
Yet the fear he incited deep within Subaru's heart was so shockingly horrific that his body and mind were beyond confused. The look of horror and rage painting that man's face was genuine. He was scared of the children before him, scared of not just what they are but who they are. He had never met either of them once before in his life, yet the minute he realised one minor detail a switch flipped in his mind.
Subaru's mind floated back to a conversation he had with Roswaal just weeks ago. A conversation about not just the outside world and the people within it, but those who reside in it. Those who may pose a threat to the boy.
Despite his relative lack of trust for Roswaal, he could tell the words he spoke that day were genuine and true. It was genuine advice born out of necessity, it was genuine advice that Roswaal knew would be used one day.
—
The Margrave had dismissed his maids one evening after dinner, and the others present had been asked to leave the room. Subaru, however, was specifically asked to stay.
It was not often Roswaal's usually jovial tone dropped seriously, and it was even less frequent that his speaking pattern disappeared…yet that day, both had happened. His words were concise, but they bore deep into Subaru's heart.
"Subaru, I need you to listen to me," Roswaal said bluntly, locking his eyes with the silver haired boy.
Before Subaru could reply, he continued:
"You know the depths of your heritage, and you know what the consequences the unique features on your body hold. I need you to be prepared for the days you must adventure outside of the safety of this household," Roswaal said, "in an ideal world, you would befriend every soul you met. However, as the spawn of an elf, that is not so easy for you."
Subaru's face dropped in bitter understanding. It was true that his race was probably his biggest obstacle in life, and it was something that wouldn't change no matter what.
"Subaru, in your long journey through life it's inevitable you will face targeted hardships. People are out to get you for no reason other than the fabric of your flesh and blood," Roswaal started, signalling for Subaru to let him finish what he was saying. "Because of this, it's probably for the better if you know what to do when something happens,"
"You are a half-elven male undergoing magic training. It is your duty as a knight hopeful and member of your race to protect both yourself and Emilia-sama. You must stand up for yourself no matter what, because the people you face will have no mercy, and they will have no issue with putting either of you down without a second thought."
"I know…I saw it first hand," Subaru mumbled, still unsure why he chose to tell him this now of all times. It was so…random…unexplained.
"Then that should only reinforce my point. Stand up for yourself, Natsuki Subaru. It's eat or be eaten out there, and I'd much rather you not become fodder," Roswaal smiled, "that's all I wanted to say whilst I remembered, have a good evening,"
—
'Stand up for yourself, Natsuki Subaru.'
"What are yer still doing here? Move it!" the gatekeeper/security guard demanded once again, bursting the door to his shack open and emerging outside. In his hand sat a wooden bat, the handle tightly bound in bandages.
Both Subaru and Emilia remained silent, simply stumbling back as the enraged man approached them. The words of Roswaal echoed in Subaru's mind, he had to follow them if he wanted to bring himself and Emilia out of this mess alive.
They didn't know if they should just run away or try to orchestrate a counterattack. There was a very real possibility that they'd be 'taken care of', especially in an area like this. Dense woodland, no witnesses… nobody would complain if a bunch of elf spawn randomly disappeared, right? Yet, would they be able to just overpower this adult by themselves?
The pair were frozen in a grim concoction of fear, uncertainty, and doubt. Their minds spun at a million miles per hour trying to calculate an escape or their next move, yet the answer never came clearly.
No way could they run into town…they'd be stupid to, if this one man supposedly posed so much of a threat then the entire village would eat them alive. Subaru wanted so badly to make a break for it, but there were houses everywhere…all it would take is for one person to grab one of them, and they're both fucked. They'd be labelled as trespassers and criminals, and brutalised. Just like his family.
Despite this, they couldn't even run back the way they came. They'd quite literally cornered themselves—with the town gates on one side and the ballistic human man on the other, they had no escape path. Retreat was not possible, leaving the pair with one singular option. They had to fight…they had to brute force their way out of this. They were fucking elves, why couldn't they just blast their way home? Subaru was fairly strong and Emilia was stronger than that…why were they just standing there?
