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This Is It

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Roswaal's voice sliced through the chilly air, smooth and lilting, with those exaggerated vowels that seemed to stretch on forever. He paced slowly, hands behind his back, his eyes gleaming with an almost sinister mix of fascination and amusement. "Emilia-samaaa," he began, voice rising and falling as though he was narrating some kind of ghost story, "we are now entering the world of… manaaa manipulation."

Subaru forced a tight smile, trying to ignore the creeping feeling that she was sitting in on an extremely high-stakes magic lecture, one where a single wrong answer might accidentally blow up a castle. She glanced over at Puck, who was lounging comfortably on her shoulder with a smirk. "Yep, got it," she muttered, not entirely sure if she did get it. She could practically feel the aura of mystery Roswaal was conjuring around them. But, hey—how hard could it be?

"Now, Emilia-sama, your manaaa is not quite the same as a mere human's," Roswaal continued, tapping a long, elegant finger against his chin as though this fact was of utmost importance. "Your gate, the channel through which your mana flows, is… special," he said, stretching the word so long Subaru thought he'd forget to finish it.

"Special?" Subaru echoed, forcing a hint of enthusiasm into her voice. "Well, that sounds… promising?" She looked to Puck for backup, but he just snickered, clearly enjoying her struggle.

Roswaal's eyes narrowed as he studied her, as if trying to read the secrets of the universe on her face. "Your gate," he said, as if speaking of some sacred relic, "is more delicate, more refined, shall we say? Half-elfs, like yooou, handle mana in a uniquely sensitive way. It's not brute force, nooo. You must gently coax the mana, lure it, guide it through the gate with care."

Subaru nodded, feigning understanding. "Right… coaxing. Luring. I'm on it." In her head, she was already planning on asking Puck later.

Roswaal raised his hand and, with a graceful flick of his wrist, summoned a small, pulsing ball of fire. It floated just above his palm, a perfect sphere of concentrated heat and light. "Observe, Emilia-samaaa," he said in a theatrical whisper, "this is the most basic of all spells—the fireball."

Subaru watched, wide-eyed, as the flame flickered and danced in his hand. She could feel the heat radiating off of it, making her even more nervous about trying it herself. "Fireball, huh?" she muttered, holding out her hand. "How hard can it be?"

"Foooocus, my dear," Roswaal crooned, his voice sliding through the air like silk. "Summon your mana, guide it through the gate, feel it flowing, like a river, a gentle stream… until it becomes… fire."

She closed her eyes, focusing on her hand, trying to picture that "gentle stream" Roswaal was going on about. She concentrated, drew on every ounce of willpower she had… and, miraculously, a tiny spark flickered to life in her palm.

Roswaal's eyes widened in delight, and he clapped his hands together. "Oh, my, how wonderful, Emilia-samaaa! Such skill, such talent!"

Subaru grinned, glancing down at the flame with wide eyes. Maybe Emilia's muscle memory is actually helping me here, she thought, amazed at her own luck. Or maybe I'm just a natural firebender. She chuckled to herself, feeling proud for all of two seconds.

Puck, lounging on her shoulder, gave her an amused look. "Lia… don't you already know this stuff?" His tone was playful, but there was a flicker of concern in his eyes.

Subaru froze, her heart skipping a beat as she scrambled for an excuse. "Uh… yeah, kinda? I may have lost a few memories, though?" She tried to play it off with a sheepish grin, hoping he'd buy it.

Puck's expression softened, and he reached out to give her a reassuring nudge. "If anything's wrong, you know you can tell me, right?"

She nodded quickly, brushing it off. "I'm good, Puck, promise. Just, uh, a littttle rusty." She shot him a quick smile before returning her focus to Roswaal, who had that look again, like he was about to dive into some ancient wizardry.

They spent hours in the courtyard, Roswaal's voice drifting through the air like a low chant as he lectured her on the finer details of mana manipulation, gates, and the delicate art of spellcasting. Subaru's head was spinning, overloaded with details about flow control, element affinity, and why exactly the gate had to be handled "like a porcelain teacup filled with lava." She wasn't sure she fully understood it all, but the sun was setting, and she had the basics down—at least in theory.

