I do not own Re:Zero or any of the characters.
Tower
Ian frowned at Shaula. Everyone had tried to explain why her way of speaking was similar to Subaru's, but hadn't been able to well.
"I'll see you in court!" Shaula complained, having been chopped in the forehead by Subaru for not tsking anything seriously.
"There," Ian said. "Court. Have you heard anyone from this country talk about Court, Subaru?"
"I...no," Subaru frowned. "I see what you mean now."
"Master, can I really talk about the tower with everyone?" Shaula asked. "I have permission? Would that be okay?"
"Yes it would!" Subaru snapped. "Rather, I recommend it! It's about time for you to start speaking seriously!"
Shaula's face turned to one of complete surprise towards the frowning Subaru's complaints. And then, little by little, her facial expression changed, first surprise, then comprehension, then assent, and finally deep gratitude. Then, she said,"Yippeeeee! Yaaaaay! I got permission to taaalk! Now I don't have to play the act of the deeply mysterious femme fatal anymore! Hip, Hip, Hoooooray!"
"Now not even a fragment of it is left behind when it comes to that factor!!" Subaru shouted.
Her face was lit up in a deep smile, if she had a tail, she'd probably be wagging it around in full swing.Though as a matter of fact, Shaula's ponytail was swinging about in delight as she still held on tightly onto his arm, with her ponytail smacking against his forehead, his cheeks, and any other part it could reach repeatedly.
"We should probably ask where she learned to talk like that," Ian pointed out. "Even that other asshole from back home doesn't talk like that."
"I learned from Master," Shaula said.
Everyone stared at her, except Ian, Elena, and Subaru, who all shared a meaningful look. Finally, everyone seemed to decide that looking into it too deeply was probably not going to get them anywhere, so they began to ask about both Shaula's status as the Sage and about the Tower instead. During the questioning about Shaula being the sage, she'd said that the Sage was actually her master, and identified him by an image on Lugunica's silver coins, which Ian doubted was entirely accurate. However, when Subaru asked why she thought he was her Master, as he looked nothing like the coin, Shaula said they were both males with hair, two eyes and ears, and a mouth. Ian frowned at that. Disregarding a toddler, as Subaru accused her of acting like, that was something that someone might say while trying to identify the difference between two male animals of similar breed, or something less diverse than, say, a dog. Like if he were trying to tell two male spiders apart. Females and Males eere easy, but after that, it was next to impossible for him. Judging by her completely honest personality and the fact that she genuinely couldn't tell Subaru from the coin by appearance, he had a feeling sonething wasn't quite normal about Shaula. However, that was confirmed when she admitted to recognizing Subaru as her Master by his pungent, foul odor, which Rem teasingly confirmed as being suffocating.
"Is she human?" Elena asked Ian in sign language, a skill he was a little rusty at after so long in Lugunica.
"I don't think so," Ian signed back. "Apart from being four hundred years old, she can't recognize males and females of what is supposedly her own species. Plus she can smell his Witch Miasma, which only a few people can, and none are human."
"Still sexy, though," Elena signed, grinning.
Ian rolled his eyes. "Frederica's jealous. If you fuck Shaula, you'll lose Frederica."
"Not going to happen," Elena sigbed.
"No doubt," Ian signed. "You don't have nearly enough game to pick Shaula up."
Elena flipped him off. As she did, Ram asked Shaula what her Madter's name was, claiming he'd gotten amnesia from hitting his head on a toilet bowl. Shaula had asked Subaru if he'd really done it again then identified him as Flugel, the man who'd planted the giant tree by which they'd fought the White Whale.
After absorbing thst information, and deciding to ignore the hope of restoring what Gluttony had eaten being shattered by Shaula not being the true Sage, they moved the discussion to the Tower itself so they could fill Subaru in on how they'd spent the last two days while he was unconscious. The lowest floor, where they were holding their discussion, was the sixth floor, Asterope. The fith, which was the next floor up, was Celaeno. The fourth was Alcyone. And according to Shaula, after the fourth floor came the first floor, Maia.
