"Yeah! I'm so pumped! There is nothing that could ruin this day for me!" Subaru stated out loud.
After his meeting with Roswaal just the other day, he decided to come visit the Mathers Domain today. He was finally going to reunite with Emilia. Yes, he knew it's only been four days but it was a very long and painful four days for the poor boy.
"Well, what if that half elf is too busy to see ya?" Felt, who was accompanying him, asked.
"Don't jinx it! I know Emilia will be available, this is destiny after all!" Subaru declared.
Felt simply rolled her eyes. "Cmon, why are you so obsessed with her? According to what ya told me, you only knew her for an hour or something."
"It was love at first sight! When you grow up, you'll get it."
Felt proceeded to stare at Subaru with a disappointed look before turning to Reinhard who was sitting across from the two. "Hey, can't this thing go any faster? I kinda want to see big bro face reality."
"I don't see a reason to rush the dragon carriage. We should be arriving there shortly anyways." Reinhard assured the two.
"Perfect!" Subaru started, "I'll show you just how compatible Emilia and I truly are, lil' sis!"
Felt let out a sigh. "I'm just going to come out and say it. Will you shut up about her? I kinda liked ya better back at Reinhard's prison when you weren't drooling over that half elf."
Still lost in his delusions, Subaru continued, "She has a name you know. It's Emilia."
"Grr… Fine, Emilia! Now shut the hell up before I make you!" Felt glared at Subaru the same way she usually does with Reinhard. Luckily, the intimidation behind that glare was finally enough to snap Subaru out of it.
Subaru closed his eyes and chuckled meekly as he scratched the back of his head. "You're right, sorry about that. I just hadn't had much sleep last night and I'm kinda excited."
"You don't have to tell me that. You really showed it back at that village." Felt recalled before leaning back in the carriage seat, finally satisfied that Subaru finally let it go.
"Miss Felt, if your living space is uncomfortable, I can assist you in fixing that." Reinhard offered, being very clearly concerned that Felt compared his home to a prison.
"Oh boy, hope ya brought a quill because we're gonna be here for a while." Felt smirked rather devilishly, being more than happy to express all of her complaints.
"I don't think that's necessary, I'm positive I'll remember and fix any issues you have." The knight cheerfully reassured, being blissfully ignorannt of the ear torture he is about to endure.
--
Earlier that morning…
--
"BEEP BEEP BEEP"
Subaru slowly sat up from his bed and turned off his alarm on his phone. He made sure to set it early this time so he wouldn't have to rely on his Felt drop kick alarm. True, it was a one time thing but he was not going to have a repeat of yesterday morning.
He was barely hanging in there. After all, he only slept for about two hours last night working on his sewing project. He would've done it in the afternoon after all those lessons but Felt insisted on hanging out with him the whole time. She even participated in the writing lessons Carol provided him despite her disinterest in all of Reinhard's lessons.
Regardless, night was the only real chance he had to privately work on it. Luckily, he finished just in time to even have any sleep. Right now, his hard work was hiding in a sealed box that Reinhard lent him.
Subaru let out an exhausted yawn as she rolled out of bed and got himself dressed in his tracksuit, he was glad that he finally had the thread to patch that hole up. He got himself out of the room and barely found his way to the kitchen, surely this world had coffee. He'd be absolutely screwed otherwise.
"Good morning, guest-sama. You're up early." A gentle voice spoke up once Subaru found the kitchen.
Subaru frantically glanced at the source of the voice and found one of the young twins, Flam, in a cute little apron. "Oh, good morning Flam. Fancy seeing you here."
"I'm Grassis, my sister is currently waking Lady Felt." The twin who was actually Grassis informed.
Subaru flinched at this. "O-Oh, sorry. I don't see you talk much so I thought you were Flam."
"When we're together, I leave most of the talking to my sister since she's older. It usually scares our guests when we talk at the same time."
Well, hearing that sounds scary in itself, Subaru thought. "W-Well anyways, I was trying to make myself some coffee, think you can help me out?"
Grassis tilted her head, looking at the boy quizzingly. "Cough-eh?"
"You know, black liquid, very bitter, but does wonders to keep you awake."
Grassis stood up straight and looked as if a lightbulb lit up above her. "Oh, you mean coff. Certainly, I'll be more than happy to make you a cup of coff." The little maid bowed her head before gathering the proper ingredients.
"So coffee is called coff in this world?" Subaru asked himself. First it was apples being called appas and now it's coffee being called coff. What's next, potatoes are just tatoes? Subaru sighed at the very thought.
After focusing back to reality, he gazed on a peculiar sight. He saw Grassis standing on her tippy toes atop a tall stool reaching for a small bag on top of a cupboard. Even with all that extra elevation, the poor girl was still too short to reach it.
Subaru just smiled as he marveled at the sight of such a cute scene. He then walked beside the young maid and reached the bag for her and handed it to her. "Here you are. If you're having trouble reaching things, don't be afraid to ask for help. I'd be more than happy to give you a hand."
Grassis calmly took the bag and looked away, getting all flustered. Subaru even could've sworn her cheeks turned a little pink. "That won't be necessary, it is my duty as a maid to provide for our residents. I couldn't possibly ask a guest to perform my own duties."
Subaru couldn't help but chuckle. "Cmon, I'm not doing anything around here, the least I could do is to be your little helper. Or, I guess big in this case."
Grassis shook her head. "I couldn't possibly-"
"You're too young to be working yourself to death." Subaru interrupted. "I can tell you're a hard worker, both you and your sister. All I've really done is horse around and poke fun at Felt. Let me say it this way; I want to help you, Grassis."
The little maid's blush deepened a little before finally relenting. "If that is your wish, then I have no choice but to oblige. I'll be counting on you, guest-sama."
