Chapter X: And So They Went

A/N:

We're almost through the slow part of Rem and Subaru's journey, so I thought that maybe a long chapter that started with fluff and ended with action would be a good way to cap off the "self discovery" arc of Subaru's story and prime us up for Arc 3, the second arc of this story.

Arc 2 takes a bit longer here than in the original and I toyed around with the time of Roswaal's departure, just as a heads-up.


A discordant sour note was all that Satella... the Witch? The two of them could hear, wrapped in their recycling coil of war for reality. Along the desecrated strings of the bond, each felt, lived, the repulsive sensation that something had gone wrong. Something had gone terribly wrong, and it felt as if they had been irreparably, unhealingly injured as the two sides faced one another within and without. There, an uncommon moment of respite formed as lucidity turned her... their... attention to the bond.

Decrepit, the bond there near untethered was, hanging ethereally in metareality, strands clinging desperately, the Return by Death the only thing still clinging to life. The Witch... Satella? The half-elf unaffectedly stared at nothing. There was nothing to stare at. Nothing at all. There was nothing.

Nothing.

Nothing...

Nothing...

Numb, Satella sat there. The Witch sat there too. Natsuki Subaru...


Subaru awoke to the vision of absolutely nothing, staring up into the void of darkness that formed in his room in the waning hours of the night. He couldn't even see inches in front of his face, and figured that it had to be somewhere around three or four in the morning. His right hand was bundled up in something soft and pleasantly smooth to the touch, while his left was resting on the feminine form that was flush against his side, fingers thoughtlessly drifting up and down her clothed lower back.

They had been lost to their senselessness for the greater part of two hours. Kisses had been shared, hands had wandered farther than they likely should have, his shirt had been removed, and the swelling of his lips reminded him that he had embarrassingly found himself paying her far too much attention before the two had quickly fled from the rapidly escalating situation for which neither of them had been fully prepared. With both a heady feeling of pride and a smaller, niggling voice of guilt, he recalled that he had been the initiator for most of the experience and Rem had been too pleased to really be inclined to refuse. She had quickly agreed when he fled from the situation. Evidence, he thought, that she was less all-in physically than one would think. He could understand.

He continued running his hand over her back and laid his head back on the pillow. He could feel her breaths breezing over the skin of his chest, which made him smile to himself as he closed his eyes to let the darkness reclaim him.

...

A rustling feeling on his lower body woke him back up a few hours later, and he opened his eyes to the sight of his ceiling, now visible in the morning light. He looked down to see the maid whose hair his hand was mussing up stirring awake, eyes drifting open and taking stock of the situation in which she found herself. He untangled his hair from her hand, letting her prop her head up by the chin on his chest.

"Ah... Good morning, Subaru-kun," she said, her lips splitting into a content smile. He couldn't help but scratch the back of his head and smile back. She just looked too cute with her hair all facing in one direction like that.

"Good morning, Rem-rin. How did you sleep?" he asked. The content smile turned into an even more content sigh.

"Rem slept well. Subaru-kun makes a good pillow," she responded. He couldn't help the single amused huff that escaped from his nose at that.

"Well, I try. For the ladies, you know?" he said, poking himself in the chest with his free thumb in trumped up pride.

"Rem hopes... after last night... only for the one?" he heard her ask hopefully. Ah, that's right. They hadn't really talked about it, had they? He had just gone right in for it like he always did, and she had gone along with it, and neither of them had spoken once their lips had touched. With a coy thought, he figured he couldn't blame his past self for it. Subaru settled his thoughts by sweeping her tousled hair back into something resembling proper.

"I think I would like to see where this goes. Just Rem-rin and I," he started, watching her face light up like he had just bought her a house, "So maybe that date in the village... we can make it our first?"

"Hai!"

He had never seen her make that face before, but he quickly resolved he'd like to see it again in the future.


Subaru dressed himself and took care of his morning routine as quickly as possible, walking back into the hallway to meet up with Rem and Ram to divide up morning duties for the three of them. He had finished a little earlier than he'd thought, as when he arrived the two maids were nowhere to be found, so he spent the next few minutes counting the ridges on the walls and floors, leaning up against a doorframe. When his attention was fully engrossed in thoughts about the world and his plans for the future now that he and Rem were, well, actually together, the door opened right beside him and startled him out of it.

Rem stepped out of the room in a fresh maid outfit. However... There was something off. As she squeezed and then released his hand in greeting, he found his attention trailing to her neck, where...

"Ehhh!? Rem-rin!" he shout-whispered, making her jump and blink, following his now pointing hand down. She couldn't see what he was pointing at though.

"What is it, Subaru-kun?""

