At first, Subaru nearly panicked upon waking up to the sight of a different room. He was so used to being isolated in his living quarters that he nearly thought Capella was trying to play some kind of trick on him. It took a second for the boy to recollect his situation before he took a deep breath. Right now, he's away from Capella so she isn't a worry for him right now.
Before Subaru could properly start his day, Meili climbed over the makeshift barricade the two created last night. "You're up! We can finally get some food."
Seeing the young girl make her appearance like this caused Subaru to get annoyed. "What's the point in making a barricade if you're just going to crawl over it?!"
"This was made to keep you out, not me. I bet you're just mad that you didn't have the chance to peek at Elsa this morning."
The boy's left eye twitched. "Stop labeling me as a pervert! I never planned to do anything that disrespectful to Elsa."
In response, Meili let out an over exaggerated gasp and tried to cover herself with her arms. "D-Does that mean you planned to peek at me, b-big brother?"
"W-What?! No!" Subaru desperately defended himself. "You're way too young to be thinking like that!"
Meili dropped her fake panicked act and laughed aloud. "You're so gullible. I was just messing with you. But seriously, get yourself ready. I don't know about you but I haven't eaten all day."
Subaru sighed. "Alright, I'm on it. Let me get changed."
Meili cocked her head to the side. "With what? We don't have a set of boy clothes lying around."
…
Subaru was left speechless. He forgot to take that into consideration. When he was with Melty and Sakura, they were already prepared for that, and even had several changes of clothes in his size at the ready.
Seeing the boy left speechless, Meili grinned rather mischievously. "Hahah, you're so hopeless. I guess you have to wear some curtains now."
Just as Subaru despaired, a box suddenly dropped down in front of him. Looking up, he found Elsa towering above him with an indifferent expression on her. The boy nearly fell back as he didn't even see her get here. "Meili, I told you to get the boy ready."
Meili scratched the back of her head and giggled innocently. "Sorry, Elsa. Subaru was horsing around, and I just couldn't stop him."
"Hey!" Subaru cried out. "She's lying! Meili's the one horsing around!"
"I really don't care who's fault it is." Elsa casually responded. "I have a few errands to get done and I'd be a teensy bit annoyed if I don't end up getting to it."
Subaru sighed. "Yeah, I got it. Could you tell me what the box is for?"
"It's your change of clothes."
Subaru blinked a few times, not expecting the solution to his problem to be solved so suddenly. "Oh… Um… Thank you…?"
Elsa turned around, facing her back to the boy and walked out of the room. Before leaving, she lifted her left hand up and showed off all her fingers. "We're leaving in five minutes." With that, she left.
Meili happily pranced along, leaving with Elsa and waved to Subaru. Before she said anything, she gave the box a nasty glare but she quickly swapped back to her innocent smile. "You heard her, you have five minutes, big brother."
Subaru was left alone with the box. The box looked just like a present. It was black wrapped around with a rather elegant purple ribbon while a rose head adorned the top. He opened up the box and found a set of black clothes with a thin purple trim. There was also a black hood inside with a similar aesthetic. Finally, at the bottom of the box, there was a letter.
The boy took the letter out and started to read it. 'My dear Poochie-'
CRUMPLE
Subaru didn't read anymore. He immediately crumpled the letter, tore it up a few times, and tossed it at the other side of the room. The boy was smart enough to know that letter was a bad omen.
Well, at least he has a set of clothes now.
--
"That boy is really annoying, Elsa!" Meili complained.
Elsa was already sitting atop of a wolf mabeast. She had her legs crossed as she was counting down in her head, keeping true to her previous warning. "I wonder why you think so. If my eyes aren't deceiving me, I'm fairly certain that you're the one who keeps picking on him."
"You know exactly why! That weirdo is getting some sort of creepy special treatment from Mama. Do all of her 'pets' get treated this… this… nicely?!"
Elsa shook her head. "No. Actually, it's quite the contrary. Usually Mother's pets get it the worst. They usually turn into living flesh scraps before a week even passes."
"Really?" Meili unconvincingly asked. "Then what's so special about him?!"
