There was an elephant in the room that needed to be addressed. Naturally, that elephant was Elsa Granhiert.
Being the target of an assassin was already a terrifying prospect in itself, but the fact she gained personal satisfaction from disemboweling people added a certain level of horror that couldn't quite properly be described, especially when considering her target this time around was none other than my Lady, Emilia.
In the story of Re:Zero, she was the first true antagonist that Subaru ever faced, and what an antagonist she was. She delivered him his first death, shattering his hopes and dreams of the standard isekai fantasy, kickstarting the recurring theme of returning by death, really beginning the entire story as a whole. As the title card states, the end of the beginning, the beginning of the end.
She was responsible for killing Subaru twice in the First Arc, even making a surprise appearance during Arc 4 for her third and final kill before she departed from the story. Quite frankly, despite the fact I was confident in my strength, the thought of fighting such a nefarious individual made my hairs stand on end. For example, though I was clearly more powerful than a large house spider, when I saw that creepy thing crawling around, it still made my blood freeze.
And yet, despite saying that, I actually didn't dislike Elsa Granhiert, not in the slightest. Though it seemed contradictory for a knight like myself to sympathize with a serial killing assassin, I couldn't help my own feelings.
Her childhood was absolutely miserable, and quite frankly, I couldn't even begin to imagine what it must have been like as a child, trying to survive on the lonely, frigid streets of Gusteko.
Beyond that, despite being someone who gains great enjoyment from seeing the bowels of others, it was clear she had her merits too. Her relationship with Meili was genuinely heartwarming, and the fact she even had hobbies like the knitting that she did in between her assassination missions added another level of humanity to her that I simply couldn't ignore. The fact I felt saddened by her death despite the fact she killed the main protagonist three times spoke volumes of her character.
Nonetheless, those were the sentiments of someone who consumed the entertainment from behind the screen as a viewer. I was no longer a viewer, but a participant, the knight of Lady Emilia.
As such, considering Elsa had ill intentions towards my Lady, there was unfortunately no room for sympathies.
From the moment I arrived in this world, it was simply impossible for me to follow the same path as Subaru. Subaru's main ability was Return by Death, allowing him to use loops to gather information until he eventually gathered all the keys to create the perfect victory. On the other hand, my abilities were my overwhelming physical power, as well as the knowledge of the routes trodden by Subaru.
Because of these two powers, it was simply impossible for me to follow the same path as Subaru, as quite frankly, he had already laid out the groundwork for me and suffered to bring me the information necessary to achieve the best possible endings.
To be honest, I felt incredibly guilty towards Subaru. He experienced excruciating mental and physical suffering to extract all this information from his different routes, and here I was using them for free. Yet at the same time, it wasn't like I could ignore the danger those around me were in due to guilt, that would be utterly ridiculous. The only consolation was that at least in this timeline, Subaru didn't have to suffer the mental and physical agony this world wrought upon him.
The first small change I made was to prematurely return the Insignia to Lady Emilia. Naturally, I also had to make sure Reinhard was aware of Lady Felt's presence, not just to save Lady Felt and Rom, but to also save Reinhard. But undeniably, in doing so, I had inadvertently made Lady Emilia the primary target of the Bowel Hunter, Elsa Granhiert.
After all, Elsa was a professional assassin, and she had her pride. She wouldn't simply give up on a request over something so insignificant. No, she surely wouldn't rest until she had obtained the Insignia from Lady Emilia.
This, of course, was considerably worrying, however, at the same time, I wasn't overly concerned. Though I was not the legitimate King Arthur, there was no denying the power I currently possessed was his. The power of that Legendary King. Whilst I admit that Elsa is an incredibly powerful combatant in her own right, there was simply too large a gap in raw stats between the two of us for me to be seriously concerned about my life.
With that being said, it also depended on how I chose to fight Elsa. For example, if I was in the proximity of Lady Emilia, especially inside a building, it would put me at an incredible disadvantage, as not only would I have to protect Lady Emilia from Elsa, but also myself.
The destruction caused by a rampaging servant was not something to joke about, just look at when my altered self and Heracles fought. Rin, Shirou and Illya, who are competent magus in their own right, were nearly taken out by the shockwaves alone. At that time, they were over a hundred meters away, let alone right next to her.
