Peneus shuffled along the dirt road, an empty basket in hand. The afternoon sun beat down, making his skin stick uncomfortably against his clothes and his ponytail cling to his back.

He donned his usual garb: a chain-mail shirt beneath plain-looking clothes, along with iron shoulder pads. While dull, small and unassuming, they still caught a few glances from the more observant, so he wore a dirty cloak over it all.

He recently departed from the shoddy cottage now some ways behind him, preparing for the inevitable struggle for this month's spoils. He'd be sure to get as much as possible for Creusa and Daphne, since he didn't need to eat or drink.

Of all the abilities to be granted him, especially in the midst of a famine, he was damn lucky.

The outskirts of the village steadily grew closer as he made his way down the hill. He contemplated whistling a tune but eventually decided against it.

He could make out a growing crowd from where he was, though it was mostly hidden behind the village walls. They were damn loud, which was impressive considering the distance between the village and him.

Distracted by the view of the current state of affairs, Peneus's foot caught on something, and he stumbled. He managed to catch himself before he fell, though he did teeter between righting himself and falling on his face.

Looking to what it was that stumbled him, his golden eye darted behind him. It turned out not to be a rock or some exposed tree roots he tripped over, but... a woman?

Peneus's eye widened. He immediately ran up to her.

"Ah shit, really sorry, miss, I-" but he cut himself off when he got a good look at the lady on the ground. She was huddled in ball, motionless. He didn't kill her or anything, did he?

Gently setting down the empty basket and kneeling beside her, he laid a hand on her shoulder. It was cold.

That couldn't have been any good. He grabbed one of her wrists and pushed his thumb into it, feeling for a pulse.

...

He checked the other one, just to be sure. Not that it made much sense, but he'd feel bad if he didn't.

...

With a resigned sigh, he picked up the basket and continued his trek, leaving her. Someone was bound to take the free food eventually, he figured.

At the very least, it was a good thing he didn't end up accidentally killing anybody.

Peneus began whistling a cheery tune.

...

Well past the foot of the hill, he crossed into the village entirely.

Dirty, unkempt walls of splintered wood and cracked stone went by as he made his way further inland. The noise got louder with every new step, and it began to drown out the music he made.

When he reached of the main block, he couldn't hear his own whistling over the noises, so he stopped in favor of assessing said noises.

Moaning, yelling, crying, sobbing, every unpleasant sound a human could vocalize plagued him. The wails of a child who lost their parents in the crowd, the agonized screams of some poor soul Peneus could only assume was being trampled to death, and the wallowing of a young woman whose affliction Peneus couldn't name were among the many sounds he heard that day.

Soon enough, he would be a part of the very crowd , getting jostled and thrown about by the masses. He sifted through the sea of starving men, women and children, closing the distance between himself and his goal.

He had mouths to feed, so he'd only force himself to stay for as long as needed. He didn't want to be there for any longer than he had to be.

A golden eye shifted towards a caravan of three dragon-drawn wagons, filled with boxes. He couldn't see what was inside from his current angle, but he could make a pretty good guess.

There were quite a bit of guards, maybe knights, from a first glance. Perhaps half a dozen or so surrounded the supply carriages with two-dozen more, accompanied by what seemed to be more low-ranking guards, held the villagers back.

The wagons themselves carried a good number of knights. They picked foodstuffs from out of the wagons and tossed them into the crowd aimlessly as if they were feeding breadcrumbs to a flock of doves. Given by how far they leaned into the containers, there couldn't have been much left.

One of the knights climbed up on one of the boxes on the center carriage, and started yelling something about "first come, first serve," "provisions are only so plentiful," and "thieves are to be executed on sight."

His hand naturally drifted to his whip at the last statement, grasping it firmly.

If push came to shove, taking down those guys would have to be off-limits. While he hated those pretentious pricks about as much as the next guy, he knew screwing with the knights meant the village getting stormed. Didn't matter if he was caught or not.

