Theater Of Despair (Old WHDAAA) :)

by Reactionist

This is the old version of Watching Him Die Again and Again. Chapters 1-14 before the rewrites looked like this. Have fun comparing how much I've changed between the old one and the new one. I also used the old name for Watching Him Die Again and Again. It used to be called Theater of Despair hence why the art says that name. Had fun using it again! Enjoy guys.

10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10: Ep 8 Director's Cut

So funny story...

There's this awesome artist on Reddit called u/Wishful_Witch

She's awesome so go and follow her.

Anyway. So I was scrolling through my reddit chats and suddenly I see her hitting me up and being like.

(Wishful_Witch): Yo! Imma send this fan art I made of your story. You'll love it.

And I was like, :Nah, from the you way you talk honey, you don't really seem like the type to do good ar-

And then she sent me the shit, so i looked at it...

It was so good i dropped my phone.

The point of this story is... I need a new phone...

And also please go follow this amazing person and give her the love she deserves. I honestly gave her nothing to work on. No pointers or advice. She did this all for this story which honestly made me cry.

I'll put this as my story cover.

Thank you.

The screen stayed deactivated since the warden decided it would be best to take a break from the last viewing.

Most of the cast were lamenting on the previous events of the viewing. The emotions were all over the place as many of the once huddling group broke apart to take different corners of the room and discuss amongst their partners or with themselves if necessary. It was a hard episode to watch.

"That was really gross to watch." Anastasia shuddered as she rubbed her fox like fur scarf(dona) in frustration.

"Yea… Are ya still planing on napping the kid boss?" Ricardo whispered softly.

"Hmph! I never intended to literally nap 'em, all I have to do is get him indebted to me somehow that the only way to pay it off is to enter an alliance with us. That way, both our camps could profit off each other."

Ricardo looked at the scheming merchant lady as she rubbed her scarf in excitement. He had a small frown on his face.

"Don't ya think that he dislikes our camp after… ya know, Julius?"

Anastasia looked undeterred as she glanced at the sleeping black knight with a faint smirk on her face.

"Natsuki-kun still managed to preserve a three way temporary alliance with Mine, Emilia's, and Karsten's armies to fight a legendary disaster. He already reconciled with my knight and left quite the impression on him. Besides… that's the reason why I need him indebted to us… he'll be forced to join whether he wants to or not."

Ricardo shook his head at his stubborn boss. He couldn't help the sinking feeling in his stomach as he felt put off by the way she glossed over the fact that this boy clearly needed mental help.

You can't just go through what Subaru did and continue your life as if nothing happened. Something needed to change.

And being a piece in a complicated chess game that was this political mess for a gold covered chair called the Royal Selection is not going to be healthy for this boy.

But he was just some merc that was saved from being a slave. He didn't have anything to say on the matter. Who knows? Subaru could be a fun addition to their band of misfits. He certainly got the drive. And that's what mattered to the dogman.

However, from beside the merchant and her merc, was a fuming royal that wasn't about to let this happen.

"You sure are a shrewd one, Anastasia."

The purple haired candidate cursed under her breath and slowly turned to find a stern looking Crusch, glancing towards her while sitting in her seat with a posture of power and command.

"Oh, I don't get the meaning of your words, Karsten-san." Anastasia replied in a sickly sweet voice.

Crusch leaned back in her seat and hummed. "I guess you've forgotten that I'm blessed with the divine protection of the wind."

Anastasia cursed under her breath a second time as Crusch kept her eyes on the screen.

"So, I'm guessing you'll be a lot more honest from now on as you answer my question?"

"Oh, I don't think I'm forced to give an answer to you at all. I don't think you'd want a war to wage between our camps, mine has a lot more numbers in this room after all." Anastasia smugly ended the conversation as she nodded her head to Ricardo, Mimi, Tivey, and of course, Julius.

Crusch kept looking at the screen with a bored expression. "Hmm, let me correct that idea for you."

Anastasia looked at the green haired princess with an expression of pity. "Did seeing the boy's mental state effect you that much that you've forgotten how to count?"

Crusch smirked mischievously and glanced at the merchant with a confident pose.

"Oh, I assure you, my camp's numbers are much bigger than yours."

"Hmmm, I don't see anyone here except for that sword demon fella. Your catboy knight isn't even worth a dime in a fight. So, what are you on about?"

Crusch knew that this information was to remain secret, but this screen will show it anyway so she really didn't have to worry this much.

With a confident smile, the Duchess leaned on to rest her chin on her knuckle and stare Anastasia with her yellow eyes brimming with smugness.

The merchant didn't show how intimidated she was, hiding the sudden feeling of worry behind a fake sweet smile.

"My camp's numbers are greater than yours in this room, Anastasia-sama."

The merchant was worried now.

"What do ya mean?"

Crusch simply kept her smug pose and stared Anastasia in the eye.

"My camp's alliance with Natsuki Subaru's mistress was never called off after the whale and sloth were defeated."

As her sentence started to sink in, Crusch leaned forward some more and enjoyed the storm of shock and frustration on Anastasia's face for the split second that the merchant's mask was slept off.

"Hmm, I thought that the deal between us three was to just help with the white whale's hunt."

Anastasia said with a critical tone, clearly thinking the candidate was bluffing.

The duchess kept her smug smirk on and winked at Anastasia.

"It was actually Subaru-sama's condition to give us the whale's location. He gets our undeniable cooperation and aid to protect his own camp and he would do the same for us. Now that you know this, if you truly wanted a war to start in this room here and now, do you think you have a chance with Emilia's camp allied with me?"

Anastasia kept her stone cold poker face up but her eyes gave a little twitch from the smug tone coming out of the usually reserved and noble lady before her.

"I see that boy has been making smart moves."

"I would say he has been doing the best he can." Crusch glanced at the place were a spiky haired boy lay asleep.

"If Emilia's camp ever gets disbanded or denounced. My camp is going to be the first one to aid them, as for your disgusting 'debt' plan…"

Crusch's eyes hardened and glared deeply at Anastasia. "Then I'll make sure to pay the fees myself then it'd be easy to force Emilia's camp to operate under my banner since they will be indebted to me instead of you. Which won't be hard since we're in an alliance and we see one another as friends and allies. Unlike you who Subaru sees as a…"

Crusch acted as if she was thinking for a moment before smirking wide. "Oh yes! As a greedy gal! Isn't that how you said it?"

The duchess leaned back and watched as the merchant lost all cheer in her eyes as she recognized the sheer amount of trouble she was in.

She won't be able to even look at the boy much less have him work for her.

Crusch represented a very significant threat to Anastasia's run for the throne.

"Why are ya so fixated on the boy?" Emotionless and serious, Anastasia accepted that she had to go full poker into this game being played by the duchess.

Naturally for someone holding the greatest card in her hand, Crusch leaned back and easily smiled the tension Anastasia was forcing off.

As if the merchant wasn't a threat.

Crusch learned that this was necessary to keep Anastasia in line. She needed to play dirty and scare the merchant off the boy.

With cool aura surrounding her, Crusch spoke to the inwardly fuming Anastasia.

"The reason why you and I care for Natsuki-sama differs by a large margin."

"Whatcha mean by that?"

"I mean the way both of us see him. I see him as someone that I respect and cherish as well as trust with my entire soul should he ask." Crusch had a passionate yet confident smirk on her face as she stared the merchant down.

"You on the other hand, see this wonderful boy as a business asset that would win you the throne to this and any other kingdom you set your sights too. With the boy's knowledge depicted to be the same maybe even greater than Hoshin of the Wilds, his fantastical origin, his magnificent spirit… Not to mention that immensely powerful ability he has used to vanquish the cult and the calamity."

"You're not wrong about that. Yes, I do see him as a very reliable tool to get me what I need and frankly speaking, you see him as such as well. Don't tell me that you've only set your sights on him because you have feelings for him."

Anastasia tried to get on Crusch's nerves by calling out her obvious attraction to the, in her opinion, creepy but useful boy.

To her surprise…

"Yes, I do have some feelings of attraction for him, and I think that he has already told me that he would've felt the same towards myself if it wasn't for two already wonderful girls that captured his heart." Crusch smiled warmly with no sign of frustration.

Anastasia was confused by this.

"But, why are you still so insistent on making him yours?" The merchant asked wanting to know if she could use this to her advantage.

"You seem to have forgotten the rules of the royal decree."

Anastasia blinked… and then widened her eyes… "You… ghk!"

The merchant was slack jawed.

Crusch smirked one final time before leaning in her seat and looking at the screen with a smug winning smile.

"You know the rules and so do I."

Anastasia decided that it was time to get serious about this.

She needed that boy in her camp. And if Crusch was planing on marrying him… Her camp is as good as lost…

"Damn, royals." The merchant princess rubbed her scarf(dona) harder with a small pout of frustration as she began making a new plan to win over or at least force the boy out of the alliance with Crusch's camp to make him vulnerable and easy to scoop. If it wasn't for those stupid royals that had placed such a stupid unnecessary rule in place.

"Garf, how you holding up?"

"Mine amazin' selfs is fine."

Otto sighed and continued to looked down at his leg since the screen had shut off.

He had been thinking of everything Subaru had to go through. Getting beat up, getting abandoned, getting ridiculed. Otto would've died of shame alone, yet Subaru stood up after all that.

"Are ya ashamed of Cap'n?"

Glancing at the blonde boy beside him, Otto realized how serious Garfiel was as the tiger man was glaring at the floor heatedly.

"Natsuki-san? Why would I be ashamed of him?"

The blonde's agitation seemed to have risen significantly.

"I mean, I understand why Cap'n made these horrible ass choices, I understand why he was beat up… But…"

"But?" Otto waited patiently for the clearly troubled blonde to say his piece.

"I didn't want 'em to get so brutally beat up. And I thought that Cap'n looked kinda lame a few times… I don't like thinking about people hating mah Cap'n."

Otto stared as Garfiel's usually tough glare was replaced with a scared look of apprehension.

The boy was heartbroken that his hero made such a fool out of himself.

Otto nodded his head as he was also disappointed at Subaru's behavior.

But there was something very important that Garf seemed to forget…

"Garf, stop being an idiot."

The blonde came out of his revere quick and glared up at his brother.

Otto didn't look intimidated and glared back. "We both know that Natsuki-san's choices in the last session was because of deeply hidden issues and problems in his head that no one could ever be able to notice. He was walking around carrying those issues in his head thinking it's okay to act based on them because he saw no other choice for relief."

Garfield shook his head and glared. "What does that hav' ta do wi-"

"Natsuki-san fucked up this badly because he didn't have anyone to help him back then."

Garfield gripped his sweater tight and glared to the floor.

"So what should we do then huh?!"

Otto smiled as he finally noticed just what was troubling Garfield.

"You're afraid that people won't get to see Subaru-san for the cool awesome guy he really is. Don't tell him I said that."

Garfield chuckled and relaxed a bit. The blondes face softened as he stared at Otto with a look of sadness.

"'ts just… Even afta' all of the shit he did in the castle and with Emilia… He will always be my Cap'n, you know?"

Otto hugged his troubled friend by one arm over the blonde's shoulder and nodded.

"Me too man. Don't forget, he saved me too. Natsuki-san will always be our friend no matter the fuck ups he causes." Otto held a small smile as he looked at Garfiel fondly.

The tiger man gave in and chuckled.

"Yea', we do."

"And it's our job to save him from his dumb moves and plans."

"Yeah, Cap'n wouldn't have made that dumb move if mine amazin' selves was in there with 'em!"

By now the two were smirking wide at one another as they decided to be the rock that their brother needs.

"That sounds kinda gay- Where are you going?" Otto asked in startlement as Garfiel stood up and stomped towards the second row.

The merchant followed the heatedly advancing Demi human through the row of chairs and towards the place at the far end of the room.

Garfiel stood before a person that Otto didn't want to talk to.

Garfiel stood before the young man with purple hair that had been staring silently into space until their arrival and was now looking at them with expectancy in his golden hosed eyes.

"What are you doing here, Garf?"

The blonde boy kept his green eyes narrowed at the knight before him.

The knight met him right back with a deadpanned look.

The two faced one another, sparks almost appeared. Otto didn't know what to do so he stood to the side.

It looked like an aura of fury was surrounding Garfiel as his emerald eyes burned with hatred to the knight.

That's why it was really surprising… when the blonde angry boy muttered this unexpected sentence.

"Thanks for helpin' my Cap'n, I guess."

"...What?"

The one who asked this of the boy in confusion was not the bewildered Otto standing beside him. No. It was non other than the person receiving the thanks from Garfiel.

Julius, The greatest Knight, sat up right in his seat with a dumbfounded look as he was thanked for something he perceived to be absurd.

"I said thanks for helping Cap'n." Garfiel repeated begrudgingly and with a glare as he forced himself to say it.

"I don't understand… Why are you thanking me?" Julius lost all elegance as he stared at the blonde. He was half sure that the demi boy was before him to propose a duel to avenge Subaru. He seemed like a hot head.

And yet…

"'t was clear that ya were saving Cap'n."

"Saving him?" Julius was too tired for this. The knight snorted and waved his purple hair. "I was taking my anger out on him. I saw a boy that represented my darkest side and beat him up to humiliate him before everyone who'd dare stray from the path of the kni-"

"Knight, yeah, yeah, The poin' is that Cap'n woulda been in a heap o' trouble if not for ya beatin' 'em like that."

At this point Julius was staring at Garfiel like he was retarded. He sure spoke like one. (That was me I'm sorry)

HIM?! Help a boy by beating him up… Julius remembered exactly why he beat Subaru that day, because he was a selfish disgusting human being that tarnished the man's reputation and pride just to serve his younger self a lesson in lif-

"Ya helped Cap'n, you think that those knights woulda let him go with sayin' somethin' like that?"

Julius stared up at Garfiel with wide open eyes… as he remembered…

The blonde looked down at the knight with a smirk.

"I beat him up too ya know. He tried ta fight but… "

"I'm pretty sure you lost that fight to Subaru, Garf."

"Ya because of dat dumb dragon!"

"Nah, I remember Subaru punching ya with Invisible Providence so hard you fle-"

"What do ya know about that?! Ya weren't even there!"

"Yes I was actually and I remember kicking your tough ass all the way across the forest."

"You wanna go?!"

Otto shook his head at the clearly battle ready Garfiel and smiled at the knight looking at them with confusion.

"Thanks for helping our stupid brother Julius-san. If you didn't make that show of brutally punishing him to the knights. He would've surely been hurt by them for the insults he made."

Julius stared at the two in surprise. "C-Could I…" be his friend like you two?

He wanted to continue the question… but that was a liberty he didn't deserve. It wasn't his pride as a knight. Or some self serving bullshit.

He genuinely felt inadequate to be Subaru's friend as he witnessed what the boy has been through and how couldn't do anything but make things even worse for him.

Otto smiled at the grimacing knight. "You know, Julius-san… "

Julius looked at the merchant with strive filling his eyes.

"You're not the only one feeling guilt… we all want to help Natsuki and save him from his own mind. How do you think both of us feel?"

Julius's eyes widened as he felt some relief at Otto's sad tone.

It was shameful… but he felt like it was something needed for his worry to decline.

"Subaru, speaks fondly of you. He always says it when you're brought up in a conversation. 'The most trust worthy hole you could find for any ass in the kingdom' he would put it with a smirk."

"I think he was just happy to insult me."

"Nah, I saw how happy he looked when speak'n bout ya. He really does think of ya as a good friend."

As Otto and Garfiel left with smiles of gratitude on their faces to the knight.

Julius found himself smiling once again as some of his doubts began to disappear about his worth as a friend to this arrogant bastard that dared to call himself a knight before their kingdom's grand throne.

Julius chuckled fondly with some of the light coming back into his elegant eyes.

"Only you, Subaru. Only you."

Julius started believing in his friendship once again….

This time promising to keep his faith firm.

Subaru was a good man. A good Knight.

With some really shitty poses.

"I mean, pick one that was cool or elegant at the least. That was our kingdom's throne for dragon's sake, not some common whore." Julius shook his head in exasperation as he remembered that moment… only this time. With a smile.

"I should've helped more."

"You're right, I suppose."

"Beatrice-sama…"

Rem looked at her side to the angry blonde spirit with a disapproving look. The maid has been trying to cheer up the sad and guilty looking Half-elf ever since she had calmed down.

"Hmph! You know I'm right, infact." Beatrice turned away from them with a pout of anger.