"Oh right, there's no need to speak to me so formally, you can just call me by my name." Subaru said with a smirk.
This flustered the poor little girl further and looked down. "A-Alright, Subaru-sama…"
After that interaction, Grassis went back to making the cup of coff. There weren't any more items needed that were on any high shelves so Subaru didn't have a need to help with that. However, he did help Grassis by handing her the ingredients that she called for. Eventually, the cup of coff had finally been made.
Without wasting any time, Subaru eagerly downed that coff. "Ah, bitter." Subaru complained.
His complaint made Grassis giggle. "You could've just asked me to add sugar to it."
"Nonsense! What kind of man would I be if I didn't drink straight black coff?"
"The type of man that screams femininely?" Grassis asks while tilting her head.
"H-Hey! I thought we agreed to never talk about that again!" A flustered Subaru cried out.
"Hehe~ Sorry, I'll be more careful."
After finally getting energized thanks to the coff, he went to the dining hall to start this morning's lesson. He found Reinhard and Felt already in there waiting with breakfast laid out. Subaru just stared at this in disbelief. How is there breakfast here? Grassis was the only one he saw in the kitchen and he definitely knew that little girl didn't make all this.
"How is breakfast already made?!" Subaru asked in disbelief.
"Carol just set it here. She just left to clean" Reinhard exclaimed.
"Th-That's not what I meant! I mean I just left the kitchen and no one was in there making breakfast!"
"Oh, Carol has her own kitchen she cooks in. If I remember correctly, it's so she can keep it the way she likes it."
"Oh, I get it now." Subaru let out a sigh of relief before getting himself seated.
The lesson proceeded in a very similar way it had been yesterday except that Reinhard was keeping an eye on Subaru so he wouldn't speedrun eating his food again.
After a while, Subaru asked, "Hey Rein, how far is that Roswaal guy's mansion from here?"
"Not that far, if we go now, we could definitely arrive there within 2 hours by dragon carriage."
"Really? That's awesome!" Subaru pumped his fist.
This made Felt stare at Subaru suspiciously. "What are you so happy about? Are you planning on making a run for it?"
Subaru eagerly shook his head. "No no, I just thought I should pay them a visit, kinda like getting an early look at the place."
"Mhm, sure." Felt was still suspicious.
"I've already arranged for us to go there after breakfast." Reinhard informed casually.
Both Subaru and Felt shot their gazes onto the knight. "What the hell?! Why didn't you say anything?!" Felt shouted.
"My apologies, I didn't see the need to bring it up. I also thought it would be a pleasant surprise for Subaru." Reinhard smiled innocently.
"Grr… Why wouldn't this concern me?! It's kinda a big deal if you're letting my only partner in this damn place get poached!" Felt yelled.
"I'm sure Subaru will return. I'm sure he already promised to stay with you until your resignation, correct?"
"We'll yeah but I'm smart enough to know that idiot will get caught in the moment and break that promise! If he's going there, then I'm coming too!"
Subaru smiled. "I wouldn't mind you tagging along. I actually thought it would be some good practice for our lessons."
"Oh I'm just going to make sure you don't do something stupid! Last thing I need is a traitor!" Felt hissed.
"If I may add," Reinhard started, "I have the carriage ready outside. When we're done eating, we can head out immediately."
With a nod, the three finished up the breakfast lesson posthaste.
--
Present Time…
--
"And my room!" Felt continued. "Out of all the rooms in that mansion, I ended up with the only one without a window. Believe me, I scouted around and every single room has at least one window except for mine which has nothin'! Even big bro has a window in his."
"I-I see. So move you to a room with a window." Reinhard recited to himself as he made another mental note.
Initially, Reinhard was politely listening while taking mental notes of Felt's complaints. However, she just kept going to the point Reinhard was forced to use a divine protection to enhance his memory.
"Hmm… I guess that's it." Felt said before leaning herself back in her seat. She looked a lot happier, almost as if a weight had lifted from her shoulders.
Reinhard on the other hand was smiling politely however he had a visible stray drop on the side of his forehead. The fact he actually was even trying to listen to all those unreasonable requests was remarkable in itself.
"Very well, Miss Felt. I will look this over and see what changes I can reasonably make for you." Reinhard concluded, finally being spared from this ear torture.
The carriage had already arrived at the mansion a little while ago but Felt insisted on finishing her list of complaints. Since that was finally over, the three finally got out and now stood before the mansion of Roswaal L. Mathers. This mansion was a little bigger than Reinhard's and their garden of hedges in front looked a lot more elegant.
The trio consisting of Subaru, Felt, and Reinhard approached the mansion entrance with the latter leading. By the entrance, there were two maids standing in wait, one with pink hair and the other with blue. Needless to say, this was more than enough to catch Subaru's attention.
"Cute twin maids? This Roswaal guy has everything! This is going to be great!"
Felt glanced at Subaru who currently had a disgustingly perverted look on his face. "Don't we already have that at Reinhard's place?"
"They don't count! They're too young to be prey for someone's fantasies."
"Sister, sister, our guest appears to be a deadbeat pervert." The maid with blue hair started, clearly hearing the conversation that was happening in front of them.
"Yes indeed, Rem." The Pink haired maid added in stereo. "Truly the personification of a loser."
That comment made Felt chuckle. "Look at that, these two get it."
"Why is everyone against me today?!" Subaru whined.
"If I had to guess," Reinhard inquired. "I think it might have to be-"
"That was rhetorical!" Subaru interrupted, already seeing where Reinhard was going with that.
"My apologies, friend. I just couldn't stand the sight of no one taking your side."