"I'm not sure. Perhaps you can figure that out while you look after him during our job in the capital."
The young girl gagged at the thought of being alone with that mama lover. However, she knew better than to distract Elsa from her job. "Fine, but I'm gonna be in charge of the next job, and you're going to babysit the crybaby, got it?"
Elsa couldn't help but giggle at this. "Oh? How cruel of you. That poor boy isn't even getting a chance."
Meili puffed her cheeks out in annoyance. "I'm not falling for that! You're just trying to skip out on your turn! Just say you'll look after him next time, ok?"
Almost as if proving the young girl right, Elsa looked past her and smiled softly. "You're just on time, Subaru. Meili has the demon beasts ready so we can get going now."
Meili was fuming over the fact that Elsa got away with this but she kept that to herself. The young girl hopped onto her own beast and waved at Subaru cheerfully as if she was never upset at all. "Cmoooon, we don't have all day, you know!"
Subaru sighed. He mounted on the last remaining beast and looked over at the two girls, Meili specifically. He didn't hear anything that those two were talking about before he arrived but he had a sneaking suspicion that she was bad mouthing him. "You know, one day, karma is going to get its retribution on you!"
In response, Meili grinned mischievously as the beast, the one Subaru was on, lied down and began rolling on the ground, nearly crushing the poor unsuspecting boy. "I'm sorry, big brother, but I think karma likes me more."
Despite the pain of being rolled on top of, Subaru still managed to shit talk the child. "That's not- agh! How it- urg! Works!"
Elsa was silently watching the events unfold without a care in the world like Meili was laughing at Subaru's suffering. Eventually, Elsa finally spoke up after another thirty seconds of this mayhem played out. "It's been five minutes. We're leaving."
The wolf beast immediately stood back up and repositioned the battered Subaru on its back before the three started making their way to the capital.
Subaru was too mad at these two to talk right now. He figured the best course of action is to wait until they make it to the capital. Surely these two will fill him in on what the hell they're doing here at some point.
Eventually, the three finally made it out of the forest and were met with a large gray brick wall. The wall in question was probably between fifty to sixty feet tall, and the spot where they were at, there didn't seem to be an entrance on this side.
Subaru could already tell that these two were planning. But he did wonder how they were going to do it. "So, what's the plan?"
"I'll just have my bats carry us over." Meili casually responded.
As for Elsa, she leapt off her wolf beast and started running up the wall like she was some kind of ninja from a popular anime. In no time at all, the remaining two were left by themselves.
Meili rolled her eyes and sighed. "Well, there she goes…"
Subaru was still staring at the wall in awe. Even though he was still wary of the girl, he had to admit that was impressive. That was until a thought occurred to him. "Wait, why was I never taught how to do that?!"
He had been with Capella for two months now. Why has he never gotten any kind of special training to do that? But that thought immediately shut itself down after realizing what that would entail. There's no way in hell he'd want to learn what Capella's training courses were like.
Just then, Subaru began to float off the ground. The boy realized a bunch of bats surrounded him and were pulling him up in the air. Subaru began thrashing around, trying to pull the bats away from him. "What the hell are these things?!"
Meili was also being lifted in the air by these bats but she wasn't at all struggling against them. "Is your memory that crappy? I told you that my bats will carry us over, dummy. Now stop struggling, you're going to fall to your death if you keep that up."
Subaru obliged and calmed down. He's been bombarded with so much lately that it's been getting difficult to really understand what's going on. "I didn't think you meant that literally!"
By the time the two flew over the wall and landed in the city, they found themselves at the edge of a very run down looking neighborhood of sorts. After the bats set them down, Subaru looked around a bit bewildered. "Didn't you say this was supposed to be the capital city? Why does it look so run down?"
"This is the slums after all. Not everywhere looks like this, dummy." Subaru was about to ask something else but Meili interrupted him. "Yes, we snuck in on this side so we wouldn't get hounded by the knights. Just how stupid are you, big brother?"
"Hey! I wasn't going to say anything about that, you brat! I was going to ask where Elsa ran off to."
