Greed Chapter 7: Cornered

'What the hell happened? Why did I suddenly loop—no, the better question is what caused my counterpart to loop?'

This was something that started to bother Subaru since every time he seemed to have the situation in his favor, his other self would just kill himself causing them to start from square one.

'I wonder what prompted him to off himself this time.'

"Is something wrong, Subaru?"

"...hm?" Subaru turned towards Emilia, noticing her question. "Oh, yeah. Sorry, I was in deep thought."

"Is it something we should be concerned with?" Otto chimed in, knowing that something was bothering his best friend.

"I'll be fine, really. Let's just keep our guards up."

As he said this, he grabbed onto Beatrice's hand before taking the lead.

The little loli spirit was caught off guard by this...however she felt safe holding Subaru's hand.

"Is everything okay?" She asked, wanting to make sure her contractor wasn't trying to hold his worries to himself. Subaru took note of this, prompting a response:

"I feel that something's coming. I just don't want any of you to get hurt."

Subaru was honest here since in the last loop, what worried him the most was his Beatrice dealing with Roswaal all by herself.

If he knew anything it was that although his spirit is powerful, against Roswaal...it would only be a matter of time before the Margrave beat her the moment she ran out of mana.

'I don't want you leaving my side, Beako. I need you to save her, save the Beatrice of this world.'

As he thought this, he thought back to the last loop on just how deep the hole in this world's Beatrice's heart was.

It was hard enough reaching Beatrice the first time around and he knew that this time he won't be able to since the other Subaru would find a way to make sure it did not happen.

'Whatever this bastard did, it just made things worse for Beako 2. The only one who can save her now is my Beako.'

The second his thought ended here; he suddenly felt an extremely head pounding headache that caused him to almost collapse to the ground.

"Subaru?!" Both Emilia and Beatrice shouted as they saw him wobble in place.

"I-It's fine! Just...give me a second."

As he shouted this, he began to understand a little more on the situation with Beatrice.

How his counterpart just entered the burning mansion and grabbed her without trying to reach her heart first.

No, he chose to forcefully take her out of the Forbidden Library with no say in the matter on her end.

("NO!")

He could hear the despair and hatred in Beatrice's voice shout as she checked on the surviving books from the library.

Both Natsuki Subaru from the memory and the Natsuki Subaru receiving the memory were caught off guard when they saw that the books that had survived were just…blank from cover to cover.

Subaru understood a bit of Beatrice's rage, knowing that the cause was for sure that she was taken from the library, explaining the anger and sadness in her scream.

However, what he didn't realize was that Echidna had some plan in case something happened to Beatrice.

'Of course, give her a blank book to leave her depressed but have a way to protect the knowledge should something happen to her. What a greeeeat mother.'

While Subaru was mad at Echidna for this, he was even more enraged with his counterpart seeing that he made such a selfish choice without taking the consideration of Beatrice's feelings into account.

"What's wrong, Natsuki-san?!" Otto speaks, causing Subaru to turn towards him, noticing everyone was worried for his sake.

He took a moment before looking towards the direction of the mansion, having a bad feeling as well as wanting to confront his counterpart now more than ever.

"The version of me from this world…"

"What about him?" Emilia asked, curious what her knight was going to say.

"...I'm going to punch him in the face."

As he said this, he continued walking forward with Beatrice by his side, determined to reach this world's Natsuki Subaru no matter what it took. Otto and Emilia looked at each other for a moment, both thinking on the same wavelength that something's wrong here.

"Let's keep a close eye on him from here on out, Emilia-sama."

Emilia nodded at this, agreeing that they should keep an eye on her knight.

As the two were following behind, the four of them walked through the forest for a couple of minutes before suddenly Subaru stopped on his tracks.

"What's wrong?" Beatrice asked, having a bad feeling about this. Subaru turned towards Beatrice for a moment before looking behind her, noticing something charging right at them.

'What is...?'

He paused before realizing that it's Garfiel and he was already looking steaming mad.

'Already?' Subaru questioned, seeing that his counterpart must be desperate to attack by having Garfiel go first.

Before anything else can be thought off, his survival instincts kick in by quickly shouting:

"Beako! E*M*M!"

Beatrice was surprised by this sudden shout but understood within a second that her contractor would only shout a move of theirs if something's about to happen.

She quickly creates a barrier that can't be interfered with by anything outside of it.

As Beatrice created this, Subaru turned towards Emilia and Otto's direction to see that Ram was about to attack the pair from behind.

"Emilia-tan! Otto! Behind you!"