Though I doubted I would need to use such a level of power to deal with Elsa, it was undeniable that depending on the circumstances, fighting with Elsa could be dangerous for all the wrong reasons. If I accidentally harmed Emilia during my battle with Elsa, I'm genuinely not sure I would be able to forgive myself.
I needed a few hundred meters of space between myself and Elsa, and Emilia. The issue was, since Lady Emilia was the target, that would be incredibly difficult to achieve.
Without her cooperation that is.
When I first considered my inevitable battle with Elsa, I had considered it from my perspective, what course of actions would benefit me the most?
Then I realized that since my goal was to simply not die, it really didn't matter how I fought her.
So then, considering the fact I was now Lady Emilia's knight and her loyal servant, I then started to consider how fighting Elsa could best benefit Lady Emilia.
Lady Emilia's goals were pretty transparent. She wanted to win public support, gain the Kingdom's throne, using the blood of the dragon to save her people, then create a kingdom of equality. It was a beautiful ideal. An ideal I had no problems wielding my sword for.
Then, how could my fight with Elsa best assist Lady Emilia in achieving her goals? I started to think about this, and it became my primary focus.
The first answer that came to my mind was that I could just beat up Elsa then let Lady Emilia take the credit, thus giving her an incredibly strong start in the Royal Selection. After all, Elsa was so notorious that even Reinhard was aware of her identity. By making it public knowledge that Emilia's knight had subdued her, it would create quite the positive reception amongst the citizens.
It was precisely this train of thought that led me to realize a rather grave issue. If I wasn't careful, my loyalty towards Lady Emilia and my overwhelming strength could do her far more harm than good.
The character development of the people in this world was one of the reasons that my viewer-self fell in love with the world of Re:Zero, and Lady Emilia's first major character arc was about learning to be independent and gaining self-confidence, having always been dependent on others.
Even though she participated in all the major events alongside Subaru during Arc's 1-3, in the Lugunican Papers, Priscilla, Anastasia and Julius all claimed that despite that fact, the victories reflected more on her knight than herself, which, well, was technically true.
Then there was me, the incredibly powerful Arthur Pendragon. The individuals that made me genuinely worried for my life in this world could be counted on one or two hands. Most likely, I could deal with 99% of the threats sent her way. This was not arrogance on my part, but a trust in the Divine Construct that rested at my side, waiting to be drawn.
But if I just dealt with all the threats that were posed to Lady Emilia, not only would she not develop as an individual, she would most likely regress.
In short, by using my overwhelming strength to protect her, I would be sacrificing her dreams and ideals in the process, and considering how beautiful her ideal was, I could think of no greater sin, no more abhorrent use of the blessed opportunity fate has presented me.
So, it was key that instead of simply defeating Emilia's opponents for her, I needed to use each opponent as a stepping stone to both promote Lady Emilia as a candidate of the Royal Selection, as well as increase her confidence, so that the papers don't state the Lady Emilia's victories reflect more on her knight than herself, but instead, praise Lady Emilia for her victories.
To be honest, that sounded incredibly difficult, but as Subaru himself had proved many times over, the happy ending is never easy to achieve.
After we parted ways with Reinhard, we headed deeper into the Royal Palace, meeting one of the people in charge of presiding over the Royal Selection, a young lady. She would be in charge of formally registering Lady Emilia as a candidate for this Royal Selection.
To be honest, considering the extreme prejudice citizens of this world held towards Emilia's silver-hair and half-elf lineage, I had expected some derision from the staff member in charge of registering her as a candidate to potentially rule the entire kingdom, but upon seeing my smile, she simply nodded her head and went along with everything Lady Emilia said.
I originally thought this was because King Arthur was just handsome, but on second thought, it might have actually been my B-Ranked Skill, Charisma. This was something worth thinking about. Perhaps this passive skill of mine might just be one of the key factors to changing the public opinion regarding Lady Emilia.
Either way, after Lady Emilia had finished talking to her, the staff member walked off into the interior of the palace for roughly an hour. Perhaps others would've been bored half to death, but for me, well, I actually quite enjoyed it. Not only did it give me enough time to have my lengthy monologue, it also gave me time to properly plan out my plan of action in regards to Elsa.
In short, I had to subtly guide Lady Emilia, Sir Puck and Miss Ram into realizing the dangerous situation they were in, then, once we reached that step, the four of us together could make use of our different expertise to formulate the optimum strategy in dealing with Elsa.
