Chapter summary: Reinhard is depressed and Subaru finally defeats his worst nemesis. They really should've not made him this drunk...
In just an hour Subaru manged to down his second bottle of whiskey. They were quite large bottles too. At this point even Beatrice was surprised by his alcohol tolerance. Last time he folded a lot sooner.
"His tolerance improved massively in a year, just like his physical abilities, I suppose. As expected from Betty's Subaru, in fact."
Initially, Subaru promised himself only one drink and no more. However, between Satella allowing him to relax (she prevented him from spilling his secrets four times thus far: "Thanks, Tella. Lov' you, hun"), and Emilia, goaded on by Echidna, offering him more and more to drink, Subaru's truly gave in into peer pressure.
All royal candidates were quite curious about Subaru, as he rarely spoke about himself, even proud Priscilla was interested, as she did find him more entertaining than her own jester. After spirit explained to Emilia how a drunk Subaru could hopefully help clear up the mysteries surrounding him, the half-elf somewhat begrudgingly obliged ("It might be a bit unfair to do that to my knight though...") in assisting the possessed merchant in her efforts.
As it turns out, drunk Subaru was even more eccentric than the sober one. Running around, bumping into tables as he went for refills and constantly apologizing to someone under his nose. Echidna did not know to whom exactly, but he was oddly tender to the imagined person, for whatever reason. ("Does he hear voices inside his head? Maybe it's just a sign of inebriation.") Initially, the attendees had been content watching and laughing, while Anastasia-Echidna had gone right to work, attempting to gain any useful information from the drunken knight. So far she had not succeeded. On her seemly throwaway question about him organizing the White Whale subjugation expedition, Subaru, in his drunken state, vigorously praised Rem, a person, that according to Emilia's words, was a maid of Matter's estate that was devoured by Gluttony. Subaru was an only person that remembered her, only person that remembered victims of Gluttony that lost their name, which was yet another oddity about him. He claimed, that without Rem helping him, he would've run away from Lugunica, forgoing Emilia altogether. Those were rather touching words, but useless ones, all things considered, since his loyalty to his liege now was absolute, something he did not forget to redeclare. The only useful thing she managed to learn was that the fabled metia that helped in subjugation of White Whale was likely a family heirloom – he said he had it "from the day one". Unfortunately, Russel Fellow was currently in position of this valued item, as a part of their deal. Subaru said it was probably around twenty holy gold coins worth, which sounded rather cheap, but fox spirit knew that, as a collector, Russel would value it a lot more than that.
Among the stream of rather useless information were the things he chatted with Al about: most of them seemed beyond her understanding, probably some sort of local references, since they were from the same place, but some of them included things like food preferences, and other mostly irrelevant things like that. Honestly Echidna paid very little attention to their banter.
"So what do you like the most here, bro? From food, I mean."
"I like burgers 'ere, Hoshin's 'invention', no doubt. Pretentious jerk, snagged all the cool things. Meat is rather good 'ere, veeery tender, probably good ecology or s'mthing. Tea sucks though, or maybe it's just Ram being the worst maid in existence. Nah, definitely Ram's fault – when it's Petra, Rem or Fred it's ok. Surprised dere is so little rice or fish food in 'ere, but I guess it's just asian in me speakin'."
"Not a lot of deep water 'ere, so fish is a rare delicacy. And it's all river fish as well, given, you know, no seas in 'ere."
"Makes sense. Was also surprised with the lack of mayo. Seriously, it was tooorture!"
The inebriated knight placed a hand on his heart in the most overly dramatic fashion possible.
"Had to reinvent the stuff with Rem and Ram. Most people in the Mansion liked it. Still not perfect. Needs to better. Maybe add whiskey? Had not tried that, yet." What a madman.
"Don't really like the mayo."
"Gasp! You're no longer my bud, Al. No more bud privileges. Na-ah. Gone. Poof!"
"Ah, don't be like that, bro. Everyone got their own taste."
"Cool to see okonomiyaki made it too, even if Beako and Emilia-tan can't cook for shit. Hate that your bitch ruined such a cool bonding scene, tho."
Reinhard and Wilhelm looked rather guilty. It did not help they had the second argument after facing Theresia.
At the same time, said bitch just turned in Subaru's direction.
"What are you gonna do, bimbo? Stab me with your toothpick in the middle of the party? I'm sure half of the people here would want your head for that. You've already done your worst, it's not gonna faze me anyway."
Of course, he was still rather mad at her, both for ruining his attempts to mend the rift in Astrea family and for humiliating him in a failed loop, by forcing him to prostrate before her and then beating him up on a whim, not to mention the whole "appa incident".
Priscilla was surprisingly civil. She could appreciate his honest hostility, they were enemies after all, and there was no deceitful "respect" in his words, unlike in what others told. She preferred people like that over those that groveled. And the commoner was right about half of the party turning against her in such a case.
"Ayo, man. Not cool. I'm not badmouthing your chick."
"Dunno how you handle her. Emilia's one big pain in the ass, but compared to yours – Angel."