Finally, Roswaal raised an eyebrow, a glint of curiosity in his mismatched eyes. "Would you care to… demonstrate? Show me something a bit more… advanced, hmm?"

Subaru's eyes sparkled with excitement, and she quickly nodded. "I thought you'd never aaaask!"

She closed her eyes, feeling the mana swirling within her like a river of cold water, rushing and powerful. She focused on her hand, channeling the energy, gathering it into a compact, spinning vortex of frost mana. The chill spread through her hand, turning her skin cold as ice as she opened her eyes to admire the shimmering, swirling ball of energy in her grasp.

"Alright!" she shouted, aiming at the sky as a name bubbled up in her mind. "Schneesturm!"

The icy vortex shot from her hand like a bullet, spiraling upward with a blinding speed. The sky darkened as the spell climbed higher, and higher… then exploded in a flash of frosty blue light, sending a sparkling cascade of ice shards glittering through the air.

For a few seconds, there was complete silence as they all stared up at the sky, now filled with thick, dark clouds.

Subaru blinked, glancing over at Roswaal. "Uh… did I do it right?"

Then, like an ominous foreshadowing, snow began to fall, gently at first, then heavier and faster until it was a full-blown blizzard. The temperature plummeted, and a frigid wind whipped through the courtyard.

"Uhh…," Subaru muttered, her eyes darting around. "Did I… overdo it?"

And as if the weather gods decided to answer her question directly, thick chunks of ice began to descend, crashing down like jagged little meteors. One particularly large shard came hurtling down and—

Thwack!

It smacked right into Ram, who had just stepped outside, looking entirely unamused. Her face contorted in a mix of shock and annoyance as she staggered, her lips quivering as frost clung to her eyelashes. She fell on her knees, clutching her red, swelling forehead.

"Nee-sama!" Rem came sprinting out of nowhere, practically throwing herself at her sister. She spun to face Subaru, blue eyes blazing with an intensity that could freeze a volcano. "Emilia-sama… what did you do to my sister?!"

Subaru took a step back, hands up defensively, shooting a desperate look to Puck, who floated between her and Rem, his expression equal parts exasperated and entertained. "Whoa, whoa!" Puck said, his normally playful eyes narrowed. "Are you accusing my sweet, innocent daughter of some kind of attack?"

Rem looked torn, her gaze shifting between her sister, who was shivering like a drenched kitten, and Subaru, who was doing her best to look like she hadn't just unleashed a miniature ice age on the manor.

Meanwhile, Roswaal strolled over with his usual unsettlingly cheerful expression, unaffected by the sudden blizzard. He flicked his fingers, dispelling the frost that clung to Ram, who let out a relieved sigh and sagged into Rem's arms.

"W-why is Emilia-sama trying to murder THIS poor innocent Ram?" she muttered, lips blue from the cold.

"Oh my, oh my, Emilia-samaaa~," Roswaal drawled, his voice filled with bemusement as he leaned down to Subaru's level, his eyes gleaming with mirth. "It appears you've… accidentally brought winter a few months early."

Subaru blinked, her brain scrambling to process what just happened. "Uh… sorry?"

Roswaal chuckled, patting her shoulder in a way that was somehow both comforting and unnerving. "And I doooon't think this is going to help your already sliiightly questionable reputation~."

"Huh?!" Subaru yelped, her face flushed with embarrassment as she turned to Puck, who only shrugged, looking just as entertained as the rest of them.

Up in the window of the manor, Beatrice watched the chaos unfold with a smirk, sipping her tea as she murmured, "This is… getting quite entertaining, I suppose."

Û~Û

Subaru sat by her window, watching the snow come down in thick, relentless sheets, burying the world in a heavy silence. Each flake floated down like a quiet taunt, piling up higher and higher, turning the manor grounds into a bleak, frozen wasteland. A true winter wonderland… but Subaru knew, deep down, that she'd brought on this nightmare. Her big "Schneesturm" moment had turned into a disaster that made her shiver just to think about it.

Outside, the villagers slogged through the snow, huddling in layers of every thick garment they owned. She could practically hear their teeth chattering from here, their curses probably lost in the howling wind as they stumbled through the makeshift winter. They looked like bundled-up potatoes more than people, tripping over their own feet in the cold they never signed up for. Subaru winced, ducking back behind her curtain as if that could make the guilt go away.

