Subaru
"What, exactly do you mean by that?" Subaru inquisitively asked the knight, while trying to remember important details from his past life, something harder done than said, yet he wasn't able to find any memory about Crusch.
"Crusch-sama has been poisoned by the black dragon blood, and her condition has not improved as Felix was not able to extract any information from the captured archbishop." the knight reported with a solemn voice. Subaru looked through his tangled mess of memories, and remembered the driving reason as to why he was tortured.
Voices immediately started materializing in his head.
"All you have to do, you bastard cultist, is to tell me how to cure Crusch-sama, then you can die! Is that really that hard to understand? Didn't that Envy bitch teach you basic understanding?" Felix's voice sent chills down Subaru's spine as he heard metal screeching against the stony floor.
"I don't know anything, I swear!" Subaru pleaded in panic, sweat dripped from his forehead, but it was inevitable.
"I wish you were more cooperative. Nyah, it doesn't matter, I'll do whatever it takes to cure Crusch-sama!" Felix yelled as the sharp knife pierced Subaru, he screamed, not realizing the pain was only the start of the decline of his mental state.
"S—"
"I don't know anything."
"Sh—"
"I don't know, I don't know." Subaru mumbled as he clutched his aching head.
"Shiori-chan!" Subaru snapped at the sudden scream from someone, he focused his eyes and found himself looking at a concerned Petra. He himself was sweating profusely. He was kneeling on the floor with a trembling body.
"Are you okay?" Petra asked anxiously, as she grabbed her handkerchief to wipe off the cold sweat dripping down his forehead. The gentle and tender hand miraculously calmed Subaru, as his body stopped trembling subconsciously.
"I… I think I'm fine, for now." Subaru uttered the words, with a certain uncertainty in it. If he continued to have panic attacks right in front of everyone, he was going to be questioned at some point, so he had to avoid triggering more at all costs, or people would start to think weirdly of him.
The reporting knight's eyes narrowed for a second, before dismissing Subaru's reaction and continued, "I will be taking my leave now. Please make sure that the envelope reaches Emilia-sama." The knight then left the mansion area. Leaving a trail of dust behind as Subaru continued to hide deep in his thoughts.
Crusch-san… she still hasn't been cured of the cursed dragon blood… Felix never let me go anywhere near her, and I was never able to clear my name using Crusch's divine blessing, but they probably wouldn't have trusted me anyways as they probably thought I was insane. Well there is no point in thinking about it anyways, I have no reason to ever try saving her. It'd be more beneficial if I simply stayed away from the capital as far as possible, as Karsten Estate is quite close, the worst part is the cat and the knight… Subaru thought to himself.
"Shiori-chan! Are you coming in or not?" Petra called out, snapping Subaru out of his thoughts as he followed her back into the mansion.
Subaru
"I'm sorry Ram, but I think I've misheard you saying that Crusch-san is…dying?" Emilia words quivered at the statement made by Ram.
"Emilia-sama, a knight from Karsten Estate came here just a few minutes ago, asking us to deliver you this envelope." Ram stated as she handed the small envelope over to Emilia. Emilia looked into the content of the message, and her eyes widened. Was it due to horror? Or due to anguish? Subaru couldn't quite tell. But Emilia definitely believed in Ram now.
"Ram, please make preparations for a carriage to Karsten Estate, now." Emilia requested as she started turning back to her room to make preparations, but stopped and said, "Please also inform your sister and Beako to get ready as well. Actually… Shiori-chan you should come along as well, it might not be the best time, but I….. think we should get your broken gate sorted out, Beako can't be your personal healer forever."
"I…Emilia-san, I…well umm… I don't want to go." Shiori fidgeted with his words, as sweat trickled down his forehead, he didn't want to go to Karsten Estate, but he couldn't say why and didn't know how to do so.
"Don't woooorry Shiori-chan they have the best healer in the kingdom Felix," Emilia smiled kindly at Shiori to convince him, but her mentioning of Felix caused Subaru to flinch, trembling with fear.
"Emilia-sama, Ram is sure Shiori-chan appreciate your offer," Ram spoke as she placed her hand on Subaru's head, comforting him, "but Ram think Shiori-chan is still afraid of interacting with other people, seeing that it took him quite a while to settle in the mansion. Ram thinks he needs a bit more time."