"What about floors three and two?" Ian asked. "Also, who named the floors?"
"Master did," Shaula said proudly.
"You suck at naming things, Subaru," Ian teased.
"I don't have such bad tadte!" Subaru snapped. "And you didn't answer about the second and third floors."
"Let me give you the layout first, since you're behind everyone else a little, now that you lost your memories again," Shaula said, Ian grinning as Subaru muttered under his breath. "On the fifth floor, Celaeno, you'll find the door back outside. The Sixth Floor, Asterope, is underneath it, so in fact, it connects straight to the underground area. If you hit it in the wrong place, you'll end up buried alive, so It'd be best that you don't do anything reckless like trying to break the wall."
"Incidentally," Julius spoke up, "the wall and floor seem to look like they're made out of stone when you first look at them, but they have an unusual strength to them. Let me just say now that they wouldn't be chipped even a bit with either Emila's magic, or Ian's. Though I feel like Ram might be able to get through."
"Ram has almost as much destructive potential as Reinhard," Ian said. "She just lacks his ability to come back to life or his infinite Divine Blessings."
"The Fourth Floor, Alcyone, is like myyyy dwelling area, a simple place for my ins 'n outs," Shaula said. I like to leave it messy, so I'm gonna get embarrassed if you look at it too hard."
Subaru gave her a deadpan stare.
"Master, your eyes look serious," Shaula said. "How scary. U-Usually I stand watch over the Sand Dunes from here. And, then I take aim and fire fire fire at anyone who gets near to the tower!"
"So it indeed was you then," Subaru nodded to himself. Then, his tone turned harsh and furious. "We went through so much suffering thanks to that, how the hell do you plan to make up for that?"
"Sorry! Sorry!" Shaula said, recoiling in surprise and fear, but not looking guilty or remoseful, more surprised and a hint of stung. "I was juuuust following Master's instructions, when you say that, you're just fussing about what I've been doing here for the past hundreds of years!"
Beatrice frowned. "Subaru, there's no use in this, no matter what you say, in fact. There's no sense of remorse or guilt in this one, I suppose. They just do as ordered...It doesn't make sense to ask a tool their uses, in fact."
Shaula nodded, beaming happily. "Yep-yep, I'mmmm Master's tool! The lil' ankle biter says it well!"
Her moods and facial expressions changed fickly, and she seemed almost childlike in her airhead level of ignorance about the impact of her words and actions. Ian frowned.
Subaru ground his teeth. "It's getting real tiring talking with you."
Shaula's eyes widened. "You used to say that all the time before! It's been aaaages."
Subaru grimaced, looking exasperated. "Is that so? Y'know I used to say that all the time, donkey years ago."
Ian stared at Shaula. Whenever in their conversation she'd been surprised, startled, or exceptionally excited, she'd begun to open and close her hands like lobster claws. He had a feeling that what she was was also important.
Subaru sighed. "About the Fourth Floor, your dwelling area...Like, your living quarters. What's above that?"
"The examination hall from the Third Floor, Taygeta," Shaula answered. "To test one's rights to enter the library."
Subaru frowned. "The library?"
"Yeah," Shaula nodded. "A library. From the Third Floor, Taygeta, and up, there's trials, and each one has a corresponding library. If you fulfill the conditions to enter the library, then you can read the books inside at your leissssure."
Subaru friwned again. "What's written in those books??"
Shaula blanched. "Errrrr."
Subaru almost keeled over backward in frustration. "'Errrrr!?'"
Shaula shook her head, her oddly-shaped braid swaying a little sadly. "It's because...I can't read the books 'n stuff. I've not been told more than to guard the tower."
Subaru pinched the bridge of his nose. "Was that from your Master...from Flugel as well?"
Shaula beamed proudly. "Yeah!"