A grating grin spread across the human's face, divulging a patchwork set of jaundiced teeth. Subaru shivered in grim despair. He'd seen such vile dentitions before, and god did he want to smash them in.
Shrill and potent laughter pierced the ears drums of the elven pair. Maniacal cruelty dominated their senses from the outside, indomitable fear on the inside. They were like hares in a burrow, awaiting their cruel fate from the hunting dogs outside, yet these hares had some fight in them. Each step he walked forced the crushing, harrowing anguish deeper into the children's minds, but Subaru stood tall, giving Emilia a shred of confidence in return.
He had to act now, any later and his fragile mind would crumble.
With every pace his rotten smile and nasty musk broke their waning minds down further. The dull slap of the wooden surface hitting the flesh of his palm periodically echoed through the air. Every gruff crack reminded the children of what awaited them, every boasting swing driving the fear deeper into their petrified hearts.
Every second felt like a lifetime. Their knees felt weak, tears ran down their cheeks, and yet they remained standing in the face of their nightmares. Meeting your demons with confidence was the best way to overcome them, so the pair did just that.
Puck was nowhere to be seen, so Subaru had to take the lead.
As their soon to be executor got within swinging range, his brutish progression stopped with a stark suddenness.
"Minya," Subaru said with an unprecedented calmness. The pages of the tome in his pocket were fluttering through his mind, the intricacies of the spell flowing from the text and into his incantation.
A brilliant purple crystal, one of great power and majesty, lasered towards the unsuspecting human. Subaru's magic was something he had worked so hard on, and just as Roswaal had instructed those many moons ago, would be the thing he used to protect himself and Emilia.
A long silence remained for an uncomfortable amount of time, long enough for the two males' eyes to meet. The human's were bursting at the seams with confidence. The elves were wrung with despair.
"Is…that all ya got?" the man bellowed, his laughter raucous and mocking. Why was he still standing? It was a question Subaru had in answer for. His crystal definitely hit, so why was this human able to stand so self assuredly afterwards?
"Aaaalrighty then," the man mused, swinging the bat over his shoulder, "who wants it first, I can make it quick for ya, don't worry,"
He never once broke eye contact with Subaru. Despite his rather pointless and cruel question, he had his answer already. He was basically saying his prayers until his soon-to-be executioner took a step forward.
That step would be his last.
It was comical really. He just…face planted…completely losing his footing as his brain shut off. Subaru's Minya crystal had hit its target after all, and it had hit hard. He just hadn't died immediately.
"Emilia-tan,"
"Y-Yes…"
"Let's be on our way,"
—
Subaru took a moment to drag the body of the first life he had ever taken, a fact that had not yet dawned on him, back into the shack. It wouldn't erase all suspicion, but it was much better than leaving a random dead man in the middle of the road. He said a prayer over the corpse before leaving, joining back up with Emilia who was patiently waiting outside.
A soft yet noticeably unsettled smile grew on Emilia's face when she saw Subaru, offering him her hand once again. They actually needed to do what they came here to do now, something that was completely overshadowed just a moment earlier. Neither child had yet properly registered what had just transpired, their eerily calm demeanours unfitting for the current situation. Regardless, they had the address of the msn they needed, but it wasn't much use to them as they hadn't a clue about the town itself, therefore their first logical course of action would be…
"Let's find an inn, hopefully they can point us to where we're meant to be going. I'm also rea~lly hungry," Emilia smiled gracefully, rubbing her tummy. They also needed some time to just sit and talk. They had so many thoughts, so many feelings…some time to think everything over would be necessary.
They had tasted the sour horrors of the world. The real world.
"Hey, Lia," Subaru whispered, "I know it's all quiet right now, but try to keep your ears covered. That's what set the other guy off I think,"
Emilia glanced at her companion, her amethyst eyes littered with nervous doubt.
"Subaru…I'm scared. What if that happens again? What if they all know?"