He silently clicked his tongue, his lone gilded orb darting around the immediate area for anything extra he may have missed. From the looks of things, he got everything.

Well over forty knights and guards total, a restless, starving crowd of over a thousand, and a rapidly ticking time limit on top of it all.

Seemed doable enough.

He'd be sure not to take too much. That would be gluttonous of him, after all.

Gripping the basket with one hand and the other holding the whip just in case, he took the best stance he could in the bustling crowd.

"Alrighty, Peneus," The scraggly man huffed under his breath, "easy shit. Just make sure to leave some for the rest of 'em, yeah?"

It would be a challenge to get past all those eyes, and if he mistimed it, or if any one of the crowd members alerted the guards (because there was no way in hell that none of them would notice him), a chase was basically guaranteed. He was confident enough in his skills for that to not happen, though.

He wasn't very confident in his luck.

"Here goes..." He just had to not get caught is all. As he said, easy shit.

Even if he did feel like dirt doing it.


As Papa began talking about how he was all cool-like and sneaked past all the armor guys and fancy-suit guys, Daphne scrunched her face in slight confusion.

What was it called when someone took something from someone else? She could've sworn she'd have heard it before.

"Mmnn..." It was on the tip of her tongue...

Papa, looking a bit more fidgety than he normally did, began explaining how he took too long and the fancy servant guys closed the box he got inside of, and they ended up taking him all the way to a village near a forest and he had to run all the way back.

"Well, you see," Papa made his excuses, "I was kinda too slow, so if I got out then and there I'd have been caught and-"

"Seriously, Peneus, you tried stealing provisions? And got stuck in the cart because of it? Is that how we've been eating this past year?" Mama, freshly rejuvenated and looking a lot better but still skinny, commented.

"Ah," Papa's movements slowed and his frantic demeanor died down.

"Ah," Mama parroted, arms crossed.

Wait, so did that mean Papa stealed food?

"Stealer!" Daphne finally remembered, pulling a spit-covered finger out of her mouth and whipping it toward Papa. Some of it got on him. "Papa is a stealer!"

"Am not! I just took our share!" Papa squabbled, crossing his arms like someone her age would do if they got caught eating the furniture.

Daphne, in response, tilted her head at the prospect of Papa not actually being a stealer. If he wasn't a stealer, what was he?

She stuck her finger back in her mouth and sucked on it, thinking. If a stealer took her food, she'd be really upset, and that made a stealer a bad guy.

Yeah, stealers were definitely bad guys. Bad guys stopped people from eating. Papa made sure that her and Mama ate all the time, so he couldn't be a stealer!

"...Well," Papa wiped Daphne's saliva off of his face, "I guess it may have been a wee bit morally questionable-"

"I am deeply disappointed in you, dear husband," Mama began to lean over to where he sat.

Papa made weird sputtering noises, glancing between his daughter and his wife before sighing. He didn't really seem to notice Mama sneaking toward him despite looking directly at her.

Daphne 'ooed' as she witnessed a faint blue glow emanate from in between Mama's hands and Papa's side. It was always pretty cool to watch, but her amazement quickly faded when Mama's scent grew fainter. Papa's usually overpowered everything nearby anyway, but now Daphne couldn't smell Mama at all.

"H-hey! what are you doing?!" Papa flinched, pulling back.

"Healing you, you stubborn fool," Mama continued pressing her hands on his wound, the glow persisting.

"Woah, woah, enough! Don't go undoing my hard work now, yeah?!"

Daphne hopped up from the mattress and waddled over to her parents to get a better look. Papa took her arm and held it away from him, probably trying to get her to stop. It wasn't very successful, which was confusing, considering how skinny Mama was compared to Papa.

Mama began to wobble and Papa had to catch her, but the glow continued.

"You're... still bleeding..."

Mama was right. Daphne could smell the juices still leaking from Papa's side, though it was definitely less than a few seconds ago. The glow died down and eventually flickered out.

Papa held Mama and gently set her down, sighing. "You did enough, Creusa. You can rest."