"Ohhhh, yeah, I have no idea."
Subaru facepalmed. "Do you two usually run off like this without saying anything?"
"Pfft, of course not! That would be dumb. Me and Elsa already went over the plan while you were too busy sleeping."
Subaru twitched in anger, but the boy took a deep breath before his rage boiled over. "You know what? I'm going to be the bigger person here and let it go. You said you were hungry, right? How about we go somewhere to eat and you can fill me in on what the hell we're doing here."
"Yeah, I guess that'll work. Elsa left me with a bit of money to manage our food expenses so I might be able to spare you an appa or something."
Subaru took another deep breath, still managing to compose himself. "You know, the way you worded that made it sound like you're only going to focus on yourself."
Meili smiled oh so brightly and innocently. "Well, if you don't like it, I'll just give you your half of the money." With that, Meili held up a small coin pouch that was strapped to her hip and plucked a single copper coin from it. She put the pouch back and politely handed it over to Subaru. "Don't go spending it all in one place now~"
"I know there's more in there than just that, you brat!"
"Don't worry, big brother! I'm just giving you your share based on your contributions to this mission!"
Surprisingly, this didn't get the boy any more angry than he already was. "Mission? So we're here for a job after all, huh?"
For perhaps the first time, the boy saw the young girl look visibly nervous and placed her hands over her own mouth. "Crap! I can't believe you let my guard down."
Subaru sighed and knelt down to the girl's level. Maybe he had to take a different approach for Meili to stop being so stubborn with him. "I bet you're doing this because you probably think I'll get in your guy's way, right?"
Meili narrowed her eyes, staring at the boy suspiciously. "Where are you going with this?"
"The thing is, I get it, I've never worked with you guys before, and I'll probably end up dragging you guys back with whatever we're doing here."
"Hold it, why would that make me want to tell you anything?"
"Well, if you ask me, if I'm never filled in and kept in the dark about everything, then I'll for sure be dragging you down for the remaining time I'll be with you. Last I checked, it'll probably be over a month of me constantly holding you back and getting you into trouble."
Meili stayed quiet for a moment, trying to make sense of what the boy was saying. "So what you're saying is if I don't tell you what we're doing, you're going to purposely sabotage us?"
"What? No! I'm not that petty! What I'm trying to say is that I'll never be of any help to you guys if you never give me a chance. I want to be helpful to you guys and all I'm asking you is to at least give me a shot so we don't have to play this weird game of yours for who knows how long."
Meili paused for another moment. "Why do you even want to be a part of this? You can fool anyone else but me and Elsa can see right through you. We already know you're not one of us."
This girl is a lot more perceptive than the boy gave her credit for. In truth, his main goal is to gain these two's trust in hopes to not be on such a tight leash. But also, there could be a chance that they share a common interest. Subaru doubts that Capella's underlings are really fond of her and based on what he's seen so far, her underlings follow her out of fear, not loyalty. However, he had to make sure that these two aren't crazy enough to be actually loyal to that devil.
Continuing on, Subaru answered, "How about you give me a trial run? You don't need to tell me every little thing about this job. Maybe just a brief summary of it. Just give me a good idea of what we're doing. After the job is all done and over with, I could give you some ideas on how I would complete the job and either you or Elsa could go over how you did it. That way, you could get a basic understanding of what kind of skills I have, and if it can be applied to any of our future missions."
Meili sighed. "You know, you sound very creepy when you talk like that."
Subaru clenched his fist. He just couldn't believe this girl.
"But," Meili continued, catching the boy's attention once more. "If you're really that eager to help, then I guess it wouldn't hurt having an extra hand. Just don't screw around, ok?"
Subaru had to stop himself from cheering. He was just about to lose it so he was pretty relieved that Meili finally gave in to his begging. "Thanks a bunch! I won't let you down."
Meili waved her hand dismissively. "Yeah, yeah. Let's get some food first. After that, I'll let you know what's going on."
The reminder of food caused him to wince as he glanced at his copper coin. The way Subaru decided to remind Meili of his predicament was to give her a cold condescending stare. That only made the girl giggle before pulling a few more coins from her pouch.