"You're so incredibly loyal," Elena flirted.
"Thanks," Shaula beamed.
"I think you'll have to be more direct than that," Ian signed to Elena, who nodded.
Beatrice narrowed her eyes at Shaula, but spoke to Subaru. "Subaru, what lies inside the books of the library is knowledge, I suppose."
Subaru frowned. "By 'knowledge' you don't mean it in a literal sense, right?"
"This is the place where the knowledge written down by the Sage known as being omniscient sleeps," Beatrice said. "I've heard that the Pleiades Watchtower is a name used in the outside, in fact."
Shaula nodded enthusiastically. "Yeah. Since Master's came back inside, the tower will go back to its original role. A Great Library where you can search for anything you like, be it something you want to know or something you'd like to be aware of, you can do that in Pleiades."
Subaru frowned as he went over all theye'd lesrned. "So that means the Third Floor is at a Beginner Level. The Second Floor is at an Intermediate Level. And that you can get access to the top class information on the First Floor, I think. So it must mean that the Trials are Qualifications Trials to obtain the clearances, right?"
Shaula's eyes went wide. "Ohhh, as expected of Master! Even I keep getting more and more confused with what you're talking about! But perhaps it'smucho mejor that you keep it simple."
"I doubt it's that easy, Subaru," Ian said. "Something...else, is here." He looked up at the ceiling of the sixth floor. "I sense something is off about this place. It feels...familiar but different."
Ram nodded. "Ram feels it, too. Her horn has been itching since she srrived."
"Are you saying there are enemies nearby?" Julius asked.
"No," Ian said, shaking his head. "Maybe. It's...hard to explain. It's like thst prickling feeling you get when you think someone's watching you."
"Shaula, are you certain we're alone here?" Subaru asked.
"I haven't let anyone else in," Shaula said simply.
The name of the Watchtower had gone from something quite affable to something quite suspicious. Subaru and the others, had left the Sixth Floor single file, Ian then Ram leading, and had started climbing the stairs up towards the upper floors. The spiral staircase coiled around circularly within the tower like a snake's body. However, since there was no manner of railing, the higher they got, the closer to the outer wall they stayed.
"This is scary," Subaru finally said from roughly the middle of the group, where Rem was helping Julius as the escorts for Subaru, Anastasia, and Emila, redundant though protecting Emilia was.
Emilia looked over at Subaru worriedly. "Subaru, if you're scared, then, do you want to hold my hand? Since you still haven't fully recovered, and you're unsteady on your feet, you might actually fall off."
The ground of the Sixth Floor was getting far in the distance, and Gyan, Ian's Ground Dragon, and the Dragon Carriage all looked pretty small down there. At a glance, Ian could tell Subaru wanted to take her hand, but his pride refused.
Subaru shook his head, smiling. "Thanks, Mili. But, I'm alright right now. For the time being it doesn't seem like I'll fall off since the stars are fairly wide, and I'm also still full of vim and vigour, don't you think?"
Emilia frowned disbelievingly. "Really?" She nodded. "But, if you think it's getting tough, you'll tell me straight away, right? I can carry you on my back if it comes down to it."
Subaru grimaced. "Is that so? Then I won't make it come down to that." He paused, staring at Julius.
Julius looked back at him, sensing his gaze, and frowned. "What is it?"
Subaru shook his head. "That'd just be the worst way, too, though. Oh, it's nothing in particular. Keep moving, keep moving!"
Julius shrugged his shoulders and continued to lead them up the stairs, still holding Anastasia's hand.
Rem grinned and winked at Ian when he glanced back before speaking. "Subaru's just finally starting to accept thst he's hopelessly in love with you, is all." She copied her sister's dismissive, uncaring tone perfectly.
"Shameless," Ram said in her matching tone.
Subaru missed the next step instantly, face scarlet. "Yeah right! As if! I'd rather die!"