Naturally, I could simply tell Lady Emilia that she was in danger, but the problem was, Sir Puck was an empath who could detect lies. If he asked me how I knew that, unless I said 'I saw it in the anime' and gave everyone in this world an existential crisis, he wouldn't believe me, and would only grow more and more suspicious of me, perhaps even suspecting I'm in cahoots with Elsa.
Subaru had shown me time and time again that in this world, simply stating what would happen without providing a proper explanation of how or why it would happen would only lead to people becoming incredibly distrustful of you.
Ideally, it would be best if Lady Emilia herself realized she was in danger. Although she was a little naïve, she definitely wasn't an idiot. As long as I brought certain facts to her attention, she would surely put the pieces of the puzzle together.
The member of staff soon came back out to inform Lady Emilia that she had been formally registered as a candidate of the Royal Election, and I took the moment to approach her, "Miss, having recently arrived here in this kingdom, I'm ignorant regarding certain matters, so, if you don't mind, could I ask some questions regarding the Royal Selection, even at the risk of making myself look foolish?"
The young lady nodded her head happily in response, "Please, don't worry at all, Sir Knight, I would be happy to address any concerns you might have regarding the Royal Selection, after all, this is my job."
"Am I correct in assuming that the candidates selected thus far, especially Lady Emilia who has only just registered, have not been publicly announced?"
"That's correct, sir." She nodded her head in response, whilst Emilia just looked at me slightly curious, slightly confused, wondering what was going on.
"And one final question, please. Is the existence of the Insignias used to identify the Priestesses public knowledge?"
"The existence of the Insignia's will be made known to the public at the same time the candidates for the Royal Selection are announced." She responded back with a smile.
"Hm, I see. Thank you for answering my nonsensical questions." I made a polite bow towards the young lady, turning my gaze towards Lady Emilia who was seemingly deep in ponder. Was I too obvious?
Nonetheless, with my questions having been answered, matters at the Royal Palace finally concluded, and Lady Emilia was now officially registered as the Fourth Candidate of the Royal Selection.
Exiting the Royal Palace, the sun had already sunk beneath the depths of the horizon, and a blanket of darkness had unfurled across the sky, forming a starry, midnight tapestry that hung overhead.
"Lady Emilia-" Ram called out to the silver-haired Princess who had her eyes glued to the pavement.
"Ah!" Emilia gave a slight cry of shock, looking towards Ram nervously, "W-What is it, Ram?"
Ram blinked in confusion before addressing her, "Forgive me for speaking out of turn, but quite frankly, it's far too late to head back to the Mansion. Lady Emilia, I recommend we rest at Lord Roswaal's guesthouse for the night then set off for the Mansion in the morning. How would you feel about that?"
"Uhhhh… that sounds sensible to me. Sir Arthur, what do you think?" Emilia turned to me, seemingly genuinely curious about my insight on the matter. It was a small touch on her part, but it made me feel like a genuine member of the camp despite being the newest addition.
"No matter the world, travelling during the day is always safer than travelling at night, Lady Emilia. I agree with Miss Ram." I responded back with a gentle smile on my face.
"Alright, then it's settled." Emilia clasped her hands nervously, looking rather pensive, "Ram, please escort us to the guesthouse."
"It would be my honor, Lady Emilia." Ram raised her eyebrow curiously at Emilia's strange behavior, but took the driver's seat, nonetheless.
I helped Emilia into the carriage and took my seat opposite her, closing my eyes and resting for a bit, now and again opening them to peek at Emilia, who was holding her chin, looking out the window, watching the world go by with a look of deep ponder. All she needed was an overcoat and a pipe then she really would look every bit the part of an ace detective.
"Is something the matter, Lady Emilia?" I asked with a small smile about me.
"Uh…" Emilia turned her worried gaze to me, kneading her hands together nervously, "About that…"
"It's fine, Lady Emilia. You're my Master, and I'm your Servant. You can speak whatever is on your mind." I looked at her with clear eyes.
"Well, this may sound reeeally strange, Sir Arthur… but I have a feeling my life might be in grave danger." Emilia spoke with serious eyes, and I let out a small sigh of relief inwardly. It seemed my objective had been achieved. I expected no less from my Master.