"I was just kidding about that, big brother. There's no reason to give me such a scary look." With that, Meili provided Subaru with a little more coin.
Subaru only eyed the young girl suspiciously before she started to guide him through the slums. Meili hummed happily while swinging her hands during her march.
Eventually, Meili guided Subaru to a small district with a bunch of open stalls. The young girl ended up getting herself some marinated steak on a stick while Subaru just went with some appas.
While they were setting off to their next spot, the two ended up going down an alleyway. Seeing that they were now alone, Subaru figured now would be a good time to ask for more details. "So, are you going to fill me in yet?"
Meili took a nibble at her steak before answering. "Jeez, you're really antsy about this. But sure, I think it should be fine. There's this one abandoned house that's really close to the walls. We'll be waiting there for Elsa to get back. After that, we'll be outta here."
"Wait, that's it?! Are you just Elsa's taxi girl or something?"
"Taxi? I never heard of that one before. But I'm just the backup in case Elsa's mission gets dicey. This is where most of the knights you'll ever see in your life stay. So if Elsa needs the help, which I doubt she will, I'll be there to get her out of trouble."
Subaru lifted his brow. "That doesn't really tell me what your guy's mission is. What exactly is Elsa doing?"
Meili shrugged. "I honestly don't know. The only thing we're here for is to steal some gem from a half elf. I have no idea what Elsa's plan is to do that but I'm pretty sure it'll make an entire street messy."
Subaru pondered for a moment. Why they were here made sense, but something really didn't add up in his head. Why on earth would Capella want a jewel for? As far as he was aware, they only took orders from Capella so a side job like this just didn't add up. "Um… Sorry, it still doesn't add up to me. Do you have any remote idea why Ca- I-I mean 'Mother' would want this jewel? Is it some kind of mystical artifact or something?"
Meili sighed in annoyance at Subaru's question. "Of course she wouldn't care for some jewel, you dummy. This isn't even a mission from her, the only thing she wanted us to do was to watch over you. We're doing this for one of Elsa's clients."
"Wait, clients from other people? You can do that?"
"Did being with Mama for this long fry your brain or something?"
"N-No! Of course not! Erm… I mean, I don't think so… But I think I get the situation now. I don't think you need to say anymore."
"About time. Do you have any more of those appas on you? My mouth is feeling dry."
This caused Subaru to smirk. This was finally his opportunity. "I sure do, Meili."
"Awesome, thanks." Meili reached her hand out expectantly. However, the appa never came.
"Nope. You can only have an appa is you ask nicely."
Meili blinked a few times but ended up giggling. "Really? That's it? You can be such a creep sometimes." The young girl clasped her hands together and gave Subaru a cute begging look. "Can you please give me an appa, big brother?"
Still smiling, Subaru continued, "You also have to apologize for all the mean things you said to me."
Meili winced at this and broke character. "Really? Those were all just jokes. You don't need to take it that seriously."
"What's that? You don't want the appa? Oh well, I guess that means it's for me then."
Meili rolled her eyes and played along, this time talking with a more straight face. "Fine, I'm sorry for teasing you a few times."
"I don't know, it doesn't sound like you mean it."
At that point, Meili huffed and turned away. "I don't need your appa if you're just going to be a jerk about it."
This time, Subaru winced. The way Meili put that made it seem like he was the bad guy. Subaru sighed in defeat before handing over the appa. "Sorry, I might've taken it too far there. Just take it."
Meili happily took the appa and immediately began to munch on it. "Thank you, big brother!~ You're now just a little less lame."
"Yeah yeah, don't push your luck."
With that, Meili guided Subaru to their last stop; the abandoned building where they'd wait for Elsa's return. Subaru still wanted to learn a little bit more about this mission but he figured that he'd be with these two for a while, and he could learn more about them by then.
Though, while the two waited, Meili ended up taking out a few stuffed dolls from her pack and started playing with them. Admittedly, Subaru was taken aback by this sort of behavior for a moment but he remembered that Meili was still just a kid.