Rem sighed and gently stroked her hero's hand with a sad look at what he had to go through because of her mistake.

Beside her hero was a broken sad girl with guilty and cold looking eyes. The girl was holding Subaru's waste tightly as she rested her head on his shoulder and stared off to space.

Emilia was sitting there drowning in her guilt for leaving Subaru while he was so scared and alone.

Rem sighed as she couldn't help the lady in this situation.

She truly wanted to help Emilia… but how do get someone to think highly of themselves?

"What would you do, Subaru-kun?" Rem asked herself silently.

"Hmph! He would shit himself, obviously."

Rem turned to swiftly kill whom ever it was that dared talk about Subaru-kun's divine shi-

"Sister?!"

Ram stood with a bored expression before the front row and right infront of Emilia and Rem as well as Subaru the potato sack.

"Emilia-sama stop looking so guilty for someone as stupid as this man."

Emilia slowly looked at the glaring maid before her. Her heart clenching for the boy beside her.

"You can't blame yourself for leaving that sick and twisted Barusu behind like a defective dog. He deserved it for what he said and done."

Emilia found herself trembling in rage as the maid insulted Subaru. "You don't know how much he suffered because of me. You don't know how much he needed to vent out his frustrations at that moment but the witch wouldn't let him speak to me! You don't have the right to talk about his stupid decisions because he was afraid and traumatized!"

Emilia huffed and puffed loudly after she yelled at the maid.

Ram didn't seem the least bit concerned and glared right back into the amethyst eyes of Emilia.

"Barusu was wrong to break your promise. He was wrong when he stupidly insulted the knights and embarrassed you before the royal council. He was most definitely wrong when he said that you should be indebted to him. He had no right to say or do such things."

Emilia stood up with a hot glare, filled with anger. "Didn't you hear what's just been said, Ram! I should've noticed the signs and I should've helped him through. If I knew he chose those things because of his suffering I wou-"

"That's the point Emilia-sama! You didn't know a thing about Barusu! You wouldn't have seen any signs because the idiot would hide everything and treat you as if you're some doll that needs to be protected or held by hand as if he's entitled to you! The boy was suffering yes, but he needed a lesson in humility and you leaving his side was the best option to make him open his damn eyes! The you that walked out of the room didn't know about Return by Death or the many trails Subaru took to get so messed up in the head. The you in that moment just saw him for what he was portraying himself as. An arrogant whiny child that wanted to hog all of your attention!"

As the maid breathed heavily and glared Emilia down. The half-elf felt like she was being scolded by her mother under Ram's gaze.

"You've made the right choice at the time because you didn't have all the information and the prideful dumbass Barusu didn't try hard enough to ask for help from anyone. He thought himself alone and with no one to help so he gave into his worst parts, of which there are many and they're rotten I've seen them myself. One day all of you will wake up and see how disgusting Barusu truly is—"

"Sister…" Rem shook her head to remind Ram that there was still an important point.

With an eye roll, the maid continued. "He was objectifying you and making you out to be some sweet heart made for him and you said it yourself when you told him about the Emilia that lives in his head. If his trauma and pain forced him to feel isolated and alone, then you leaving him might just be the thing that made him realize that he should start working on himself to be better."

Emilia, Beatrice and Rem just stared at the pink maid with awe.

"Hmph! Not that he could ever fix the disgusting pile of human waste called Barusu. But that's your problem, he loves you, thank the spirits for that." Ram started walking away with a frown on her face.

"Ram…"

Emilia gave her a small smile. "Thank you."

The pink haired maid nodded and took a glance at the sleeping boy. Scrunching her face in disgust, she moved to walk towards her smirking master.

"I can see the smiiiile."

Ram blushed a little and turned away from her master. "I-I always smile for you, Roswaal-sama!"

"But when you smile because of your friends it becomes so beautiful and uniiiiiique!"

Ram blushed harder.

Emilia smiled at Ram and shook her head tiredly.

"She really cares about Subaru, huh."

"Yes, yes, my sister has a big heart. She's starting to understand the greatness of Subaru-kun." Rem smiled softly and proudly.

"I guess she does have a point, I suppose." Emilia and Rem looked at the spirit as she fiddled with her fingers cutely.

"Beako…"

"I'm sorry I was harsh on you, I suppose. Betty was feeling guilty that she wasn't there to slap Subaru on the head before he did anything foolish and seeing him get hurt and crushed was just… Betty just didn't want him to get hurt, I suppose."

"Beatrice-sama…"

Rem and Emilia both nodded to one another and moved over to bear hug the sad Beako.

The little spirit gave into the hug and let a few sobs escape her.

Emilia and Rem just crushed her between them for a second and then pulled back once she was calm enough.

"You good Beako?"

"Yes, I suppose. Subaru gives lousy hugs, infact."

Emilia and Rem giggled to one another.

"To be fair, Subaru didn't look like the type to be hugging girls all the time."

"Yes, I think Subaru-kun only hugged you." Rem said without a hint of jealousy. At all.

"Hmph! He better be! Betty's contractor should thank the skies for such privilege, infact."

Emilia smiled and sat back in her seat beside her knight. She glanced at his peaceful sleeping face and couldn't help the smile from gracing her lips as she began toying with his cheek.

"You're such a trouble maker, Subaruuuuu." Emilia sighed and shook her head.

"I'll help you. I will learn of everything I did wrong and help you. I don't know if I can ever feel this love…. But I know that I want it to be you, my lousy stupid knight."Emilia wished he was awake to yell about how abusive she was like he usually did.

"Of course, I'll punish and hurt you for all the dumb stuff and all the promises you break! You won't get away with that!" The half-elf threatened with a pout as she pointed at his sleeping face.

Only to be met with giggles from the two other girls sitting with her in the row.

Emilia blushed as Rem and Beatrice giggled at her awkward display.

She wasn't good with people darn it!

"I'm sorry I couldn't stop the fight milady."

"It's okay, Reinhard."

"I should've done more to help! He was doing so bad and I thought he was losing his mind and yet I didn't-"

"I said its fine damn it! Shut it!"

Reinhard stopped apologizing and looked on to the pacing Felt.

The little blonde was fuming in place. "I can't believe it! I thought he looked dumb back then but knowing the why makes me want to hurt myself for not taking him away the first chance I got. I need to help him, Rein! I neeeeeed to make Big bro safe and happy, away from that clown and that impish knight!"

Reinhard winced, uncomfortable that his friend was insulted by his lady but he understood her view.

Julius did go hard on a civilian. A stupid one at the time, yes. But still.

"And I couldn't stop the fight." Reinhard muttered as he felt the enormous amounts of guilt forming once again as he saw the image of the pathetic state Subaru was in when he fought Emilia. Both mentally and physically.

He didn't want his one true friend to be in pain any longer.

To him, Subaru was truly a great boy. With a good heart. And sometimes a good head on his shoulders. Sometimes.

Not to mention how easy he got with everyone around him.

"Even grandfather found him endearing…"

Reinhard still didn't know what to think of that.

He was a monster that committed the most egregious of crimes against both his family and his people.

He did not deserve something like Subaru's friendship, no matter how much he yearned for it.

'Be greedy.'

...His mistress on the other hand seems to think other wise. He really hoped this plan of hers works.

"We should get rid of the clown immediately after we get out of this place. Then we take the entire camp of Big sis into our own and have them all live with us."

Reinhard found himself nodding out of pure anticipation and hope with his lady's recollection of the plan.

The plan to be greedy.

"Common fools are the ones who think without consulting their gods. Hmph!"

Priscilla found it utterly distasteful that all of these commoners that were planning to nap the boy to their side.

Poor fools.

They didn't have the world serving and rolling for their favor like she, a god, does.

That boy will come crawling to her if she so desired him.

The universe is her playground and what she wants, she gets.

"Now… why won't you kill yourself and remove this humiliation, I wonder." Priscilla fanned herself and kept her eyes glued to the spiky head of the boy that had… a simple… pathetic… good heart.

"Hmph!"

"Something wrong, Princess?"

Priscilla just throw him back with a strike by her hand as she kept her eyes stuck on the same direction.

"Owwww…"

"Simply delighhhhhhhtful! All these groups and all these fools think they have a chance to take Subaru-kun away from me." Roswaal shook his head and smiled sympathetically as he watched each group conspiring and scheming to take him down and take Subaru as a reward.

"Too bad that I know how he can redo noooooow~."

Honestly, he hoped that he wasn't becoming like a cliché villain at this point.

(Don't worry baby, you good.)

Alright, You've all had enough rest. Please sit back down.

The entire cast moved to sit in the same formation as the last episode.

Felix and Wilhelm came out of a room both looking quite disgruntled with one another for some reason.

As the cast sat down, the screen began loading.

The cast began readying their nerves as most of them had really tiring conversations.

Miss Emilia.

"Yes!" The half-elf quickly answered in panic.

Some giggled and snickered at this making her blush.

I managed to block your magic from freezing everyone. Infact that almost happened a long time ago if I hadn't blocked all of your magical power except for very few select blessings I kept in place to help you.

I kept the rest from hearing your little 'argument' with the maid except for the other two beside you.

I also wanted to warn you of something important.

"Um… Thank you for all that…. What else is there, Screen-sama?"

You're welcome. I just need you to do something for me.

Stop. Destroying. The. Poor. Boy's. Hand.

Emilia looked down and gasped at how gross and malformed Subaru's hand that she's been gripping looked.

"God damn!"

"Holy fuck!"

"Petra-chan!"

"What? I'm able to use that word too!"

Many winced and looked away while Ram and Roswaal laughed their asses off.

Julius, Otto and Reinhard were all wincing in pity to their friend.

Garfiel was trying not to bash his head into a wall because of his captain's luck.

How did he get into such a sexy situation?! He was so lucky goddamn it!

Beatrice, Rem, Felt and even Crusch a little bit were all glaring at a certain scared looking elf girl.

"I-I didn't… I didn't…"

Emilia was about to break down as she stared at the hand that she used as a stress ball and now reformed into her own mush of bones through her strength alone.

She was so shocked that she could only stare.

Bada boom.

And the hand was back to normal again.

Emilia breathed a sigh of relief.

Be careful.

"Thank you."

Emilia smiled up at the screen… but her answer wouldn't come.

Because the screen activated….

(Right. You got the wholesome shit. Now get ready to see them break. Heheheheheh.)

Season 1 Episode 8 Director's Cut.

Begin.

Subaru is shown fighting Wilhelm with a wooden sword.

The boy was swinging his sword widely and frantically with each strike being blocked by a regal looking Wilhelm.

Subaru was thinking back to the things he said to Emilia.

He grew more angry with each strike as he remembered everything he said.

It all led to him getting surprised attacked by the bored looking old man making Subaru fly a few feet in the air and landing on his back.

"Shall we stop for now?" Wilhelm asked as he kept his gaze from showing pity for the boy.

Subaru remembered what Emilia had said to him before leaving him behind. And he put his arm on his beaten face as he kept the sobs in.

Otto sighed and shook his head, feeling pity for his brother's state. "Yeah, that's not something he can get through that easily."

"Subaru-dono was unable to accept the fact that the problem was his own twisted mindset of obsession, so he decided to keep himself busy by training and getting stronger instead." Wilhelm explained loudly.

"It's easier to wear himself out with work rather than accept his own faults and work on them." Julius nodded his head after lamenting on the thought.

Emilia and Beatrice frowned a little and looked at the boy with sadness clear in their eyes.

They couldn't help with that problem but they still didn't like how hard he was trying to run away from his faults.

"Pathetic." Priscilla snorted softly but had a look of anger in her eyes as she watched the boy work himself uselessly.

Reinhard looked down and closed his eyes.

This is the exact same thing he's done.

"Subaru… Did you beat your faults too? Or did you just accept them?" The Sword Saint asked, his tone broken as he remembered the many late knights swinging and waving the sword as he ignored the pain and anguish he's caused his family and the entire kingdom.

Rem… she was the only one smiling. She remembered how he asked for her help that day. How much he wanted to run and escape the faults deeply rooted within him.

The maid was excited to make them all see how much Subaru had changed since then…

"That moment is really close now…" Rem gripped her skirt in excitement as she waited for her favorite and most hurtful moment of Subaru's adventure to come.

The moment he led her to that hill.

The moment he…

looked…

so…

haunted.

…

…

…

Rem's eyes widened in horror.

Felix is shown watching the two from a window in the mansion.

"I swear, Julius, your good nature is going to waste, playing the villain for someone like him."

The screen changes scenes to show Felix talking to the elegant knight.

"I haven't the slightest idea what you're walking about." Julius replied as he looked at the window.

"How could you get yourself punished trying to protect a guy like that?" Felix inquired hotly.

"I only acted as I wished true to my own nature." Julius's cool reply came.

"Righteously, in my own way, and without shame, as I wished."

"Heh! What a prick!" Ricardo slammed Julius's shoulder and laughed out loud.

The knight elegantly glanced at the dogman with a small upturn of his lips.

"Julius…"

The knight immediately looked at the royal calling his name with a hint of surprise visible on his expression.

"I… don't think I ever did so… Thank you, for saving Subaru."

Julius stared at the warm smile on Emilia's face with bewilderment clear on his face.

"I don't mean to be rude or unorderly, Emilia-sama, but… You know that I beat your knight to the point of death, right?"

The half-elf's smile turned into a cheerful one which many in the audience collectively thought it was beautiful.

"I think that Subaru forgiving and trusting you is enough for me to see the good that came from such a fight… Even if it was a tad too much."

Julius bowed his head deeply. "My apologies, Emilia-sama… And thank you for this honor."

Emilia continued watching with a small smile of relief on her face.

Anastasia smirked softly to herself after she watched the exchange.

Scene changes back to the Felix in the present as he watched from the window inside Crusch's office.

"Are you sure about this? Old Man Wil is busy preparing, too." Felix asked in uncertainty as he looked out the window.

"It was a request from our guest. I cannot ignore it."

"If they're just practicing, it's nyo big deal, but… Frankly, it looks to me like he's just making excuses." Felix raised his head and reported to the lady.

Crusch stopped writing and looked at the cat boy in confusion.

"Excuses?"

"He wants to say, 'I'm just fine. I'm working hard.'"

"Can you blame him?" Crusch continued to work on her papers.

Felix looked out the window and noticed someone standing at the front gates of the mansion.

It was the Sword Saint.

Screen suddenly changes… Music begins to play…

"What's happening?" Anastasia asked in confusion as she was focused on what was being said between Felix and her opponent when the dark screen suddenly played a weird tone.

Opening Theme 2: Paradisus-Paradoxum

A flock of birds is shown flying around one another in a circle across an orange sky.

The screen slowly pans down as the sounds of Whales could be heard and water bubbles could be seen flying up towards the orange bright sky from the deep dark sea.

Subaru is laying at the very bottom of the dark sea with his eyes closed and bubbles are all around him.

"Why's he suddenly there?" Garfiel asked more in confusion than in alarm.

"Is this another one of these introductions, I wonder?" Beatrice mused from her seat while inspecting the scene with critical eyes.

"There is that weird music playing so it must be." Frederica nodded her head with the spirit.

He opens his eyes to reveal tears at the corners as flashbacks to Emilia yelling at him play and make him flinch in guilt and embarrassment.

"Hmmm, this seems to be a metaphor of some kind." Priscilla mused to herself while bobbing her head to the music.

"I think this represents how Subaru-sama is so guilty of his actions that he feels like he's drowning in an ocean." Crusch lamented while looking at the strange play like scene in wonder and interest.

Emilia and Rem frowned in upset at this scene.

The screen pans from the laying Subaru to the demented red sky above the sea that he was in as the title card appears.

Emilia and Subaru could be seen smiling at one another with the world around them bright and delightful. They pass each other and suddenly the world goes dark and both have exhausted and sad faces

"That argument really set the tone between you two for the rest of this viewing huh?" Anastasia noted while watching the intense opening with interest and awe like the rest of the cast.

Emilia shook her head and kept reminding herself how the boy smiled cheerfully and filled her entire world with undeniable warmth.

She knew that Subaru will come out of this state sooner or later… she just hoped that he won't go something so horrible like that fight again.

Rem just looked at the screen with a wide eyed look of confusion and fear.

"Subaru-kun…"

Scene changes to show Emilia with her back to the door of the room was in when she left him. It shows Subaru hugging her coat from the other side of the room. The screen flickers between the two scenes and changes…

"This is one is really… sad." Petra sounded in pity, her eyes filled with anger at the way Subaru was treated.