Emilia looked at Subaru, who lightly nodded, then she sighed, "Alright alright Shiori-chan, take your time. Then I will be leaving this mansion temporarily, be a good boy and don't cause trouble for Ram." Emilia spoke as she headed back to her room.
Subaru was grateful that Ram was there to help him, but he couldn't help but feel that he made the wrong decision, as if something terrible was going to happen.
Subaru
Subaru scrubbed the floor with a mop, his weak arms forced him to use more energy in order to clean the floor than before.
Before…cleaning the mansion was a distant memory at this point. He looked around the room and he still had a bit more to clean, he was way slower than before, which made it even more impressive that Petra was able to diligently do work swiftly, while Subaru struggled.
He had spent too long indulging himself in books and recovering, he was a far cry from his old self, who was barely physically fit to survive a day in this world.
He could've used the time to clean the mansion to find more information, but Beatrice, his source of information, wasn't present in the mansion. Without anything to do, Subaru could only help with the chores around the mansion. It had been over a week since they had left, and Subaru was growing more and more impatient.
Another thing that contributed to his increasing impatience was the fact that Louis, the annoying child, seemed to latch onto him whenever he was in her sight. He had to ask Petra to peel her off from him every time, but he eventually gave up and decided to let the blonde girl follow him all around all day as he tried to help Ram in all sorts of different house chores.
"You seem like you have done this before," Ram pointed out, "but your skills are still far from professional."
Subaru gave a wry smile, as he continued to scrub the floor. The mop was way heavier than he remembered it to be, which didn't help at all alongside his lousy skills, making the cleaning inefficient.
"Have you ever considered being a butler here?" Ram offered, "it would be a good idea to start thinking about earning money, you can't freeload forever."
A butler… Subaru thought to himself. The only reason why he became a butler in his past life was to gain everyone's trust, and that trust was proved to be absolutely useless in the end. He continued to scrub the floor with frustration, his only goal was save Satella and try to exterminate the witch cult, but it was more of a side quest anyways.
Wait no… saving Satella wasn't the only reason as to why he wanted to come back… it wasn't the only driving force, was it? What else did he want anyways? Right, he came back because—
"Ghaaak!" Ram cried, collapsing on the floor as if all of her strength had left her in an instant. A large noise could be heard as her body fell hard on the floor.
"Ram nee-sama! Are you alright?" dropping the mop of the floor, Subaru swiftly rushed to Ram's side as she tried to get up. Ram's entire body trembled as she used her hands to push herself back up, and with Subaru's assistance she was able to get up and sit on the floor.
"What's wrong?" Subaru asked, his brows furrowed, from what he could see Ram didn't have any visible injuries whatsoever, so it had to be something else. He felt a sense of déjà vu, something like this had happened before, but he couldn't quite remember why.
C'mon stupid brain, I'm sure I've seen this reaction before…Wait, I remember…it was when—
"Rem. It's Rem. She is in trouble. Shiori-chan, I apologize, but I have to go to Karsten Estate right now." Ram's declaration broke off Subaru's thoughts, while confirming his biggest fears. The last time Subaru had been in this situation, was when Rem suddenly felt something through her Synesthesia with her sister. Moreover, it was a failed loop, where Subaru yet again let everyone die…
It doesn't matter anyways, all it proves is Rem is either dead, or in grave danger… But why? What happened at Karsten Estate? I… what should I even do? Emotions raced across Subaru's mind.
"Shiori-chan, I will be leaving, so please stay here and—" Ram stood up and started heading out of the room, but Subaru grasped her wrist tightly.
"Ram nee-sama, please take me with you!"
Subaru
After packing all of the essentials posthaste, Subaru and Ram were able to get on the road to Karsten Estate relatively quickly. Subaru was getting another feeling of déjà vu, but instead of traveling from Karsten Estate to the mansion it was the other way around.
One good thing was that there wasn't any existence erasing whales, nor were there any witch simping crazed fans who should honestly get some therapy about their unhealthy obsessions, and Subaru wasn't in a declining mental state… wait no his mental health was still taking a very steady decline.
Speaking of mental health, he had to be prepared for the worst case scenario, with Ram's nerve-wracking reaction to her Synesthesia, things weren't looking good.