"Hah, she is a handful at times. What can I say, I love playing with fire."
"Aldebaran."
"Sure-sure, princess. I'll shut up."
Emilia had mixed feeling about Subaru right now. On the one hand he stood up to Priscilla, which was honestly quite cool of him, on the other his comments about herself were rather rude as well.
"But I was the one that pressured him to drink in the first place... Maybe it's because I am so mean to him, he's so... brash. And I've always created so much trouble for him..."
Filled with guilt, she decided to stop encouraging him to drink more.
Emilia's refusal to continue further did not make Subaru drink less, unfortunately, as Otto had quickly replaced her, almost forcing the alcohol down Subaru's throat and goading the black-haired boy to do embarrassing things that he could exploit later. Garfiel barely paid attention to his Captain, as he and Mimi shared another glass with their arms intertwined. Sadly, Subaru, who told them about this drinking tradition, did not get the chance to do so with Emilia, although not because she found it weird or embarrassing, but because she chose to abstain from drinking for the rest of the evening. When Garfiel did pay attention, he would shout in his support, loudly acclaiming that Subaru was "Da coolest guy evar!". So did Mimi, in that regard, truly the power of Lolimancer at hand.
Even Julius, Reinhard, and Felix had gotten involved.
Felix quickly became drunk in attempt to drown out the feelings of self-hatred for allowing Crusch to become infected by cursed dragon blood, and having no clear way to treat her from it. At least Subaru could help, but that did not felt good either. In his opinion they were indebted to Emilia Camp way too much already (they cooperated quite a lot in the past year) and having someone else's knight treat Crusch's affliction felt incredibly humiliating to the one who was commonly called the greatest healer in all Lugunica.
The former two were simply curious about how a drunken Subaru would act. Subaru was rather eccentric normally, so how would he act when alcohol was thrown into the mix? Even more eccentric, as it turns out.
Julius was a bit afraid that he would have to duel Subaru again, and given the fact his ladies forgotten him, it would seem that nasty-eyed knight alongside his contracted Great Spirit of Yin would have a lot greater chances than during their mutually embarrassing display at the capital. He still had great chances at winning the theoretical bout, but rather big part of him wanted to give Subaru his victory. The knight still berated himself for treating him poorly back then, he hoped Subaru does consider him his friend, even if a bit begrudgingly. His state was rather unknightly right now, but Felix looked the same way, so Julius did not judge. Besides, plenty of Royal Knights were drunkards as well, and Emilia's knight had to be convinced by the entire party to let loose.
Reinhard was there mostly on insistence from his liege. Although, he was rather concerned for his friend well-being. Right now Subaru was clearly the most inebriated person in the party, outpacing the drinking pace of both Al, Otto, Wilhelm and even Heinkel. The whiskey bottles were a bit smaller than wine bottles, yes, but given alcohol content Subaru clearly drank a lot more liquor. Given what Great Spirit-sama said, he had a hard limit, after which his body and mind would give in. So the Sword Saint chose to stay by his side, so he can at least catch him if that happens.
"Just in case."
"His tolerance is a bit ridiculous, nyah. You think you'll byeat him in a drinking contest, Reinhard?"
"I don't think I am qualified to attend that kind of contest, Felix. I am immune to the effects of alcohol after all…"
Sword Saint was a bid dejected by the atmosphere. He drank a bit, yes, but he was always missing the fun aspect of drinking.
"Yooou're too op maaan!"
With each drink, Subaru steadily complained more and more. The previous power-scaling discussion was still stuck in his head. He had Tella, true, but Return by Death felt like a double-edged sword most of the time.
Sword Saint, in the meantime, was beginning to feel more and more down. From his perspective two of them felt like complete opposites: Subaru was always doing a lot being naturally given very little, while he himself felt like he did very little compared to just how much was given to him.
"I'm not strong, Subaru, all I possess are nothing but tricks."
He did not mean "strong", as in physically strong ("Being a monster, I have that in spades."), but rather "strong", as in being able to protect those that couldn't protect themselves. It was his biggest issue, even the kingdom, where he lived, restricted what he can do, whom he can assist. Technically, the day he helped Subaru in protecting Lady Emilia he violated several rules in doing so, but given he helped to save two Royal Candidates that day, no one took notice. It was the main reason he served Lady Felt, so he can lend his hand to whomever needs it, once the old rules are dismantled. Although, in that case, he would like to just have a peaceful, idyllic life somewhere far away from the chaos of cities.
"I can't even pull my sword Reid out, unless it deems its opponent worthy, see?"
Reinhard tried to draw his sword to show him the impossibility of said action. The scabbard moved with it, almost as if they were fused together, making it impossible to retrieve the blade inside. At least he could still bash with it.
"It rarely deems anyone worthy, but I guess I should be happy about it. After all, the people who can get it to react tend to be incredibly troublesome individuals."