He reached his hand out a little further and prodded at a spot on her neck, which was tender to the touch and caused her to fold in on that side and close one eye. There, on the right side of her neck, was a dark spot that was only half covered by the collar of her maid outfit- clear evidence of their late night activities and something totally improper for her station. Rem raised a hand up to the spot and he watched her face turn from its porcelain white to cherry red as she realized what exactly he was pointing out.

It was at that key, inopportune moment that Ram exited a room and entered the hallway, sidling up alongside her sister and blinking when she saw Subaru, hand up and pointing at Rem, who was blushing brightly and clutching her neck. A vein popped on her forehead as she realized what exactly must have gone on between the two of them, and she brought her hand up to massage the bridge of her nose as she realized she couldn't exactly be angry about it considering she had at least implied she supported it the previous night. She held out a parchment to the pair and looked away.

"Just pick your duties for the day and go away, Barasu," she grated out. Subaru copied down a list of chores and fled from the scene of the crime in record time.


The following week was a bit of a blur for the two of them now that there wasn't anyone seeking to put Subaru in an early grave anymore, at least that they knew about. Without half the mansion being suspicious of him, Subaru had managed to visit Arlam Village a couple of times to scout it for the demon beast that they would have to watch out for, and to meet with all of the townsfolk. After working extra hard to make sure he could visit the village, he had gotten the chance to teach them calisthenics and aerobics after one of the elderly townsmen noted that he was particularly spry and springy even for a young man, and the townsfolk had taken to him happily the third time he visited and were pleased when they got the chance to help him set something up for their date.

One of the girls, a purple haired one, kept giving him odd looks from time to time whenever he visited, but all in all he considered his scouting at the village to be a success. He had only seldom seen Arlam prior to the fight with the Wolgarm, and he had already gathered a bit more information about the surrounding area, like the layout of the defensive barrier and even a general overview of the terrain inside the forest. He and Rem wouldn't have to fly by the seat of their pants this time. He would protect her from going into a berserker like state this time.

Subaru and Rem had continued to meet and then sleep in the same room every night. No one seemed to comment on it, although he could see Ram's mouth morph into a terse smile every morning when she saw the two of them, so he figured he was pushing his luck and so he was on his best behavior over the week, until after the fourth day the pink-haired girl just sighed and greeted them in the morning. Sleeping together just felt... right, for some reason. Like it would be uncomfortable to do it any other way, he thought. He was sure that Rem felt the same way considering how quickly she finished up in the evening now.

So it was that most of the first week of them officially living in the same manor together passed by, until on the sixth day it was time for Subaru to accompany Rem down to Arlam for their date. He was so nervous- even more nervous than his failed date with Emilia!


Ram watched Subaru put away the broom with a weary look adorning her face. Try as she might, even though she had given them her tacit blessing, she had tried to find something about Natsuki Subaru that would give away some nefarious true thoughts about Rem, but he seemed to legitimately care about her just as much as she did about him, and the way that he lit up when she walked into the same room as him was something that she didn't imagine anyone would be able to fake reliably. She would just have to inwardly face the music, just as she had outwardly done so when she had found them together in that room after an odd conversation between the two.

"Ehh..." she sighed, drawing his attention to her, "I suppose I should wish Barasu luck on his courtship with my sister."

"Heheh," he started, scratching the back of his head nervously, "There's no need to sound so put out about it, Ram. But thank you for the sentiment. I'll make sure to make it a good date for her sake!"

She crossed the floor between the two of them and put her hands on her hips, looking up at him sternly and huffing at him as she searched his nervous face for something he couldn't quite understand, before stepping back and staring up at the ceiling in exasperation, hands meshing together in front of her. Then she looked back at him in resignation. It only lasted for a few seconds, though, before she gave him a paper-thin smile. It was as close to friendly as they'd gotten and it did seem like she'd toned down her dislike quite a bit to reach this point, he figured.

"You'd best," she said, "or else."

"Eheheheh... Yeah. Well, uh, see ya, Ram-senpai!" he chuckled out unevenly. As quickly as he could reasonably do, he closed the door to the broom closet and retreated from the terrifying girl towards his bedroom. There was absolutely no way he was going to spend any more time than he had to discussing his and Rem's date with her sister, the pink-haired horror.

Arriving in his room at last, he set about dressing into his tracksuit and combing over his hair, then checked himself over one last time. Reckoning he wouldn't look any better even if he tried, he made the journey from his room across the hallway with some amount of trepidation. He had only felt nervous before, but now he found himself wondering if maybe he would mess the evening up for Rem, and then she would feel resentful towards him for it. It was completely irrational given how he knew Rem thought about him, but the fear remained.