The gentle hand that weaved into his gripped on harder. He was furious. The damage they did to such an innocent, well-intentioned girl was absolutely unforgivable. Emilia had done nothing wrong, yet she had once again been forced into hiding something she should be proud of just to survive. Her fear was not just a consequence of their earlier encounter, but a gross amalgamation of years of suffering and isolative torture.
From that moment on, he made a mental vow to never let her fall into that isolation again.
"It's okay, we just need to wrap our business up here and we can be on our way. I promise it will all be okay," he reasoned, stroking her hair with a soft touch.
"D-Do you promise…really?"
"I do. I promise you Emilia-tan. It'll be alright."
—-
The pair once again set off for the nearest inn. It was a necessary detour, and would save them a whole deal of unnecessary interactions. Both of them had their hair tied back in ways that neatly disguised their ears, something which generated a naturally uncomfortable feeling of guilt, yet it was better than risking any more adverse reactions.
Such a small town only really had one travellers inn, so there was never really any confusion or conflict. The entire area was strangely deserted though, it wasn't that early so there should definitely be at least one person out and about…but there wasn't. Not a soul.
Yet, before their minds could really register the complete multitude of red flags, a rather large stone building stood before them, a crimson red banner reading 'Infirmary St Inn'.
Without hesitation, Subaru pushed the heavy wooden door inwards, yet it was only once the pair strode inside that they noticed the interior.
It was genuinely nice, and obviously taken care of. The walls were adorned in a nice paper, the tables were made of the solid oak from the surrounding forests, and a cushiony red carpet lay spread across the floor. It was dimly lit, but that only added to the tavern-like atmosphere. A small bar sat contently in the far corner, a generous array of seemingly potent liquor orderly stacked on the back shelves. It was homely, warm. A fantastic inn.
However, much to the steep disappointment of a certain Natsuki Subaru…
The place was completely and utterly wrecked.
Yes the tables were lovely, yet the fact that half of them were smashed to pieces didn't really help things. That's not really how tables work sadly, so it was unfortunate. The carpet was red, yes, but Subaru very quickly realised that it was only red in the centre, conveniently where a headless body lay rather unalive. Furthermore, the simply delightful wallpaper had been painted red also, albeit in a much more sporadic and uncontrolled pattern. The head of the poor fellow was wedged in the wall, unfortunately for him. The liquor was fine though, rather conveniently.
The pair wordlessly wandered into the middle of the fairly spacious room, the squelch of the sodden carpet driving pangs of nausea into their stomachs. Subaru knelt down to check on the corpse, but sadly that was all it was. Absolute brutality.
"Subaru,"
"What the fuck do we do,"
"No, Subaru."
The nasty eyed boy turned to face his female partner who kept repeating his name. This was absolutely unexpected, what in the dragon's name had happened to this place? Why had an assumedly innocent tavernkeep been executed in such a grotesque way? He had so many questions that he was fucking terrified to have answered.
However, as he turned to face Emilia, he very quickly noticed that she did not return his gaze. Her eyes were locked onto something behind them, and the trembling of her hands was the opposite of subtle. She was shit scared.
Glancing back expecting another body or something along those lines, Subaru was beyond disturbed to notice that was not the case. In fact, he would have much rather it have been. No, as he turned back, he found exactly what had shaken Emilia to her core.
A petite girl solely clad in a black robe stood ominously at the doorway, her pointed ears protruding from her bubblegum pink hair. At first glance, one may assume she was a mere lousy child, yet she produced an atmosphere so obscenely vile that it was dubious whether she was even a person.
Her eyes weren't focused on one of the two elves, yet her menacing aura pierced through them both, excavating their souls and intruding on their very existences. She was a total stranger to them, yet felt so familiar it was disgusting. Subaru instinctively pulled Emilia in towards him, his grip on her hand tightening. She felt hostile beyond logic, and that unsettled them deeply. What the hell was she?
Neither party moved. They simply remained locked in their trance-like state, one side too terrified to move, the other simply remaining still. It was a one-sided deadlock.
Until her hands illuminated, and the faint glow of death crept into the room.
This is nice.
Thanks again to Turacoveredin and Mobotium for reviewing and editing this on such short notice.