The two heard this, prompting the pair to turn around and just barely notice Ram long enough to dodge her attack.

Emilia creates a quick barrier of ice to counter Ram's wind attack, protecting not only her but also Otto.

As Emilia was able to counter this, the ice barrier broke with Ram charging onto Otto, viewing him the weakest link.

Before being able to reach the merchant, the silver haired half elf managed to get in between the two to protect him.

As she was in Ram's way, the two clashed with Otto turning towards Subaru and Beatrice's direction, seeing that their ability was able to protect them from Garfiel's attack.

The demi human boy looked at Subaru with intense anger before slamming his foot to the ground.

As this happened, underneath Subaru and Beatrice's feet suddenly exploded which had the two covered in dirt.

"How do ya like th't?!" Garfiel shouted, enjoying his attack on Subaru.

Once the dust settled, the enjoyment in his face faded away and turned into absolute hatred as he saw that Subaru was not harmed by the attack.

"Th'Fuck?!"

"You'll have to do better than that, Garfiel." Subaru spoke confidently, knowing that for now the demi human boy can't do much for now.

"Don't taunt him, I suppose." Beatrice chimed in, knowing that this ability isn't infinite.

"I know, but he needs someone to keep his ego in check."

"*Sigh*, that's not the problem."

As Beatrice said this, the two watched as the demi human boy grabbed a tree and managed to rip it from the ground with ease.

He prepared to throw it towards their direction, prompting the little loli spirit to put down the barrier before creating a portal right behind them.

"Subaru."

"On it."

Subaru quickly carried the little loli spirit before jumping into the portal, just barely avoiding Garfiel's tree attack.

"Get yer ass back here, fuckin' coward!"

As Garfiel shouted this, he looked at his surroundings before spotting Subaru a couple of feet away from him.

"There ya fuckin' are, Natsuki Subaru!"

As Garfiel prepared to charge at him, he was suddenly smacked in the head with enough force to cause him to be slammed onto the ground.

Subaru was surprised by this, seeing that Emilia had managed to get to Garfiel to stop him from attacking her knight.

"Emilia-tan!"

"Otto! Please keep Subaru safe."

As she shouted this, she resumed her fight with Ram, protecting herself from the pink haired maid's attacks.

Before Subaru could even try to help her, Otto grabbed onto his arm to pull him towards the direction where the mansion was located.

"Come on, Natsuki-san, let's get out of here!"

"Wait but—"

"She'll be fine. Emilia-sama's strong."

Subaru was very uncertain about leaving Emilia to handle both Garfiel and Ram...however, he knows that Emilia has certainly become much stronger than before. All he could do is think:

'Don't try too hard, Emilia-tan.'

As he, Beatrice, and Otto started to make their way towards the mansion, Otto began to say:

"Seems like your counterpart has decided to attack first."

"I'm not surprised by that, I'm just shocked he didn't send Reinhard first."

"...what?"

Otto was stunned by these words.

"Y-Your saying th-that he has the sword saint by his side?!"

"...right, I forgot to mention that." Subaru said as he nervously chuckled.

"This is no time to be laughing!" The merchant shouted, not liking Subaru's way of acting in such a situation.

"Calm down, Otto. The reason Reinhard won't be sent is because I have a counter for him."

"A counter? Against the Sword Saint?" The Merchant was in disbelief at what his best friend was saying. "This is no time to joke around, Natsuki-san!"

"I ain't joking around, Otto. I know something that Reinhard doesn't know. Something that'll cause Rein to turn on this world's Natsuki Subaru."

"And what might that be, in fact?" Beatrice questioned as she was curious what her contractor knew.

Subaru was silent for a moment as he once again recalled the conversation his counterpart had with Felt, knowing the menacing tone he had towards her disguised as someone who wanted to help.

"To make it short, my counterpart convinced Felt to leave the royal selection behind Rein's back."

"...that's pretty scummy." Otto said, seeing that this Natsuki Subaru they will be dealing with is pretty smart to be able to do something like that behind the Sword Saint's back. "Then we should keep our guards up. Who knows what the other Natsuki-san has planned for us."

"Agreed."

As the three were closing in on the mansion, the three of them stopped as they saw someone was standing right there, waiting for them.

"Of course, it had to be Roswaal."

Subaru knew that the only person who has a better chance at dealing with the clown himself is his contracted spirit, Beatrice.

He knew this and yet he didn't want her being on her own once again, facing this monster.

"I shall deal with him, I suppose—"

"No you won't." Subaru said immediately. "Not alone."

Subaru turned towards Otto to tell him:

"You go ahead, I'll be counting on you to find the Sword Saint."