Finally, though, he reached her door and raised his hand up in front of it, then stared up at his knuckles up against the door in hesitation. Once he knocked on that door, he would in effect be giving up on his dreams of marrying Emilia unless something drastic happened. This would possibly change the course of his lives forever, and there was no way that he could possibly go back to just fawning over Emilia anymore. If anything went on between the two of them there, it would have to be after deep reflection and quite a bit of heart-to-heart discussion between the two of them.

His heart rebelled against that, though. No, he had pretty much already given in to that permanent change twice already. Once, he had declared that Rem came first, and again he had chosen her first last night, between just the two of them. He had already made up his mind and these little flights of fancy were nothing more than childish thoughts from the past flying in the face of a more mature understanding of the world. They were remnants of a simpler time in his lives and nothing more. No, he could do this.

He knocked.


Rem had clothes other than her maid outfit, of course, but Subaru had scantly seen them as of yet. That was why, when she opened the door and revealed her hair had been done up prettily with a flower on one side, clad in a soft pink yukata that accentuated her softly blushing face, Subaru was awestruck. She really did look cute like that, staring up at him with those big, blue eyes. He reached out and toyed with a strand of her hair, letting his lips spread out in a smile.

"You look great!" he said, hand dropping down to grab her own. She hid her face shyly into the other hand.

"Subaru-kun looks nice too..." she said, making him look down at himself. His tracksuit was unique for the world he was in, he supposed. The thought made his mind wander as the two of them walked through the manor towards the door. With them sharing the resets now, he would eventually have to tell Rem that he was from another world. he wasn't exactly sure how she would react to that, nor if he even could reveal such a thing despite being able to reveal the Return by Death. For all he knew, whatever grip had been on his heart had only been weakened enough for him to mention his curse once. He would have to experiment with it. But that was for after their date was over.

It was the last chance the two of them would have to do something romantic together outside of the manor before things would begin to pick up and the world around them would start to change, he realized. Their first date would possibly be their only one for quite a while. Even just a day from then, they would have to go back down into the village to deal with the Wolgarm before the townspeople were endangered.

"Maa, Rem-rin. Let's have a good time together," he said, looking down to the shorter oni walking beside him. She looked back up at him and considered his words for a few seconds, then squeezed his hand softly. That, he figured, was his answer.

The walk to the village was taken mostly in comfortable silence, the two of them occasionally squeezing the other's hand as if to make sure that the other was still there, and each time, the other would squeeze back. He could feel himself smiling at the path in front of them every time she gave his hand that reassuring squeeze. It was like she was trying to prove to herself that this was all real, which was possibly the sweetest thing anyone in his lives had ever done with regard to him. Her voice broke him out of his thoughts.

"What does Subaru-kun have planned for Rem today?" she asked, looking serenely at the path they walked as the village came into view.

"You'll just have to wait to see the surprise. We'll be there just in a little, you know," he responded coyly, tapping his head with his free hand's pointer finger.

"Hmh! Rem supposes she'll have to wait. If that's what Subaru wants," she said. If Subaru didn't know better he would swear she was pouting at him right that minute, but no, she was still looking up at him with that fulfilled little smile. She was leaning into him even as they held hands, so he figured she was just going along with it.

"Well, there's no need to wait too long! Come on!" he said as they were only a few hundred feet outside the village boundary. Rem made a noise of surprise from the back of her throat as he tugged her with him into a jog, but kept up with him and even joined him in laughing as they came to a stop and she squished into him in front of one of the buildings. He knocked on the door, which soon opened to reveal Old Man Muraosa, the elderly man.

"Ahhh, young man Subaru, and Miss Rem as well!" he noted genially, jabbing at the ground with his walking stick, "You arrived just in time! Come, your spot is already set up."

He walked out into the open air with them and closed the door behind him. As he began to walk, Rem looked up at Subaru with a questioning look mixed with a bit of wonder.

"What does he mean by 'our spot,' Subaru-kun?" she asked. He had obviously planned something beforehand in more depth than she had thought. Just the idea of it had her inwardly jumping for joy, but on the outside the only evidence was when she tightened her grip on his hand and leaned closer into him. Subaru moved them along behind Old Man Muraosa.

"I asked some of the villagers if they'd be willing to set something up for us if I provided the materials for it," he said elusively. She knew he wouldn't give her any more information than that, so instead she watched Muraosa as he led them into a clearing right beside the village, then stopped at the edge of the treeline.

"You two youngsters have fun, now, you hear! Hahahah!" the old man said, tapping the ground with his walking stick once more and then shuffling off back toward the village.

"Thanks, old man!" Subaru called out behind him, much to the grumbling of the well-wishing man, who disappeared into the trees. The clearing in front of them was covered in lush, green grass with a single tree in the middle, shading out a circle in the ground at the center of the dreamfully still meadow. A light breeze was the only thing that gave up that the scene was anything but a still painting in an art gallery. As Subaru led them deeper into the clearing, hand in hand, the small hill upon which the tree sat gave way, until they parted the grass a short distance away from it. There on the ground was spread out a simple cloth with a basket atop it, two wooden dishes topping off the array.