Subaru is walking through a snowing dark road with Rem slowly following him.

Subaru slowly holds his head in frustration as images of a smiling Rem and a smiling Emilia play making him more manic and frustrated.

"Looks Rem is going to play a bigger role here." Emilia noted in sadness as she remembered that Subaru will get help from someone other than herself. Which made her feel more guilty and sad.

Rem just held her hero's hand with a bit of force as she prayed that she might be able to save him from any more pain and misery.

Her rational, however, told her that without a shadow of a doubt… She'll fail.

The screen changes to show the many characters in the are.

Crusch, Felix and Wilhelm.

Al feeding Priscilla.

Anastasia eating with Mimi.

Emilia, resting her head on her desk with a sad look while Puck rubs his head with his paw.

Julius is shown holding a wooden sword with a determined face as Subaru stands behind him with his own sword on the dueling grounds.

The screen flickers and suddenly, a huge eye and a man with dark black hands are shown staring at Subaru.

"The whale and the creepy man!" Mimi screamed in fear while the rest looked at the screen with wide eyes.

Emilia and Beatrice could feel their hearts breaking at the sight of the man.

"Father Guise..."

"….Guise."

As the music picks up, Subaru and Rem are shown riding Patlash together.

Through a foggy plain, the screen shows Crusch standing at the ready infront of a giant whale opening its mouth through the fog with men all around her on their knees or unconscious on the ground.

Crusch smirks wide at the monster.

"Lady Crusch is so brave!" Felix cheerfully yelled out as the crowed were at awe at the scene.

"That's the Whale?!" Garf could only scream in frustration that he couldn't compete against the dangerous and amazing looking creature.

Wilhelm scowled deeply.

Subaru is seen holding Rem on top of a sunny hill.

Rem closed her eyes and prayed with all her might that this scene will come sooner.

"What was going on there?" Crusch asked slyly as she noticed how romantic this scene was.

But the maid never answered her.

The duchess began to feel a heavy feeling for some reason.

Scene changes to Rem slamming her mace into cultists in a forest.

The cultists surround her and pick their knives in their hands.

"Bastards!" Garf and many others gritted their teeth.

Ram stared at the screen with narrowed and confused eyes.

"Rem wasn't with us in the forest." Julius whispered to himself as he too narrowed his eyes at the screen.

Heart slowly sinking… he realized that death was awaiting his only friend.

Purple effect plays as the screen flashes everything backwards.

The scene stops on Subaru, standing in the middle of a huge flat plain with his fist closed.

He looks back to find Emilia standing infront of a gigantic tree trunk with dark hands coming for her.

"The witch!" Tivey shouted in worry while the others leaned in to watch what was going to happen.

Subaru grits his teeth and runs as the black hands get closer to Emilia.

The princess slowly looks back and smiles to the boy as he frantically opens his palm and extends his arm for her.

Emilia smiles and takes his hand as her face is completely covered by the shadow palms of the many long hands.

Subaru grips her hand harder and pulls.

Screen goes dark.

Theme end.

"Damn! Cap'n looked so manly!" Garf cheered as the scene fired him up.

"He looked really desperate more than anything else." Ram snorted but breathed a little heavier to calm her beating heart.

Emilia frowned a bit and sighed. "I wish he wouldn't have to do work so hard to save me but…"

"You're still thankful for him trying."

Emilia looked at Beatrice with surprise. The spirit girl just looked at the screen with a sad look.

Change scene…

"Forgive me." Reinhard is seen bowing his head low to Subaru.

"Hang on! What have you got to apologize for? None of this was your fault!" Subaru waved his arms around frantically.

But the redheaded young man kept his head down low.

"No, I am a friend to you, as well as to Julius. My own lack of virtue was responsible for my failure to stop a disagreement between my two friends. That duel had no meaning."

Subaru narrowed his eyes at this. "No meaning?"

"That's right. What came from you two fighting there? You were hurt, and Julius tarnished his own career. Why not try to have a calm, open discussion with him? I'm sure that will clear up the misunder-"

"Reinhard."

The Sword Saint winced as he remembered the scene vividly. He wished to have been more coat with his words. It was another thing he was desperately lacking as a hero. He was never good with cheering people or giving them much hope.

He was just some monster playing hero, trying his best to help wherever he could.

The Sword of the kingdom stopped talking and looked at the hostile face of the boy.

"I get how you feel, and I appreciate it. You really are a nice guy."

Reinhard smiled as hope filled his face. "Then…"

"But I can't accept that proposal. We're done talking. Go back now."

Subaru turned from his friend and began walking to the mansion.

"Subaru… why?" Reinhard frowned and called out to him. "What did you gain from that duel? You've only suffered losses! Even Emilia-sama-"

Subaru closed the gate behind him. "You'd better head back for today, Reinhard. Before your mistress gets lonely and starts yelling for you."

Reinhard looks hurt by the comment and stares at the ground for a moment before turning back.

"Mind your own damn business." Subaru whispers as he walks back to the mansion.

"At least you tried, Rein."

Reinhard looked at his mistress with surprise.

"Big bro is being stubborn right now, I would do the same if I was in his shoes." Felt smirked up at her knight.

"At least one of us was considerate enough to try and help him… I was no good at all."

"Felt-sama, you were too busy with the newly starting selection and making sure Rom-sama is will! You had no choice but to focus away from Subaru."

Felt just nodded and continued watching the screen.

Reinhard looked extremely worried at his little lady.

Scene change…

* CLANK!* * CLANK!*

"..GHK!"

Subaru is shown swiping his sword tiredly at Wilhelm getting blocked and attacked in mere seconds making the boy fall to his knee.

"He's useless with a blade." Julius noted with a disappointed frown.

"I wouldn't say that. The boy's got no style with one, that's all." Al interjected as he remembered his teacher saying the same thing about him when he first came to this world.

"I agree with Priscilla-sama's knight. Subaru-dono lacked focus and tact during those training sessions. I thought that he was just playing around and ignoring all my lessons. But now that I know why he was so unfocused and wild, I think he could make a decent blade wielder if he could just train a little more seriously." Every one listen intently to the old man's musing.

"If it's the Sword Demon saying it, then it must be truuuue." Roswaal clapped his hands excitedly.

"Ha! Cap'n's got a weap'n tha's more cooler than a blade." Garfiel snorted and held his head high in pride as he remembered his captains awesome looking whip.

"Shall we stop for now?"

Subaru gasping in pain and stands up with a glare of frustration. He speeds up towards the old man but Wilhelm disarms him and makes him fall to the ground again.

Darkness…

The screen lights up and shows Rem from a downward prescriptive as she smiles at something.

"You must be tired after your practice, Subaru-kun." She smiles softly as Subaru looks away while he rested on her lap.

"Cheater!" Petra teased Emilia from behind while giggling with Mimi and Beatrice at the heavy pout on Emilia's face.

"He's getting these really easy ain't he?" Ricardo asked in astonishment as he never would' e thought about this kid as some ladies man that could get lap pillows on a whim.

"I'm sorry, Emilia-sama." Rem bowed deeply to the half-elf sitting on the other side of the boy she loved.

Emilia shook her head and removed the pout on her face with a small smile. "No, no. Thank you for doing what I asked and taking care of Subaru for me."

Rem frowned a bit. "I didn't do it for you."

Emilia couldn't her Rem's whisper as she looked at the screen with a frown itched in place of the smile she once wore.

The elf was too busy thinking about how ragged Subaru was running himself.

"He's going to break like this. When did he figure a way out of this mindset?" Emilia muttered softly and narrowed her beautiful eyes at the screen.

"Rem, you don't think I'm pathetic?"

"I do."

"Pffft!"

"Haah!"

Mimi, Felt and Petra giggled like kids at the deadpanned answer.

"Blunt truth hurts!" Al chuckled.

"Nice going Rem, I'm proud that you've finally come to your senses and accepted this man as a pathetic dog." Ram nodded her head with an expression of pure pride and passion for her sister.

Rem just smiled sadly at the scene and wished that nothing bad might happen to her hero.

"You do? Seriously? Then why are you still here with a pathetic loser like me? Because you were told to?"

"He doesn't have to talk himself down like that."

Julius found himself nodding with Otto as both men frowned at the way Subaru described himself.

"I guess that's the way one would think of themselves if they were in his situation, nyan!" Felix mused analytically.

"The fact that I think you're pathetic and my staying with you are not contradictory. Besides, even if I hadn't been ordered to, I'm certain I would have stayed." Rem softly replied as she flicked his hair.

"Why?"

"Because I want to."

The two glance up at the setting sun.

"Shall we go out tomorrow, Subaru-kun? You haven't gone anywhere in the three days since we came here."

"He's been like this for three days?" Frederica asked with pity filling her gaze.

Crusch nodded her head in silence and watched the scene with heavy focus.

She was waiting for any sign of a difference in the events leading up to the hunt.

Subaru just turns around in silent anguish.

Scene change…

Subaru is in the market place of the capital standing with a group of people, staring at a large board with five posters of the candidates on it.

"You interested in the royal selection, too?" Subaru turns to find the Apple salesman smiling down over his shoulder.

"Whoa! Don't sneak up on me with that face! Wait, where's Rem?"

The man turns and points towards his shop where Rem was selling some fruits to a lady.

"Don't make someone with no experience watch your shop."

"Five candidate, huh? It's pure insanity to let a half-elf be one of them, if you ask me. Emilia, eh? There's no way a relative of the witch could become our ruler. They've gotta be crazy." The man muttered as he stared at the posture with an unsure look.

"Hmph! That commoner seems to have a good head on his shoulders."

"I think everyone already thinks the same thing my lady."

Emilia didn't give any reaction to Priscilla and her knight. She already knew how the people saw her and she promised to change such prejudice and wrapped views to become king.

She believed that she could. How couldn't she? She had a stupid yet amazing knight standing beside her on every whim. A selfish and honestly disgusting sentiment to have for comfort.

But the thought of someone standing by her was comforting.

Emilia just took hold of Subaru's hand and tried not to turn it to dust with her strength.

"Why does everyone say that? It doesn't mean she has anything to do with the witch!"

"He's still defending me?" Emilia really wished she could hear him say that he loves her again. She wanted to hear him say that it was fine and he wasn't feeling any pain when he was beside her.

"Of course he is! You've helped him through a lot." Felt assured her big sis with a hint of jealousy that she wasn't able to do what Emilia had done.

Emilia smiled softly at the little girl's words.

"Huh?"

Subaru glared up at the sales guy as the people around him looked on.

"Don't lump them together and brush her off just because she's a half-elf!"

"H-Hey…!" The sales guy started looking around as the entire market place stopped and watched.

"That Emilia girl… I mean… She might really care about this kingdom's people, too!" Subaru shouted in frustration.

"Hang on… why are you getting so worked up?"

"I… " Subaru was gonna answer.

It was for you, wasn't it?

Emilia's voice played making him stop and close his eyes in frustration.

"He doesn't know what he's doing for Emilia or for himself anymore. The condition he's in is making him feel useless." Crusch concluded as she watched the scene with a sad gaze.

"I wish he wouldn't be so rash." Frederica grimaced as she watched the next scene.

"Why is it?! Because of the Witch of Envy?! You think all half-elves are dangerous just because the witch was one?!" Subaru shouted as he glared at the salesman and the rest of the watching crowd around him.

The salesman seemed to harden at this as he proclaimed loud and clear. "That's right!"

He met Subaru's eyes with his and glared straight into them. "Everyone's scared of the witch. That's common knowledge. As long as the people see her that way, she can't win."

Subaru looked down in frustration as the crowed started whispering amongst themselves while looking at the two.

The sales man sighed and turned back to the board.

"Sheesh. Who would actually choose to support her?"

"We do!"

Emilia looked up in surprise as the feeling of loneliness was making her tear up and lean on Subaru.

She found a bunch of her friends glaring at the screen.

Rem, Beatrice, Otto, Garf, Petra, Frederica, and Ram all glared at the screen with looks of conviction.

Emilia was sure that her knight would also glare with them as well.

She felt so happy… so warm… so lucky to have such wonderful people willing to follow her.

Subaru was surprised when the man patted his shoulder.

He looked up to the shop's keeper as he advised. "Try not to say the word Witch too loudly in public. You never know who's listening, or where."

Subaru watched the man walking away with a confused look on his face.

Suddenly, the crowd began pushing him and bumping into him by their shoulders as they moved to take a closer look at the board.

"Can't they see him, I suppose?" Beatrice gritted her teeth at the way her contractor was treated.

"I don't think they saw him, Spirit-sama." Reinhard shook his head in pity at his friend's desperate state of mind.

Subaru falls over and glares at the ground. "You didn't tell me everyone felt that way about you… "

I can't understand if you don't tell me Subaru…

"I can't understand if you don't tell me, either!" Subaru glares and stands up.

"He's frustrated." Emilia noted in guilt.

"Yeah, I mean, is he going to keep obsessing like this over you for long? It's getting kinda hard to watch." Al, in the wisdom of a troll, decided to give his take on the events being shown, making Emilia stare longer at the screen.

Meanwhile….

Rem was crying with a look of pure shock as the realization hit her.

At that apple stand…

he should have taken her hand and ran…

But he didn't…

Which meant…

Return by Death…

Whale sounds play as the screen flashes between many moments of the boy's time in the mansion.

Looking over the city from the mansion at night.

Getting beaten by Wilhelm in sword training.

Getting his gate healed by Felix.

Rem looked behind her with a look of distress to fined Crusch, Anastasia and Wilhelm, looking at the screen with surprised and panicked faces.

They knew it as well…

Subaru will di-

Scene change…

Subaru is walking up some stairs while wiping his hair with a towel, he stops in his tracks as an elegantly dressed Crusch steps at the top of the stairs infront of him.

"Natsuki Subaru, would you mind joining me for a bit?"

"Crusch-san… Right?"

"That's right. Oh, yes… This is the first time you've seen me out of my business attire. The breeze is pleasantly cool tonight. Perfect conditions for sharing a drink as we gaze upon the night sky."

The lady smiles at the confused boy.

"Huuuuh? When did lady Crusch give Subaru the privilege to dine with her in such an attire?!" Felix asked in outrage as he was sure that he was with his lady all through out Subaru's stay.

Emilia looked at Crusch with a little bit of fear as she finally noticed that Rem was crying.

"Everyone… I… I'm sorry…"

The cast looked at the normally proud looking duchess with confused faces.

"Why are ya sorry?" Garfiel quickly asked as he didn't like how Crusch looked with her head down and her eyes filled with guilt and anguish.

"This… this event never occurred with me and Subaru-sama." As the duchess laid her statement wide to all in the room, eyes began to widen and curses filled the theater.

"NO! NO! GODDAMN IT!" An enraged Garfiel shouted in fury and despair as he understood that his Cap'n will die once again.

He can't protect him once again.

Otto clenched his fists and grimaced. He already knew that Subaru will die in this arc. His bro knew too much during the battle with the witch's cult he thought Subaru was a foresight user… But now that he knows of Return by Death…

Otto just hoped that Subaru's death will be painless.

"Subaru…" Julius narrowed his eyes in anguish. The knight silently prayed that his actions toward Subaru won't play apart in the boy's death.

"We must watch whatever comes next… Subaru's pain is costing on his soul. We need to learn of what he went through and understand him."

Reinhard himself deeply frustrated that all he could think of to help was the same as what Julius had said.

"Ha! It's funny hearing that from you now."

Julius turned and faced the helmeted young man with an annoyed glare.

"Meaning?"

"I thought you mistrusted the kid." Al's tone was seething with accusing rage for a second, but his shoulders shrugged and his head turned to the screen.

"But don't fret over it, pal. I just found it funny." Al turned and stared at the screen as if nothing was bothering him.

Julius shook his head and turned away from the off putting man. He had much to think off at the moment to care about such words.

He needed to get ready to see where he failed Subaru.

"N-Now hold it! Maybe ya just forget! Yeah! Maybe you-"

"Garfiel-kun… Crusch-sama is saying the absolute truth."

Garfiel turned from the duchess to the blue haired crying maid. "How would you know?!"

The blonde asked in outrage.

"Garf…"

The tiger looked at his brother with despair clear in his eyes.

Otto clenched his fists and stared at the floor.

"I told you before… Subaru already knew me before I had met him. He had already foresaw my arrival into certain events and saved me."

As the merchant shook and trembled in place, the blonde warrior dropped in his seat with a face of despair and pure defeat.