Everyone laugged, including Julius, and Subaru growled lowly as he stood and began to climb the stairs again. They all had their eyes set on the upper floors of the tower, progressing on foot. They weren't in a rush, so they went about it at a leisurely pace, which contrasted their feelings of apprehension. Julius and Anastasia were near the front, just behind Ian and Ram, then after them came Rem with Emilia just behind her, Subaru and Beatrice walked behind them, with Elena and Frederica walking behind them, Elena holding Frederica's hand, and Frederica was smiling happily, but Ian wasn't sure if Elena had convinced her to share yet. Finally, Shaula and Meili were bringing up the rear.
"Whoa there!" Meili shouted. "Naked Big Sis, don't shake about so much!"
Shaula looked up at Meili in confusion. "Huuuuh, you sure are a bossy lil' ankle-biter for someone whose riding on my shoulders."
"Because, I'm sleepy!" Meili complained in a whiny voice like the little girl she was. "We've been walking for ages, and I can't make it up and down the stairs with how many stairs there are!"
Shaula groaned. "Yes, but why do I have to carry you?! Quit pulling on my hair!" Fussy as she may be, there was no sharpness in their exchange.
The Shaula-Meili group bringing up the rear was, rather incredibly, such that Shaula was carrying Meili on her shoulders as they climbed the stairs. Initially, when they'd decided to move up, Meili had taken the opportunity to complain that her feet were tired. However, it had been Shaula herself who had said she'd be okay with carrying her on her back, so they'd left it down to her.
Subaru frowned. "When it comes to actual physical strength, it looks like Shaula is likely the strongest."
"That's for sure, I suppose," Beatrice nodded from Subaru's side. "Subaru, don't let your guard down, in fact. Despite her appearance, we don't know when she'll show her fangs, I suppose."
Subaru glanced at Shaula, then Bestrice. "This woman? You get that impression from her?"
Beatrice frowned up at him. "We don't know how she will react if it comes to light that you're not Flugel, in fact."
Subaru gulped. "That's..."
Ian could see why he stopped himself responding. Shaula was acting pretty friendly towards their group, specifically towards Subaru, and that was only because she kept mistaking him as being her Master. Subaru and the rest knew that his relation with him was something she was completely misunderstanding. He'd denied it to her many times till now, but Shaula would just smile and disregard it. Actually rather than disregarding it, it was more like she didn't care at all no matter how many times she heard it. But, in any case, it hadn't gotten through to her. Therefore, Shaula's attitude hadn't changed, and Ian could almost consider it a security measure to treat Subaru as Flugel. Almost. However, if she really did realize that he wasn't, she'd realize that she'd broken her promises to the real Flugel, and then she'd blame Subaru for posing as Flugel, true or not, and kill them all. Or, at least, try.
Subaru swallowed hard as he reached this same conclusion. "That means that we won't know what trigger will bring everything crumbling down."
Beatrice nodded. "There's no doubt that things will end up quite worrisome if she were to become hostile, I suppose. We'd have no choice but to combine mine and your strength, as well as Emilia and that knight's, Julius', in fact."
Subaru nodded. "Shaula's strength, huh?" He took a quick glance back at Shaula messing about with Meili. "At least we have Ian and Ram here with us. And Rem. That should count for something."
"If Rem fights to her full potential, she falls behind Emilia," Beatrice said. "Ian and Ram will both be focusing mainly on protecting the people closest to them in a list of ranked priority. They'll fight, but not to their full, destructive potential."
"Don't short-change Ram," Ian said.
"Indeed," Ram nodded curtly. "The best way to defend someone from a threat is to crush the threat like the insignificant insect it is."
Ian grinned, nodding, and Beatrice huffed at having been disagreed with. Then, he looked back at Shaula, thinking hard. She had a friendly, and defenceless look to her improper appearance. Ever since their first encounter, all the way to their conversations afterwards, she had been an individual that had been difficult to judge in every manner.