Wait, what was he even doing? He already told himself that he wouldn't care about his "friends" anymore. It wouldn't matter to him if they all died horrible deaths. That said…
"Shiori." Ram called out, catching Subaru's attention.
"What is it Ram nee-sama?" Shiori asked, he looked over to face Ram, her face was strained. A bit of sweat was trickling down her forehead.
"You are spacing out, are you really okay? If you don't want to go you shouldn't force yourself." Ram asked, even though she looked as if she had her own major concerns.
"I…I'm fine." Subaru hesitated with his words. His thoughts were all negative, Subaru wasn't sure if he should tell her to dampen the mood further.
"Uuuahh…" Louis stared at Subaru with her arms crossed. Subaru had almost forgotten her existence, but she came along, refusing to let go of Subaru to the point Ram gave up trying to persuade her to not go with them.
Honestly Subaru had no clue why the (former?) Sin Archbishop had such an unhealthy attachment towards him, almost as if she remembered he was Subaru, not that it mattered if she did anyways.
The rest of the trip had been mostly quiet, with only the sound of trees rustling, birds chirping, the weird noises Louis kept making, and the galloping of Patrasche to keep them company. It was for the better, as they weren't encountering any mabeasts or bandits trying to attack them.
That said, it only contributed to the uneasy atmosphere surrounding them.
Subaru
A small sigh escaped out of Subaru's lips, as if he had been carrying a heavy item for hours without end. They had traveled for nearly two days, Subaru didn't remember the route, as it had been too long, but he was sure they were near Karsten Estate.
With that said, Subaru felt as if the air was different, there was a tiny smell of metal, so small to the point Subaru was wondering if he was imagining it or not.
Well it didn't matter, as it seemed like they were approaching the gates of the Karsten…
Estate.
It was unusually quiet, Subaru expected a knight or a guard to greet them, but there weren't any. The guard post was completely empty, with no signs of life in sight.
Other than that, everything seemed absolutely fine. A beautiful grass green covered the garden, with a whole variety of flowers, all precisely placed to give off a sense of elegance. Bushes were pruned to stylish shapes and sizes, giving a sense of uniform and order from them.
But yet not a single soul could be seen.
"Uuuuuuuuhh…" Louis mumbled under her breath, her small body was ever so slightly trembling, like an animal sensing danger nearby. Subaru thought of using his Authority of Greed, but the Authority wasn't able to give off the location of his "friends". It had never worked ever since he was reincarnated, the only few people he could sense were Petra, Louis, Meili and Ram.
Well whatever.
Subaru's heart threatened to explode, it was as if time had slowed down. Every part of his body screamed RUN. The carriage approached the main entrance, and not a single living being could be seen. There was nobody here.
Ram knocked on the mansion's door, but even after a few minutes there were no responses.
"Not a single soul could be seen…I can't feel Rem's Synesthesia…" Ram muttered to herself. She grew impatient and opened the door.
Behind the door was an extravagant and spacious lobby, even with lights out, the lobby shone brightly from all the jewels and gold reflecting the sunlight, lighting up the entire room.
The trio walked around the luxurious mansion, the silent hallways gave an eerie atmosphere, an ol' could hear a pin drop moment, prompting Louis to hide behind Subaru, and Subaru to hide behind Ram.
The door right next to them creaked open ever so slightly, making a bone chilling noise which caused the trio to flinch, and Louis to make some weird noises.
"Hello?" Ram asked as she knocked on the door. After a few moments of no response, Ram pulled open the door, causing something to splat right under their feet.
A knight, a knight covered in red, laid on the floor, a gaping hole could be seen on his chest. Subaru stepped backwards, his eyes widened. Blood flowed on the floor, staining their shoes and the floor. Louis tightened her grip on Subaru's wrist, as they all started taking small steps backwards.
"Fura!" Ram yelled as she sliced the air with wind. Subaru blinked and found pieces of daggers on the floor.
"Shiori take Louis and run!" Ram ordered, as she slashed the flying daggers with wind magic.
Subaru panicked. He couldn't see a single figure at the end of the hallway, yet daggers were flying towards them. But before he could do anything his vision shifted to somewhere else. He was suddenly transported to a room, and he felt a sudden urge to vomit.
"Uaaaah?" a voice wailed behind him. It was Louis, and it took Subaru a few seconds to register what happened.