After things settled a little, the twin maids of Roswaal's Mansion started. "Our lord, Master Roswaal, is ready to see you."
"Really?" Subaru asked. "That was fast."
"You've been parked there for quite awhile. We've informed our lord of your arrival several minutes ago." Rem informed Subaru.
"A-Ah, sorry about that, a certain little girl was- OOOMPH!"
Subaru was interrupted as that said girl elbowed him in his gut. "Whatever, thanks for waiting on us or something."
Even though that wasn't exactly what she was taught to say, the fact she was being remotely friendly to other people in some kind of way brightened Reinhard's eyes. He once again has that proud parent look.
Felt just ignored it this time. In all honesty, she really wasn't in the mood to create any outbursts right now. Her level of calmness even caught Subaru's attention. He decided not to call her out on it though as his excitement to see Emilia triumphed over his superstition at the moment.
The maids ended up leading the way inside and straight to Roswaal's office. The man in question was wearing the same attire as the other day, he was even wearing his make up in the exact same way.
This was the first time Felt had seen Roswaal in person and she just suddenly burst out laughing. "Really?! This clown is this Roswaal guy?!"
As Felt was laughing, the pink haired maid gave a cold glare at her. "Refrain yourself from making any more rude remarks to Master Roswaal."
Roswaal who was looking as happy as he was yesterday signaled to the pink haired maid. "It's fine Ram." Those simple words were enough to calm the maid referred to as Ram and she politely apologized for her outburst. "So what is the purpose of this visit? Are you ready to start woooorking~ here, Subaru?"
"Hah, I wish. I actually wanted to stop by and take a look at the place so I know what to expect when I start." Subaru explained.
"Is that so?" Roswaal asked and stared straight into Subaru's eyes seriously for a brief moment. He then waved his hand to the side with a smile. "If thaaaat's~ all, then feel free. Rem, why don't you show Subaru around?"
The blue haired maid bowed her head. "Of course, Master Roswaal."
Rem stepped forward and began to guide the trio out of the room so she could begin her tour, leaving Roswaal and Ram alone in the room.
"Ram…" Roswaal started when it was just the two of them. "Keep an eye on them, especially Subaru."
Ram simply bowed her head. "As you wish."
--
Rem had been showing the trio around the manor for some time now. During that time, Felt turned to Subaru with an annoyed look on her face.
"Didn't ya say that you only wanted to come here to see that half elf?" Felt whispered.
"It's Emilia and yes." Subaru answered in a whisper.
"Really? So are you lying to me or the clown?"
"Huh? What do you mean?"
Felt let out a sigh. "Seriously? Are you lying to the clown about wanting to look around or are you lying to me about just wanting to see Emilia?"
That was a bizarre question to ask, Subaru thought. Now he was starting to wonder what had gotten into Felt. "Um, Felt?" Subaru started, "Are you feeling ok?"
The girl gritted her teeth as she looked increasingly annoyed. However, before any kind of answer or even outburst could be made, a gentle voice piped up.
"Subaru?"
Suddenly, all those concerns were put to an abrupt end when Subaru laid his eyes on the girl of his dreams, Emilia.
"Mili! I'm so relieved to see you're alright."
Emilia blinked a few times. "Mili?"
"Oh, it's a nickname I just came up with for you."
Emilia ended up giggling a little. "You come up with the silliest things. I actually wanted to ask you, are you feeling alright? Has anything been feeling off to you these past couple of days?"
"I'm just fine, your healing really saved me back there." Subaru then bowed to Emilia. "Thank you so much."
Emilia waved her hands. "No need for all that. It's the least I could do for everything you've done for me." Soon enough, Emilia's attention shifted to the other two people in the group. "Wait, you're that girl from the loot house."
Felt who was currently crossing her arms nodded. "Yep, and that girl has a name." Felt said in a rather rude tone. Enough so that Reinhard was fast to intervene.
"Miss Felt, the polite thing to do is to introduce yourself." Reinhard informed Felt.
"Fine, my name's Felt." She didn't do anything else, Felt just continued to cross her arms with that annoyed look on her face.
That action in question concerned Emilia. "I'm sorry, I should've asked you for your name first. I didn't mean to upset you."
Felt just brushed that apology to the side. "Yeah, yeah. No big deal."
Despite how evasive and rude that was, it was enough to ease Emilia, only to a certain degree though. "R-Right… I-I just remembered I needed to do some studying!" Emilia declared, clearly feeling awkward about this whole situation. "I'm happy to see you're doing better, Subaru, but I'll have to catch up with you later."
"W-Wait Mili!" Subaru cried out. But he wasn't fast enough as Emilia had already retreated to a nearby room.
Subaru turned to Felt and snapped at her. "What was that for?! You didn't have to be so mean to her!"
Felt didn't look like she cared one bit. "What? I gave her my name and told her it was fine."
"Miss Felt," Reinhard added, "I believe the issue was your tone. You sounded rather threatening to Miss Emilia."
"So what?!" The blonde girl shouted. "If she wants to take it that way, then that's on her!"
"That wasn't nice to Emilia at all! You need to apologize to her!" Subaru insisted.
Felt was having none of it. "I have nothing to apologize for! Just leave me alone!"
"Please stop arguing." Rem said, finally causing Felt and Subaru to stop fighting. "If you continue to act disorderly, I'm afraid Rem will be forced to get Master Roswaal involved."
Not wanting to upset his future employer, Subaru calmed down. "Sorry about that. L-Let's just get back to the tour." Subaru nervously said.
Felt didn't say a word, she just shrugged and returned to crossing her arms.
With the drama semi-settled, the group resumed with the tour. However, Subaru was still worried about Emilia. Right when Rem was showing around their bathing room, Subaru snuck away without anyone noticing and went straight back to the room he saw Emilia retreat to.