However, although Ian knew that she remained their greatest immediate threat, there wasn't any harbored animosity which stood out in her, that much was what it looked like. Although she was acting friendly to them due to mistaking Subaru for someone else, and although they'd been met with such an unguarded reception from her, it was more difficult to dislike her than be bewildered by her. Even still, her original reception of them, out in the desert, had proven that if anyone or anything in the tower was a threat to them, it was her.
Turning his eyes forward again, Ian broke into thought. She'd confessed that it had been her who'd set her aim on Subaru and the others back at the sand dunes and thrown those flashes of light at them from the tower. The speed of those flashes of light, along with the accuracy of their aim had been unnatural, they'd been plenty enough to give him an impression of the height of Shaula's true strength. And Ian was relatively certain it wasn't a magic spell itself, so much as magically augmented. He remembered the needle that had been fired, the one that broken his White Whale Sword before he skipped backward.
It had to be a part of whatever her true form was, but Beatrice had said that no magic existed to change someone's appearance. Much less their species. Whatever her true form was, it was powerful, deadly, and likely beyond his ability to handle alone. He was pretty sure that he and Ram together could manage it, but even so, it wouldn't be easy, and he had a nagging suspicion she wasn't the most dangerous opponent in the tower. Regulus, Petelgeuse, and the other Sin Archbishops, even the White Whale, had been far easier opponents. Well, maybe not Regulus.
Suddenly, Subaru turned both himself and Beatrice around at the same time. Whilst swivelling his feet around on the stairs so they faced back, Subaru faced straight towards the double-stacked Shaula and Meili.
Shaula stopped in her tracks and tilted her head. "What's up Master? It couldn't be that Master's also tired right? It wouldn't be an issue for me to carry you, but my back is already taken by this girl who acts like a little princess, you know?"
Subaru grimaced. "That in itself would make quite an impression, so I'll pass. Ah, though I'm sorry to get in between you happily playing with your ponytail with Meili-"
"It's not a ponytail, it's a scorpiontail," Shaula corrected him.
Subaru stared at her.
"It's a scorpiontail," Shaula repeated herself to the taciturn Subaru as if she was a broken record. Grabbing ahold of one of her ponytail's oddly-shaped end, Shaula readily moved it in front of her face. "A scorpiontail."
"I understand!" Subaru said. "What's up with this insistence! Anyways, I'm sorry to get in between you making friends with Meili, but there's something I want to ask you."
Shaula nodded enthusiastically. "Mhm! If it's something Master has to say, I will listen to anything! I'mmmm glad that you're speaking to me like this, Master!" Shaula swung her scorpiontail about delightedly.
As a result of that, Meili, who was on her shoulders, was hit by one of the tail's swishes. Ian stared at her scorpiontail, several pieces finally slotting into place. She struggled with recognizing different humans apart aside from gender, instead recognizing base characteristics like hair and, eye, ear, and nose numbers, like someone looking at a totally different species. She fired long thin needles at them as magically-augmented projectiles, when her emotions got away from her, she opened and closed her hands like claws.
"You'll listen to what I say right?" Subaru checked.
"Not lewd stuff, right?" Shaula asked.
Subaru blanched. "Don't even begin to go there. What are you braindead?"
Shaula huffed, puffing her cheeks out. "It's pretty dumb of Master to say so, isn't it? Now we're even!"
Subaru was left floored as he couldn't keep up pace with Shaula who'd had a comeback to spare. Ian considered asking the question on his mind, but waited as he saw Subaru gathering his thoughts.
Subaru took a breath before beginning again. "Anyways, I have a question and a request. I need you to answer them as honestly, and obediently as possible."
Shaula tilted her head. "That doesn't seem like a request. They could be an order, though."
Subaru growled. "I ain't that bossy! So, about the question...You attacked us from the tower, right? What the hell was that?"
Shaula nodded. "It was Hell's Snipe, a sniping attack used so that pesky flies don't get near to the tower."