Not having anything better to do, Subaru leaned over to check out the young girl's dolls. "Those look pretty unique. Where'd you get those?"
"Oh, Elsa made them for me! They're pretty cool, right?"
Subaru nodded. They weren't too shabby. He himself had a knack for sewing, and seeing the dolls made him want to give it a try. It definitely would help keeping himself distracted.
While Subaru was contemplating to himself, Meili nudged one of her dolls at the boy. "Did you want to play with me?"
Subaru narrowed his eyes. "You're going to make fun of me, aren't you?"
Meili giggled at the question. "I'm not that heartless. I just wanna kill time while we wait for Elsa."
Still keeping his eyes locked on Meili, he very cautiously and quietly took the doll.
After Subaru took the doll, Meili immediately positioned her other doll in front of herself. "There you are! Why did you come home late, husband?"
Subaru immediately recognized the situation and held up his given doll in response. He then played along. "I was just hanging out with the boys, dear."
The two played with the dolls for a time while they waited. It was a good time waster and all, and Subaru nearly forgot Meili was in fact an assassin. After about an hour of this, the two ended up just conversing with one another.
"Hey, Meili?" Subaru asked. "Why would such a young girl like you decide to be an assassin?"
Meili perked her brow. "Why are you asking? Do you have a problem with that?"
Subaru immediately shook his head. He still had no idea what this young girl was capable of and he didn't want to risk getting on her bad side. "O-Of course not! I mean, I'm just trying to get to know you better."
"Oh, just that? Hmm…" Meili contemplated the boy's words for a moment. "Eh, It isn't really anything that special. One day, Elsa picked me up and we have worked together since then."
"Wait, that's it? Did she take you away from your family?"
"Pfft, of course not. Elsa's my family."
Subaru wanted to keep asking about it. But he didn't want to lose his progress with her. They've been getting along so far and he'd hate to ruin that. "Yeah," Subaru eventually agreed. "You both really get along well. I'm kinda jealous, actually."
Meili couldn't help but grin at that comment. "We've been with each other for a while, so it's to be expected. Who knows? Maybe if you don't slack off, you could get along with us too."
"Aww, I thought we're getting along well right now though."
"Well, you are acting a lot less annoying than before. But I gotta make sure you're not just trying to get my guard down!"
Subaru chuckled at this. "You can't just tell me that. You make it sound like I'm a scheming animal."
"Nah, you're not that. You're probably just a scheming boy."
"They're the same thing!"
Now it was Meili's turn to giggle before she took her cape and curled it around herself. "Jeez, it's getting really chilly all of a sudden."
Now that she said that, Subaru noticed that it had indeed gotten a lot colder all of a sudden. He too wrapped himself in his cloak like Meili did with hers. "Yeah, you're right. Does it usually get cold this fast around here?"
Meili shook her head. "Not usually. It's probably just some bad luck."
"Yeah, sorry about that. I'm kinda notorious for having bad luck."
"So you wanna take responsibility for this and tell Elsa that you made it cold?"
"Erm… I probably wouldn't go that far."
Meili tried giggling but she started shivering too much to make it sound like a laugh.
Subaru noticed and scooted himself closer to the young girl. "Cmere, you're shivering."
Normally, Meili would reject this but it was getting so damn cold that she immediately snuggled herself up in Subaru's grasp. "F-Fine. I-I guess you'll have to k-keep me warm, s-since it's probably your fault."
"R-Right…" Subaru muttered. Now he was getting affected by this cold and he too started shivering. It was getting so bad that he could see Meili's breath as a white mist. Subaru scooped Meili up in his arms. "L-Let's get out of here. M-Maybe it's just something about this house."
"…" Meili didn't answer. She was too busy trying to desperately snuggle into Subaru, trying to get as much warmth as she could.
Subaru clumsily started to make his way to the door, he nearly stumbled over himself from how much he was shivering.
Eventually, the boy grabbed onto the door handle. Instead of opening the door, ice formed around Subaru's hand and started to crawl up his arm. He panicked and tried to pull back, but it was too late.