Meanwhile, she had the audacity to sit warm and cozy inside her room, not even feeling the chill, all thanks to Puck's magical fluff of warmth. She rubbed her arms, shame burning hotter than any fire spell. Even Roswaal—the peacock himself, normally draped in extravagant colors like he thought he was a carnival float—had bundled up in a ridiculous fur-lined coat to go reassure the villagers. Subaru imagined him out there, probably spinning some wildly over-the-top story about how "Our beloved Emilia-sama is simply working on some seasonal magic, you seeeee!"—all to cover up the fact that she'd practically dropped the Ice Age on them by accident.

"Woooonderful," she muttered, sinking lower in her chair. "Everyone else is shivering their butts off, and I'm sitting here like some clueless little winter witch."

The room felt heavy, each gust of wind outside a reminder of her accidental spell gone wrong. But she had bigger things to worry about than frostbitten villagers and Ram sneezing in a miserable little heap. Tonight was the night. That night. The one that had haunted her through every loop, where she'd felt that cold, creeping dread. The night the assassin had struck, silent as a shadow, merciless and swift. But this time, she wasn't defenseless. This time, she'd come prepared. Sort of.

After endless hours with Roswaal, she'd filled her head with spells that sounded more like some ancient foreign curse than practical magic. The names didn't mean much to her, so she'd improvised, coming up with names she could actually remember in the heat of the moment. Her little mental arsenal:

Fireball. Simple, straightforward, and hopefully not aimed at anyone she liked.

Great Fireball. Same idea, but bigger, angrier, and with more "oomph."

Lightning Spear. When she needed to make things flashy.

Frost Coffin. Her personal creation, meant to freeze her enemy in a glittering ice trap.

And finally… Schneesturm. Yeah, that one was off the table. Last thing she needed was to turn the manor into the North Pole again.

She could've asked Puck to stick around and help her out, but the little guy clocked out at 5 p.m. sharp like he was union-bound— a nine to five middle-aged strict routine-following salary man. So if she wanted any hope of surviving the night, she'd have to do it on her own.

Subaru glanced at the enchanted dagger beside her bed, its blade glowing with a faint shimmer of mana. Not exactly a master weapon, but it was something. She gulped, feeling her heartbeat quicken as evening crept into night.

She had killed her parents, but she couldn't let this half-elf die because of her uselessness.

Dinner passed in an odd, tense quiet, everyone bundled up in every piece of winter clothing they could scrounge up. Rem shot her a frosty look—no pun intended—her cheeks flushed with frustration as she spooned soup into Ram's mouth, her sister sneezing and shivering in a heavy blanket. Every time Ram looked up, her gaze practically shrieked, "Emilia-sama, you're the reason I'm drowning in a flu blanket right now!" It wasn't like Subaru could apologize without spilling the truth, so she stayed quiet, pretending her soup was incredibly interesting.

After dinner, she excused herself early, slipping away to her room. Every creak of the floorboard seemed louder, each shadow stretching a little too long. Her grip tightened around the dagger's handle as she crawled into bed, trying to calm her nerves. She lay there, pretending to be asleep, her heart thudding louder than she liked, her eyes barely closed.

Hours passed, inching along in an agonizing crawl. Every so often, she'd hold her breath, thinking she'd heard footsteps, only for the silence to stretch on, leaving her even more paranoid. She kept her eyes half-shut, just enough to peek through her lashes.

And still, she waited… and waited…

Her breathing began to slow, her hand loosening around the dagger's handle as her mind drifted. The silence wrapped around her like a thick blanket, pulling her under despite her best efforts to stay alert. Eventually, her eyelids drooped, her heartbeat steadied, and sleep swallowed her whole.

The night crept on, silent, unnervingly still, with nothing but the faint hum of winter's chill in the air.

The assassin never came.

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Û~Û

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Author Note: Make a guess why.

Thanks for reading this chapter. The next chapter will be released depending on your responses.

Drop your thoughts in the review section. Your words motivate me to write better, larger and with more depth.

Till next time!