Mama, surprisingly, managed to stay awake.

"But you're still... bleeding," she tried to repeat herself, but it came out weak.

"Yeah," he sighed, "yeah, I know," Papa affirmed softly. His golden eye shimmered.

"I'm sure I'll live, though. Thanks for that," he rubbed his nape, dragging his fingers through his ponytail. Mama hummed in response, still looking a little wary.

"Alright then..." she relented, "where... were you?"

"Ooh! Ooh! I know! I know!" Daphne hopped up and down with a hand raised. "Papa got stuck in one of the bad guy wagons after taking too long!"

Papa chuckled, ruffling Daphne's hair, messing it up more than it already was. Not that she minded, of course. She quite liked it.

"You wound me, Daphne," he grinned.

Daphne imitated Papa's with her own. Mama huffed, resting a cheek in her hand. Daphne could see she was grinning too.

"Alright, then," Papa began, "so there I was, trapped in one of the supply crates..."

...

...


...

...

Serena, her juniors in tow, patrolled around the perimeter of Elior. Arlam was just a few dozen paces away. The sun was beginning to set, making everything a little more orange. It blended nicely with her hair, she thought.

The famine, a word in which she became intimately familiar with these past seven years, affected her role as the forest guardian (fancy-ass title that was), and she began returning with some food every now and then, rather than simply 'alive and well.'

At first, she suspected the famine to be some sort of scheme to blot out demi-humans, or any other specific racial or political group for that matter, but over the years, she began to see that it affected everyone. Some less than others, obviously, but her point still stood.

Even her home began running low on provisions recently. The past few months especially were hitting Elior quite hard, less and less food turning up each month. It was starting to become a bit worrying.

She wasn't sure if there would be any grub left within the next year if things kept pace. She supposed they could just eat the forest leaves or bark, though, even if it was kinda nasty.

Though...

She looked to the nearest tree. Its trunk was all dry and splintered, its bark was halfway peeled off, a ring of dead leaves surrounding it. It wasn't the first she'd seen, and she'd be dammed if it were the last.

As they marched through the forest perimeter, a line between fertility and barrenness, a distant rumbling was heard.

"Yo, boss lady, you think that's it?" one of her subordinates piped up, leaning on her toes and pressing the side of her hand against her forehead in a sort-of sailor salute. Her white hair seemed more yellow under the sunset.

Serena looked toward the source of the noise, making out the faint silhouette of a ground dragon. A carriage was in tow, and she bet there were a bunch more following. A caravan, probably. This month's was just on time, it seemed.

"Yeah, definitely the one," another one, this one resting on his haunches and looking toward the approaching supply carriages, answered for said 'boss lady.' Serena was annoyed, but it wasn't really worth making a fuss over.

She could see the increasing number of little silhouettes over at the village as the dragons approached. By the time they parked, the residents were surrounding it.

She stared silently at the growing commotion, contemplating.

People were going to die today. She knew this from her experiences from the previous months. The death toll of these events only grew worse over time, and all she could do was keep those numbers as low as she could help it.

"Wooaah, that's a whole 'lotta guards. Whaddya think they're doubling down for?" The chipper one asked to no one in particular, rocking on her heels.

Serena had to hold back a snort. This was a bit more than just "doubling" down, from what she could see.

"Probably riots. Heard the famine's been getting real bad for the peasant folk," the relaxed one added his two coins, stretching his back as he stared down at the commotion.

"Besides," he quirked an eyebrow, "you can see what's happening right in front of you, can't you?"

"Hey, bro, you think they got enough for everyone over there?" The sister craned her head back to look at him, ignoring his jab, "I see a whoole 'lotta people and not a whole lotta food..."

"Hey, at least it's better than last mon-"

"Alright alright, you brats," the guardian interrupted their conversation with a raised hand, "you know the drill. Look alive."

The siblings voiced their affirmatives, and Serena was reminded why she took them under her wing in the first place as they both immediately lost any sort of expression in their faces.

It made her kinda proud, even if she bet they'd probably goof off once she'd turn her back.