He opened the door and walked on in, closing the door behind himself. "Hey Mili, I'm sorry abou-" Subaru blinked a few times as he realized something very peculiar. He was in a giant Library. In fact, this room looked a lot larger than what he saw the half elf enter. Did he get the rooms wrong?
"What an aggravating man you are to poke your nose where you shouldn't, I suppose." A girl who was about as tall as Felt proclaimed. She wore a pink frilly dress, had blue butterfly-like eyes, and blonde hair that was tied into spiral twin tails. She was sitting on a pile of books that was about as tall as her and she herself was reading a book, not even facing Subaru once he walked on in.
Honestly, with how everything was set up, he would've sworn he went into some kind of tutorial room. Regardless, Subaru scratched the back of his head and chuckled nervously. "My bad, I was just trying to check up on a friend. You wouldn't happen to have seen a beautiful silvered hair girl walk in here, would you?"
"As of right now, you and Betty are the only ones here, I suppose." The girl answered.
"Oh really?" Subaru asked disappointingly. He then began to glance around the room a little. After further inspection, he realized that there shouldn't be any way a place like this could fit at this edge of the manor. "By the way, what is this place?"
"This is Betty's multi-purpose room that works as a library and bedroom, I suppose." The girl calmly answered.
"Talk about a token response." Subaru took a closer look at the girl. "Cmon, you should smile a little. It'll definitely make you cuter." Subaru in turn smiled, holding the ends of his cheeks to give the girl a smile.
That remark made the girl furrow her eyebrows ever so slightly. "The only smile you deserve is a sneer."
"I guess I understand why you're so mad." Subaru started. "It's obvious that this library is a secret room and the first door I open happens to be that said secret room."
The girl tightened her grip on the book she was holding.
"Well, I am pretty lucky when it comes to that sort of thing. So what are you supposed to be? One of those manual girls?"
Finally having enough of this. The girl closed her book and stood up on her feet. "Betty's had just about enough of this. It's time to teach you a lesson, I suppose."
Startled by the girl's sudden advance, Subaru nervously backed up. "H-Hang on, what are you going to do to me?"
With a dead serious look, the girl spoke in an equally serious tone, "Don't you dare move."
Subaru, who was successfully intimidated by this loli, gulped and stayed still as instructed.
"Anything you'd like to say?" The girl asked.
"Um… H-How about don't hurt me?"
Ignoring the boy's request, the girl placed her hand on the boy's chest.
Huh, this wasn't as bad as he thou-
Before Subaru could finish his thought, a strong shock of sorts shot through his body. Before he knew it, he was lying on the ground in both pain and exhaustion.
"W-What did you do to me…?" Subaru managed to ask despite his current state.
"I only collected the mana from your body, I suppose." The girl said. "It confirmed that you are not an enemy."
Did she say collect mana? Like Reinhard? He thought. Is draining mana from people some kind of common ability this world has? God, what a terrifying thought.
Despite all the pain, Subaru managed to chuckle. "H-Hah… So this is what it's like to be in Felt's shoes…"
The girl looked at the boy quizzingly. She didn't expect this kind of response. "You're laughing, I suppose? What an ultimate pervert you are to be enjoying this."
"I-I'm not enjoying this at all, you damn loli! T-This just reminded me of someone..."
"Now you're insulting Betty? Just who do you think you are? I suppose."
…
The girl let out a sigh as she realized that the boy finally passed out. This strange boy only brought her more questions and an even bigger headache.
--
A few minutes earlier…
--
"… And over here is where we put the towels." Rem explained, just about finished up with the bathing room.
It was around this time Felt noticed something was off. It was too normal. The crimson eyed girl glanced over to Subaru just to notice he wasn't there. "Huh? Big bro?" Felt began to look around the room, trying to find if he was doing something stupid again.
"I saw Subaru go inside the room Miss Emilia went in." Reinhard ever so calmly mentioned.
"He what?!" Felt snapped. "Why the hell didn't ya stop him?!"
"Well, the whole purpose of this visit was for him to reconcile with her. I didn't sense any ill intentions so I saw no reason to stop him."
"Grrr… That's it! I'm gonna kill him!" Felt declared before stomping off.
Unlike Subaru, Reinhard sensed something a lot more dangerous from felt. It was as if she truly intended to kill poor Subaru.
"Don't do anything rash, Miss Felt. I'm sure he is just apologizing to Emilia on your behalf." Reinhard tried to reason.
"Don't worry, I'm not actually gonna kill him. I'm just gonna knock some sense into that dumbass's thick skull." Felt said in a rather pleasant tone while wearing a very pissed front.
Well, Reinhard could sense she wasn't lying so it should be fine. He just couldn't help but worry for his poor friend. "I hope you can forgive me, friend." Reinhard silently said to himself on the off chance his instincts were wrong.
Felt continued to stomp her way straight to that room and barged herself in. The first thing she saw was Emilia who was sitting by a desk with a stack of papers. She was looking over them before Felt let herself in.
Emilia looked over at Felt and gave her an awkward smile. "O-oh, hi Miss Felt. Do you need anything?"
Felt didn't answer Emilia's question immediately as she began to look around, seeing that Subaru wasn't in here. "Grrr… Where did that dumbass go?!"
Emilia blinked a few times at the strong language used and lifted her hands up. "Please calm down. Just take a few deep breaths and we can sort this out calmly."
Felt who wasn't calming down at all glared at poor Emilia. "Stop stalling! I know he's hiding here somewhere. Just tell me where he is and I'll be on my way."
Emilia tilted her head in confusion. "Do you mean Subaru? He never came in here."