She used her leaping ability to escape from the situation. And now they were in a room, most likely somewhere in the mansion.
"I'm fine Louis, don't worry about…it." Subaru wanted to stay calm, but it didn't take him long to realize it was impossible for him.
They were in a guest room most likely, but it wasn't empty at all. In fact, corpses littered the floor.
Rem, pinned on the wall, was impaled in the chest with a katana. Her signature morningstar laid right next to her, with blood stains on it, signifying that she put up quite a fight before losing in the end.
Lying on the floor was…Emilia, or what Subaru assumed, as her head was nowhere to be seen, her head was separated from her body. Emilia was decapitated, and Beatrice was nowhere to be seen, most likely disappeared into mana.
Fresh corpses weren't new to Subaru, but everytime he saw them… all he could do was stare blankly, trembling at the sight. He couldn't feel sadness, rage, despair, or fear. In every manga, anime he had seen in his life, the protagonist would either throw a tantrum or go on a lengthy monologue. Subaru thought that'd be how he would react.
"I definitely didn't expect teleporting children," a deep, cold voice spoke, causing the duo to jump in fear. Subaru looked around, but he couldn't spot a single person. Instead he felt sudden pain.
"You gotta stop spinning around kid, that would've been a clean kill, now you've ruined it." the voice spoke again. Subaru's senses finally caught up, a dagger was stuck on his shoulder.
"GAHHHH!" Subaru cried in agony, he clutched his shoulder, trying to stop blood from seeping out of the wound.
"Sorry kid, can't leave witnesses." the voice sent a chill down Subaru's spine, Subaru saw a shadowy figure lunging at him before the scene shifted yet again.
They were now on a grass field—no they were now on the road—Subaru's vision jumped rapidly until they settled on some trees. Louis had teleported them far into a forest.
Subaru immediately vomited, teleporting consecutively was not a good experience at all. After a few moments Subaru lied his back on a trunk, looking at his shoulder wound it wasn't that deep. He would survive.
"Thanks for saving me, Louis, I couldn't have made it out without—" Subaru tried to thank Louis, but suddenly he lost all strength in his body. His vision was hazy. He tried to move his arms, but they weren't responding.
"Uuuaaahh!" Louis shouted, shaking his shoulders violently, hoping it would do something, anything to help Subaru.
Any pain Subaru felt was gone, instead it was replaced with nausea, and cold sweat dripping down. His body twitched as Subaru struggled to stay focused. But even then , his consciousness was slowly slipping away.
The dagger, it was a poison tipped dagger. Subaru wanted to scream, he tried to scream, but his voice failed him. He could only watch as Louis tried her hardest to deny reality, the reality that:
Subaru was dead.
Subaru
"Don't woooorry Shiori-chan they have the best healer in the kingdom Felix."
Subaru stared at Emilia blankly,her lips were moving, but he could hear no voice. There was only silence. Subaru blinked, and instead of a speaking Emilia, it was replaced with a decapitated body, with blood dripping down onto the floor, wounds and injuries littered the body.
The decapitated body moved its hand towards him, so Subaru screamed. He turned and ran, only to bump into another figure, falling onto the floor. The figure's body was covered with daggers stuck in its body. The figure also tried to reach out for Subaru, but he got up and dashed past the figure, running deeper into the hallway he was currently in.
Every second passed, Subaru could hear a drop of blood dripping. The hallway looked more and more narrow as he sprinted. Every step he took he heard a splash, like stepping in a puddle.
Tripping onto something, Subaru fell head first on the floor. He could feel no power to stand up again. Lying his back against the wall, Subaru curled up into a ball. He couldn't stop panting. Cold sweat slid down his face as he listened to the noise of dripping.
And then he felt something rustling the white hair on his head. His breathing slowly but steadily returned to normal. Subaru sighed, opening his eyes and looking up, he found himself staring at Petra. Her eyes were filled with concern, but she didn't speak a single word. Her warm hands just continued to caress his hair.
"I…thank you Petra." Subaru mumbled simple words of gratitude, which was all Petra needed for her smile to grow brighter.
"Well then Shiori-chan, I will tell Emilia-sama that you are alright." Petra spoke as she stood back up, but before she could leave Subaru caught her hand.
"Please tell Emilia-san that I'd like to go to Karsten Estate with her." Subaru pleaded.