"Cap'n will die… Cap'n will die… "

Felt glared hatefully as her rash and impatient attitude forced her to start thinking about how she will punish and torture everyone that had caused her big bro so much pain and agony, she was sad to see the state he was in at the moment from a couple of deaths.

How would he fare against death now?

Emilia wasn't ready to see him die. She wasn't ready. The thought that this boy could've faced death because she had left him behind was too much.

The half-elf princess hugged her knight and closed her eyes. Feeling his warmth and hearing his heart was all that she needed.

"We must see him die over and over, I suppose? All this and he can't say anything to anyone, I suppose? No wonder he feels relief when he… *Hiccup!*"

Beatrice sobbed a bit as she remembered the many times she saw him hurt himself for relief.

No wonder this boy would be reduced to such a state.

It was just a given that that would be his only expression of relief.

"Why didn't you ask Betty for more hugs, I wonder? Betty would've given them gladly!" The little girl sobbed in misery as she wondered what his next death is going to be like.

Petra hugged Frederica and held her tight. The demi woman just patted the sad girl's back with a look of sympathy.

Ricardo and the twins looked at the crowds with pity and sadness.

Anastasia looked at the ground with empty eyes. Emotionless.

"Do I want him in my camp because of such a disgusting power?" Anastasia whispered to herself in horror.

Her scarf twitched gently and soothingly.

"This is too steep a road to take for one young lad." Wilhelm looked down and clenched his fist in anger for Subaru, a young man he cherished and wished to be his own.

As the crowd was panicking and cursing, a lone smiling little clown watched with emotionless colored eyes.

He could tell that they won't last this round.

"Amateurs." Roswaal snorted softly and watched.

Like the entire desperate crowd, he watched.

Waiting for Subaru's next death.

Scene change…

"I can't drink alcohol, though… "

"You're welcome to drink water. I won't be drinking enough to get drunk."

He picks up the glass and tapped the tip with hers.

He looked at the lady in pure confusion as she elegantly drank her wine.

"How goes the healing of your gate?"

Subaru flinches as he remembers what had just happened.

(Scene from the novels.)

Flashback to Felix smirking mischievously at Rem as she held Subaru's head and hugged it.

Rem's eyes widened with a blush on her cheeks.

"What's going on here?" Al snorted softly and tiredly trying to change this depressing atmosphere.

Both of them seemed to be bumping their mana into the poor flustered boy.

Rem was glaring at the cat boy as he sighed and pulled back away from Subaru.

"You have a reason to be angry, Rem, but it wasn't all some scheme by Ferris, mew know? It was for Subawu's sake, just a teeny widdle bit."

"What were you doing, Felix-sama?" Wilhelm immediately honed in on the healer.

Crusch looked at Felix with wide betrayed eyes.

"You wouldn't, I suppose." Beatrice growled in anger as she noticed what exactly was happening on screen.

"Beako! Why are you glaring at Felix-san like that? He was helping Subaru with his gate?" Emilia admonished, not wanting a fight to break out, which from the look on Beatrice's face, was going off any second.

"It seems that the healer knight was using the treatment you requested to brainwash Barusu's stupidly small mind, Emilia-sama."

Emilia instantly honed in on the nervous healer with warning cold eyes.

"And everything besides the little bit?" Rem asked as she held Subaru's blushing face harder.

"The rest was for my friend's feelings, and everything else was for lady Crusch. That's natural for a retainer, isn't it? It's no different for you, is it, Rem?"

"It is not. Accordingly, you must understand what my reply must be, master Felix."

Felix sensed something in the maid's stare so he immediately backed tracked and held his arms up in surrender.

"Okay, okaaaaay. Ferri will stop using the treatment to brainwash him."

"From here on, I shall be present for all treatments."

"Mew, no trust at all. Well, that's fine, really."

"Felix! Explain yourself at once!"

The catboy winced at the tone his lady was giving him but the feeling of the others around him glaring with hate and betrayal was making him feel widely worse.

Even Reinhard and Julius were looking at him with a bit of judgment in their eyes.

"I-I.." Felix stuttered a bit and looked down trying to think of an answer.

"Explain. Now."

A shiver ran down everyone's spine as Emilia's cold command echoed through the theater.

Fearing for his life from the glaring half-elf, Felix stuttered an answer out.

"I-I was panning to only use this brainwashing thing as a means to get Subaru-kyun t-to let his hate for Julius go. He was pushing himself hard so uselessly and doing nothing but beat himself up over what had happened so I was going to force him to rest his body and mind for the time he stayed in lady Crusch's mansion, that was it! I swear, nyan!"

Felix was bowing to the angry crowd of girls that surrounded him. He was about to cry from the pressure.

"I think we should let this one slide."

"Yeah, it wasn't really that malicious."

As Al and Ricardo tried to calm the crowed of women glaring at Felix down, Julius and Reinhard shook their heads and decided that they wouldn't intervene if the boy was punished.

"I'm sorry kuyn!" Felix once again said, his ears low and his head between his knees from how deeply he bowed to Emilia.

The half-elf just sighed and ruffled her knight's hair to calm her anger down.

"It's okay… just this once, since you were trying to help, I'll forgive it. But I don't agree with this method so don't ever use it on my knight again."

"Yes! Yes! Emilia-sama, understood! I was only trying to help, really!"

Felix looked at his lady with fear and tears in his eyes.

Crusch just sighed. "You're lucky that Emilia-sama forgave what you did… or would've done. But I must express my disappointment in your behavior." With that, the lady turned from the shocked catboy to the onlooking silent half-elf.

"I deeply apologize for my knight's completely unjustifiable actions, Emilia-sama. I understand that you don't trust my word after what you've seen bu-"

"It's fine, Crusch-sama. You've been a wonderful host to my knight to the very end and it's clear that you knew nothing of this. I'm not angry or in any way shape or form upset with you." Emilia smiled strainly at the surprised royal.

Crusch couldn't help but bow in shame and relief.

Anastasia smirked a little at this.

"That kitty boy is on my shitlist after we get out of here." Felt told Reinhard as she glared.

Brainwashing! This was her brother's life!

"Does your life get worse, Big bro?" Felt asked in pity and exhaustion. (Hoho, Christmas baby!)

Seeing Emilia back down the boys started to calm down a little as well.

"Whew, that got out of hand really quickly." Otto leaned into his seat and breathed heavily as he moved away from the enraged Garfiel.

The blonde boy was being smothered and held down by both, Otto and Julius. The two young men noticed how Garfiel was ready to pounce the healer immediately as the screen proved Felix trying to mess with his captain's mind against Subaru's will. So they both naturally pounced on the blonde furious boy and held him down.

"I agree." Julius nodded and moved away from the struggling Garf.

"Next time he does somethin' even slightly not right to Cap'n, my amazin' selfs well teach him how to meow through his butt." Garfiel growled his threat through gritted teeth.

Everyone found the threat funny, making most chuckle and giggle at the scared look on Felix's face. Even Crusch gave a silent soft giggle behind her gloved hand at how silly her knight looked after Garfiel's threat.

It seemed like all just wanted anything to get rid of the tension and the horror of the events to come.

End of flashback.

Subaru shuddered as he looked at Crusch with an unsure look.

"Oh… well, it goes, I guess… "

"I see. Well, Felis is excellent with healing magic. You can trust him." Crusch smiled and drank from her glass.

"I'm so sorry." The boy whispered as he heard many snorting at the scene. He didn't want to make his lady look like a fool for trusting him.

Crusch shook her head softly, she knew Felix had way too much loyalty to her. She didn't expect him to go to such lengths to help her.

It's funny really.

"Felix and this Subaru have way too much in common."

Crusch thought about Emilia's fight with Subaru, would that happen between her and her knight as well? Felix does seem to have the same obsessive behavior as Subaru did in the castle.

"Are you suffering as well, Felix?" Crusch looked at her knight with worry.

"You seem busy all the time, too."

"My family is currently gathering people and objects in response to a certain occurrence. Plus, since word of the royal selection spread, I've received proposals every day. I'm sure the other candidates have, as well."

Subaru did a spit take. "P-Proposals? You mean, as in marriage?! Oh yeah… I guess they're all single… "

"He seems afraid someone will take Emilia from him." Otto snorted as he found something else to tease his brother.

Emilia blushed a little as chuckles rang through the room. "Stupid Subaru."

Crusch leaned forward with interest. "Does that bother you?"

Subaru looked away with an uneasy face.

"Not really… it's just… Oh, right! Wilhelm-san said he had a beautiful wife."

Crusch looked serious as she gazed at the boy. "Are you aware that Wilhelm serves me?"

"Huh? Why?" Subaru asked in confusion.

"Naaaaaaa!"

Subaru and Crusch looked at the person that had burst through the balcony door with a panicking look on his face.

"What are nya doing here, Subaru-kyun?" Felix yelled as he stared at the two with a blasphemous face. "And Crusch-sama! Why are you dressed so vulnerably?!"

"Is it strange? It's no different from what I wear when I dine with you."

"That's exactly the problem! Men are nyothing but wolves!" Felix proclaimed with a pout.

"You're a man, too." Subaru pointed out with offense.

"Heh! I wouldn't call Barusu a man." Ram snorted as she thought back to a time were Natsumi Shwartez dined with them. (Look it up.)

"That's enough joking, Felis. All who were present at the royal selection know whom Subaru loves."

"Show of hands!" Mimi called out to the entire room with a cheerfilled smile.

Everyone… I mean everyone, raised their fucking hand.

Except for Emilia…. She was blushing red.

Rem was okay with this.

"Yeah, I heard they had a fight, though."

"...Ghk!"

Felix smiled at the nasty eyed boy beside his lady. "I swear, Subaru-kuyn, you're so easy to read."

Subaru looked down with a scowl.

"Don't cast your gaze down, Natsuki Subaru."

"Huh?"

"When your eyes are clouded, your soul darkens. That means your future is closed to you, and you lose sight of your reasons to live. When you do what you know is right, what can you do by looking downward? Lift your head and reach out your hands. I do not want to regard you as an insignificant enemy."

"Ah, so you must've truly respected him even before the whale." Anastasia mused as she watched the show of sportsmenship from the duchess.

Crusch just nodded her head. "I wasn't doing it out of pity. He just… reminded me of someone really dear. It must've what this me was doing. To give him a push out of his self destructive routine and actually work on his problems."

Subaru stared at the lady before him in silence.

"If Crusch-sama says so, you have nyo choice." Subaru looked beside him to find Felix leaning down to stare him in the eye.

"The point is, Subaru-kyun, you need to hurry and make up with Emilia-sama. Think about what you can do to accomplish that, and do it."

Subaru looked away from the cat boy.

What can I do…

As he gazed at the flame…

The moments of his past deaths could be seen flashes before him.

Many of the cast went wide eyed at this.

"There is something I can do."

"No!" Garfiel cursed and jumped from his seat.

"Subaru!"

"Subaru-kun!"

"Please, I suppose!"

Crusch and Felix stared at the boy with surprise.

Subaru slowly smirked for the first time.

"Something that only I can do. Yeah, that's right… You don't even have to tell me."

He smirked.

Crusch stared at him with uncertainty.

"The wind is picking up. Looks like the weather will be rough again tomorrow."

"Seems like he will kill himself to remove the embarrassment in the castle." Priscilla hummed thoughtfully as the veiwers below her panicked in place.

"That is NOT what the me there was saying to him." Crusch growled in frustration.

"But he won't kill himself just for that, right? I mean… he's afraid of death. It's why he thought it was okay to lean on Emilia-san more and more to the point of obsession. He doesn't want to die." Otto argued and tried to calm the three panicking girls beside him.

"But his mental state is desperate and not that will. He might be willing to try anything since he's so adamant to ignore the faults he made in those messes at the castle and with his lady." Al retorted making everyone grow split between the two opinions.

Scene change…

*CLANK! * *CLANK! *

Subaru is shown falling in the air from Wilhelm's strong swipes but this time he back rolls and lands on his two feet.

"Shall we stop for now?"

"He didn't do it?" Emilia asked in fear and sadness. The confusion of how the power works and what Subaru's mental condition will through at them was forcing everyone to watch in silence.

No one answered her.

"Don't be silly! You've seen how far I've come in taking blows!"

"Your attitude seems quite different this morning." Wilhelm inquired.

"Crusch-san gave me some good advice last night." Subaru smirked nastily.

If I just get a chance, I can make any problem go away!

"H-He thinks he just needs to kill himself everytime there's a problem?!" Felt asked in outrage clenching her seat handles with a scowl at what the boy had been twisted into by his stupidity and the world's unfairness.

"Goddamn it, Cap'n!" Garf could not believe what he was hearing. His captain was so desperate for one girl's approval he was willing to die over and over to get it? This was not what he saw in Subaru at the Sanctuary! That Subaru told Emilia to shut up and stop being a pain in the ass, he was awesome!

"Where'd my Cap'n go?!"

"Then, let us call it a day."

"Huh?"

"Well, I thought it seemed meaningless to teach one who has abandoned the option to get stronger how to use a sword that makes him stronger."

Wilhelm nodded his head. "I guess Subaru-dono would be better suited to the blade once he gets over this hurdle in his twisted mindset." The old man clenched his fists at how little Subaru values himself.

"What do you…" Subaru wanted to sound his confusion.

But…

"Subaru-kun!"

He turned to find a frantic looking Rem. "We must discuss something important."

She looked serious.

Scene change…

"Has Rem told you what's going on?" Crusch asked as she sat in her office with Subaru opposite her and Felix standing beside her.

Subaru looked at the maid.

"What I felt was… Something like a presence through the sense I share with my sister. My sister could have used her clairvoyance to get a clearer picture, but I…"

Ram's eyes widened as she remembered. So did Rem, Emilia, Petra, Wilhelm and Julius.

"The Cult!"

"They must've started their attack on the mansion!" Rem shouted in outrage.

"And the village!" Petra screamed with tears in her eyes.

"So I guess you picked up a nyasty sort of synesthesia from her, huh?"

"We don't know the details, either. But it came from the Mathers domain, which you know as Margrave Roswaal's territory. It seems some troubling movement was seen in the vicinity of his mansion. Parts of the domain are already on high alert."

Subaru and Rem stared at Crusch with disturbed faces.

"Troubling movement?" He asked in anguish.

"We did foresee this situation, from the moment the margrave declared his intention to back Emilia, a half-elf."

"You mean there's trouble going on because of that prejudice?" Subaru looked at Crusch with worry.

"That is likely a correct summation."

Subaru looks down and grits his teeth.

The moment I leave her side, this happens?

Everyone around her is an enemy.

The only one who can take her side…

Subaru slowly smirks a manic obsessive smirk…

Is me.

"Oh no no no!" Ricardo shouted in frustration.

"His refusal to admit his faults is forcing him to sink deeper and deeper into them, making him unable to change or see reason." Julius uttered with a guilty wince at how twisted his friend has become.

"I-If the cult is attacking… and Subaru is going to die… Th-Then…" Emilia couldn't continue the sentence as she hugged her knight's hand.

"He dies from the witch's cult." Beatrice uttered with tears in her eyes.

"Well, then… We have to go and help, right?"

Subaru stands up making Rem stumble in worry.

"Y-You mustn't, Subaru-kun. You have to obey Emilia-sama's orders. She told you to focus on healing… and I agree!"

Rem held his sleeve with a worried look as he walked to the door.

"Healing must take priority now."

Rem nodded at her future self and wished that she could protect Subaru from the witch's cult. Even if all the evidence and details proved that Subaru will die, she hoped that it wasn't by their hands.

"Rem, we're the only ones who can take Emilia's side!"

Rem looked down with worry and frustration.

"You heard that, Crusch-san. We're going back to the mansion back to where Emilia is. Until it's taken care of, my healing will-"

"Natsuki Subaru."

Subaru stopped talking and glanced at the lady as she glared.

"If you leave here, that will make you my enemy. Allow me to correct one idea you have. I have only allowed you to stay here as a guest and receive treatment because I am contracted to do so."

"Contracted?"

"Emilia and I formed a contract regarding your treatment. However, if you abandon that contract yourself, I am not obligated to continue protecting you. The moment you leave this household, Emilia and I will not hesitate to become enemies." Crusch sternly spoke to the surprised boy.

Crusch winced at how she looked but she fully understood what herself was intending. She was relieved when Emilia nodded at the screen holding a worried expression for Subaru.

It seemed that the Half-elf understood as well.