Subaru gently pulled her over toward the blanket and sat down, patting the spot next to him on the cloth. While she had some idea what was going on, Rem wasn't entirely sure.

"Ano, Subaru-kun, what do we do now?" she asked. He stifled the grin that threatened to spread at how cutely naive that question had unintentionally sounded. He had forgotten that picnics weren't really something that the people here were used to doing considering the danger that often faced them out in the wild. Fortunately all he had to ask the townsfolk to do was set up a cloth and food- he provided both himself, although it had taken him several tries to get the food right- and they hadn't asked too many questions.

"This is a picnic. We sit here in the shade and look at how beautiful the world is around us, eat a little bit of a light dinner, and... well, we talk," he said, holding out one of the wooden dishes for her to take. She looked at the basket of what she had correctly assumed was food, then at the dish being held out to her.

"Talk... With Subaru-kun," she mused, and looked out over the vista afforded by the sunny sky. Her favorite moments had been the two of them together, just talking. But now it seemed he had gone out of his way to set something up for just the two of them, out in an undisturbed part of the village grounds where the dark walls of the manor and the loud bustling of the cities were unable to reach them.

She reached out and took the dish with a short but cherishing glance at the man who had stolen her heart. Yes, she could get used to talking with Subaru-kun.


Ram waited by the doorframe and watched as Subaru and Rem walked their way back up the pathway towards the manor, one with a basket filled with dirty dishes and the other with a blanket. While that was confusing and she didn't really care to theorize, the fact that Rem was wearing a satisfied blush across her face and looking up at Subaru in admiration as he animatedly waved his free hand about and talked about something inane that had her nodding along every so often implied that whatever the two of them had done together, Rem had absolutely fallen in love with it. Or perhaps she had just fallen in love with the man who had done it for her, and he could have done anything in the world and it still would have made her happy.

Either way, she concluded as Rem giggled softly into her hand and then interlocked her arm with Subaru's, Rem was a happy oni girl and Subaru had kept up his promise. The pink-haired oni sighed to herself, letting go of that last little bit of resentment towards the man for potentially stealing away her sister. There was just no way she would be able to cling to her dislike of the man if he was able to make Rem this happy with just a few hours of time together.

She sneaked away from the door and back into the manor, wishing the two of them luck despite it all. Neither of the two of them noticed the flash of pink that disappeared from view in front of them as they arrived at the doors of the manor. Instead, they were too focused on one another to pay any attention to the world around them. They separated at the door and stopped to finish up their conversation before entering the sleepy manor.

"And so I woke up in the double bed and there the two of you were again, looking as cute as can be, staring at me as if I were the biggest pervert in the world!" Subaru finished, making Rem giggle into her hand again at the absurdity of it. It was true- she and her sister had both seen him as a bit of a freak when he had first come into their lives, but now that she knew why that was it just made the conclusions they had reached much more amusing.

"Subaru-kun just can't keep out of trouble, can he?" she teased. He raised an eyebrow at her.

"Is Rem-rin calling herself trouble?" Subaru teased back coyly. The two of them realized the implications of what he had just said at the same time.

"Ano...!?" Rem stuttered, coughing into a closed fist as her face ripened into a bright red.

"I didn't mean...! I mean, not like...! But well, not...! Okay, maybe a bit, but..." he stumbled over himself, which only made the redness of her face even worse, until eventually he gave up and just looked at her. When it stopped looking like she was going to boil over, the two of them broke into a conjoined soft laugh.

"Subaru-kun is such a pervert," Rem said, leaning into him.

"Oi! Not all the time! Just when there's a pretty maid sitting right there in front of me and I just want to reach out and..." he started, making the creepiest face he could manage, which caused her to burst into laughter. It was a chiming noise that lifted up his heart and went well, he thought, with the dusting of red across her cheeks. He stared at her in surprise as she recomposed herself.

"Rem will have to protect Ram-oneechan from Subaru-kun's wiles, ne?" she returned through continuing huffs of laughter, which caught him off guard and he joined her again. After her last tease, though, the laughter slowly trickled into silence, and the two of them just stood, looking at one another. For a few moments, there was content, unbreakable silence, until Subaru decided they had to go inside eventually.

"So... I enjoyed myself tonight," he trailed off. The date was over, it implied.

"Rem enjoyed herself, too. But..." she responded, looking for all the world like nothing more than to keep the date going.

"You know we'll still meet up in my room later tonight," Subaru consoled, stepping that extra half-inch closer to her.