"Make sure no one sneaks by. I'll go down n' see what I can do," Serena waved them off as she made her way toward the village, flipping her hood up, "we gotta make sure we get game ourselves, though. It's damaging to an elf's pride to just beg like any other bum, you know?"

Besides, there already wasn't enough for the villagers alone, so it'd probably kill someone if they took anything.

""Yes, ma'am.""

...

As the village drew nearer, Serena began to realize the true extent of the unusual commotion. Last month's supplies didn't come (she heard it was from demi-human riots from over at the capital), so this month's crowd was rowdier than ever.

Damage and crowd control would be more of an issue if anyone were to try anything, not to mention the fact that everyone still alive was starved half to death.

It was her duty to make sure nothing happened that could endanger Elior first and foremost, though, so she wouldn't intervene unless it affected the forest.

Even so, she wished she could find a way to provide some extra grub somehow...

The guards were already visibly struggling against the crowd. If she really wanted to...

The forest guardian shook her head, dispelling the thought. Who knew what kind of civil war would break out if the nobles caught wind of it? Especially since she was an elf and all. That'd do the exact opposite of her job description.

The noble (or servant, probably servant) gave the same spiel as last time: limited provisions, first come first serve, thieves will be executed, yadda yadda.

When they opened the crates and started tossing food out, however, she immediately moved.

Just a second ago, she saw the brief flash of a figure coming from the cart. A thief, huh?

She couldn't help but feel a certain heat bubble in her chest. "Murderer" was probably a better word choice, if she was being honest.

Whoever they were, they were pretty skilled too, considering no one seemed to do anything about it.

Serena ran around the crowd and out of the village, sprinting to the dirt path leading up to the forest. She didn't have to look over her shoulder to know the siblings were right behind her.

Maybe three-on-one was overkill, but she didn't mind the extra hands in case anything went awry. Besides, a damn thief? Probably deserved it anyway.

"HEY! YOU!"


Subaru—wait, no—Flugel listened intently on the flower-lady's quest line, but she stopped monologuing and began looking a little more fidgety than the initial relaxed impression she gave off. He was worried the log she sat on would roll over if she kept moving like that.

"...And then we started goin' at it..."

A fight? Already? Was this world telling him of his call to battle?

"Did you win?" Su- Flugel asked, the twigs he sat on crumpling as he scooted closer.

Flower Lady coughed loudly into a fist.

"...Do I really hafta go into detail?"

Flugel nodded wordlessly. Not only was she really good at telling stories, but this was his first ever quest! Skipping the dialogue would not do, no-no!

"...Ah well, whatever. A story's a story, I guess. Now, where was I?"

"The part where you get beaten up by a thief?"

"Damn brat," Flower Lady huffed, "D'you see any injuries on me? Hmm? I'll have you know, this here Flower Lady's a lot stronger than you give credit for!"

So did she win or not, then? Well, he'd know soon enough.

Wait, did she call herself "Flower Lady?" He was only calling her that because he never caught her actual name...

"Oye, What's with the stink-eye? I say somethin'?"

Flugel's back straightened.

"Uhh, what's your name?" Flugel asked rather bluntly.

"Ah, yeah, right, guess I never mentioned it," the elf lady scratched the back of her head.

She looked into the fire, and Subaru got a much better look at her knife-like ears (so cool!).

"...It's Serena. Just Serena," Subaru watched as she turned to face him, "got it?"

The fire crackled, the surrounding area giving off a faint glow.

"Now where was I..." The newly named Serena snapped her fingers, "Ah, right."

She lifted her index, "so basically, we had the guy surrounded, right?"

...

...


...

...

Peneus swore. He was surrounded almost immediately, and he didn't think they'd allow much leeway for a discussion. The nearest escape was the forest, but that was quite a ways a way, and he was already too far from the village to lose himself in the crowd, so he didn't move.

He didn't have a lot of options here...

They didn't look like they were with the nobles or knights or anything considering their rags, so why'd they confront him?