Subaru had a look of anger on his face as he stared the noble down. "I was wrong about you. I thought, just maybe you and I could get along. Yeah, of course. That was just a little joke over drinks, right? I was stupid to take you seriously when you told me an enemy, to do what I could. You don't want me to leave because getting Emilia out of trouble will be bad for you, right?"

"I think nya have it all wrong."

"Felis, enough."

"No I'll say it. The mistake he's making is a bit too grave." Felix glared at Subaru with hatred clear in his eyes. "Even if you leave, nothing will change. You'd be wasting your time. After making a fool of yourself at the castle and being clobbered by Julius, nya still don't realize that? You'll be much better off staying here to finish your treatment."

"Garf calm down! He's just trying to stop Subaru from going by being blunt." Otto waved his arms at Garfiel.

The blonde shook his head. "Yeah? Will he failed! Do ya think Cap'n will take that and sit on his ass?!"

Everyone's eyes widened.

"Oh shit!" Felix cursed as he realized that the him on the screen made things much worse.

Subaru glared intensely and turned around.

"I've decided. I'm going back to Emilia. Thanks for taking care of me though it wasn't for long."

"Is it nyot true that a good man knows how to take a warning?"

Subaru opened the door and didn't look back.

"It's thanks to your warning that I've made up my mind."

Subaru glared hatefully and determinedly.

"Thanks." He growled deeply as he left.

"Fool." Ram huffed at the boy's stubbornness to see reason.

Scene change to Rem patting a pink dragon that was pulling a carriage.

"Rem, how long until we reach the mansion?"

Rem looked back to find Subaru and Wilhelm standing beside the carriage.

"About two and a half days, I think."

"Over two days! It took less than half a day to get here!"

"We can't go that way. There's a fog over the road, so we need to take a detour."

"Who cares about fog?!"

"The fog is created by the White Whale. Should we encounter it, we won't survive."

Wilhelm's eyes narrow a bit as Subaru grits his teeth and gets into the cart.

Rem bows to Wilhelm and smiles at the man. "Thank you for lending us your dragon-drawn carriage. I offer you my gratitude in my master's stead for the favor you've shown us until today."

"Not at all. Please take care."

"So if he doesn't encounter the whale here…" Wilhelm muttered loudly as an idea came to him.

"And he dies here because of the witch's cult…" Reinhard continued with a grim look.

"He will want to get to the mansion the fastest way possible next loop, which means he will take the road with the whale's fog." Crusch finished for them as she nodded her head.

"That's how learned of the cult and the Whale's positions." Anastasia added with a shiver as she was honestly grossed out by this power.

"So that means he will D-Die twice!" Emilia shouted in despair.

"Might be more…"

Everyone looked at Ricardo with looks of demand for him to explain.

"He might've died many more times since he knew exactly were those cultists were hiding in the forest… not to mention that he knew about the spies in directed networks we were using that were working on behalf of the cultists." The dogman explained, his tone grim and his expression dark.

"Let's watch guys. Just watch." Al said tiredly and with a shake of his head.

Scene change…

The dragon carriage is shown driving into a parking spot infront of an inn. The entire sky was black as it turned to night.

Subaru looked up with wide tired eyes. "Why did we stop? We have to hurry!"

"I'm sorry, Subaru-kun. The ground dragon can't go any farther." Rem turns to him apologetically as the pink dragon is shown huffing and bugging with foam coming out of his mouth.

Subaru scowls down deeply.

Scene change…

"I can't sleep…"

Subaru is shown turning around on a bed while scowling at the ceiling.

"Subaru-kun, are you awake?"

Subaru sat up and heard Rem's voice through the door. "Yeah."

Rem enters the room as Subaru turns the lamp beside him.

The maid looks saddened at the boy. "I can't sleep, so I hoped we could talk."

"Oh… You, too? Can't help that I guess."

Subaru looks at the maid as she sits beside him on the bed. She has a soft expression but her frown was clear.

"You're really worried about the mansion after what you felt through your shared sense, right?"

Rem just closed her eyes.

"It'll be fine. We're not the sort of lovable little kids that get our feelings hurt so easily. We'll get right back there, and I'll fix things." Subaru smiled at the sad looking Rem.

Rem slowly looked up at the nasty-eyed boy trying to cheer her up.

She smiled warmly. "Yes. I've put all my faith in you, Subaru-kun."

Subaru blushed at her smiled and turned away to hide his face.

He was surprised when Rem softly planted herself on his back and rested her head and both hands on hims.

"R-Rem-san, um… Why are you holding on to me?"

Rem blushed red and watched the screen with sadness that she couldn't have this beautiful moment. But like the rest of the people around her, she was too afraid to say anything or to even take her eyes off the screen.

"Because I want to." Rem softly answered as her hands began glowing.

"I… I know this feeling… "

"I'm healing your gate, just Felix-sama did, Subaru-kun."

"O-Oh, healing! You're healing me… Of course you are."

Subaru chuckles nervously. He grows silent and his expression grows defeated.

"Because you want to, huh?" Subaru whispers and looks down. "She'll probably be angry with me at first, won't she?"

Emilia grimaced and held her knight's hand tightly. She never wanted to give him this much trouble or grief. She was happy that he was working on himself and thinking about staying with her but…

"I don't want you to die for me…" Emilia muttered and looked at the events playing on screen with a glare.

"If you take the time to properly face her and communicate how you feel with words, I'm sure she'll understand. You are a wonderful person, after all." Rem whispered softly into his back as she rested on him.

"I am? Yeah… I am, right? Emilia is hopeless without me. Because I… care about her… so much… " Subaru's head falls as his eyes close shut.

"He's behavior is really twisted here. I hope he learns to be better." Otto commented while shaking his head.

Rem's hands stop glowing as she rests her forehead on her hero's back.

"So save just a tiny bit of that for me, too." The maid whispers softly as she moves to rub Subaru's hair.

"Don't go anywhere, okay, Subaru-kun?"

With that finale whisper from Rem…

Darkness…

"What did you do Rem?" Ram asked her sister with a pleading look.

The blue haired maid only watched with a guilty depressed frown.

Change scene….

Subaru slowly wakes up and looks at the window beside his bed.

It's morning…

"Rem, wake up! We oversle-"

Subaru ran out of his room and opened the door to Rem's expecting to see the maid.

But…

The room was empty…

"She left him to keep him away from danger." Reinhard spoke softly as he lowered his eyes in guilt.

"It's not enough to stop him, I suppose." Beatrice shook her head in sadness.

Subaru ran to the receptionists desk.

"Well, now! Good morni-" The smiling old man at the desk was startled as a frantic Subaru slammed both hands on the desk and glared at the him.

"Where's the blue-haired girl who was here with me?!"

"Th-The lady you were with, uh…"

Subaru grabs the man by the collar. "I can't hear you."

"I was saying that she left during the night! Here are your things… " The man slowly gave the boy a bag with a paper visible in one of the bag's pockets.

Subaru picked the paper and read through it.

His eyes glowed with fury and his fist slammed on the desk.

"What the hell? What are you thinking, Rem? I thought you would understand me…" Subaru glared with despair at the paper.

As Subaru is running out of the inn with his bag, Rem's voice could be heard reciting the letter's contents while the screen shows Subaru negotiating with many merchants and traders with carriages to give him a ride.

"Dear, Subaru-kun…

When you read this letter, I'm sure you will be very angry with me. I won't ask you to forgive me for leaving you behind to go to the mansion. But please understand."

Subaru is shown talking with the 7th merchant but the man refuses him like the rest. "The one over there might agree to your offer." Subaru looks where the man is pointing and enters the bar.

Otto facepalmed as soon as he recognized the bar.

"It would be very dangerous to bring you to the mansion right now."

Subaru looks down to a sleeping boy wearing green clothes and snoring on the bar table. He slams a bag of coins infront of the boy's face making the sleeper wake up and look at Subaru with confusion.

"No one say anything! I'm not an alcoholic!" Otto tried to keep some form of dignity but all he got were eyerolls and a worried look from a certain half-elf.

The Emilia camp had their fair share of stories about drunk Otto. (Best Otto)

The merchant couldn't help but slide to the floor as he hid his face in his palms in embarrassment.

"That's how Cap'n met you? That's so sad! Pathetic! Unmanl-"

"Shut up Garf!"

The blonde snorted with a smirk of absolute delight.

"Are you the one called Otto?"

The boy blinks with drool running down his chin and a red mark on his cheek from sleeping on it against the table.

"So please wait here for me to return."

"I'll accept your payment, but I think this is very reckless, Natsuki-san!"

Otto looks nervous as Subaru ignores him and enters the cart.

"So, I'm the one who takes him to his death." Otto lost all embarrassment and cheer at the shown sequence of events. The guilt tugging on his heart was to much for him so he stayed on the ground and watched.

Scene change to Subaru watching the sunset in the moving dragon carriage while gripping the letter in his hand.

"So you think I'm a useless good-for-nothing, too, Rem?"

"No one thinks like that about him! Just what were you guys doing to him?!" Felt asked frustration at her big bro's way of thinking clear in her eyes.

Everyone looked at Ram as if she was the offender.

To which the maid shrugged off with a smirk.

"Ha! Barusu."

Felt glared heatedly.

"I think I've been introduced to someone who could be real trouble." Otto mutters nervously as he glances at the depressed nasty eyed boy sitting in his carriage.

"Okay, fine. If you won't trust me, then why should I depend on you?" Subaru grips the letter tighter and growls to himself.

Otto looks really exasperated at his luck.

Scene change…

Something is shown storming a gate…

The screen shows Otto driving his ground dragon in the din of the night. Subaru was sleeping soundly in the back of the carriage.

Suddenly, the dragon stops to a halt, forcing Subaru to slam into the wooden walls of the carriage.

"I'm sorry, but can we please turn back now?" An apologetic Otto looks back and begs.

"What?! After coming this far?" Subaru asks in bewilderment.

Otto nods his head and points to the red eyed growling ground dragon.

"My ground dragon is frightened. It knows by instinct that this place is too dangerous to approach."

"He's not going to listen to that." Anastasia sighed and shook her head along with many of the worried viewers.

"Where are we now?" Subaru asks as he looks at the dark endless road covered with two lines of trees on each side.

"We're already in the Mathers domain, near a village called Arlam." Otto is looking at a map with a frantic look.

"Got it!" Subaru jumps out of the carriage, leaving his bag behind.

"Natsuki-san, you can't go out there! Let's turn back!" Otto pleaded to the nasty-eyed boy.

Subaru turned around and smiled at him. "This is far enough, Otto. You can take the money and all my stuff."

"I couldn't possibly! Please rethink this!"

Subaru turns around and runs into the darkened roads.

"Natsuki-san!"

"Damn it! At least follow him you idiot me!" Otto shouted and punched his seat as he watched from the floor with a worried face.

"W-We could help him! We love Subaru… maybe Emilia-sama will be their to guard the town along with Ram-sama." Petra tried thinking of ways Subaru could be saved or atleast keep them all safe.

Non of the adults could say anything. If Subaru dies here then its possible this girl and her village could be….

Running…

Running…

Running through the forest….

Subaru stops…

He looks around…

"It's too quiet… "

Everyone leaned forward to watch what the boy had discovered.

Subaru looks around for a bit, then he looks back at his front to continue running.

He was met with a dark black hooded man standing inches away from him.

"No!"

"Run!"

"Holy shit!"

"aaaaaaahhhh!"

Many had looks of shock and horror on their faces as they watched the witch cultist stand before Subaru.

Subaru doesn't seem afraid. Just surprised.

In a second…

A group of men wearing dark hoods formed a circle around the boy.

"Subaru!"

"Subaru-kun!"

Emilia and Rem both grapped each of his hands and looked at the scene with fear and anger itched into their expressions.

Beatrice was trying her hardest not to look away as she promised to see her contractor's pain through. If he lived through it, Betty will as well, that was just a given since he was hers.

Otto and Garfiel glared hatefully at the hooded men, with the blonde gripping his chair with a beast like growl coming from his mouth.

"Subaru… how do you deal with this?" Julius asked as he waited to see his friend get killed gruesomely by the cultists. He was supposed to be a knight. But he was truly afraid of watching Subaru's death.

Reinhard should have been a better hero. If he was a better one, the cult would've been wiped out.

Subaru looked around at the large group of similarly dressed psychos, afraid that one of them will attack.

To his shock and bewilderment….

The entire group of hooded men bowed deeply to him.

Before he could say anything…

The group vanished into thin air.

"What was that?" Subaru asked, disturbed and scared out of his mind.

"They… left him?" Crusch asked while breathing heavily. She was waiting for a scene of horrible torture and death to commence but what happened actually shocked her.

"Must've been the witch's scent." Wilhelm mused in relief as he was gripping his chair handle so hard it almost cracked.

He continued running towards the end of the road where a village and a mansion lay.

Running…

He remembered…

As he was running, he started to remember…

Felix had called him weak…

Julius had beaten him and called him unworthy…

Reinhard had called his humiliation as something that should be forgiven…

Crusch had ordered him to stay put because she thought he was weak…

Rem had left him because she thought he was weak…

Running…. Running…. He was running with a glare on his face.

"Damn!"

"He's getting more and more agitated. His mind isn't going to last this longer." Wilhelm dropped his head low in guilt.

"What does that mean?" Petra asked Frederica.

The older maid just shook her head and glared at the little girl.

Petra pouted and glanced at Subaru with worry and hurt in her eyes. She never expected the boy that saved her to be dealing with such trauma and pain.

It broke her heart to see Subaru like this.

Scene change…

Subaru is shown running as the sun dawned. He looks up as he breathed some air into his overworked lungs.

At the end of the road… was a trail of pitch black smoke…

"I'm back…"

"Shit." Al uttered emotionlessly.

"They had already attacked!" Frederica gasped and stared at the smoke in horror. She remembered how the cult treats the villages they raid.

The older maid quickly took hold of Petra and tightly shut the girl's eyes.

Petra began struggling and moving away from the beast woman's grip, but Frederica held the girl firm.

Most in the audience looked away in pity as they all came to the same horrified conclusion the maid was trying to protect Petra from.

"Let me go! I can see this too! This isn't fair!"

Before Frederica could sooth Petra however, a voice sounded out.

So sorry little one. This one isn't for you.

Frederica suddenly felt the maid crumple in her grip into unconsciousness. Petra was asleep.

It's save for her now. Place her on the chair.

Frederica nodded her head and quickly placed the little girl on the chair beside hers. She placed a soft kiss on Petra's forehead, and turned to watch what this little girl couldn't.

Scene change…

Subaru walked into the village and looked around.

No one…

Empty…

Not a single sound…

Subaru knocked on a door of one of the villagers.

No one…

"M-Maybe we took them into the mansion! We must've protected them!" Emilia desperately wanted to be right. Those villagers were innocent. They had nothing to do with her.

He opened the door and looked inside the house.

His eyes widened in surprise…

There was a couple that were sleeping oddly on their chairs.

Emilia and Rem gasped in horror.

Why were they sleeping like that?

Anastasia shook her head and looked away with a glare.

Subaru shrugged and moved on to the next house.

"He hasn't registered it yet." Ricardo sighed and wiped his eyes.

For some reason…

This house was much harder to open…

He forced the door open with something making sludge sounds moving out of the way as Subaru forced his way in…

He looked down at whatever that was…

No…

Subaru slowly… slowly walked to the center of the village… He passed by swords and red paint all over the wells and shops in the center of the town.

His face…

Started to grow more and more disturbed with each step he took as he looked around the scene before him.

He stopped.

He looks at the pile before him…

The pile of burned charred bodies of the villagers.

Now he knows why there was no one around…

The catatonic Subaru slowly backs away from the gruesome smelly pile, failing to see the body of a man behind him and tripping over it.

Subaru falls to the ground.

His hand touches something wet.

He looks at it…

Theme: Theater D by Myth

Blood…

Subaru slowly trembles with wide horrified eyes as he looks around at the blood filled town's center.

Bodies of all the villagers littered around the place.

The couple in that house were both sleeping oddly because they were dead from sliced necks.

The thing causing the door to stop opening was the body of a woman that was bleeding from her stomach.

"...hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh"

Subaru slowly looked around at all the dead villagers.

Sliced, cut, beheaded, stabbed, burned, mutilated, broken, dismantled…

Subaru's pupils shrunk until they resembled dots on a white background.

Everyone looked horrified at the massacre before them.

Emilia held her hand to her mouth with a look of shock and tears of despair. Her stomach was churning from the sight. How could her knight still smile at her after she had caused something like this?

These were people they knew and loved. These were human beings.