"I know," she said, breaking character for just a moment, stepping up to him just enough to match the distance, "but there is something Subaru-kun could do for Rem right now."

The evening ended with a kiss.


The next morning found the two up and about in Subaru's room bright (well, in spirit at least) and early. Today was the day that they would be handling the issue with the Wolgarm. The two woke up two hours early to make sure that they would have that much time extra to go into the village and handle the problem. Thanks to Subaru's frankly outlandish memory of his resets, they knew that the puppy would be showing up at the border of the village later that day and that if they wanted to ensure beyond any doubt that the children wouldn't be bitten they would need to show up before the end of their normal shift.

That meant that after they got dressed, Rem left a note for Ram stating that they had begun earlier than normal due to unexpected plans made in the village for that day (which was technically the truth as Rem couldn't stomach the idea of lying to her sister unnecessarily) and set about finishing their daily duties. Subaru also made some extra time during the midday break to speak with Emilia and Puck, realizing that he had neglected it over the course of the week, but after short cordialities and a little bit of playing with Puck he realized that it just didn't feel the same and returned to work.

Over the past week he and Rem had been working on a bit of physical training for him with a sword during breaks, hoping that he would be able to pick up or recall something of use just in case something went wrong with their encounter with the demon wolves. He was honestly more skilled with a sword than anyone had previously given him credit for, but compared to anyone else in the manor that wasn't saying much, not to mention the stronger fighters out in the rest of the world, especially swordsmen like Reinhard and Julius. After that whole affair he would likely be able to face off against one or two of the beasts without dying on his own, at least without some driving cause like Rem's outburst to rend some special energy out from his soul and into his fighting.

Rem had had to make the meals early and set them to simmer for her sister to carry on meal duty without her thanks to their offset schedule, and she was sure that Roswaal would take note of the off-kilter status of his staff and react in some way. Still, when the day was done, the two of them made their way down to the village again ostensibly to visit the townsfolk.

It was all similar to how he remembered it. The villagers filtered outside to meet them as they wandered into the town limits, asking questions about their time together (which made Subaru nervous since he didn't know how many people Rem wanted to know about that, but she didn't seem to mind) and ultimately settling on doing aerobic exercises just like he recalled. Rem joined him for a few exercises, which had him laugh when she struggled with the unnatural moves. The children seemed to love her frilly maid outfit just as much as he did and gathered around to clasp at her skirt when she sat down on the steps of one of the buildings to watch Subaru interact with the villagers.

When she looked up from them, though, she saw one- a little purple haired girl- walk up to Subaru with a small dog in her hands. Subaru gave the thing a weary look but reached down to pet it anyway. He couldn't let on that the dog was a demon or else it could put the rest of the village at risk. She watched in silence as the dog bit his hand, leaving a sinister looking black and purple mark.

"Subaru-kun!" she called out, shooting up from her seat and running over to him. That hadn't been part of the plan! The purple haired girl looked startled and backed away quickly, watching as Rem fussed over the black-haired man who had just been cursed.

"It's okay, Rem-rin. Just a little bite, see?" he said, holding up his hand for her to look it over as if it weren't a deadly curse. She gave him a searing look that reminded him how dangerous she could be when she was angry, but she must have seen something flash through his eyes that she didn't like because she flinched and looked away from him. She turned to the children and kneeled down to their level.

"Rem-oneechan and Subaru-oniichan need to go back to the manor to clean up this nasty bite. Thank you for playing with us," she said. The children must have detected some level of worry in her voice, because one of them clamored at her skirt again.

"Ne, oneechan, will Subaru-oniichan be okay?" the child asked, and Rem's face softened.

"Rem-oneechan is sure Subaru-oniichan will be okay. It's just a little bite. Just make sure you don't get close to the puppy's face, okay?" she responded, straining herself not to give a more stern warning. It really wasn't fair that Subaru would take a risk like this without telling her.

Their way back up to the manor was also mostly silent this time, only where before the silence had been full of content, mushy thoughts, this time a miasma of anger hovered over their heads as Subaru nervously scratched at the bitemark on his hand. He hadn't intended to make her angry at him. As far as he knew she had never been angry at him before, once she actually knew him, so it was uncharted territory for him. Plus, he had a reason.

"Why did Subaru-kun do it?" her voice broke into the silence. Subaru flushed. She was really irritated.

"Ah, well, uh, see..." he started, but didn't know how to finish. Shit, he realized, he had made a promise that he would take his lives more seriously, hadn't he? At the time he hadn't really thought of the bite as life-threatening because it could be cured by killing the Shaman, but he realized that he could understand why exactly Rem was so unhappy with him.