"Uhm, Lia – what the heck are you talking about?" Puck let out a yawn as he popped out of her hair, "What do you mean your life is in grave danger? Are you trying to give me a heart attack?"
"It's not fair to talk about it without Ram." Emilia said sternly, "Once we return to the guesthouse, we'll have the first official meeting of the Emilia Camp. Is that okay with you, Sir Arthur?" Emilia turned to me, looking at me with her glimmering amethyst orbs.
"That sounds delightful, Lady Emilia." I smiled faintly, but at the same time, I couldn't help but feel that something was not quite right. A magical immortal being subtly guiding a naïve youth from the shadows towards Queenship in order to save her people… why did that seem so familiar? I had a feeling my own character development was heading in a dangerous direction, and I would have to be sure to tread carefully if I wanted to avoid ending up like my adoptive mother in the future, as nothing could possibly be worse.
Our carriage continued to drift through the darkened streets, vaguely illuminated by the dull streetlamps, until we eventually reached the mansion belonging to the Mathers family in the Noble Quarters.
It must be said, it was quite the large mansion. Though it was not quite comparable to the properties belonging to the Karsten and Astrea families, it was still incredibly impressive.
With just a single look, I could spot roughly a hundred windows, and that was only the front of the building. Seriously, the wealth of these noble families was simply incredible. It cut a truly harsh contrast to the squalor of the slums on the outskirts of the city.
Either way, we parked up outside the large front doors, and I alighted the carriage, offering a hand to Lady Emilia, but instead of gracefully accepting my hand, she grabbed me by the wrist, dragging me towards the door, "Come on Sir Arthur, there's no time to waste, let's head in immediately, I have something reeeally important to discuss with you all."
"Lady Emilia, patience is a virtue, and as a ruler, virtue should be your top priority."
"I'm afraid there's no time for patience, Sir Arthur." Emilia said gravely, turning to the pink-haired maid, "Ram, could you do me a favor and prepare some drinks and snacks whilst we get settled please? I have a feeling this is going to be a long discussion."
"Your wish is my command, Lady Emilia." Ram made a polite bow in response, "Please give me five minutes." And with that, she headed into the doors of the mansion, and our group followed her, heading towards the living room.
Like that, we found ourselves sitting around the large coffee table in the lavish living room, holding onto hot teacups whilst the heartwarming fire crackled beside us. Considering the fact a vicious assassin obsessed with disemboweling people was currently after our guts, I must say, the warm ambience of our meeting room really created a bizarre juxtaposition that I actually didn't dislike. I suppose whether it was Fate or Re:Zero, mystery has always played a key factor, and now I felt like I had become a character in a cozy mystery novel. The adventures of amateur sleuths Arthur Pendragon and Emilia, just Emilia.
"Alright, since everyone has gathered, let's begin the first official meeting of the Emilia Camp!" Emilia stood up and announced, and with that, it was time to put our brains together and formulate the perfect counter strategy for gut-obsessed assassins.
Author's Notes:
First and foremost, to all my readers, allow me to apologize for the delayed chapter! Quite frankly, I just didn't anticipate that I would struggle with this chapter so much!
Though the first three chapters were smooth sailing, I had to rewrite this one 5-6 times before eventually settling on this final version. Though I understand I'm my own worst critic, considering the time and investment that you, the reader, are putting into my story, I want to make sure I deliver the best fanfiction I'm capable of writing.
Regarding this, a few reviewers have rightly pointed out that I should pace myself more to thoroughly plan the story and avoid burnout, and honestly, you're completely correct.
I was too excited at the prospect of finally posting my work and failed to properly pace myself, and after just a few days, I'm already feeling mentally fatigued.
As such, I'll be uploading a new chapter every few days from now on as opposed to daily. Though I understand this means you'll have less chapters, I'm hoping it means that the overall quality will improve, leading to more enjoyable reading experience as a whole.
Either way, that has been Chapter 4! As of posting this, we're on the cusp of reaching 100 followers. Once again, I cannot properly express how happy I am regarding the reception of my fanfiction. To everyone who has followed, favorited, reviewed, or just took the time to take a look at my story, thank you so much, and I really hope I can continue to write a fanfiction you all enjoy!
Sorry for the long author's notes, I just felt that considering the delay for the chapter, I best properly explain myself!
Once again, thank you so much for reading, having a fantastic rest of your weekend!