"Bullshit! I know he's in here!" Felt was just about to lose it as she began to stomp her way closer to Emilia. Reinhard was just about to take Felt by her wrist but the appearance of a little floating cat stopped everyone in the room with what they're doing.
The little cat looked pretty mad and Felt was taking his hateful glare head on. "I would back up if I were you, unless you want to turn into an ice sculpture." The little cat said menacingly.
The sight of the cat reminded Felt that Emilia was a spirit arts user and her contracted spirit was no joke. Seeing the danger she was about to get herself in finally calmed the little girl's wrath and took a deep breath. "Look, I'm just trying to find big bro. I was told he went inside here."
The little cat was still staring coldly at Felt. "You heard Lia, he isn't here. I suggest you leave if that's all you're here for."
"Puck, I can handle this." Emilia interjected.
Puck looked over to Emilia and nodded. "If you say so, Lia." Before letting Emilia do what she was about to do, he turned back to Felt. "Don't you dare lay a finger on Lia." After those parting words, Puck vanished.
"Felt, what's wrong?" Emilia simply asked.
Not wanting to upset that cat spirit, Felt took a second to properly collect herself before starting, "I'm just having a bad day and it's not helping that big bro running around like a headless chicken."
Emilia nodded and smiled a little. "Yeah, Subaru really seems to like causing commotions."
"You think? Recently he's been acting like a brain dead moron." Felt sighed.
"Really? What's he been doing?"
"Don't worry about it. He's just acting stupid and I'm just trying to snap him out of it."
Emilia looked into Felt's eyes for a moment. "Felt, are you alright? Do you want to talk about it."
Felt was just about to tell her to not worry about it but she decided that it would probably feel nice to just get it out of her system. "Fine, I'll tell you. I'm mad at big bro for deciding to work here."
Emilia took a second to process that and looked shocked. "W-Wait, Subaru is going to work here?!"
"Yeah, didn't anyone tell ya?"
Emilia shook her head. "No, this is the first time I'm hearing this. So why are you mad that Subaru is going to work here?"
Felt took another deep breath and sat herself on the floor, leaning back against the wall. "I guess it's a future plan he decided on without me."
"What do you mean?"
"It's hard to explain. I guess I envisioned him doing something else with his life and all of a sudden he throws that out the window so he can be a butler for some clown."
"I see… Did you tell him how you feel about this?"
Felt shrugged. "A little, I already made it clear I wasn't happy about it, that's for sure."
Emilia took a second to think. "Well, how about you tell him more in detail. Like, why exactly it makes you so mad and what concerns you have. I'm sure that'll clear everything up!" Emilia smiled happily at the very thought of Felt and Subaru making up.
Felt took a moment to ponder Emilia's suggestion and nodded. "Yeah, you're right! I'll tell that idiot what's what!"
"Yeah! I believe in you, Felt!" Emilia happily cheered the little girl on.
After that moment both of the girls chuckled. And Felt got herself back on her feet. "Hey Emilia?" Felt started, "Sorry about my attitude earlier. I really shouldn't have lashed at you like that."
Emilia just gave her signature sweet smile. "I forgive you. And thank you for taking care of Subaru. I can tell you two are really good friends."
"Pfft, I can see why big bro likes you so much. Try not to break his heart too badly." Felt said with a grin.
"Eh?" Emilia looked really confused at this.
"Miss Felt. I found Subaru." Reinhard mentioned out of nowhere.
"You did?!" Felt shot up. "Cmon, where is he?!"
Without saying a word, Reinhard ook a step out of the room and pointed at a different room across from them. Felt wasted no time storming into the room and what she saw was so disgraceful that she might end up losing it again.
"Yep, I'm really gonna do it." Felt declared as she set her eyes on Subaru who was neatly tucked in a bed and fast asleep.
Before the fuming girl could get any closer, Reinhard held her shoulder, stopping them in place. "Wait, Miss Felt. I wish to confirm a suspicion of mine." Reinhard walked over to Subaru and hovered his hand over the sleeping boy's head.
Reinhard's hand glowed blue for a moment and faced back to Felt. "I believe the best thing we can do right now is to let him rest. It appears that the mana from his gate nearly vanished and he'll need time to replenish that."
Felt blinked a few times. "Hold on a sec! Are you saying that you drained big bro's mana?!"
Reinhard stared at Felt confusingly. "I don't recall saying that I did such a thing. Rest assured, I didn't have anything to do with Subaru's current state."
"I think Subaru ran into Miss Beatrice and offended her in some way." Emilia, who followed suit due to her concern for Subaru's safety, suggested.
"Why are all these mana drainers coming up out of nowhere?!" Felt blurted out. She was convinced that this whole royal selection fiasco is only going to make her life worse. The crimson eyed girl just let out a sigh and sat down at the edge of the bed. "Fine, I guess I can wait a bit. But after this, we're out!"
"Didn't you guys just get here?" Emilia asked.
"We did, but I'm not going to risk getting myself tangled up with another Reinhard!"
"Miss Felt, I'm sure that Miss Emilia said that the individual who did this is named-"
"I heard big sis the first time!" Felt interrupted Reinhard before he could state his reminder.
"Big sis? Wait, why are you calling me that all of a sudden?" Emilia asked.
"What? If big bro can give ya a nickname then I have every right to do so too." Emilia couldn't help but giggle at that response. "Hey! What's so funny!"
"I just find it sweet how both you and Subaru are so close." Emilia followed that up with a sweet smile.
The way she said it really sounded genuine and Felt had just about exhausted herself from yelling. So, she just shrugs at this comment and waved her hand to the side dismissively. "Yeah, whatever."