The two were quickly engulfed in ice.
…
…
…
--
…
…
…
"Cmoooon, we don't have all day, you know!"
"Huh…?" Subaru blinked a few times, and looked around. He was in the forest and he was in front of Meili and Elsa who were already atop of the wolf beasts.
The boy looked down at his hand and opened and closed his fist, as if checking if he could move it. Finally, he dropped down to his knees as it finally hit him on what happened.
He died.
"What is it now?" Meili complained. "We're going to leave without you if you keep that up."
Elsa on the other hand looked over at Subaru, giving him a curious look. "Subaru? You're not getting cold feet now, are you?"
"Cold…" Subaru muttered. "Y-Yeah, sorry. I was just feeling a little cold…" Without saying another word, he approached the wolf beast and climbed atop of it. Even though he wasn't freezing anymore, he was still shaking. The recent memory of the cold couldn't make him stop trembling.
"Um… Big brother?" Meili called with a slightly concerned tone. "You're acting very creepy, you know."
Subaru looked up to Meili and nodded slowly. The boy realized just how strange he looked like right now. He smacked his cheeks together with his hands to pump himself up. "I'm fine. I just lost my footing there."
Seeing his mood lift, Meili sighed in annoyance. "You should learn to not be so weird while doing that, then."
"Yeah, guess I should-"
"It's been five minutes." Elsa interrupted. "We're leaving."
With that, the three immediately darted off. Subaru still loomed in his thoughts over what had just happened. It was obvious he died from some sort of extreme hypothermia. For a moment, he wondered if Capella had anything to do with it. Did he see him hang out with Meili and kill them, thinking it was some kind of plan to run away?
Subaru shook his head at that. Capella could do a lot of things but he was pretty sure freezing up the place like that wasn't one of them. Regardless of what happened, he was prepared now. He just hoped that whatever this was didn't involve Capella.
Everything from there played identically to his last loop. They arrived at the wall, Elsa ran over it, and that would be when Meili used her bats to fly him over.
"Big brother? Are you sure you're alright?" Subaru turned to Meili. All her bats were around her but she poked the boy's cheek to get his attention. "You look really focused for some reason. Is the thought of sneaking into the city spooking you out?"
"Eh?" Subaru stared at the girl in confusion before chuckling sheepishly, trying to hide his emotions more efficiently. "It's nothing like that, Meili. I guess I'll be hanging out with you until Elsa's done, right?"
Meili narrowed her eyes, taking the boy's words the wrong way. "Are you saying that you're upset about that? I never thought you'd be so cruel."
"H-Huh?! N-No! I didn't mean it like that! Erm… Oh!" Subaru realized what could be wrong now. He wasn't acting as shocked and surprised this time around. "I'm just confused as to what's going on. I mean, Elsa just ran off without us so I'm just… um… wondering what the plan is."
Meili kept staring at the boy suspiciously before looking away and sighing, finally letting it go. "Yeah, I guess that makes sense. Just don't worry about it, we'll meet up with Elsa later and go from there, got it?"
Subaru nodded. He already knew what the mission was all about, well, Meili's side anyways. So he didn't really have a reason to probe for more information.
But something else loomed on his mind. It was their death. "Actually, would it be alright if we stayed back here? I don't think it would make sense going inside the city, you know?"
Meili shook her head. "Nope. We need to meet with Elsa in a certain spot. I can't compromise with you there, big brother."
Subaru sighed. He figured this would be the outcome. Maybe he could try to at least figure out what was going on this time. Admittedly, not even he really understood what happened there during that death.
The boy didn't even flinch when the bats surrounded him and flew over the walls. Meili didn't think too much of Subaru's weird behavior, she was too focused on accomplishing her side of the mission. With Subaru being quiet and obedient, this only made it easier for the young girl.
Without consulting with Subaru, Meili guided them to the market area to get food. To his surprise, Meili ended up getting twice the amount of food compared to the last loop. She ended up getting two sticks of marinated steak.
This finally made Subaru pipe up. "Wait, hold on, were you seriously not even considering feeding me?!"