The fact that Reid rarely deemed anyone worthy also meant that there wasn't anyone who could be a great threat to the well-being of the world and that, from Sword Saint's point of view, was a good thing. ("Albeit, that logic is not flawless either, as people like Regulus Corneas and Elsa Granhiert, despite their troubling nature, were not considered worthy. Still I prefer to think that my efforts were not needed in subjugating monsters like these, and someone else could have accomplished it better than I ever can. Like Natsuki Subaru and Garfiel Tinzel.") Reinhard, knowing his monstrous nature, did not believe he was worthy to stand against someone that threatened the entire world. Unlike his friend, who would probably find a lot more use of this "gift", if he had it.
"Hooold up! Let me try!"
For a second Sword Saint thought Subaru read his mind. In truth, no one asked him something like that. He hesitated for a moment before shrugging his shoulders and detaching the sheath from his suit once more.
"What's the worst that could happen?" You have no idea.
"Sure, Subaru, here."
Subaru approached Reinhard (bumping into a leg of another table yet again on the way there) and grabbed the handle of the sword. As soon as he placed his hand upon the blade, Subaru's eyes widened slightly. For some reason, the handle felt somewhat familiar to him, as if something deep within his soul knew already what he was doing. It reminded him of Satella. This was similar to the odd affection that he felt when he first met her face to face a year ago. Or maybe it was like what he felt recently – another missing piece of himself?
"I tell you, Reid, this is gonna be the funniest prank ever!"
Thinking nothing of it Subaru began to pull.
Instantly Reinhard heard an all too familiar sound, a sound that he never thought his ears would pick especially in this situation: the soft click of the scabbard allowing the swordsman to unsheathe the blade within. Reinhard's surprise was so great that, for a moment, his shock became visible on his otherwise always inscrutable face. Similarly shocked, were two others, who personally witnessed that blade being wielded just a few days ago: for the first it was against his wife, for the second – against his mother.
"Subaruuu, you dunderhead! Stop embarrassing... me..."
Emilia stopped her scolding immediately, her eyes wide in complete disbelief as she began to realize the unbelievable scene playing out in front of her.
At first, everyone ignored Subaru's antics, expecting him to fall on his ass as he would try and fail to pull out the fabled Dragon Sword. However, in a move that would change the course of history forever, something truly incredible happened before them. Under the eyes of everyone in the room, the sword started to exit its scabbard. At that moment everyone's minds went blank from the sheer impossibility of the action happening in front of them. Even the drunken Al, ever-playful Felix, nerdy Julius and even Garfiel and Mimi (who grew preoccupied with one another during the initial commotion) could only stop and stare in disbelief. Even Heinkel, previously in a drunken stupor, woken up completely sober with his jaw hanging wide open. The room became utterly silent. The tension was so thick it could have been cut with a knife. With a final grunt, Subaru pulled the Reid out, ignoring the stunned reactions of everyone around him.
"Huh, I feel like King Arthur after he pulled out the Excalibur."
There was smug grin on Subaru's face. Of course, only Al understood the reference.
The weapon in his hands was an epitome of perfection. Its blade was so clean that even dust refused to settle on it. The edge glowed faintly, reflecting the light coming from mana crystals placed around the room. The air surrounding it whistled as it moved, humming a melody of death to whomever faced the wielder.
With a swift motion, too swift for what was expected from him, Subaru turned around to the recent offender – a table he just recently bumped into, raised a blade and with a single swoosh… turned entirety of said table, alongside all its contents, into a pile of fine dust. It was a perfect strike, the technique was so clean, that even Reinhard himself completely approved it. It looked like for a brief moment he achieved true perfection, worthy of the Sword God's blessing. It reminded himself of his own blow against the Bowel Hunter a year ago. Unlike himself, however, who blew up the loot house, but failed to kill the intended target, Subaru was a lot more merciless, his strike way more concentrated on the objective, leaving almost nothing left from his "mortal enemy".
"And fuck you too, table. I swear these things are worse than Julius."
If Julius wasn't paralyzed by the event he would have probably been hurt by those words.
"Ha! I knew you were bullshiting, Rein!"
"Woah, Envy, look how cool he is!"
Back in her Garden Satella squeaked like giddy schoolgirl watching her crush showing off. In truth, that assessment is somewhat correct.
At the party there was a moment of silence. Some people looked at the blade in his hand, some at the pile of dust where the unfortunate table used to be, but no one ushered a word. Subaru looked around, utterly confused.
"Wha- why are you so quiet all of a sudden? Iiis something on my face?"
He touched his face, leaning on Reid as if it was some worthless stick and not the legendary weapon revered by the entire world that it was. If Reid Astrea had been here he would have certainly approved. As everyone continued to stare, he opened a cork of another bottle of whiskey and begun drinking it straight from the bottle. After downing about half in one go, he stopped, placing a still open bottle back with a loud thud.
And so in her reckless greed Great Spirit Echidna just unleashed the full power of the black-eyed knight, thus changing flow of history forevermore.
Author comment: Disclaimer: No tables were harmed during production of this fanfic.