Subaru stared at her. "What?"
"Hell's Snipe," Shaula repeated.
With her having said it in English whilst beaming, Subaru's face grew sullen.
Shaula continued. "Thooough, if I think about it now, I'm so glad that Hell's Snipe didn't hit Master. If the Dimension Gate didn't get lifted, I may've flung blow after blow until they struck Master."
Subaru shook his head holding his hands up. "Waitwaitwaitwait, there's too much new vocab! Dimension?"
"The sandstorm barrier and distorted space outside of a sandstorm we passed through to reach the Courtesan Bears," Ian said, Shaula nodding.
"Like he said," Shaula agreed. "It's called Dimension Gate. It's a trick to prevent people from reaching the tower. But, thanks to the Dimension Gate being broken, I knew that Master was actually Master, so everything turned a'ight in the end. If Master'd been struck, Master would definitely have been mad at meeee, wouldn't he?"
Subaru nodded. "Uh huh, yeah, probably. I hope you'd get away with just me being mad at you."
"Buuut, if you'd managed to strike him, Big Brother would've ended up dead, wouldn't he?" Meili asked. "If that happened, then I don't think we'd be talking about getting mad or not here."
Upon hearing her words, Shaula let out a fit of rather unlady-like, uncontrollable laughter. "What are ya saying lil' ankle biter? There's no way myyyy Master would die from something like that? Cuz' from the start, Master's always been someone who you can never tell whether he's dead or not dead."
Meili frowned. "Butbuuut, Mr. Sandworm got hit so much, and he ended up dying, soooo..."
Shaula huffed. "I don't really give a damn about stuff like Worms or Bears ya know. Myyy Master wouldn't die, that is what's important.If he'd died, then it'd just mean he's not my Master."
Smiling absentmindedly, Shaula gazed at Subaru with delighted looking eyes. Subaru's spine shivered when she'd turned her innocent, smiling face towards him. Innocence like that of a child's, and faith tantamount to defencelessness. That which she put into Flugel was an ideal that she'd rigidly built up at her core more than he'd dared to imagine. In accordance with Beatrice's worries, if there ever came a time where she'd come into disagreement with the current Subaru, then...
Shaula frowned sadly. "I apologise that I was late in picking you up from the Sand Palace afterwards. Whilst I let in the other group into the tower, Master and the rest with him ended up advancing into its depths, so I was all in a fluster."
Subaru waved her off. "Aah, no, it's fine. Though, wait, you said'Sand Palace?'"
"Indeed," Shaula nodded. "It's really dangerous over there, so it's better if you don't go into it. It's reckless to approach without having all the keys, even if it's you Master. There are Hungry Horse Kings prowling about there too."
Subaru frowned. "Hungry Horse Kings...You mean those horse-like monsters?"
Shaula nodded. "Those things weren't here around the time Master was here, so I thought you'd be surprised. In essence, they just prowl about inside of the Sand Palace, so you won't come across them unless you go to there. But once in a while one of those guys will venture outside, so I go and destroy them without any mercy."
Subaru swallowed hard. "Is there a lot of them?"
Shaula nodded. "There's tons and tons."
"Hungry Horse King," Meili frowned. "I'm also not familiar with that name. I'd like to see one, maaaybe."
"Stop it!" Subaru snapped. "That's not something a kid needs to see!"
Meili sniffed, looking slightly stung. "B-Big Brother."
Shaula nodded in agreement at Subaru's words. "I think it's best not to. The Hungry Horse Kings are a Mabeast with the concept that their horns can regenerate over and over again, so you can't make arrangements with them like with other Mabeasts. Kill all enemies on sight, this is their justice."
Meili grimaced. "Blegh, I understaaand." She pouted with a gesture appropriate of her age.
"So," Shaula continued. "Master, was that all you wanted to talk about?"
Subaru nodded. "Aah, for now that's a-" he caught himself and shook his head vigorously. "No, wait, that's not all."