Subaru
In the end, besides Emilia, Beatrice and Rem, Subaru, Louis and Ram went along as well to the Karsten Estate.
The trip to Karsten Estate went as smooth as it could go, and Subaru was also able to ask a lot of information about the Witch of Envy from Beatrice, unfortunately enough from what Beatrice said Subaru wasn't really able to figure out anything from it, so yet again he had hit another dead end.
"Wakey wakey Shiori-chan, we have arrived!" Emilia remarked, as she patted Subaru's head. Subaru had been spacing out before Emilia snapped him back to reality.
He looked out of the window as the carriage slowed down. This time, there were knights at the guard post, as they were supposed to be.
"Emilia-sama! We are very glad to see you. Crusch-sama is waiting for you." the standing knight greeted. He did a quick bow, to show respect to Emilia. Looking at this scene, Subaru felt like he was punched in the gut, he was forgetting something, something very, very wrong.
At the front door of the entrance, stood a single figure. The figure radiated elegance, diligence and charisma…yet Subaru's heart ached, every part of his body implored him to run far away from the standing figure.
The carriage came to a stop and the carriage door was opened, the figure stood forward to welcome them.
"My gratitudes to you, Emilia-sama, for coming here on such short notice. I'm sure it must be tiring to rush here quickly." Julius bowed at Emilia, before reaching out his hand to help her get off the carriage.
"Ju…lius! It's so great to see you! It's been…nearly a month since we last saw each other!" Emilia smiled, taking his hand and getting off the carriage. Afterwards, Julius helped everyone else get off the carriage.
Subaru watched as it unfolded, he couldn't quite comprehend the emotion he was feeling. But it was a very familiar feeling. It was very similar to feeling like home, yet that feeling of "home", made Subaru's entire body cry in pain. Breathing wasn't an option, he was suffocating, as if blood was clogging his throat. He couldn't feel his limbs, as if somebody had ripped them off of his body. His vision was blurry, as if his eyes were permanently impaired.
Subaru wrapped his hands around his legs as he sat in the corner of the carriage, where his snow white hair barely poked out. Subaru wanted to hide. He needed to hide. He tried to breathe to calm himself, but instead coughed and choked on his saliva.
He had experienced a panic attack two times the past few days, but this was far beyond a simple panic attack. He wanted to die, he wanted to end himself badly. He needed a knife. A knife, where could he find one?
"Are you okay Shiori? Do you require any assistance? Or perhaps you'd like some candy?" a man in a white coat said. He knelt in front of Subaru, and reached his hand towards Subaru. At the center of his palm, was a single candy.
"NO!" Subaru shrieked, slapping Julius hand away, "yo—you are l—lying! Yo—you a—are tr—trying t—to poison m—me!" Subaru tried to kick his face, but was instead caught by his hand.
"Let m—me g—go!" Subaru cried, with tears trickling down his cheeks. He tried to scream for help, but he was instead lifted up, with his hair being soothed by somebody's hand.
"Ram's apologies Julius-sama for Shiori-chan's behavior, he has experienced traumatic events, so he reacts negatively to any strangers," Ram stated, as she continued to try and comfort Subaru, whose breathing slowly became steady in the hands of Ram.
Julius narrowed his eyes for a second, causing Shiori to flinch in fear, before dismissing his suspicion, whatever it was.
"You needn't worry Ram-san," Julius spoke, before giving an elegant bow which served nothing but to irritate Subaru, "with that being said, please let me escort all of you to where Crusch-sama and Anastasia-sama are waiting."
The camp followed the knight into the mansion. Subaru glanced around, finding the mansion was exactly the same as he remembered, albeit with knights and maids going around doing patrols and chores.
Subaru couldn't even look at Julius in the eye, he glanced at Julius, which caused his body to tremble in fear. He could imagine Julius pointing at him with a wooden sword, not enough to kill, but enough to make Subaru scream in agony.
"Is something wrong, Shiori-Chan? You are shaking." Ram asked.
"….I'm okay" Subaru whispered to Ram, as if he feared that Julius would somehow torture him from those few words alone.
Soon afterwards, the group arrived at a massive room, Subaru could find every camp besides Priscilla's camp present. That meant Felt, Crusch and Anastasia were in the same room.