"H-Hold on, are you sure I should be the one to speak to him?" The Merchant asked, seeing that perhaps it would be more effective if Subaru would be the one to do the convincing since he had the full story.

Subaru gave a calm expression to him while responding to his question with:

"I trust you, Otto."

The Merchant was surprised by this for a second before nodding with a serious expression, seeing that he's got an important role now.

As Otto heads off in another direction to find a way into the mansion, Subaru and Beatrice look at Roswaal, seeing that he's not moving from his position.

The two looked at each other for a moment, nodding once they understood that they'll have a nearly impossible fight before turning towards the Margrave.

As the two looked at him once again, they began to approach him. Once they were within his presence, the Margrave tilted his head as he was intrigued by what he was seeing.

"My Myyyy. Seeing you two together is quiiiiite a treat."

"Seems like you are the same as usual, I suppose." Beatrice spoke with her usual blank expression. Roswaal immediately caught on to this.

"The same Beatrice aaaaaaas usual. It really does bring back some good memories."

Beatrice and Subaru remained on guard as Roswaal was speaking, knowing that the Margrave had something in mind.

"You know, Ros-chi, I'm curious. Did you know we were coming because of my counterpart or did that book of yours tell you that we were coming?"

"I see. So you knoooow about that. Fascinating."

Roswaal was impressed by the fact that this Natsuki Subaru knows about his gospel, making him aware that something about this Subaru is different.

All the while, Subaru knew that he should've kept that to himself however he wanted Roswaal to know that he knows his secret.

"So, where's my counterpart hiding?"

"Oh, he's around. Just waaaaiting for the right moment."

"..." Subaru remained silent when hearing this.

'Right moment? The hell is he planning?'

While he was thinking this, he noticed that Roswaal was preparing himself for a fight.

"Beako. E*M*T."

"Understood."

As Beatrice follows Subaru's words, she creates a spherical field around them just as Roswaal swiftly begins using his six-fold magic.

Just as it seemed like the six-fold magic was about to hit the two, it suddenly faded away.

"Hm?"

"Didn't expect us to have a counter for you, did ya?" Subaru boasted when speaking this, catching the interest of Roswaal.

"Impressive."

As he was preparing to go for a close quarters fight, Beatrice immediately took off the spherical field to create a portal for her and her contractor to escape.

As the two teleport to a different area, Roswaal takes a moment to look around before creating a fireball and tossing it to a specific direction.

These instincts from the Margrave were correct since Beatrice and Subaru had just left the portal.

The boy noticed this and quickly used Invisible Providence to push away the fireball in order for the two to not get hit.

"Not happening!"

As Subaru was able to counter this attack with his body feeling strained for using the sloth witch factor, Beatrice takes this opportunity to follow up with a counter attack.

"El Minya!"

The purple projectiles were created within a few seconds before firing directly towards Roswaal's direction but the margrave had already avoided this attack before charging directly at the duo.

"Beako! E*M*M!"

"On it!"

Beatrice once again created a barrier that protected her and her contractor from whatever attacks Roswaal tried on them.

The Margrave instantly noticed that his kicks had no effect on Subaru, prompting him to quickly float a few feet back.

"Isn't that quiiiiiite the trick you have there."

"Of course, nothing can hurt us in this state." Subaru said proudly, to which Roswaal raised an eyebrow by this.

"Oh. But I wooooonder how long it'll last."

As Subaru said this, he could feel Beatrice tightening a bit her grip on his hand, giving an indication that this is indeed something to worry about.

'Shit. The last thing we need is for Beako to run out of mana this early.'

Realizing that this could lead into a problem, he turned towards his back side and thought about the mansion.

Considering how similar it is to the one from his world's version, he had an idea on how to get out of this predicament.

He turned towards his contracted spirit to ask:

"Do you have enough mana to teleport us to another area?"

"I only have enough for one more, I suppose."

"Okay then I have an idea." As he said this, he quickly whispered into her ear, giving out the idea he had. Beatrice took in what was said before thinking about this idea.

"It could work if the layout is the same as ours, in fact."

"Well, one way to find out."

Beatrice nods as she knows this is a better chance than waiting for the barrier to run out since she doesn't have enough mana to have a long drawn-out fight with someone like Roswaal. As she stops providing mana to the barrier, causing it to instantly go down, Roswaal takes this chance to toss a couple of fireballs towards the two.

Beatrice quickly created a portal behind her and Subaru before the pair jumped in, avoiding the attack.

As the portal went away, the fireballs hit the ground Subaru and Beatrice were standing a few seconds ago before exploding.