"H-How could you allow this?" Frederica asked Roswaal the owner of the domain. She was surprised to see him looking at the screen with narrowed eyes.

"How did he not break from all this?" Roswaal muttered to himself as he was starting to question if the Subaru that had beaten him was the same Subaru he was watching.

Julius and Reinhard both looked down and glared at the floor with looks of shame and pure rage.

How could they possibly let this happen? These people had hopes and dreams that were trusted to them to protect.

Both knights closed their eyes in shame. They had failed at their duty as protectors and as friends.

Felt and Crusch looked at the boy on screen in pity and understanding. They were barely able to handle this scene themselves they understood how much pain he was going through.

Rem and Ram were hit especially hard by such a sight as they came to love the village's people after Subaru arrived into their lives.

The two maids glared hatefully with burning rage at the scene, tears flowing down both cheeks.

They swore to avenge the people of Alram and Subaru.

"Rem… What happened to Rem?" The boy asked as his entire world was stopped.

He slowly moved towards the mansion with a frozen shocked face.

Holding the letter in his blood covered hand, he walked.

"Right. Rem… Rem is…"

He walked…

"Rem… Rem… Rem… Rem… "

She was smiling…

She was laughing with him…

"Rem…"

Subaru walked through L. Mathers mansion gates and into the front garden…

The same garden with a blood covered mace on the ground…

A mace with… chains…

A morning star…

Subaru looked around the garden…

His eyes widened with pure horror…

The letter dropped from his hand…

"Please wait for me to return, when all of this is taken care of, I'll come back for you."

She was smiling…

Subaru walked with his face broken filled with despair and disbelief.

"Please take care of yourself."

"And please… I beg you to wait for my return."

She was smiling… in the mansion… in the room at the inn… in the Karsten household… in the capital's market place…

She was smiling.

"Please, Subaru-kun."

Subaru fell to his knees as he stared at the sight before him…

"From your…"

He shook and trembled in place as he witnessed…

"Rem."

Subaru could only gasp in horror as his tears fell.

For before him.

Was the torn and broken body of the blue haired maid that he cherished and loved.

And he couldn't see if she was smiling… because a blade had been stabbed into her head and through the dirt, forcing Rem's blood to flow all over the grass of the garden.

Rem… was dead.

Ram could only clench her fists in fury and despair at the horrifying sight before her.

Rem just held her hands to her mouth and gasped out tortured breathes as her her lungs overcame her shock and demanded her to breath air. How could she ever remove such a sight from her mind. Her own death. Her own failure to protect the ones she loved and cherished most.

She failed and she died.

Title card:

The Sickness Called Despair

Subaru looked around the garden to find many more bodies surrounding Rem's bloodied body.

Bodies… Of men wearing hoods…

And there was many of them…

Subaru looked to the side with his face broken in horror.

A small shed with blades and fire marks covering it.

Subaru slowly opened the shed's door.

"… Uh… Uhu…" Subaru's face twisted into one of pure agony as he saw a pile of dead bodies in the middle of the shed with blades stabbed in them all over.

The bodies…

Were the villages children…

"Uh… Uh…. Uh… Gaaurrrr!"

Subaru's panic stopped as he dropped to his knees and threw up on the grass.

"FUCK!" Garfiel shouted with his face twisting into a one of pure agony as he sobbed at the sight.

Frederica cried and looked away unable to watch.

The knights all stared at the screen with defeated looks and hollowed eyes.

"They wouldn't spare the children? Tha's…" Felt never truly felt something akin to hatred before. But after this… she swore to burn those cultists to the ground.

Rem and Ram bit their lips and watched with heartbroken eyes.

What were they doing?

"Where are you?! Why don't you have any guards?!" Felix shouted his outrage as he pointed at the clown sitting in the back. The catboy's had enough of seeing what a healer hates most. Dead children were the final straw.

The clown just looked at the screen with a frown.

His eyes slowly turned to the catboy.

Felix was too tired and agitated by what he was seeing on the screen to care about the sheer inhuman hollow eyes of the clown before him.

"Sit down Felix." The healer looked beside him to find a very on guard and a very worried looking Crusch pulling him down.

It seemed as the mad healer and insane magi faced one another, both forgot that there were people in the room.

The entire cast watched the two with fear and mistrust in their eyes.

"No…"

Subaru's face twisted with despair.

"No, no, no!"

If I just get a chance, I can make any problem disappear!

Subaru cried as he sounded out with a tone filled with pain and defeat.

"This is wrong. This isn't what I wanted… " Subaru gasped in agony and looked up.

"Subaru…"

"Natsuki-san…"

"Subaru-kun…"

"Cap'n…"

Everyone in the Emilia camp looked at their member with sadness and guilt.

"He's lived through that? He still smiled after that?" Otto whimpered as he tried to keep the tears in.

"Uhh… Uhh…" Emilia cried and held Subaru's hand with both of hers as she watched with wide eyes and dropped jaw the horror she had caused on the people around her as well as this poor kid that had nothing to do in this world. She didn't know her Subaru went through something so awful.

Beatrice looked at the scene while sobbing. Sobbing because she had failed to protect them all. If she did… Subaru wouldn't need to die to erase this future.

"Somebody… "

Slowly walking to the huge estate while passing the many bodies of robed men, he walked.

"Somebody… Somebody… "

Subaru walked into the mansion… The empty and quiet mansion.

No one in the hallways, the kitchen, the staircase, or the dinning room.

No one…

Subaru walked all over and opened another door to a room.

Something that had been resting against that door fell at Subaru's feet.

Subaru looked at it.

"Ram…"

Dead… and beside the dead maid laid a little girl.

"Sissy!" Rem crumpled and cried louder. She couldn't look at the screen anymore.

Roswaal looked down and shook inplace. He was feeling something for the first time since that day…

Guilt.

Subaru moved her body to take a look at her face.

"Petra… " Subaru sounded in despair as he moved the little girl's body to see her face.

"AAAHHHH!" Subaru jumped back and away from the two bodies especially the one where the eyes had been taken out of the sockets.

Frederica, Mimi, Tivey and Crusch all looked away from the screen in disgust and heart gripping horror.

"BASTARDS!" Garfiel shouted as he stared at the screen with wild breathes and completely unnatural sounds shrieking from his throat.

Otto gulped down his puke and looked away fro a second to get his barrings together.

Emilia crushed Subaru's hand completely at the sight of Petra.

The screen could heal it again but she need this. She held him tight and leaned more on him as she watched with tears and heartbreaking whines leaving her mouth at what she had caused.

All because she was born, this happened to the people dear to her. She never would've guessed that Subaru carried such a burden alone. The poor boy must be dying inside.

Emilia hugged him tighter.

"Subaru-dono…" Wilhelm crushed the handles of his chair in agony as he scowled to the floor.

The old man never would've thought that such dangerous eyes could carry such hellish memories. Heartbroken for the first time since he lost his wife, Wilhelm finally shed a single tear in respect to the kid's suffering. Wilhelm would be proud to tell the boy that he's a much stronger and better person than Sword Demon was.

"No…" Subaru trembled and cried while staring in horror.

"It's not my fault!"

"Don't blame yourself for this!" The completely broken Felix shouted in sadness with tears in his eyes.

He couldn't deny it… Subaru Natsuki would never see Felix disrespecting him again. Felix was too weak and too useless to say anything about this boy that was walking through hell and back to save the people he loved.

Felix knew that he had nothing on Natsuki Subaru, and the catboy respected and understood that know.

Subaru looked inside of the room these two where guarding…

A trail of blood.

"It's not my fault."

"Cap'n!" "Natsuki-san" "Subaru." "Subaru."

Garfiel, Otto, Julius, and Reinhard all looked at the scene with nothing short of horror as they witnessed their friend and brother blame all of these sanity shattering events on himself.

How long did this boy suffer from self deprication like this? How long does he blame himself for all these loops?

"Cap'n's been thinking about stuff like this often?"

"When? He's too busy acting like a moron and making jokes about me all the time to fucking tell us about his problems even with a witch stopping him, he could still write or say that something was bothering him!" Otto screamed in pure rage as he watched Subaru lose his sanity.

"H-How does he deal with all of this?" Felt asked through her tears.

"H-He… Subaru self harms." Beatrice hiccuped through her sobs. She gave out her contractor's secret in her moment of weakness.

"…"

"…"

"…"

"…"

Rem and Emilia slowly lifted Subaru's arms… and slowly with trembling arms and looks of disbelief, both girls started rolling Subaru's sleeves.

Revealing a pair of completely scared arms riddled with wounds and scratch marks on every inch.

Emilia held a shaky hand to her mouth while staring at the arms with a disturbed expression.

Rem completely shattered in sadness and guilt for her beloved.

Beatrice was so guilt ridden she didn't even look and hugged Rem's form from behind to hide.

Otto stared at the scars with a look of morbid shock. He gave no expression. Just an empty face with slightly wide eyes as he registered this information.

Garfiel just dropped down low on the floor and held his head in his hands. Shaking.

Crusch held a hand to her mouth and looked away, trying her best not to cry at the state of the boy.

Wilhelm looked at the arms with an open jaw and wide broken eyes.

Felix gasped looked at the arms with eyes twitching manically.

Felt began whaling loudly as soon as she saw the first scar and ran into her knight's chest to cry into him.

Reinhard kept looking at the scars with shame and anger clear on his face. He had never ever felt this heated or angry in his life. He was angry only at one thing and one thing alone… himself for being such a useless pathetic knight.

Julius looked at the arms of the boy and held his chair handle tightly. The greatest knight swore to himself. He swore with every fiber of his being. Natsuki Subaru will not scratch himself again.

Julius will teach him how to fight. He will teach him how to conduct himself properly and give him all the self assurance he needed.

Julius will make Subaru feel some semblance of humanity. It was his job as a friend and as a fellow knight to do this. To vow this.

His narrowed yellow eyes were slightly tearful.

Anastasia could barely process what she was seeing. Why would anyone do this to themselves if it didn't benefit them? She felt so extremely sad that this boy was reduced to such a level.

Frederica looked away as she never was that close with the young knight to be. She still trusted him and wanted to at least be able to look him in the eyes again so she didn't look.

Ram looked at the arms of the boy with a frown. She couldn't help but feel guilty for this. She may have caused this by her constant belittling of the boy. She never wanted this.

Roswaal just kept staring at the screen. He didn't want to see what he had helped cause. He didn't want to see. He didn't want to see. He didn't want to see. Ram was dead. Ram was gone. She felt pain because of him. Because of him. Him. Him. Him. Him. Him.

Priscilla just stared at the boy's arms with pity. She scowled behind her fan, lips trembling with fury.

Al shook his helmeted head and oozed an aura of complete calm. He did sound like he was sobbing behind his helmet. He remembered his first few years here, in another world, he remembered the days he spent with a sharp knife or a razor.

Those were never fun.

Subaru moved through the broken furniture, following the trail until he found something.

A white flower pin covered in blood…

"Emi… lia…"

Subaru shivered from the cold and turned his head to find a bookshelf moved from it's original spot and opening a secret passage way.

He walked in and shivered from the sheer cold.

The passage way's walls were made out of illuminating blue rocks and stone. So there was light in this tunnel.

This cold… freezing tunnel.

He walked through until he was at the very end of the hidden tunnel.

A door.

Subaru slowly moved his hand to open the door. As soon as he touched the knob however…

* CHINK!*

"Ow!" He pulled his hand back and gasped in pain.

He slowly looked at his hand… "Huh?"

His fingers…

Everyone was staring at the screen in shock and horror.

What they had learned and what they were watching were on par together.

"This pain… He carries this by himself." Emilia stated with cold empty eyes.

She was no longer questioning if she was dead or not.

They broke right off his hand and stayed stuck to the door's knob.

"Aaah!"

Subaru stepped back in horror while screaming and found himself on the ground suddenly.

*CHINK! *

His foot was broken off his leg.

Not feeling the pain in the freezing cold, Subaru slowly looked up.

More of the hooded men suddenly showed themselves around him but were all frozen solid.

As if the cold intensified, Subaru also froze with an expression of pure terror on his face as he started to break apart.

"You're too late." A deep invasive voice spoke.

Subaru's frozen face broke in half.

*CHINK! *

Darkness…

Natsuki Subaru… died.

"Who was that?" Garfiel asked in an emotionless tone as he witnessed something far worse than his captain dying. He witnessed his failure as a shield.

"That was Bubby, I suppose." Beatrice sniffled a little.

At this… Emilia showed some emotion.

A look of pure rage and betrayal flashed on her face as she stared at the little girl in shock.

"Why would Puck kill Subaru?!" Emilia shouted in enraged and at her wits end.

Beatrice flinched a bit. "B-Bubby's contract with you states that should Emilia die… he will move on to destroy the entire world."

"What?"

"What's the meaning of this?!"

"Explain yourself this instant!"

Anastasia, Felt and Crusch looked at Emilia with shocked and horrified eyes.

The half-elf held her hands to her mouth as her shock at such a horrible thing happening was too much.

"N-NO! You're a liar! Puck never mentioned this in our contract!"

"It's true, infact. He probably killed Subaru because he blamed him for not saving you."

Emilia sat down in shock. "P-Puck…."

Rem cried and held Subaru's other hand while wiping her tears on his scars. Trying to do something anything to help.

The cast looked at the half-elf with clear mistrust and fear.

A faint voice. A blurry image.

"Hey!"

Subaru suddenly opened his eyes and found himself staring the same Apple salesman in the capital's market place.

"So the checkpoint moved here?" Otto asked in a hoarse voice.

"He could save them at least…" Frederica winced as she remembered the fresh bodies.

Everyone was too tired to comment on the checkpoint's placement on the sales guy once again.

"You listening?"

"Huh?"

"Don't huh me. What's with you? You suddenly spaced out."

"Oh…"

The boy looked at his hand. He was disturbed and completely dazed out.

"Subaru-kun?"

Subaru turned to the gentle soft speaker. A blue haired maid with worried eyes stared back at him.

* Bump!*

"Subaru-kun!"

"Hey!"

"What's wrong? Do you feel ill?" Rem ran up to Subaru and looked down as he dropped to his knees.

The boy stared at her with a scary dumbfounded look.

"Subaru-kun?" Rem looked down at him, worried and disturbed.

Subaru just clamped his arms around her waist and hugged her stomach.

"W-Wait, Subaru-kun… What's wrong?" The girl blushed deeply while holding the basket of Apples.

"Not infront of my shop."

"Calm down… Subaru-kun?"

Rem looked down at the boy.

He was crying while giggling manically.

Many just looked on with sympathetic gazes.

"He's broken."

Scene change…

Rem, Felix and Crusch were all standing over a catatonic broken looking Subaru as he remained motionless and frozen on the same broken crying expression with his pupils shaking widely.

"I'm pretty sure there's nyothing we can do. His wounds are one thing, but there's nyo helping his mental state."

"Do you know how this happened?" Crusch asked as she stared at the broken man before her.

"No. I've checked every inch of him, but…"

"What are the odds of it being a curse?"

"There's nyo indication of any interference using mana."

Crusch looked troubled at this. She turned to Rem and spoke in gentle tone.

"If Felis is unable to help, no one in this household can heal him. I'm sorry."

"Oh, no. I can't thank you enough for your generous concern." Rem smiled and bowed deeply to the lady.

Her expression returned into that of worry.

He's right. There's no mana interference.

But…

The witch's miasma…

Rem glared hatefully as she smelled the foul stench coming off from Subaru's broken form.

"So every time he dies, the scent gets stronger." Anastasia mused emotionlessly.

"I'm guessing that this isn't the right loop either huh?" Otto asked Rem and Crusch.

Both girls shook their heads and gazed at the floor.

"What's wrong with Subaru here?" Emilia whimpered in distaste and looked worried at the boy.

"He's mind has shut down completely from shock." Priscilla answered with a growl as she fanned herself from above.

Scene change to both Rem and a tired looking Subaru bowing to Crusch and Felix at the front gates to the manor.

"Thank you for everything. I thank you in my master's stead for your kindness during our stay." Rem gratefully thanked Crusch.

"Give Emilia this message, as well. 'Let us compete in a manner that will bring neither of us shame.'"

Rem nodded her head.

"Hey… I get why you're going back to the mansion, bit can anyone there heal him?" Felix asked reluctantly.

"He utters our names just occasionally. My name, my sister's name… and Emilia-sama's if he sees her, maybe his condition will change."