Meili looked at the boy in a bit of surprise. She didn't expect him to act like his dorky self from the other day. Then the young girl laughed. "Hahah, you weren't saying anything so I assumed you weren't hungry. You really should've spoken up."
"Oh…" Subaru muttered. He guessed that made sense. Before he could correct that mistake, Meili poked his cheek with one of the sticks of steak.
"You can have this one if you want. I was planning on giving it to one of my puppies anyways."
"Wait, you were seriously going to feed your wolves and not me?" Before Meili could answer, Subaru widened his eyes in realization. "Or, were you perhaps planning on sharing some with me to begin with?"
"Huh…?!" Meili's cheeks darkened from embarrassment and immediately kicked the boy's leg. It didn't hurt or anything, it was more of a tap if anything. "Stop messing around! Just take it, dummy!"
Subaru couldn't help but chuckle at the display and take the stick before Meili could change her mind. Subaru convinced Meili to get him an appa before the two left the district and went into an alleyway.
The boy didn't eat the appa, he just waited for Meili to finish eating her steak before handing her the fruit. "Do you want it?"
Meili looked at the appa before looking up to Subaru. "Did you poison it?"
"What?! Why on earth would you think that?!"
"You've been acting really weird. I definitely wouldn't put it past you. Just keep it, I'm not really that hungry anymore."
Subaru sighed. He just wanted to be considerate. "Fine, but tell me if you change your mind."
The two continued on but this time, the two ran into three guys. One of them was a large chubby guy, second was a small midget, and the last one, the one who seemed like the ringleader, was a very scrawny looking guy.
The scrawny guy pulled the knife out at the two. "Oi! Hand over all yer stuff if you don't wanna get hurt!"
Subaru was dumbfounded by this sudden situation. I guess they did go down a different route than last time, but he never thought he'd get jumped by thieves, especially considering he was kinda in the group who was playing that role.
Before Subaru could react to this frankly bizarre situation, Meili started panicking and tears formed in the girl's eyes.
"This is really scary!" Meili whined. She immediately took her coin pouch and quickly offered it to the thieves. "H-Here, just please don't hurt us!"
Once again, Subaru was taken aback by this. Was Meili actually scared of this? Now that he thought about it, she didn't bring her beasts with her so maybe she felt vulnerable.
The thug quickly snatched the pouch in excitement and opened it up, eager to see what he scored. The sight really rubbed Subaru the wrong way. Seeing a young girl getting mugged like this was disgusting regardless of the circumstances.
Not wanting to take this anymore, Subaru finally stepped up. "No! I'm not going to let you-"
"What the hell?!" The thug cried out in horror. A few rats hopped out of the pouch and immediately began burrowing at the thug, viciously biting him.
"Huh…?" Subaru muttered. He looked over at Meili so he could ask her what was going on. What he saw was the young girl smiling ever so innocently like she was never in danger to begin with.
"Are you ok?~ You don't seem too happy with what you stole."
"Grr…! You damn brat! I'll kill you!" The thug cried out, tossing away one of the rats. However, he looked on in horror once those rats grew in size. They grew larger than even the large chubby thug.
"R-Run!" The midget cried out.
The three thugs turned around and tried running away but the large rats overwhelmed them and quickly bit down on their necks, making them instantly limp over.
Subaru was left speechless. He only watched on in horror as the rats ate the three thugs, only leaving the splashes of blood left from devouring them.
The rats soon shifted back into small normal looking rats and scurried back into Meili's coin pouch. The young girl picked up her pouch and attached it back to her hip. She then spun around, smiling at Subaru cheerfully. "Sorry about that, big brother. Let's keep going now."
Subaru's face went pale. Was he stuck with another little monster all along?
Meili took Subaru's hand, guiding him along. "You're so slow! Get moving already. It won't look good for you if the knights see you like this."
Crap, she was right. He couldn't stay here. After nodding, Subaru immediately rushed behind Meili.