Eventually, Reinhard and Felt decided to return to the tour with Rem. Rem had been suspiciously unreactive to this whole situation and was mainly just observing from the sidelines. Regardless, feeling more comfortable around Felt, Emilia decided to help Rem finish the tour.
Regularly, this whole tour was supposed to be for Subaru but Felt refused to just sit and wait for who knows how many hours for Subaru to wake up.
--
Two hours later…
--
"I don't know this ceiling…" Subaru muttered to himself as he finally started to wake up.
He leaned up out of the bed and glanced around the room he was in. The layout looked like one of the many rooms the blue haired maid showed him during the tour. Subaru couldn't help but let out a sigh of relief. This means that his encounter with the library loli didn't kill him.
Considering how long Felt was out last time from this, he guessed he'd been out for probably an hour or two. The sudden realization made Subaru's face pale. "Felt's gonna kill me…" Subaru dreaded. "M-Maybe I should just wait in here for a little-"
And on cue, the devil herself suddenly bursts through the door. Those crimson red eyes seemed to stare right through him as the little devil approached the boy with her arms crossed. She was walking rather slowly which only added to the intimidation she exerted.
This intimidating aura caused Subaru to instinctively raise his hands in front of himself defensively. "I-It's not what it looks like! I just took a wrong turn and got lost! Please don't hurt me!" Subaru pleaded.
Felt just stared at Subaru for a few seconds before bursting out laughing. "Holy shit, big bro. You sound so pathetic right now."
Well, after that intimidating aura vanished in an instant, Subaru started to defend his honor. "Hey! I was just apologizing! There isn't anything pathetic about a simple sorry."
Still chuckling, Felt added. "What about the part where you said, 'Oh please don't hurt me! I'm too pathetic to die!'."
"Now you're just putting words in my mouth!"
"You just woke up and you're already starting a commotion." Emilia said as she let herself in the room.
"Oh, Mili!" Subaru suddenly jumped on his knees in the bed and bowed to her. "I wanted to apologize to you on Felt's behalf!"
Felt glared at Subaru. "I'm right here, you know!"
Emilia sweetly giggled at the apology. "There's no need for that. Felt and I already made up."
"You did?!" Subaru was flabbergasted by this revelation and gave Felt a puzzled look, almost as if he was silently pleading to Felt to confirm this.
"Don't look so surprised! Me and big sis settled our differences and it's all under the rug now." Felt sounded rather proud as she explaIned this.
Subaru let out an exaggerated sniffing sound and pretended to wipe his eyes. "They grow up so fast."
"What the hell are you talking about?! I'm not some kind of spoiled brat!" Felt hissed. "What are you still doing there? Let's get out of here already."
Subaru looked confused. "Get out? But we just got here."
"You've been out for two hours! You should've thought of that before wandering into someone's room and sleeping in their bed!" Felt argued.
"Oh, that reminds me… How did I get here? The last thing I remembered was being in your guy's secret library."
"Secret library?" Emilia wondered. "Oh! You must mean Beatrice's forbidden library! I'm actually surprised you managed to find it."
Subaru sheepishly laughed. "Yeah, I have a habit of stumbling across secret rooms in dungeons. So I take it that you moved me in the bed?"
Emilia shook her head. "No, we all found you in here like this. Ram assumed that you just wandered in the guest room and took a nap."
"Ram? That's the pink haired maid, right?" That's strange, Subaru thought. If no one moved him, then the only possible person who could've moved him in that bed could've been… oh, it appears that he's dealing with a tsundere loli.
Subaru couldn't help but chuckle to himself at this revelation. "We'll, thanks for looking after me, Emilia."
"Me? I mean… We really only checked up on you every few minutes."
Felt started growling, getting increasingly annoyed the longer Subaru and Emilia were interacting with each other. "GET OUT OF THAT DAMN BED!!!"
Nearly stumbling on the sheer force of those words, Subaru finally got himself out of the bed and into his own two feet. "I'm up, I'm up. You really need to chill a little."
"Me?! Chill?! You were the one who wandered off! You were the one to take a two hour nap! I've just about had it with you today!!"
Yikes, Subaru thought. "Alright, I'm up now. We can get going right now. Lemme just say goodbye to Emilia first."
Felt seemed to look more annoyed. "Fine, just hurry up."
Subaru nodded and turned to Emilia. "Well, with how little time I had to work with, it's been nice to finally see you again."
"Yes, it's good to see you're still your cheerful self." Emilia agreed.
Before Subaru could add anything, Felt snatched Subaru's wrist and started dragging him off. "There, let's go!"
"W-Wait! I didn't say goodbye yet!" Subaru pleaded.
Unfortunately, Emilia waved to Subaru with that lovely smile of hers. "Goodbye, Subaru. I'll see you later."
Subaru frantically waved his free hand back to her. "I'm looking forward to it, Mili!"
After being pulled out of the room, Reinhard was seen outside waiting beside the door. The knight then followed behind Felt and Subaru with a cheerful smile on his face. "Hello, friend. Good to see you're doing well."
"Yep, being dragged around by a 14 year old, wouldn't have it any oth- GYAA!!" Subaru was interrupted as that very same 14 year old stopped to stomp on the boy's foot.
"I'll have you know that I'm 15!" The feisty girl practically hissed before continuing to drag Subaru away.
"Miss Felt, surely dragging him like that isn't necessary." Reinhard proposed.
"YES IT IS!!! He's just going to wander off again the second I take my eyes off of him!"
"That was just a one time thing. I promise it won't happen again." Subaru tried to reassure.
This time, Felt stopped and turned to face Subaru. He had never seen such an angry face on her before. "Why should I trust you?!" She snapped. "What have you possibly done that'll make me believe you won't just get your sorry ass lost again?! Please, big bro, tell me. Tell me that I was just imagining things and you really didn't wander off and fell asleep."