Subaru remained motionless and haunted beside Rem. Not at all able to register what was spoken about him or around him. Just an empty stare towards nothing and everything.

Crusch looked uncomfortable for a second. "I realize this is tasteless, but I must ask. How can you give so much of yourself for Natsuki Subaru? Your relationship with him is not that of master and servant, like Felis and mine. But I hesitate to conclude that your behavior and the glances you cast are those a woman gives a man."

"I am sorry. Forget I said-"

"No, it's not that. It's just… How can I put it? Well… I suppose it's because Subaru-kun is special." Rem smiled confidently, taking both, Crusch and Felix, aback.

"I understand what you mean." Crusch whispered softly as she hesitantly reached out to ruffle the boy's hair.

No one opposed her.

"Um… Forgive me. I was stunned speechless for a moment. Natsuki Subaru is a lucky man." Crusch smiled softly.

"That's for sure. If he ever recovers, I'll have to tease him to the max!" Felix wiggled his fingers mischievously.

Rem chuckled a bit.

"Be well."

"Good luck!"

Rem bowed and took Subaru's hand to lead him to the carriage.

Scene change to Rem gazing into a fire while the ground dragon slept beside her after a long day on the road.

"I know I mustn't let my personal feelings interfere, but… I felt a little but happy to have you to myself at Crush-sama's house. I can't do that at the mansion. Even though I knew something was troubling you… I'm sorry. Even though I heard that you had quarreled with Emilia-sama… I'm sorry."

Rem looked down in embarrassment and guilt.

She didn't want these thoughts to be heard like this.

The maid spoke softly. She smiled warmly as she gazed at the smoldering flame.

"I know you'll be all right, Subaru-kun. Because you're always… Demonically inspired. And you're a remarkable person."

Scene change…

Rem is driving the carriage through the endless road with two lines of thick trees on each side.

"It's too quiet."

"No!" Ram shouted in despair as she realized what will happen.

"It's just like with Cap'n." Garf yelled out as he watched with horror.

Rem glance suspiciously around her.

And suddenly, a force came over her making her unable to breath.

Rem clenched her chest and gasped heavily, in pain and shock.

That was sister! I have to get back quickly!

And suddenly, the beautiful green dragon pulling the carriage… was beheaded before Rem and Subaru. As the dragon's head flew to the sky its body dropped to the ground making the still moving carriage trip over the body and turn over, crashing in the middle of the road.

Subaru fell and rolled around motionless.

Slowly regaining strength, Subaru looked up … To find many hooded men standing around him with blades in their hands.

"No…." Rem whispered as she watched with fear itched in her eyes.

The cast watched with hitched breathes.

One hooded member of the group stepped closer towards Subaru and attempted to touch him.

Subaru's broken state forced him to look on with a haunted look and emit forced gasps of pain instead of doing anything else that may help him in this situation.

"Subaru…" Julius clenched his fists in anger at the state the boy was in. He was completely helpless!

"He's completely helpless, Damn it!" Otto shouted.

"Leave him alone." Felt screamed with tears still pouring from her eyes.

But as the man's gloved hand came closer to connect with his forehead… A flying ball with spikes crashed into the member's head, cutting it clean off.

The mace was pulled back by the chain and flew into the waiting hand of an outraged looking Rem, glaring hatefully at the cultists as she stood atop the broken carriage.

"Don't touch Subaru-kun!" She growled as her horn glowed atop her forehead.

In an instant… the members sent three sharp blades flying straight towards her face. Rem was quick enough to kick a broken wheel with the tip of her shoe into the air before her, blocking all blades.

She kicked the wheel into a member's face while stabbing the other with her mace.

One tried to jump away from the fight but Rem jumped on top of him and crashed her shoe's heel into his head.

"Fuck yeaaaaah!" Garf shouted in rage, happy that Rem was killing these fuckers.

As she stepped away from him, one managed to stab her in the shoulder with a blade.

"...Ghk!"

Rem wheezed as her arm began bleeding.

Ram gasped as she watched what these cultists did to her beloved sister. She wanted nothing more than to cut those scum's heads clean off.

"Witch cultists!"

A member shot a fire ball straight towards her.

"Huma!" Rem extended her hand and formed a shield of water infront of her.

The fire ball manged to burn her entire arm but she survived.

Many in the audience winced in sympathy while Garf and Julius stared with admiration clear in there eyes.

Rem watched herself fighting on screen with a proud glare. She approved of these actions.

Emilia watched with a small frown. She wished she was in there to help Rem instead of making the maid deal with them on her own.

She glared at the cultists but noticed one running away from the fight.

Carrying a boy.

"Subaru-kun!"

"Where' they taking Cap'n?!" Garfiel shouted his eyes completely red.

"This is how he learns of the hideouts I guess." Felix winced in sympathy as he understood that another death will be shown.

Rem moved to save the boy as the figure ran off with him, but many cultists blocked her path.

"You bastards… You stole my sister's horn and stole my reason to live, but that wasn't enough? Now you have come here and steal my reason to die, too?!"

Rem screamed as she grabbed her mace and struck them.

Many prepared fire balls and blades…

and the battle started.

Scene change…

Darkness…

Subaru could only see darkness…

He opened his eyes, slowly…

To find a shadowed face with wide dilated eyes with pupils shrunken and insane. Lips so sour and so dry. Skin so green and so gross.

But the face was shadowed.

Many railed back in disgust at the disturbing sight.

"Who is that?!" Priscilla asked in disgust.

Julius looked angry and disturbed for some reason.

"I see… this is certainly interesting." Subaru stared back at the insane looking person before him.

Emilia's eyes widened as she recognized the shape of the face and the voice. Her tears began flowing down her face.

She never wanted to see him in such a state. She never wanted to see the man she had looked up to for so long get turned into this.

"You wouldn't happen to be pride, would you?"

"Does he mean, Pride Archbishop?" Crusch asked as she looked disgusted by the man.

"Who's that guy anyway?" Felt shouted as she spat at the creepy man.

The man's voice sounded out in the dark cave. Creepy and disturbing. That was how this man sounded like.

It was much worse when the green skinned man slowly raised his finger to his his mouth and began biting on it so hard that he bled.

"What is wrong with this man?!" Frederica asked while looking away in disgust.

Reinhard narrowed his eyes at Julius then back at the screen.

Never blinking and never removing his finger from the grip of his teeth.

The man's eyes stayed on Subaru's as he spoke.

"I guess you're not going to answer me!"

Subaru only stared with wide haunted eyes.

The man moved away from Subaru and held his hands behind his back.

"Ah, right! I haven't introduced myself yet."

The man slowly trotted towards the group of kneeling robed men and women, stopping at the front of the group and turning to Subaru with his eyes glowing red in the darkness of the cave.

He bowed down theatrically as he introduced.

"I am a Sin Archbishop of the Witch's Cult, representing sloth, "

Everyone's eyes widened.

"Shit!"

"Subaru!"

Beatrice was shaking in fear for her contractor. Death by an Archbishop was always inhuman and brutal.

"...Gueise" Beatrice muttered in sadness at the state of her friend.

Roswaal winced and looked away as he saw what the man he once called brother had become. He was happy to learn of Subaru's conquering of sloth just because he knew that his friend's soul would've been laid to rest.

But seeing what his friend had become… Roswaal didn't like it. He didn't like this look on Guise.

"Please don't hate me for this." Roswaal whispered as he glanced at Ram. The maid didn't hear him, but he knew that something really bad might happen.

To her.

Because of him.

The man's head slowly rose to show his lit face, with no shadow or darkness to cover it.

"Betelgeuse Romanee-Conti! TES!"

All three of Emilia, Beatrice and Roswaal stared with absolute horror and despair at what their friend/mentor had become.

While the rest of the cast just looked on with worry and disgust.

"Repulsive scum!" Priscilla spat out as she glared at the green man.

Eyes wide, pupils unseen, flesh rotten and green, smile so wide and so manic it's disturbing to see.

A green man with insanity consuming every fiber of his being.

That, was what Subaru was facing.

But the broken boy held insanity of his own…

Betelgeuse smiled wide as the boy before him began moaning and whimpering to nothing. He stared at nothing and smiled eyes wide at nothing.

"Ah, how comical… What a very, very, very, very, very entertaining sight! Truly, truly, truly! My brain trembles… "

Betelgeuse manically posed and moved in unnatural poses filled with theatrics and disturbing flare.

He instantly stood straight with his hands hidden behind his back as he stared at the boy.

"Now, what has brought him here?"

A hooded member suddenly came out of the ground and whispered in Betelgeuse's ear.

"Dragon… carriage."

The green man suddenly stepped back with his body shaking in intensity. "A dragon-drawn carriage! Ah, aren't ground dragons great? They obey diligently, work diligently, and play their roles as species diligently! They're just fantastic!"

The member softly whispered.

"Killed…"

Betelgeuse nodded in understanding. "Of course! Your diligence brought the ground dragon, diligence itself, to the ground! Ah, my brain trembles, trembles, trembles, trembles!"

The man pulled his hair and screamed loudly. Then stopped abruptly while smiling widely.

"But a dead ground dragon is the very definition of sloth. Clean the place instantly. With the day of the ordeal upon us, we mustn't allow our existence to be discovered."

"Wh-What's up with tis guy?" Garfiel asked with genuine fear and anger. He had never seen someone so fucking inhuman and hollow in his life.

"He's like a walking corpse." Reinhard stared with a disturbed look on his face.

Julius clenched his fists and glared heatedly to the screen. His yellow shining eyes were filled with worry for his mind broken friend.

"Subaru is still not well. He mind is still not right after the previous loop." Al mused loudly while holding the handle of his chiar tightly.

"I can't believe Subaru-dono had undergone all of this." Wilhelm glared at the green man with gritted teeth as he knew of many comrades that lost to the witch's cult and their Archbishops.

Betelgeuse slowly trotted to the member with a hand held to his ear and asked. "What of his friend?"

"Unknown…"

Betelgeuse nodded his head slowly.

"It is unknown if the girl is alive or dead?" He turned to the member with a natural look. "Unknown if she is alive or dead, eh?"

He slowly leaned closer to the members face. "You are truly slothful."

Betelgeuse instantly slammed the member into the ground, breaking it apart and began waving his body around while screaming like a lunatic. "With the Ordeal before us, you let a potential problem remain!" he began punching the hooded face of his member until the man dropped dead with blood seeping out of the hood's mask.

Emilia and Beatrice stared with horror in their eyes at how insane and inhuman their guese had become. Worry for their Subaru set foot immediately as they noticed the boy not moving.

"What's this ordeal he speaks of?" Felix growled in anger and worry for Subaru on screen.

"It'll all be revealed during these viewings." Ricardo glared at the screen and soldiered through.

"Ah, this is sloth… Sloth, sloth, sloth, sloth!"

Betelgeuse dropped on his knees and screamed up to the cave's ceiling.

"Please forgive us the sloth that has led us to betray your goodwill! Love! We must repay love with love!"

As tears began flowing from the morbid looking eyes of the man, many began looking at each other amongst the ranks of kneeling robed members.

"Bring the girl here. If she lives, kill her. If not, bring me her head! Love! We must repay love with love!"

"Sister…"

"I would gladly die for my hero." Rem proclaimed with a brave face and a small glare at the cultist.

Ram looked down and clenched her fists.

All of the members suddenly fazed out of existence and out of sight, leaving the deranged Archbishop with the insane nasty-eyed boy.

"Now…" Betelgeuse slowly turned to Subaru with a wide smile as he began theatrically posing. "Now, now, now, now, now,…"

His green hand gripped Subaru's hair and pulled the boy up.

"Don't you touch him!" Emilia shouted in alarm as she watched with fear filling her entire being.

"You will look into my eyes."

Subaru was too broken to reply.

"Answer me. Answer me carefully. Why does such dense love hang so abundantly upon your person?"

"The Witch's Scent?"

"That's his love? Disgusting!"

the twins shouted in disgust at the green man touching their friend.

Betelgeuse slowly removed something from within his robes pockets. A book.

"Do you not own a copy of the Gospel?"

"…"

The man's answer was just an empty stare.

"It saddens me to be ignored! I'm treating you so kindly, and yet, and yet, and yet, and yet, yet, yet, yet, yet!" The mad man let go of Subaru and screamed in frustration.

"He might hurt him if Subaru-sama continues like this." Frederica was genuinely afraid for the boy.

"Subaru is in a state of shock right noyw he's not even reacting right to the man's antics." Felix pointed out.

He then changed his pose and leaned closer to the boy. "In that case, I will change the order of my questions."

He grabbed the boy's chin and stared him in the eye.

Subaru gave an empty stare.

"Let me ask you this… " The man extended his slobbery tongue and licked Subaru's eyeball.

"Ewwwwwe!"

"Fucking gross!"

"Get away!"

"Shit!"

Subaru still gave an empty stare.

"Why do you… pretend that your mind has broken?"

"What?!" Ram asked in anger as the question rang out.

"So he's pretending… I don't think that's correct." Anastasia looked at Subaru on screen and thought about his reactions up till now.

Subaru slowly looked around and up at the man with his eyes finally showing emotion.

Fear.

"No, no, no, no. I truly have my doubts. Why, for what reason, for what purpose, do you act crazed?"

"Was he just acting like he insane for pity this whole time?!" Ram shouted in outrage. "He let himself be captured! My sister is hurt because she was too busy protecting him!"

"He's not acting crazed! He's in shock!" Felix shouted at the maid and glared at her.

Subaru whimpered.

"Your insanity is far too sane. To behave so cleverly and quietly as if seeking sympathy… it is an insult to true madness."

"I mean, if he was acting… I wouldn't really blame 'em ya know?" Al shrugged making many to start nodding with him.

Ram just growled as tears willed up in her eyes.

Rem frowned looked down in guilt at what her sister was reduced to because of her incompetence as a little sister.

Betelgeuse softly explained while looking at the boy with confusion.

Subaru slowly trembled while whaling jarred noises of pain out of his mouth as he clutch his head in both hands.

"You are a poorly acted madman. If you really meant it, you would pay no heed to the gazes of others."

Betelgeuse posed and called Subaru's insanity to question as the boy withered and whaled while crying and holding his head with fear and terror clear in his wide open eyes.

Subaru's friends and loved ones all looked at the screen with expressions of sympathy and horror.

"Subaru."

"Subaru-kun."

Both Emilia and Rem took the boy's two hands and gripped them in theirs. They felt comforted. Warm and safe when he was beside them like this.

Not whaling and screaming in mindbroken insane jumbles like on screen.

"Ahhh...ahhhhh...ahhhh….ahhhhh!"

"Ah, how comical! How comical!" Betelgeuse laughed as Subaru's crying and whaling intensified.

"Ahhh! Ahhhh!"

The mad man picked the boy by the collar and stared him in the eyes with a wide smile.

"I pity you! I pity your wretched, ugly, lowly, diminutive, sinful being, from the bottom of my heart! Despite all that, you are so loved!" Betelgeuse screamed into the sky while holding Subaru in the air.

He slammed the boy's head into the caves wall making the chains cuffing Subaru's arms jiggle loudly across the cave.

Julius, Reinhard and Otto clenched their fists while glaring heatedly at the man.

Garfiel growled demonically and stared at the screen with hate through his tears.

Wilhelm struggled to contain himself from breaking a few of his own teeth as he grounded them against one another in anger.

"He shouldn't live through something like this." Felix held his head in his hands and looked at the screen in pity and shock.

"Bro…" Felt slammed her hand on the chair handle over and over in anger and despair.

"You'd rather waste away in stagnation than repay the goodwill shown to you?"

Betelgeuse moved away from Subaru making the boy fall over on his face.

Slowly walking up to the boy's head, Betelgeuse lowered down and gripped his hair to raise his head and look into his eyes.

"You are truly slothful."

He was met with an empty stare from Subaru as the boy kept his eyes opened on nothing. Even when the boy's cracked head began bleeding down over one of his eyes, he kept them open on nothing, painting his white eye red with blood.

"He can't be acting after all of that!" Mimi shouted in terror as she imagined herself being in such a scenario.

"I don't believe Subaru's acting here… I think he truly is in shock." Julius muttered through gritted teeth.

* CLANK! *

"Oh?" Betelgeuse looked at the source of the loud noise in the cave.

A cultist's body dropped before him.

Many members rose from the ground to protect Betelgeuse from the attacker.

Walking into the cave with a determined glare on her face.

Gripping her mace with her horn out and glowing brightly.

Rem stared down the cultists.