--
Subaru was sitting on the roof of the building that he originally froze to death in. He opted to be outside on the off chance his death was the result of some kind of trap inside the house. However, the other reason was because he wanted to recollect what had happened while staring away from Meili.
He was right to not let his guard down around her. He knew that girl had some strong ability that could easily overpower him. It made sense now why there wasn't any concern with him being left alone with her.
Maybe he should run away now…
Subaru grit his teeth and dig his nails into this arm. No, he thought. He didn't know anyone, and there's no doubt that he'd be hunted like a dog if he were to run now. Even if he did manage to outrun them, he had no allies to help him. Running now would be stupid.
His thoughts were interrupted when Meili plopped down by the boy's side, sitting next to him on the roof. "Did that scare you?"
"Huh? M-Meili?! Oh! Um… Not at all! I'm just startled that you snuck up on me like that."
"That's not what I meant, dummy." Meili rolled her eyes at the boy's stupidity before continuing. "I meant when those ugly thugs tried to rob us. Did my little mice spook you there? You didn't say anything after that happened."
Subaru gulped. Of course it spooked him, but there's no way in hell he'd admit that. "I-I mean, it did catch me by surprise, but it's a-all fine! I just had no idea you could hide so many mice like that in your coin pouch."
Meili continued to stare at the boy with suspicion. "You're pretty bad at lying, big brother. You'll have to work on that if you're with us."
"I-I'm not lying. That really surprised me and-"
"You can stop that now. You're only getting creepier the longer you do that. I seriously have no idea how a wimp like you lasted so long with Mama."
"Ugh… Please don't mention her. She's the last person I want on my mind right now."
Meili was left speechless at that comment. Did this boy realize what he was saying right now? "Big brother, you really shouldn't be talking about that. Aren't you and Mama all lovey with one another?"
Subaru gagged at that. Normally, he'd be more reserved about this but he was too exhausted right now to keep that act up. "Please, Meili. Just this once, could you listen to me?"
Meili stayed silent for a moment before nodding. "Yeah, I kinda don't wanna talk about her anymore anyways."
"Thanks…"
"…"
The two just silently stayed in place for an awkward amount of time. Not long later, Meili spoke up again.
"Seriously though, if you're scared about my mice, I could give you a heads up. It would be a pain to have you look so pathetic all the time."
Subaru turned to Meili. "Wait, really?"
"Obviously. It would seriously be annoying if you acted like this. Elsa would probably chop you up if you acted like this in front of her and we'd all be in trouble."
Subaru could understand that, but still didn't buy it. For some reason, he felt like the girl was actually concerned for him. No, that wouldn't make any sense. There's probably just some deeper meaning behind this.
Looking away, Subaru nodded. "Fine, I guess a heads up wouldn't hurt."
Just then, a strong gust of cold wind blasted at the two. Meili quickly hugged herself and shivered. "What was that? I didn't think the weather was going to be cold today."
Subaru widened his eyes in horror and immediately jumped to his feet while snatching at Meili's arm. "We have to go now!"
Meili was taken aback by Subaru's sudden mood swing. "Huh? What are you talking about?"
"It isn't safe here! Just listen to me, if we stay here, we'll die!"
"You're not making any sense right now! Why are you so convinced that-"
The two's bickering was cut immediately when a large spiral of white mist emitted from a building deeper in the slums. Not long after, a large shadow of a beast loomed over. It was taller than any building except for maybe the palace but they couldn't make out what the beast was, being masked by the chilly mist.
Meili looked on in horror and pointed in the direction of the beast. "T-That's where Elsa was supposed to be…"
Subaru was panicking right now. He understood now that the beast must have had something to do with his death. "Meili! We need to go now!"
"No! We have to help Elsa!" Meili screamed. The girl clenched her fist and glared angrily at the beast as she quickly put together the cause of this. "I should've known that guy was up to something."
"Listen to me, now's not the time for this. We have to go now-"
A surge of ice launched from the beast. It shot out so fast that not even the boy could react in time. In only a short moment, a large ice shard shot through the boy's chest and he was engulfed in ice.
"Sleep along with my daughter."
With that, Subaru died.