Shaula blinked in surprise, tilting her head to the side.
"Shaula, this is my request," Subaru said. "Don't cause me, or my companions any harm."
Shaula stared at him.
"Your Master's order was to attack anyone who approached the tower...So I would think?" Subaru clarified. "Since we're inside, we are not covered by that. So, there's no need for you to attack us anymore. Don't cause us any harm. Absolutely none."
Shaula stared at him, narrowing her eyes in thought and concentration. Ian shifted his weight to his right foot, left hand resting on his White Whale Sword's hilt, masking preparing for battle as simply shifting his weight. Still, Shaula remained silent, not a single smile remaining on her, up until now, constantly-cheerful face. Even Elena tensed and readied herself to flee.
"Mhm, OK. I'veee memorised it word for word as a new command from Master!" Shaula suddenly said brightly, her smile returning.
Subaru stared at her in surprise.
Shaula frowned, darting forward to get uncomfortably close to his face. "Master?"
Their eyes stared at each other's at point blank range, but neither spoke, and Subaru, who seemed to be struggling to catch up to Shaula's mood shifts, didn't bother moving away.
Finally, Subaru said, "Is it okay with you?"
Shaula nodded. "I have no choice. It's what Master's said. It's not particularly hard. Non-violence, non-obedience."
"Since you're going to follow the order, don't you mean that you'll obey?" Subaru asked.
"Even if you could do as you pleased with my body, I wouldn't let you snatch away my heart!" Shaula said, Ian instsntly losing track of the conversation.
Subaru growled. "What a pain in the ass you are!"
He prodded Shaula in the forehead, Shaula's face having tensed up, so to make her take a step back. Shaula fell back letting out an "AAAHHH!", causing Meili to panic on her back, even though she was safe.
In any case, Subaru's request somehow looked like it had been readily accepted. It wasn't clear how effective it was going to be, but, at least there was a chance.
"Like, as long as I don't let her down, the promise should be kept," Subaru sighed.
Beatrice nodded. "If that's the only requirement, then things will be fine, in fact. You expect to let her down, but you won't, I suppose."
"I'm really grateful for being held to that high esteem, but in this case, isn't that part of your expectations where you think I won't let her down being far too optimistic?" Subaru asked. "What would Flugel do? Should I grow wings? He sounds like he's German."
"Flugel is also a German word," Ian said. "You're correct in your guess. It means wings."
Subaru nodded, then frowned. "That's right, Shaula. I've got just one last question to ask you."
Shaula tilted her head as much as she could. "What is it?" Shaula's cheeks were getting pinched by Meili, and her face looked completely vapid.
With his back still turned to Shaula, Subaru spoke with a casual gesture, "Maia, Electra, Taygeta, Alcyone, Celaeno, Asterope."
Beatrice frowned. "Subaru?"
"More star names," Ian said. "But one's missing from the Pleiades cluster."
"The what?" Emilia asked.
"All of those, in order from top to bottom, are this Pleiades Watchtower's...Err, I mean this Great Library Pleiades' floor names right?" Subaru pressed on, ignoring the others.
Shaula nodded. "Correct."
Subaru nodded back at her. "So, where's Merope?"
Shaula once again kept her silence on hearing Subaru's question. However, this silence was different to the one before, it was a silence of surprise like she'd been caught completely unaware. Ian could faintly hear the sound of her breath being taken away. Ian could instantly tell this subject bordered on taboo and was putting Subaru's act at being Flugel at risk.
Beatrice frowned. "Subaru, what did you ask her, in fact? What does Merope mean, I suppose?"
Subaru didn't take his eyes off of Shaula. "It's the name of the last one of the seven sisters. It'd be strange to not have seven in Pleiades. If it's not the Seventh Floor, then I guess it would be a Floor Zero."