"Subaru-kun promised. He promised he wouldn't get himself killed unless someone died. Subaru-kun promised!" she accused, standing stock still on the road with her hands grasped tightly in front of her. No, he realized, she wasn't so much irritated as she was worried sick and stressed out by the situation. He had basically attached a ticking clock to his life and she wasn't used to him dying yet.

"I'm sorry. It was something that occurred to me when I saw the girl with the dog. If Roswaal-sama doesn't know that the Wolgarm are a direct threat, he might put off exterminating them until he gets back and then the townsfolk will be in danger. If one of them has already cursed someone, though, especially one of his employees..." he stopped when she interrupted.

"Then Roswaal-sama will react immediately and clear out the forest. Rem sees why Subaru would do it, but... Subaru-kun promised..." she continued. He reached out and drew her into him, hugging her head to his chest.

"Right, I should have discussed it with you first instead of just making the decision for both of us. I'm sorry. I'm so used to being the only one in the resets that taking the first chance to make things better is my instinct, but the resets belong to both of us now and I shouldn't worry you so much. It won't happen again," he responded earnestly. She sniffled a bit and then righted herself.

"Thank you, Subaru-kun. Rem knows how much Subaru-kun sacrifices himself, and Rem loves him for it," she started, causing his heart to jump into his throat at hearing her say it so straightforwardly, "but he shouldn't have to."

"... Okay."


That situation was resolved for now, but Subaru couldn't shake the feeling that he would be dealing with an especially emotional oni girl later on that day. Still, though, he had proof that the Wolgarm were there, were close enough to the village to be a danger, and were hostile enough to have cursed one of the mansion staff. The two of them hurried up the path to the manor just in time to meet with Roswaal as he stepped out from the manor doors, preparing to leave.

"Neeeee, and whaaaaaat do we have heeeeere?" Roswaal intoned, looking down on the two of them. He had known they had left, of course. Nothing happened in the manor without his knowledge. However... Roswaal narrowed his eyes at the black haired man who had become his butler recently, then widened them minimally when they caught the mark on his hand, "My boooooy, you've been cuuuurrrrsed."

"I know, Roswaal-sama," Subaru replied. The man raised an eyebrow at his butler, "A strange... dog-thing... bit me in Arlam. Rem-rin recognized it as a Wolgarm bite on our way back up to the manor, Roswaal-sama."

Roswaal looked at the mark in intrigue, but the thoughts inside his head were turmoil. The mark was far too small for a full-sized Wolgarm to be the culprit. It had to be a Wolgarm whelp, which meant that there wasn't just a single demon beast in the forest. There was likely a full pack with enough power and resources to breed freely right next to the human settlement. If one had been able to get into the village it meant the magical barrier around the town had been compromised, which meant the rest of the pack could get into the village too. The fact that one had been in close enough contact with someone in the village, his employee even, to bite them meant that the rest of the pack would soon know about the hole in the village's defenses.

He had urgent business to attend to outside of the manor, but with the help of a battle maid and his new butler, he calculated that he could perhaps afford a small detour.

"You praaactice with a swoooord, do you not? Retrieve it. Weeeee will soooolve this problem."


Stepping into the forest was a trepidatious thing for Subaru, who was quite out of his element in any sort of fight. Fortunately they had managed to arrive and remove the children from the dangerous situation that faced them before the puppy could bite any more of them, having returned to the village much sooner than Subaru had in the original run. The purple haired child looked inexplicably displeased with the situation as the puppy had apparently escaped into the forest at the sight of Roswaal accompanied by his two servants marching into the village, but Subaru figured that if he had just lost his new pet he wouldn't be very happy either.

The three of them stepped over logs and around rocks as they ventured farther into the forest in silence, not willing to give away their position to the demon beasts, which had significantly superior hearing. Subaru's sword, a new thing that Roswaal had happily allowed him given his bitter-but-friendly relationship with Ram. Whatever reports she was making to Roswaal, they had to be better this time around than they had been the first time he had defeated the Wolgarm.

A low growl to their front alerted the three that they had found what they were looking for- and the Wolgarm had found them as well. The single low growl split into a wide array of ten, twelve, fourteen low growls in a semicircle around the trio, glowing red eyes prodding through the underbrush to reveal the gaping maws of more demon beasts than Subaru recalled seeing in the previous resets. He had been far more desperate and much less focused on the number of wolves in the previous resets.

"Juuuust as I suspeeeeecteeed. A full paaaaack," Roswaal noted, raising one hand and, without hesitation, launching off a fireball.

Subaru's eyes widened and he tackled Rem to the left as the surprise action sprung the Wolgarm into action the moment Roswaal's hand left his side. Two of them flew over the place where Rem and Subaru had previously been standing next to each other, crossing over one another in mid-air. Roswaal looked behind himself at his two servants who had gathered themselves up from the ground.