"I found you! Subaru-kun!" Rem looked worried at the boy laying on his face at the feet of the ugly green man.

"HAHAHAHA! How fantastic this is! A girl, a lone girl, is so badly injured, yet she presses on!"

"Enough of your nonsense, witch cultist! You are fools to carry out your insubordinate acts in Roswaal-sama's domain without his permission. In my absent master's stead, I, Rem, will bring the death penalty upon you!" Rem growled and proclaimed loudly.

"You truly are a diligent maid to the end." Frederica looked at the screen in admiration.

Rem only stared with hope that maybe she might be able to save her love.

Julius knew this battle was lost. None of them knew of the sloth's secret weapon.

Except for him and Subaru.

"In your battered state? You only came here to retrieve this boy. You should stop saying things that only sound attractive." Betelgeuse smirked and toyed with Subaru's bleeding face.

"Don't touch him." Rem growled.

"Eh? What was that?" Betelgeuse yelled while holding a hand on his ear from across the cave.

"Don't you touch him!" Rem screamed as her eyes glowed red and her mace was sent flying into cultists left and right.

"That shout was great! Why does such a believer in love as yourself adhere to someone like him?" Betelgeuse pointed at the downed broken boy with a smile.

"You know nothing about Subaru-kun! El huma!" Rem shouted and tore through members and cultists left and right, using their own blood as water weapons.

Betelgeuse trembled in pleasure as he watched. "Fantastic! That was fantastic!" he bit his fingers in excitement.

Rem screamed in pain as she was stabbed in the arm by a blade.

Subaru's blood filled eye slowly opened up at the scream.

He looked up.

He found a raging injured blue haired maid, fighting with all she had.

"Rem…" He whispered softly as he began retaining focus on his mind.

The maid smiled softly with surprise and whispered something to him.

An on looker smiled manically and whispered to himself. "My brain trembles."

Before Rem could touch the ground from her aerial attack, suddenly and out of nowhere…

Her body was twisted and held in the air.

Subaru's eyes widened as his mind finally registered what was happening.

As Rem's body was dangling in the air as if she was a doll by some invisible force.

Blood dripped and ran down her legs.

"What…" Emilia gasped in shock as she remembered that night.

"Rem…" Ram stared at the screen with all blood draining from her face.

"How did he do such a thing?!" Reinhard asked in disgust.

"It's the power of his disgusting self." Julius called out to everyone.

"Authority of Sloth… Unseen Hand." Betelgeuse whispered as he pointed at Rem's hanging body with an open palm.

Subaru's entire body began to shake in place.

"Look. You must look. That is the result of your actions. By doing nothing, you practiced sloth. And because of that, the girl is dead! You killed her! How awful! How awful!" Betelgeuse mocked and reprimanded Subaru from above.

"I failed you Subaru-kun…" Rem cried and looked down from the screen. She was such a failure. Not being able to do one thing right.

"You…"

"With my arm, with my fingers… You… You… You.. YOU… YOU… YOU… "

Betelgeuse teared up as he stared at Subaru.

"… killed her."

Subaru's trembling form shook as the boy gritted his teeth and wheezed out in anguish. "...op it!"

Emilia cried and sobbed as she watched someone she called saw as her father mentally assault the amazing boy that suffered because of her.

These two men that were suffering together on screen, whether by the forced insanity on Father Geuse or the many mental traumas caused by Return by Death on her knight. Emilia was to blame for all of it.

"I'm so sorry."

"I want to help."

"I wish you both wouldn't feel such pain anymore."

Emilia sobbed into Subaru's shoulder.

The invisible force holding Rem's body began twisting and turning the maid's limps around forcing her bones and skin to move in ways they were not supposed to.

"STOOOOP!" Ram shouted in despair at how cruel and brutal this man treated her beloved sister.

"This is too much!" Felt gasped and watched with horror painting her face.

"It hurts, it hurts!"

Betelgeuse mocked and screamed in fake horror as the invisible hand forced Rem's head to turn unnaturally breaking her neck and completely mutilating the maid's corpse.

"Help me! Help me!"

"Stop!" Reinhard ordered unable to see anymore of this.

Most looked away from such a scene.

Rem began crying tears, not of sadness that she was dead, but of guilt because her love will blame himself for her uselessness now.

As he held the maid's ruined corpse in the air, Betelgeuse mocked for one final time.

"Subaru-kun!"

The boy's sanity finally broke apart.

"BEEEEEEEEEETEEEEEEELGEEEEEEEUUUUUSSSSEEEEEEE!"

Natsuki Subaru finally moved.

Everyone stared in horror and fear at the blood curdling rage in Subaru's eyes.

"Oh my spirits…" Crusch held a hand to her mouth, for the first time in a while being scared out of her wits.

Anastasia looked disturbed and disgusted at the same time.

"Looks like the boy finally broke." Priscilla noted while watching with a surprised look.

"I'll kill you! I'll kill you! I'll kill you!"

Subaru's eyes filled with rage and tears of agony his voice burning with hatred and passion.

"C-Cap'n…" Garfiel sat down and stared at the screen in disbelief. This… wasn't his beloved captain.

"Natsuki-san…" Otto whispered while staring at the screen with a sad look.

Tears flew down the merchant's face at the state of his brother.

He began moving to attack the man but the chains held him in place.

"I'll kill you! I'll kill you! I'll kill you!"

"Subaru-dono, you must be strong." Wilhelm whispered as he looked at the window, eyes filled with anguish.

"You must be strong to live through something such as this."

"Ah, I finally got you to call me by name. I'm deeply touched!"

Emilia was no longer able to watch as finally understood something important.

Subaru was terrifying. He was scary. He was fierce.

And she didn't like this about her knight. She didn't want to see this moment of him.

She didn't want to see what she had caused Subaru to become.

She didn't want to see another Geuse.

"I'll kill you! I'll kill you! Die! Die, damn it!" Subaru raged and screamed with his burning hatred showing in his tear filled eyes as he glared at the man ferociously while moving to attack him so hard and fast, that his hands were going to be ripped off because of the chains on them and the boy's sheer rage.

Beatrice whimpered as she stared at her contractor's rage in fear and awe.

Betelgeuse met this rage with an expression of disgust and boredom.

"Big bro…" Felt gritted her teeth and glared at the man that had reduced her hero to such a state.

He looked away from the intensely broken and screaming child and shook his head at all the dead bodies around.

"This place is quite the mess now, so I'll just leave it! All right, men! You will resume your duties. Rendezvous with other fingers. The Ordeal will proceed on the scheduled day."

As the cultists disappeared, Betelgeuse looked at the raging Subaru as he screamed and ran through the chains wildly.

"Now, as for your position in all this… "

"Bastard! I'll kill you! I'll kill you!"

"I honestly have no idea what it is, so I shall judge you as our lord sees fit."

"Damn you! Damn you!"

"Bastard." Ricardo growled without cheer for the first time, disgusted by the man's complete dehumanizing of a comrade he respects and cherishes.

"I'll leave you bound here. Should the Gospel happen to find its way to you, I'm sure you will be saved."

"Damn you!"

"All this because you wouldn't just run away… just run away and you'll never have to face these things." Al sighed and watched with a sad expression.

Betelgeuse laughed at the furious look on Subaru's face and walked away from him, he stopped once he was beside Rem's still hanging twisted body.

"Oh. Ah, you are also a believer in love. Yes, you sacrificed yourself for love, defying your own fate. But you fell before your feelings reached him, and your love had nowhere to go."

Rem's body was suddenly dropped at his feet.

Betelgeuse smirked at it.

"You are truly slothful!" He laughed out loud as the boy screamed his pure undaunted rage.

Rem was disgusted to find herself nodding with the man's statement.

"I'll kill you! I'll kill you! I'll kill you! I'll kill you! I'll kill you! I'll kill you! I'll kill you! I'll kill you!"

"Subaru." "Subaru."

Julius and Reinhard watched with tears almost falling from their eyes at their inability to help their brother from such suffering.

"Hahahahahahahahaha" As Betelgeuse's manic laughter filled the cave, Subaru met him with a primal scream of despair and agony.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

Darkness….

The chill that ran down everyone's spine froze and scared all those present. Even Roswaal and Ram were disturbed and shocked by how insane Subaru had become.

The screen lights up to show the boy slamming his head against the ground while repeating. "I'll kill you." Over and over again.

His chained arms were bleeding so much as he kept forcing them out of the chain.

Subaru suddenly stopped slamming his head to the ground.

He focused on the sounds.

The sounds of something soft sliding against something else.

Everyone's eyes widened.

"Could it be…" Emilia asked with hope in her eyes.

His darkened hopeless eyes widened with light returning into them as he saw where the sound was coming from.

"Rem?"

"No fucking way!"

"How the hell?!"

Rem looked up in hope as she wiped her tears and gripped Subaru's hand tightly and bone crushingly.

As if a miracle had happened, the girl that should by all accounts be dead from all the stabs, the burns, the wounds, the mutilated limps and her broken neck…

Began softly sliding across the floor toward him.

"H-holy shit!" Otto stared slack jawed as did many on the screen.

"Rem-san… is amazin'." Garf uttered as he mirrored his brother's shocked stare.

Rem looked at the screen in hope that she might help her love.

"Rem!" Subaru called out as he watched her body coming towards him.

"Rem… Rem… Rem… Rem!"

Subaru slowly reached his head toward her and clenched his teeth on her uniform to pull her towards him.

He managed it and hugged the girl tight.

"Rem… hey, Rem!"

"Hu…"

Subaru widened his eyes as she softly whispered.

"...ma."

The blood coming from Subaru's hands suddenly moved on its own and broke his cuffs.

Rem used water magic to manipulate Subaru's blood and free him.

"Rem, you…"

Subaru looked at the maid with despair.

"L…..ive." She whispered brokenly.

Ram glared down softly but nodded her head anyways.

If it was her sister's choice to give her life for this useless man… then Ram could understand that.

But she will never forgive Subaru for this… unless he saved her sister.

"Which he will…" A man of good timing her ass. He will save Rem and then place the entire world beneath her shoes just to make her smile or else Ram will haunt his ass and make him wish he was dead for treating her sister unjustly.

"Rem… Wait! Don't… "

Subaru held her to his chest and wiped the blood from her face.

Rem slowly held his hand and looked at him with a gaze filled with warmth.

"Live… Love… you…" Her hand dropped.

"Rem…" Subaru hugged her and cried his heart out in the cave.

Many looked down in solemn silence for the on screen Rem.

The blue haired girl herself nodded her head and smiled. Happy that she was able to fulfill her role to the end.

The screen shows Subaru holding Rem close to his chest bridal style as he exited the cave.

The sun illuminated in orange, indicating that it will be dark soon.

"Let's go Rem…" Subaru smiled softly at the maid in his hands and began his journey.

"Big bro kind of looks good with his hair down." Felt sniffled a bit.

"Yeah, I guess he does." Emilia noted with a tired expression.

"Yes, I suppose."

(You fucking happy?)

Subaru walked through the road and the forest until it was night.

He walked through the village, passing all of the stabbed and tortured corpses of the village folk.

Walking through the cold of this sudden snow.

"Betelgeuse…"

Subaru walked passed the piles of burned corpses of the innocent people of Arlam.

"Betelgeuse…"

The snow storm thickened but he brazed through and manged to reach the gate to the front garden of the estate.

White snow covered the entire land.

Subaru stopped and looked at the shed beside the gates to the garden.

Ram's dead body was leaning against the wall with many blades stabbed into her.

She was surrounded by dead cultists that were cut by her air blades.

Subaru's eyes shed tears as the cold began freezing his body.

"Betelgeuse…"

He had an expression of pain as he sobbed and whaled in agony.

Many had their heads down at the pure torture the boy has been enduring in silence.

He dropped to his knees before the snow filled mountain that was the Roswaal mansion. Holding Rem close and gazing at Ram with guilt.

"Betelgeuse!"

* CRACKKK! *

Subaru slowly turned his head to see a giant monster breaking through the mansion's ceiling.

The monster turned its head the same way Subaru turned to him.

His eyes glowed yellow in the thick storm.

"WHAT?!"

"Is that… the cat?!" Felt asked and looked at Emilia.

The half-elf stared at the screen with sadness and disbelief.

"Sleep…" The same voice that had killed Subaru in his last loop.

"Sleep. Along with my daughter."

Subaru couldn't say anything. As his entire form was frozen solid.

And as the wind picked up.

His head rolled off his body as if it was nothing.

And his kneeling body remained holding the dead corpse of the maid that had saved him.

And it would remain there…. For the beast would cover it and the world by a layer of thick white snow.

A frozen land.

An ice turned world.

That… was how Natsuki Subaru died.

Eulogy for Rem.

Darkness…

"Puck…" Emilia couldn't believe that her father would do something like this. She couldn't believe that Subaru was hurt like this.

"So he just freezes the world because you're dead?" Anastasia asked in fear.

"I-I really had no idea about this! I would never choose such a condition!" Emilia pleaded with the crowed around her.

Most of them were too tired to argue so they just nodded and looked at the screen.

Faint noises. Blurry images.

"Hey!"

Subaru opened his eyes looking sweaty and spooked.

Back at the capital again. Before the Apple salesman, again.

He had Returned by Death… again.

"You listening?"

"Huh?"

"Don't huh me. What's wrong with you? You suddenly spaced out."

"Oh…"

"Subaru-kun?"

Rem stared with hopeful eyes. Maybe this will be the one.

Subaru turned with wide eyes.

"Rem…"

"Yes? What's the matter? You look like you've seen a ghost."

"Rem…"

The maid was blushing now as she stared at her hero's face.

"Y-Yes?"

"Rem…"

"Yes."

Subaru touched her shoulder softly and gazed into her eyes. "I…"

"Look… I hate to interrupt when you're just getting heated up, but I can't run my business with you two flirting there!" The man shooed them away.

And the maid was filled with despair once more.

"Subaru-kun, can I ask something?"

"What is it?"

"Well, I may be mistaken. It's just that well. The unpleasant smell on you seems to have grown stronger."

Subaru's smile suddenly turned sour. "Unpleasant smell, huh? Well, if you're worried, jut keep hold of my hand."

"Huh?" Rem looked confused as Subaru held her hand.

"This feels a lot safer, right?" Subaru smiled at her.

The maid was filled with happiness. "Yes."

As Rem trotted beside him with a happy smile…

Subaru's face turned into one of vengeful hatred.

His eyes glowed red as he scowled deeply.

"Cap'n's scary…" Garf looked away as did many in the audience, finding this side of Subaru uncomfortable and scary to watch.

Title card:

The Outside of Madness

Episode 8 Director's Cut. End.

The exauhstion that befell the room made all those in their seats want to think about nothing from what they had just seen.

It was too much…

too much to think about, remember, and agonize over.

It was just way too much.

Rest. For the next one will start soon.

The entire cast had varied reactions of discomfort as the dread of seeing something even worse than this overtaking all of them.

But for now, they need to heed the words of their warden.

Episode 9… Arc 3's continuation…

Start.

Here we are. The most anticipated.

Let me just apologize if this seemed really dry in terms of reactions or too repetitive in vocabulary or reactions.

I've pulled two all nighters trying to make this as good as I can.

The end of this chapter is dry because I don't have energy at the moment and I thought that the reactions would be much better after I make the cast lament on them so look forward to a long ass beginning in the next chapter.

You guys on FF, Ao3 and Reddit have really been making my week with your love, support, ideas, and criticism.

I'm really sorry if I didn't reply to you but I'm starting to get a really cramped schedule and usually I don't look at the comments unless I have free time or I'm doing something that can be multitasked since these are the times I'm allowed to hold my phone.

Otherwise, if I have free time I'm writing the story on my computer.

Dudes. I've downloaded Cyperpunk and I still didn't play the fucking game to make this chapter. Its funny.

Anyways, thank you all onc- I said it's funny, FUCKING LAUGH!

But truly… thank you all. I'm sorry if this didn't live up to you hype but I'm way too fatigued to care.

Once again… wait for me… as I finish episode 9.

"So…. You're giving me this pillow."

"Yes."

"For me. A pillow that you've bought with your money to give to me."

"Yes."

"Hmmm. Yeah. I don't fucking trust this."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean. You're a sneaky fuck, Joseff. Why would I trust a pillow you gave me?"

"It's Christmas, bro! I wouldn't do that!"

"…"

"Trust me."

"Nah, fuck you. I don't trust this shit. And I want my true pillow back."

"But-"

"*Door slam in his face*"

"Hmm, almost gottem."