Subaru was at a loss of words. He had no idea Felt would be this mad over this. "Lil' sis… What's gotten into you?"
Hearing him say that, Felt let out a sigh and finally let go of him. "It's been a long day, ok? I just wanna get out of here already."
Subaru nodded. "Alright, let's get going then." Subaru was still concerned for Felt of course but he thought that it would be best just to give her what she wanted for now.
Felt didn't say anything. She merely nodded in agreement and continued until the group left the manor and started their way back to Reinhard's manor.
Needless to say, the ride back was a silent and awkward one.
--
Why…?
--
When the group came to Reinhard's manor, Subaru convinced Reinhard to suspend today's lessons. The knight happily accepted this as he too believed Felt wasn't exactly in the right mood to go about learning.
"So, we have the rest of the day to ourselves, wanna check out Rein's crazy garden, lil' sis?" Subaru suggested.
"Nah, I'm pretty beat. I'll go check to see if Reinhard has enough common sense to give me a real room."
Now she's willing to be around Reinhard willingly? Yeah, there is definitely something going on with her, Subaru thought. "Well, in that case, we can go check it out together! If the room turns out to be a bust, I'll be sure to find something you like."
"I'm good. I can handle that stuff myself. Besides, any room should be better than what I have now."
Subaru noticed that she sounded really bland about the way she was explaining this and really took note that she was being pretty evasive. Suddenly, he thought of just the thing that'll patch this strange hole between the two. "Alright, I guess I'll see you around then, lil' sis."
Felt didn't respond. Instead, she turned around and walked away.
Subaru rushed back to his room to gather his project that he worked on last night. It was still sealed in the package and was exactly where he left it last. With a grin, he snuck to where Reinhard was showing Felt her new room.
Originally, he planned a coordinated path, expecting Felt to complain about every room she went through. To his surprise though, Felt just hunkered down in the first room Reinhard suggested, saying that was good enough. It was so surprising that even Reinhard expressed his concerns.
"Miss Felt, is something troubling you?" The knight asked.
"Why does everyone keep asking me that?! Would you all just get off my ass about that already?!"
"We're all just worried about you. I assure you, we don't intend to be a bother."
Felt glared at Reinhard. "Oh would ya look at that, you are bothering me." Felt said sarcastically. "Just leave me alone already!" After yelling that, she threw her shoe at Reinhard and the knight just caught it, placing it down beside her bed.
"My apologies, Miss Felt. I won't pry any further." Finally giving in, Reinhard left the room. He walked past Subaru who was trying to hide behind a vase stand. As he passed, he gave Subaru a thumbs up and winked at him before whispering, "Good luck."
Subaru blinked a few times, a bit caught off guard that Reinhard easily noticed him. However, he was thankful that he understood his plan and support. Well, it seemed like it at least.
After waiting a few minutes, mainly to let Felt cool off a little, he let himself in. Felt glared at him, not looking too pleased. "Hey! There's something called knocking ya know!"
"Sorry about that. I just wanted to see how you're liking your new room." Subaru said with his hands behind his back, hiding the box from the little girl's sight.
"It's just fine. It has the window I want. You can go now." Felt rudely said.
Damn, he was going to have to act quick, Subaru thought. "H-Hey wait! I haven't given your housewarming gift yet!"
The strange word was enough to catch Felt's interest. "Housewarming gift?" She asked.
"That's right!" Subaru then revealed the sealed box and handed it to the girl. "Here you go!" Subaru proudly said.
With a hint of interest on her face, she opened the box. Inside, she found a well made doll. It felt soft when she held it in her hands and the stitching and materials looked pretty high in quality. The only downside about this was that it had a very odd resemblance to a certain back haired boy that wore a tracksuit.
Felt gave it a good look before finally sharing her opinion;
"Oh, cool."
…
…
…
That's it…?
…
…
…
I spent all night making this for her and that's all I get…?
…
…
…
She sounded very halfhearted about it. She didn't even thank him. She seemed very indifferent about his hard work.
"That's it…?" Subaru muttered.
Felt lifted an eyebrow. "You said something?"
Right now, Subaru was pretty mad. "What's wrong with you?!" Subaru yelled.
Felt flinched at the sudden outburst but overall it didn't affect her demeanor. "I should be the one saying that! Why are you mad all of a sudden?!"
"You! You've been acting weird all day! This isn't like you at all!"
Felt glared at Subaru. This one was so potent that it would put all of her Reinhard glares to shame. "Me? Acting weird?" She asked. "DON'T YOU FUCKING GIVE ME THAT!!!" She screeched.
Still seething with anger, Felt continued, "You really wanna know what's gotten into me? That's easy! You! You're the one that's been pissing me off!!!"
Subaru was caught by surprise by this. "Me?! What did I ever do to you?!"
"Do I really need to say it, dumbass?! You lied to me!"
This finally caused Subaru's rage to subside and became confused. "Wait, lie to you?"
"Of course you wouldn't remember! Should've figured you were all talk"
"I-I don't understand… What are you talking about?"
"Lemme jog that crappy memory of yours! You said that we'd be partners once this whole thing is over!"
Finally, the pieces were starting to form. "Wait, you mean that shop idea? Are you really upset about that?"
"WELL WHAT IF I AM?!?!" Felt screamed. This time, tears started to form in her eyes.
This sight left Subaru speechless.
"Yes! I'm pissed that you abandoned our partnership to go work for some clown!" Felt continued.
"B-But wasn't that all theoretical…?" Subaru nervously asked.
"So it was all theoretical to you?" Felt asked, her tone finally starting to soften up. "Guess it was stupid of me to think I actually had a chance to finally get a good life."