He glanced to his sides. On either one was a cloaked individual, their expressions neutral. They were both of shorter stature than the one in front of him, and pretty young, maybe a little too young for this, from the little he got of their uncovered features. Given the distance from him, they probably had ranged weapons on them somewhere.

The one who faced him directly adopted a relaxed stance, similar to the shorter one on the right, from the quick glance behind him. Her snarl told otherwise.

Okay, so maybe she had a thing against thieves. Not that he was one or anything. He snatched only the amount of rations allowed for a family of three. Again, he was just securing provisions by taking the initiative, not stealing or anything so blatantly immoral.

He really didn't want a fight, but if things escalated too bad, he'd have no choice but to.

"What if I were to tell you that I wasn't actually a thief?" Peneus tried to reason, and to his half expectancy, was met with a scoff.

"Yeah, yeah, real funny," the cloaked woman mocked, snapping her fingers and- holy Jesus she was a mage.

"What's that there in yer hand, then?" Her smile gave him chills.

Peneus wanted to take a step back, but since he was surrounded, it wouldn't do well to walk into an enemy. Instead, he adorned a defensive stance, discreetly hovering his hand over the handle of his whip.

Okay, so they weren't too unreasonable. He was still a little wary of the giant fucking ice spikes pointed at him though.

Peneus sweat a little. He had to be careful with his next response if he wanted to get out of this easily. He glanced down to the contents of the food basket.

A single potato, a bread loaf, and an apple were the three food items he chose during his time in that crate.

Daphne and Creusa were waiting for him.

"Well?"

"...Treasure," He answered honestly, tightening his grip around the basket, the sunset complimenting the golden sheen of his eye.

If he hadn't acted right then and there, he'd have been a dead man.

With the crack of a bull whip garnering strength unbecoming of a normal rope, the spike shattered. Shards scattered about, dropping the temperature of the air a good margin. Jesus, this lady was not pulling punches!

"Hey! Be reasonable, will ya?!" Peneus snarked, forced to brandish his weapon as shards fell around him. Some of it got on him and damn that was cold. He made a mental note to shove some of it in the basket for better preservation later.

His jab seemed to be ignored, as he noticed his main assailant exchange quick glances, probably between the two behind him, and he knew he had to move if he wanted to come home not dead.

He let go of the basket.

Two shouts of "Fura!" and "Goa!" came from behind, but he already made maneuvers to avoid the onslaught.

Before the two could finish their incantations, Peneus whirled around and closed the distance as fast as he could, ducking as low as possible while pulling back his whip.

He went for the white-haired one first, as she was closest. Said white-haired one seemed to only realize this a little too late, as she jumped back and attempted to stutter out another "Fura," but she was too slow.

With the crack of a whip against her temple, her voice abruptly cut off and her eyes rolled into the back of her head.

Peneus turned a hard ninety degrees and dashed before she had the chance to fall.

"G-goa-!"

Ducking under the flames, he swung the whip forward, catching him on the cheek.

The basket hit the ground, followed by two bodies.

He still wasn't done, though, since he still had the scary boss lady to deal with.

His back turned, he lashed out his whip and charged his only remaining adversary, zigzagging left and right.

He snatched the basket up off the ground with his free hand as he darted around, careful not to drop the food inside.

He took a quick peek into the contents while he ran. Good, he wasn't missing anything.

As Peneus drew closer to the mage, he readied a strike to her leg, but he could see his opponent was prepared, from her unwavering stance.

Luckily, he was prepared for her preparations-!

"Al huma!"

Never mind, then. He was not prepared in the slightest.

Peneus's stance immediately switched from offensive to defensive, and he maneuvered around the frickin' massive ice spear to the best of his ability, but he suddenly found that the ground was unusually slippery. He hadn't even noticed until just now.

Damn, this lady was good!

One second, he saw ice. The next, he could barely see anything at all under the debris.

...

When the chaos cleared, Peneus saw that he was alone. The forest was just next to him, and Arlam was just a ways away, but no one was nearby. Well, as long as he had the food, he was happy.