"Anastasia-sama, Crusch-sama, Felt-sama, Emilia-sama has arrived," Julius noted, giving a bow before returning to Anastasia's side.
"Nee-chan! You arrived!" Felt exclaimed, immediately rushing out of her seat to greet the half-elf.
"Nice to see you too, Felt-chan," Emilia spoke with a gentle smile, before returning to a more serious expression. Subaru looked around. Anastasia and Crusch were both present, with the former sitting on a couch, sipping tea, her usual, pleasant and carefree smile was nowhere to be seen, now replaced with a stern face, and the latter lying on a bed, uncomfortably shifting around.
From what Subaru could see, the cursed dragon blood had spreaded all across Crusch's body, nearly half of her face was covered the black matter.
That didn't look good at all.
Besides the candidates, there were also their knights. Reinhard stood next to the couch Felt leapt away from, and Julius stood next to Anastasia, then Subaru found Wilhem and Felix, standing right next to Crusch, with the cat boy applying healing magic most likely to ease her pain, but unable to slow down the blood consuming Crusch's live force.
Felix, the same piece of shit who had tortured him for over a year, without putting the countless deaths Subaru suffered into the equation. The idea of being in the same room as Felix, made Subaru sick. He didn't even want to spend another second near the cat like demi-human.
"Crusch-san, are you alright?" Emilia asked as she walked over to Crusch's bed, before asking Felix, "Ferris, is she alright?"
"No…Ferris has failed, he has failed Crusch-sama, I wasn't able to extract any useful information from Pride," Drops of tears trickled down Felix's cheeks.
"N…no…t yo…your…fault," Crusch spoke as if she was whispering, as she continued to lie on the bed, unable to get up. As soon as she finished those words, she coughed violently,
"Don't worry Crusch-sama, Ferri-chan will definitely find a way to cure you, just preserve your strength and rest easy…" Felix sniffed, he told himself he would find a cure, yet even after a year, he made absolutely no progress at all.
"It's my fault," Emilia said, "The script you gave me to tell the Sin Archbishop was amazing, but my acting skills weren't enough to break him, I apologize to you, Ferris and Crusch-san." Shiori winced at the comment, remembering the time Emilia acted so coldly and broke his mind, and his drive completely. He wasn't able to be enthusiastic about anything even now, he could only pretend.
"Y'know she isn't dead yet," Anastasia spoke out after being quiet for so long, rubbing her white fox scarf, "but she's gonna to die very soon, if we don't do something about it, that's the reason why Ferris-san summoned all of us here, ain't it?"
"She is not gonna die!" Felt yelled, "she can't die, and she won't die! Reinhard, does none of your Divine Protections help the duchness?"
"I sincerely apologize, Felt-sama," Reinhard said with a bitter expression, "if I could help, I would've immediately done so."
"Ugh! Why are you so useless!" Felt lifted her foot to kick Reinhard, but was instead caught by his hand, at which she could only scowl.
Looking at this toxic environment the conversation caused, the silent Sword Demon Wilhelm decided to speak up,"It's getting late now," Wilhelm suggested, "this conversation would not get us anywhere, why don't we just rest for night? I'm sure Crusch-sama is exhausted herself, Emilia-sama is also exhausted from traveling, alongside Felt-sama and Anastasia-sama."
Subaru
In the end, everyone decided it would be a good idea to settle in for the night, and Subaru shared a room with Louis, due to Louis latching onto Subaru with a tight grip, making it impossible to separate them.
After they had dinner, everyone retreated back to their rooms to recompose themselves, to hopefully find a solution to Crusch's eroding curse.
"Say Louis," Subaru spoke, as he sat on a bed with Louis. It was midnight, with the only room still shining bright being Subaru's. Everything was silent, with only the sound of the rustling wind to keep them company. Yet Subaru wasn't able to sleep at all, as if something was dancing in his mind restlessly, and he knew what was keeping him from resting
"Uah?"
"What will you do if a friend of yours, who indirectly or directly hurted you, needs help?"
Louis paused for a few moments, seemingly deep in her own thoughts, before something in her brain suddenly clicked. She grabbed Subaru's hand, and before he could even react, they were no longer in their room.
Instead, they were in a room, a room which wasn't lit up, a room which was filled with silence.
"What are you doing Louis?" Subaru whispered intensely, "You are going to get us caught and punished!" Subaru wanted to tell her to teleport them back to their room, but then he realized that this was the answer Louis gave about his question.