Shaula was silent for a moment before speaking slowly. "There's a Floor Zero. Master named them, so it's natural...However, the place was made after Master left, so you shouldn't know where it is." Shaula replied to Subaru's guesswork with a hoarse voice.
Subaru felt Beatrice beside him startle in surprise, but he licked his parched lips and narrowed his eyes
Subaru pressed on. "If the First Floor is the highest floor, then Floor Zero must be the super-highest floor? In regards to entering it, h-"
"No." Shaula's interruption was both sudden and iron-clad.
Subaru stopped talking immediately, having also felt the metaforical iron wall her refusal to let him finish his question had put up.
Shaula's face was still smiling, but there was a hint of warning in her eyes. "You haven't fulfilled the conditions yet. Master came back to see me in the middle of his journey, and I'm satisfied with that. That's why Floor Zero is a No."
Ian narrowed his eyes slightly, hand sliding from the pommel of his sword to the grip. They were in dangerous waters. However, this time, Shaula noticed the change, her eyes turning sharp, even as her expression remained unchanged, her eyes fixed not only on him, but on Ram as well, who Ian could sense was prepared to fire off her magic without even the slightest delay if the situation broke.
With an uncanny sense for diffusing situations with the potential to be disastrous, Subaru turned away from Shaula, his tone turning light and dismissive. "Gotcha. I won't speak such nonsense anymore. We'll just keep to our earlier promise."
Shaula broke into a broad smile, in high spirits as if she'd forgotten their current exchange." Roger! Roger! I shall keep it! I shall suuuper keep it!"
Subaru let out a deep sigh as he listened to her upbeat voice from behind him.
Beatrice gave him a worried look. "Subaru, if it gets too much, you'll say so, right?"
Subaru nodded. "Mhm, it's alright. Just so much stuff is on my mind."
"Master," Shaula called up to him, Subaru turning to her again.
"Mhm?" Subaru asked.
Shaula looked up at Subaru looking a little bashful. Her expression was adorned by a truly delightful looking smile. "Welcome home again, Master. This Shaula has been awaiting the Great Erudite Flugel's return with all her heart."
Subaru nodded, smiling convincingly, but as he tuened to start walking up the stairs again at last, Ian and Ram didn't budge.
"What's up?" Subaru asked.
"Shaula, it's my turn to ask you a question, if that's alright," Ian said.
Shaula nodded, smiling.
"You're a scorpion, aren't you?" Ian asked. "Despite your current appearance, you're a Mabeast in the form of a scoepion."
Everyone shouted in surprise, staring at Ian, though Shaula's gaze was far more emotionless and almost calculating than the others'.
"How did you find out?" Shaula asked.
"Mainly your manerisms," Ian said. "You opening and closing your hands like claws when your emotions get away from you, you calling your hair a scorpiontail was a big giveaway, your inability to recognize one human male from another, instead identifying them by the number of eyes and ears they have. Even Hell's Snipe, which was a long needle, I assume your stinger, magically augmented and fired as a projectile. As for why I guessed a Mabeast scorpion specifically, Mabeasts are the only thing that can smell the Witch Miasma off of Subaru as a blanket statement. Scattered other individuals can, but Mabeasts, as a rule of thumb, can all smell it, which would explain your ability to easily. It would also explain you being four hundred years old."
Shaula watched him in silence for a moment before smiling brightly. "You're impressive! You're right. I'm a Mabeast that takes the form of a Crimson Scorpion, but currently, I can maintain my humanity and this form."
"Currently?" Ian asked. "Then there's a chance, or possibly a set of circumstances, in which you can't?"
Shaula nodded. "You're smart."
"If this were an anime," Ian trsiled off, staring up at the ceiling, "you'd be the trials' enforcer. You transform if we break the rules, don't you?"
Shaula nodded. "My contract forces me to kill anyone in the tower when the rules are broken."
Ian nodded. "You'll be telling us the rules on the way, so that we can avoid that."
Shaula nodded and they all started walking again.
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