"Iiii'll take the group if youuuu look out for the leaaader. You'll haaaaave to if you want to get riiiiid of that currrrse," he said, sweeping his cloak over his shoulder and raising his other hand, a shower of sparks leaking out from the air in front of it and hinting at what was to come. Subaru grumbled under his breath at the uncaring nature of Roswaal's admittedly well-earned confidence.

The sound of a chain beside him flung him back into the real world and he unsheathed his sword as quickly as he could. The two growling Wolgarm now standing behind Roswaal, attempting to form a circle around the three of them now that the opportunity presented itself, padded in opposite directions while staring down the two servants.

"Subaru-kun!" Rem shouted.

"Right!" he responded. He shot forward at the one on the left at a full sprint, knowing that the rightward wolf would pounce at his exposed side the moment he got close enough. The other demon didn't disappoint, springing from its hind feet off a tree and launching itself for his throat. The Wolgarm's snout snapped inches away from his head as he suddenly dropped into a slide and stabbed his sword upward into the flank of the beast. The momentum from his slide carried the blade through the creature's soft underbelly and ripped it open from the bottom. Not losing momentum, he swung his forward to dislodge it from the rent body of the creature and then continued towards the Wolgarm that remained.

When he was close, he stopped and watched the creature snarl at him. It didn't hesitate for long, springing forward and gnashing its wide jaw at him, closing around his sword's long blade. He used his upper body strength and flexed his legs, ripping the sword around with the beast still attached, forcing it to expose its flank.

"Rem, now!" he shouted, pushing the beast away from himself and releasing the blade just in time for a massive mace to slam into the beast from above, Rem landing beside it only a short instant later. He retrieved his blade and swung it in a downward arc, slicing the crushed Wolgarm's neck to ensure died quickly. He wasn't good with a sword, or even particularly a fast learner, but he could still think well on his feet, and the two dogs he had just helped put down proved that he still had it despite the stressful recent past- and his previous loss in the arena.

A flaring noise to their back alerted them that Roswaal had just finished off another beast with a fireball and was now setting about putting out the fire before it could get out of hand without a second beat, keeping his eyes on the remaining beasts who attempted to circle him from the forest. Unfortunately it was for naught that they had kept the beasts on only one side, as rustling in the trees alerted Subaru and Rem that another group of the beasts was approaching from the other direction. There were four of them, sprinting through the trees at them from Roswaal's rear and their front, and it didn't look like Roswaal would be entirely done with his stroll through the forest before these four would attack. But... Yes, in the rear of the group, there watched the puppy from atop a small rock outcrop.

"Roswaal-sama, the leader of the pack is over here!" Subaru shouted, holding his sword out in a defensive pose. Roswaal glanced behind him and then turned back towards his target group, launching off a fireball from each hand and immolating the two targets he had aimed to destroy.

"Iiiii will enjoy this haaaastily then..." Roswaal said primly, as if their situation were a normal dinner party. Subaru hoped that he would finish with what he thought was the main pack before too much longer, as he didn't want to risk finding out if the shaman had brought even more backup.

"What's the plan, Rem?" he said, still holding his sword out in a defensive grip, staring down the slowly approaching quartet of Wolgarm, who trailed their great feet across the ground as they searched for a weakness to exploit.

"Subaru-kun should fight one. He isn't ready to fight two at once without help," Rem said, hunching down lower as she watched the dogs get closer. Subaru wanted to argue that she shouldn't put herself in danger like this, and that he had done well against them when he had fought them for her, but he knew that she was right, and that that had been a fluke of determination and adrenaline more than anything. Instead he hummed out a terse agreement.

When the four were halfway upon them, Subaru flexed his legs again, then bounded straight to the left, forcing two of the beasts to split their attention off from the group and try to make chase. One was stopped from following and had to jump backwards as a giant mace flew through the position it had been moving into before. The chain of the mace wrapped upward and then back down again as the hunk of spiked metal returned to its owner, who twirled the ball twice and let it settle on the ground beside her. Then, she swung.


Subaru rolled into a clearing in the forest as a recovery from his foot catching on a branch. His sword came up just in time to deflect the teeth of the beast that had managed to follow him, and then he swung, swiping a bright gash across the beast's cheek and causing it to roar at him in pain, if the thing could even feel the sensation. It haunched onto its rear paws and then slammed forward, bucking its head into his chest. He barely managed to move in time not to be skewered on the spike of its nose, ramming the pommel of his sword into the thing's neck and forcing it away from himself.

"Get lost, you damned overgrown mutt!" he called. His follow-up underhand slash barely missed the creature's neck and instead took off its left ear at the base, which resulted in a nasty slash on Subaru's arm and a furious growl in retaliation. Things were much easier for him when he had taken the first two dogs by surprise, he thought. Fighting them head to head was much less appetizing.