The duchess, the matriarch of House Karsten herself, Crusch Karsten, lay on the bed. The black dragon blood was worsening rapidly, her breathing was heavy, she was sweating profusely. She twisted and turned even in her sleep. It was a heart aching sight. She panted as if she was suffocating…no, she was suffocating.
Subaru had to make the choice now or never, he needed to pick between saving Crusch, and letting her die.
"Emilia-san would be devastated if she dies, Felt would be devastated if she dies…" Subaru whispered. He looked over to Louis, who stared at him blankly, waiting for him to act on her answer to his question.
Subaru, two years ago in Priestella
In the garden of a mansion, were two people. One standing, one sitting in a wheelchair. They both stayed there in silence, admiring the simple view of the sea of blooming flowers.
Until the raven-black haired man spoke, "I'm sorry Crusch-san, as my inabilities caused you to fall…into this state."
"It's not your fault, if there is anyone to blame, it would be the witch cult," Crusch chuckled, "even then, I am sure I can still achieve my dream."
"What's your dream?"
"What's yours, Natsuki Subaru? You didn't have to give off that speech to inspire the people of Priestella, in fact you could've easily just hid until the danger was over. Why do you continuously risk your life?"
Subaru stood in silence, watching dandelions dancing in the air, and listening to birds singing a song of triumph, before saying, "I… well my dream is… it is simple, so don't laugh at me. My dream is… for all of us to be together, happy and laughing."
Crusch burst into laughter, causing Subaru's face to turn red as a tomato, and trying to make her stop her laughter.
"My apologies for my rudeness," Crusch giggled, "Well, at least you've got me happy and laughing, that's a part of your dream, isn't it?"
Subaru
Remembering his conversation with Crusch, Subaru understood the driving force as to why he came back. He might not ever forgive them their actions, but he wanted a single thing.
He wanted to protect everyone's smile.
So without thinking about consequences, Subaru gently touched Crusch's black-skinned hand.
Pain instantaneously shot through his entire body, he felt as if he was being burnt alive, as if lava was poured into his body. But did it matter to him? No, it didn't matter at all. Determination was what he had, determination to cure Crusch, and protect her smile, was what he wished for.
His vision became hazy, he felt as if he was falling into an empty abyss with no end. The only light in the darkness was straying away from him, slowly fading away.
Until all Subaru could see and feel was the void.
Crusch
Something was different… something wasn't wrong, she just felt as if… the sky was no longer dark, clouds no longer covered the sun. Shadows no longer overcasted the ground.
Her body… was no longer burning, it no longer felt like a burden. She felt… strength, in her body, for the first time in a very long time, she got up from bed, all by herself. She could move her legs, she could move her arms, she was no longer…disabled.
The black dragon blood that had corrupted her entire body was…gone, disappeared without a trace, as if it was never there in the first place.
Who did this to me? Did Emilia find a cure? I must find a way to thank her thoroughly if she did so. Crusch thought to herself. She tried to walk out of the door, but her feet bumped into something.
"Uaaaah!" The small figure shrieked. Crusch looked down, and found two children, one looking distressed as she paced around the room.
And the other, lying on the floor, unconscious, and with the unmistakable black skin, the skin corrupted by the curse dragon blood, Crusch once bore.
Crusch tried reaching for the child, but his skin was blazing hot, the body of the boy with the white hair was burning hot, just like hers before, except it was even worse.
"Uuuuuuuuuuaaa!" the girl yelled as she pulled the hem of Crusch's gown, as if pleading for her to save the boy.
Crusch didn't know what exactly to do, but all she could do was to promise, "Don't worry, I'll find a way to save him."
Writer's notes
"One month" OKAY OKAY I'm sorry to anyone who reads this fic, this chapter took way too long to write and it's about half of the length of my last two chapters. Yeah okay I can't even give any excuses anymore. Anyways I hope you enjoyed this chapter that's definitely not worth the wait, but hopefully the next chapter won't take two whole months…? Another thing I'd like to ask is if you guys want either: A. 5k words chapters with hopefully 2-3 weeks of update time B. 10k words chapters with hopefully 1-2 months of update time Please tell me so(and as always, tell me how I can improve the writing, this time I tried to do less jumping around characters)