The Margrave looked around to see if they were trying to attack him from his blindside.

Once he inspected the area, he noticed that Natsuki Subaru and Beatrice that he encountered were no longer around.

"Hm. I see. Interesting."

Roswaal crossed his arms as he said this, impressed by the quick thinking that Natsuki Subaru had.

He lowered himself to the ground before walking towards the mansion, curious about his partner in crime.

'I truly wonder, how are thiiiiiings from your end, Natsuki Subaru-kun.'

Otto Suwen was running towards the side of the mansion, hoping that the layout would be the same as the one from his world.

As he was closing in on the secret entrance, he could hear sudden explosions from a distance.

This caused him to turn towards the sound, curious about if it's Emilia's fight with both Garfiel Tinsel and Ram.

'I do feel bad for having Emilia-sama fight both Ram-san and Garfiel-san all on her own.'

Otto didn't like having Emilia do all the work for them...however considering the opponents were Garfiel and Ram, she was the strongest of the group to handle the two.

He's also aware that she isn't someone to take lightly.

Seeing her easily knock Garfiel to the ground with a strong smack to the demi human boy's head was no small feat after all.

He closed in on the mansion while also inspecting the area, wanting to make sure that there's no traps set around him.

'Hm. It seems to be unoccupied...' Otto was silent in his thoughts as the suspicious thing he notices is that there weren't any animals around, not even insects. 'That's abnormal. At the very least there'd be a bug or two around.'

Otto was growing wary by this, prompting him to have his guard up as he entered the mansion.

As he was inside, he remembered that the goal was to find two specific people, the Sword Saint himself and the Natsuki Subaru of this world.

'If I can find the Sword Saint, I can convince him to help us. That's what Natsuki-san's counting on.'

As Otto looked around for what could be a sign of Reinhard or a sign of Natsuki Subaru around, he did notice that the place was similar in some ways to the mansion back in his world but also different.

"Different, isn't it?"

A voice in the darkness spoke out, causing the merchant to be on his guard.

"Who's there?"

As Otto said this with a serious expression, the person in the shadows was revealed to be Petra, who seemed to recognize him.

"Petra-chan?"

"...I'm surprised you remember me." She said with a blank expression, knowing who Otto is.

"Of course I do, I see you every day."

"...?" Petra was confused by the merchant's words.

"What?"

"You just said something weird and untrue."

"But it is—" He paused himself as he remembered that this isn't his world, meaning this Petra isn't the one he always interacts with during his Internal Minister of Affairs duties. "Wait, what happened to...me?"

"What...a weird question. Are you okay?"

"I am!"

"No need to get so hostile Otto...then again, you were always easy to mess with." Another voice spoke out, causing Otto's expression to turn into a serious one as he knows who that is.

"Natsuki Subaru."

"Otto Suwen."

The two stared each other down for a moment, both of them understanding the threat the other possessed while Petra remained in the sidelines, worried for Subaru's sake.

"What happened to you, Natsuki-san?"

("I'm sorry, Natsuki-san. This is farewell.")

'...' Subaru remained silent as he heard the voice of Otto Suwen. Not the one who was standing in front of him but the one who was there during the events of the Sanctuary.

("—I uhm, Natsuki-san. Even though things are like this, I thought of you as my benefactor. I thought of you as a person I owed a great debt to which I wanted to pay as soon as possible.")

'Stop...'

("—But, I saw your decision and I understand it. You don't want anyone's help, and on the contrary, you're going to try and somehow do everything by yourself, and you can do it.")

'Stop!'

("—Therefore, this is my way of returning the favor. Since you probably will try to protect everyone who you are close to, I will take my leave.")

'Dammit I said stop!' Natsuki Subaru shouted in his mind, starting to look angry which caught Otto and Petra's attention.

("—Well then, goodbye, Natsuki-san. Take care of yourself.")

'...'

("—I thought of you as my friend.")

'...'

("—You wouldn't have thought that though.")

"S-Subaru-sama?" Petra asked, worried for his sake. Otto would worry but he knew better, he knew that this Natsuki Subaru had a sudden anger directed towards him.

"What hurts more than just leaving, assuming that you were doing me a favor, is assuming that we weren't friends."

As he said this, the merchant had his guard up once again, knowing full well that a fight between the two was about to break out. Before this happened, Subaru gave Otto a look of disgust as he said:

"Why did you stay with him? What makes that bastard special?!"

Subaru charged at Otto with a knife in his hand suddenly, starting the fight between a merchant from another world and a broken boy.