He kicked outward when the thing looked like it was about to swipe its other clawed paw at him, catching the creature in the nose and shoving it back several feet with a sick snapping noise. The thing's nose was crookedly attached and it glared at him as it hunkered down in its new position, licking its wounds for the short respite the distance would give them, that low growl coming out muffled through the afflicted snout. Subaru raised the sword up above his shoulder, a high guard, and stepped slowly towards the beast, prepared to bring his sword down at any time.

The beast backed away as he got closer to it, though, buying time for itself, although he didn't know for what. Unwilling to let it wait while backup could show up at any time, he launched forward and brought his sword down at the wolf's body, but screamed out in pain as the thing's waiting maw caught him by the sword arm and flung him sideways. He landed with a hollow thunk against one of the forest trees, forcing himself up to his feet and shoving his sword forward despite the pain in his right arm, slashing the beast's paw as it descended down to try and finish him off.

The beast let out its own form of scream as its forepaw was completely severed, and stumbled forward, its balance destroyed by the newly formed stump of an arm. Unsympathetically, Subaru rammed his knee into its side to compel it onto its side, then brought his sword down into the monster's neck. It died with a low whine.


Rem flung the giant mace upward and caught one of the beasts in the stomach as it attempted to pounce on her from above, kicking off of a large stone. It flew backwards but she knew it wasn't dead. Her mace swung around her head twice before launching out and eviscerating the second beast from the side, catching it unaware as it was unable to keep up with speed of her weapon. The first and third formed back up and then sprinted in opposite directions, forming a classic pincer maneuver that had her split her attention between the two and forced her to swirl her mace around her body to deflect a clawed strike from behind with the chain.

Her retaliatory kick took the beast in the chest and caused it to skid backwards, but before she could swing to finish it off she had to block another swipe by its friend on her other side. A surprise third attack swiped across her leg- one of the beasts from Roswaal's group had managed to flank around! At least the shaman hadn't brought any more backup with him for the moment. These things were so much easier to fight when she was a rampaging berserker who didn't care about the injuries they gave her. As it stood she was trying to keep the things focused on her and maybe take as many out as possible until Subaru returned or Roswaal finished his group off.

She twirled her arm and the mace swung around in a circle on her left side, smashing into the third interloper's forward flank and launching it diagonally across the forest floor, where it struggled to stand but eventually managed it. The other two attacked at the same time, troubling her to dodge without being able to counterattack, giving the damned things ground against her and making her unable to swing around her body without risking hitting Roswaal. The things got smarter when they were in packs with their leader, she recalled. They were trying to play strategy against her.

She threw her mace forward, watching dispassionately as it sailed towards the shaman behind the middle Wolgarm. One stepped in to intercept the mace and successfully deflected it by tackling the chain at significant risk to itself, but it gave her enough time to raise one hand and spear one of the ones who remained behind with a shard of ice, killing it instantly. The shaman, seeing that the strange blue demon girl had pulled out magic, raised its head to the sky and let out a sharp, ear-piercing howl.

The one who had intercepted her mace bristled visibly at the noise, then pounced at her again, but a blur impacted the thing mid stride, piercing through it with a long blade. Subaru tugged his sword out of its body and took a stance just in front of her. It gave her what she needed to step forward and reclaim the land that she had lost to the wolves. They were back on even footing.


Roswaal finished blasting the last of the group in front of him into smithereens with limited interest. He hated these creatures, and they put his entire operation at risk as they were currently distracting him from urgent matters that needed addressing. It would cut into his time quite unfortunately later. He had just finished putting out the fire he had caused when the sound of a shrieking howl behind him heckled him out of his care for the forest, drawing his attention over to the smaller group that his two servants had been fighting. The boy, Natsuki Subaru, looked like he had been through a severe fight, but he was still standing strongly and it looked like he had even put his blade to good use. He would be a decent fighter in the future if he had the right motivation. Perhaps never as talented as a knight, but that was hardly a fair comparison.

Rem had a slash on her leg, but was otherwise uninjured and looked mostly fresh. He could tell that most of the issue for her was the stress of having her master to defend behind her and her beloved to defend beside her at the same time. The boy had just helped his other servant reclaim her lost ground when he sensed another group of the feral beasts approaching. It would be more than the two of them could handle, he knew, and he figured that it was about time that he took over. The problem had clearly been more serious than he had first suspected.

Stepping between the two in his employ, he raised his hand and, without much fanfare, obliterated the small pup that had caused the problem in the first place. The pesky beast should have known better. Glancing back to his two servants, he struck forward and began the process of extermination.

Behind him, Rem and Subaru looked over one another, and then gave each other weary smiles.

They had successfully passed over the first hurdle. It was over.