Peneus cracked his whip, dispelling some of the smoke. It hurt his side a lot more than expected. She snagged him, didn't she? He looked down to his side.

That was... a concerning amount of blood. He'd have to patch that up sooner than later.

"Damn," Peneus clicked his tongue. More important than some wound, though, where was the food?

Clutching his newly injured side with a hand, he scanned the immediate area in search of the edibles.

Outside of a bunch of rocks and dirt all over the place, dust in the air, some dead trees in the distance and a bunch of rapidly melting ice shards all over the place, he couldn't see much.

Dammit, where were they?

He trudged through the rubble, not really having to fight through much pain considering his high adrenaline levels. He darted his head left and right in search for the food items.

He was about to panic when something caught the glance of his gilded eye.

Half-buried under the rubble, a beige mound of weaved fibers covered in dirt stuck out. To his pleasant surprise, a single potato and bread loaf lay sprawled next to it. His short period joy was squandered when he saw the ruined state the apple was in... well damn.

When he saw a shriveled, bean-like shape next to that, though, his mood was brought up again.

"A bocco fruit?"

...

...


...

...

"After usin' up a good chunk of my mana, I took the brats," the elf gestured to the nearby tent, "and ran like hell. That's when I first met you, mutterin' something about 'magic powers go!'"

She made a display of jutting her hands out in a fashion not to dissimilar to Subaru just a dozen hours ago.

Miss Serena laughed in an infuriatingly familiar fashion that reminded Subaru of a certain nosy father, "I'll be honest, you gave me quite the fright back there!"

"Um, Miss Serena?" Subaru covered his face in his hands as he scooted around to face the darkness of the forest, "Can you please pretend you never met me?"

"Hah! Don't worry kid, Tella likes to play pretend all the time! Usually makes a bit of a mess though..."

"...Tella?" Subaru turned halfway and peaked from in between his fingers.

"Oh, yeah, she's just some brat," the peach-headed elf lady waved a hand halfheartedly, "kinda like you!"

"Brat?!" Subaru whined.

"Anyway, just what were you doin' over there? When I came back, I found you lyin' face-to-dirt, snorin'."

Subaru didn't really see any problem in telling the truth, so he told the truth.

"I got really excited, cuz I'm new here and I thought the forest was really cool, but I guess I got too excited, didn't I..."

Serena chuckled.

"Hey, now, no sweatin' it. You said you wanted to help, right? Your heart's in the right place, so I'd say your parents raised you well! Well, you found yourself here of all places, so maybe not..."

"Nu-uh! Mom and Dad are really cool!" Subaru snapped his head around, forgetting his embarrassment.

"I just..." he looked around, "kinda got lost?"

"In the middle of Elior? The nearest place a Noble'd have any business stayin' is far enough for you to not be here if you 'got lost,' you know." Miss Serena gave him a look that eerily reminded him of Dad.

Subaru stuttered. She was right. His parents were really, really far away right now.

"M-mom and Dad raised me well though! I just got... uhm... got here! I dunno! And I'm not a noble! Whatever that is!" Subaru was quick to jump to the defense of his parents.

Mom and Dad were the coolest people he'd ever met, and they were really good to him. He was only recently beginning to realize he may not have been the best son to them, though. At the very least, he was glad he managed an apology before the whole isekai thing.

"Ah, well sorry about speakin' outa turn, then. Nobles are kinda known for bein' pompous, you know?"

Call him a pessimist or whatever, but—and he really didn't know why—he just knew for a fact he'd never see them again. He hated how certain he was.

"Kid? You listening?"

Mom and Dad would be worried sick about him, and he'd never get to ease their worries about him. He understood that fully. He wanted to try anyway, to find a way back, but he just knew deep down in his heart that he'd never see them again no matter how hard he tried.

"H-hey now! you alright, kid?"

Suddenly, he didn't like being an isekai protagonist any more. He really, really wanted to go home, but he knew couldn't go home, and he'd never be able to. He hated it.