Subaru was finally getting it now. "Wait Felt-"
"I honestly thought I could have a real job with a friend." Felt interrupted. "Guess that was just me." At this point, tears were steadily streaming down Felt's face.
"Felt…" Subaru muttered.
"Leave me alone…" Felt requested as she was about to break down and cry.
"Please Felt, I didn't mean to-"
"Subaru… Please…" The girl tiredly said.
This was too much for Subaru to handle. He headed out of the room. Before leaving, he turned to Felt one more time. "I promise I'll make things right." Then he closed the door.
Subaru could hear faint sounds of muffled crying from the other room. He let out a sigh and went off to give her some space.
He had no idea that would hurt her as much as it did. "I guess I really am a dumbass." Subaru halfheartedly laughed to himself, trying to lighten his own mood from the guilt that was plaguing him.
Nothing eventful occurred until dinner time. Everyone gathered in the dining hall and Subaru was relieved to see that Felt decided to join them. It just disheartened the boy to see how tired she looked.
Everyone, including the servants, had a general understanding what had happened so no one pried. Everyone just ate their meals in peace. This was about as equally as awkward as the ride back here.
Subaru did notice one particular thing with Grassis and Flam. The two were a lot easier to recognize this time around. Grassis seemed to be sneaking glances at him and her cheeks were constantly a light pink while Flam had her eyes locked on Subaru with a very ominous look in her eyes.
Hm, guess everyone's acting strange today, Subaru thought.
Eventually, dinner concluded and everyone was about to wander back to their own activities. Subaru tailed Felt seeing how she looked a lot more calm than before.
"Hey, lil' sis? You got a minute?" Subaru asked when the two were alone in the halls.
Felt stopped and turned to face Subaru. "What?" She asked. Felt didn't seem annoyed. If anything, she just sounded tired.
Subaru suddenly planted his forehead to the ground, practically groveling to the girl. "What I did was really messed up. I really liked what we had before this and I'm willing to do anything to make it right. If it will fix things between us, I'll even give up on working for Roswaal."
This certainly caught Felt by surprise. In fact, it was definitely enough to wake her up a little. "S-Stop groveling like that, you dumbass! Get up!" Subaru was quick to comply. Felt then let out a sigh before continuing in a more serious tone. "Do you really mean it?"
Subaru nodded. "Yes, I've never been more serious in my whole life!"
"Tch, have you ever been serious?" Felt halfheartedly joked before sighing again. "Fine, I'll forgive you. But you're gonna have to make it up to me, got it?"
Once again, Subaru planted his forehead back to the ground. "Thank you, lil' sis! I won't let you down!"
"H-Hey! I said no groveling!" Felt shouted. After he got himself back up, Felt continued, "I'll be working you like a dog tomorrow you know. But after that, I'm sure we'll be even."
Subaru gulped at the sound of that. However, he wasn't going to back down and gave the short girl a salute. "Got it! I won't let you down, lil' boss!"
"Lil' boss? Don't call me that! It just sounds like you're making fun of how tall I am!" Felt argued.
"I mean, you are about two-thirds my size. But that's not something to be ashamed of! You have time to grow after- OOOMPH!!!"
Subaru was interrupted once the feisty girl kicked his stomach, instantly silencing him. "I said shut it!"
Subaru reformed himself and chuckled nervously. "Yeah, just got a little carried away there."
"You think? Look, I'm kinda tired, we can go over this tomorrow, got it?"
Subaru performed another salute. "Loud and clear!"
The two finally parted ways, making their way to their own respected rooms. The atmosphere felt a lot less tense now that things were cleared up between Felt and Subaru.
Subaru continued his reading and writing lessons for the rest of the afternoon before finally ending the day.
Today was quite an emotional roller coaster for him and was kinda relieved it had finally come to an end.
--
…
--
"Good morning, guest-sama."
Subaru let out a yawn, and stretched. He took a moment to realize it was Grassis and Flam. "Morning Flam, morning Grassis." Subaru tiredly said.
After another moment, he finally noticed something. "Crap! My alarm didn't go off!" Subaru desperate pulled out his phone and immediately noticed something off.
"Three days off?" He asked himself. "Must be some glitch from being in a different world and all."
"Guest-sama?" Flam piped up. "Is everything alright?"
Subaru smiled and scratched the back of his head. "Yep! Perfectly fine. I should probably get going before my official Felt alarm clock kicks in."
The twins looked at Subaru in confusion. The two just brushed it off before gesturing for Subaru to follow suit. "If you could, allow us to take you to Master Reinhard and Lady Felt."
"Thanks girls. Let me get changed real quick."
The twins nodded and stepped outside.
Subaru started to get himself changed and noticed something odd. "Wait… Why is there a hole in my tracksuit?" He wondered. There's no way the stitching could've undone itself.
Suddenly, a thought occurred to him.
"No…" Subaru dreaded. "No no no no. Please, anything but that."
Subaru rushed on a different set of clothes that were available, the same he wore on the second day here. After rushing out of the room, he faced the twins.
"Say, weird question. How long have I been here now?"
Both Grassis and Flam looked at him with concern now. "Guest-sama? Are you feeling unwell?" Flam asked.
"Sorta, I-I'm just tired and my sense of time is a little out of whack."
The two blinked before shrugging in unison. "You've only been here for a day. This is the start of the second."
No…
Subaru dropped to his knees. "You've gotta be kidding me…" Subaru said to himself. "Everything was just fine. How did this happen?"
The twins gave off concerned looks. "Guest-sama? Are you alright?" They asked in unison.
Subaru didn't answer, instead, he continued to complain. "Does that mean everything I've done up until now didn't even matter? Why?! It doesn't make any sense!!!"