"Flugel!"

Whuh?

"Ah jeez, sorry about talkin' bad about your parents, they're pretty awesome, right? Oh Od I made a kid cry, You miss them? Want me to help find them?" Serena started acting all panicky all of a sudden, and Subaru thought it was kind of funny.

He tried giggling, but the sounds didn't really come out as a giggle should. His eyes burned.

How did all those isekai protagonists enjoy being swept away from their families like that? Subaru couldn't wrap his head around it.

Why did he have to get isekai'd when he had so much? Why not when he grew to be a depressed teenager or something? Why now of all times? Why take away the things that mattered most to him? Why-

Subaru was surprised when he felt a sudden warmth wrap around him.

"...Miss," he hicced, "Miss Serena?" He hicced again.

The elf shushed him softly.

"If you're lost, I can help find them, if you want," her breath tickled his ear, "they must be pretty awesome if you'd defend them like that, right?"

Subaru wanted to agree, but only strangled hiccups and sobs could come out.

"I miss them," was the closest thing he could say to a full sentence.

He could feel a hand rub circles around his back, and it kind of reminded him of what Mom would do whenever he was sad. It made him want to cry harder.

He looked to the starlit sky, looking for the Pleiades constellation. He usually did that at night. It comforted him, reminded him of who he was. Natsuki Subaru, son of Natsuki Naoko and Natsuki Kenichi.

Ah, the stars were all wrong. He wasn't even allowed to see the sky he grew so accustomed to...

He missed them.

"I miss," he cried into her shoulder, "I really miss them...!"

"I can tell," Subaru felt the embrace tighten, "they must be worried sick, huh?"

"I miss them..." he repeated, sentence barely audible under his sobbing.

"Hey, Flugel," Serena began, still hugging the boy as the fire crackled beside them.

It took Subaru a second to remember he gave a cool hero name instead of his actual one, but he eventually responded with a cracked hum.

"Wanna visit my place? I'm sure we can do something about your situation. "We don't have a lot of food at the moment, but I'm sure everything will be fine," Serena spoke softly.

"Oh yeah, Tella's gonna be so excited to see another kid her age, isn't she?" she said that last part more quietly, probably to herself. He could feel her smiling even though he couldn't get a good look at her face.

The thought of meeting another kid was nice. Too bad Subaru wasn't really physically capable of agreeing at the moment.

His wimpers were soothed away when soft hums reached his ears. A lullaby, he realized. Mom used to hum lullabies to him when he was smaller. She still sometimes did.

He really wanted to hear one again...

The slow crackle of the dimming fire, the chirping of the nighttime insects, and the soft singing in his ear eventually put him to sleep, his tears drying and making his face feel a little sticky.

Subaru would later dream. He'd about being with Mom and Dad again, of being home and gorging himself with pancakes and waffles and udon and ramen that Mom always made, of indulging himself in the pleasures of his old life.

He'd dream of doing well in school and making his parents proud and finding them again even though he knew he'd never be able to. He'd dream of dozing off to Mom's music, and of being under his stars again.

This was Subaru's gluttony.


A/N:

Okay yeah, that took forever. Real life stuff, you know?

God DAMN was that a lot of exposition. Plot should start actually kicking off now, so you hopefully won't be reading word vomit from here on out.

As always, If you see anything wrong, be it grammar mistakes or plot holes, don't hesitate to point it out.

Next chapter gonna be who knows when. 2024 probably.

After this chapter I'm gonna plan out my chapters cuz writing without any clue as to where the plot is going is dumb and also the main reason why updates take so long. (Outside of irl stuff of course)

Now for a question. How do you feel about the constant perspective shifts? Does it add to the narrative or is it a poor attempt to be cool and just ends up being really confusing?

I'll do my best to fix anything up before I start work on the next chapter. Again, it'll probably be a while cuz school and actually planning out the plot rather than just writing whatever comes to mind.

Alright, I'm done yapping. Cya.