["Choose?" Rem asked.
"Me, or someone else? Choose." He replied firmly.
Rem looked tearful and heartbroken at the exhausted boy before her.]
Beatrice stared wide-eyed while sobs emitted from her mouth as she fell on the floor and away from the boy.
"Th-Those words, in fact…" She sobbed. "They were supposed to be mine and yours, I suppose." She said in heartbreak.
"He had to ask Rem-san to come with him, huh…" Felix sighed and looked away. "That's just unlucky for him to pick… No one is harsher on him than her, nya."
["Let's get a dragon-drawn carriage and head west. We'll leave Lugunica and go far west to… Kararagi, was it? We'll buy a little house and live there together. Even if bad things happen, I can keep going if you're there. Just having someone waiting at home for me with a smile… No matter how tired I am if I know you're waiting for me, I know… " Subaru choked as his face contorted to one of pleading and desperation.
The boy opened his palm to the maid once again and bowed before her.
"Please choose me! If you choose me, I'll give you all that I have! So please… " Subaru's eyes looked crushed and dark.]
Beatrice wept harder at the parallel as Emilia could no longer breathe from the guilt and fear that this was a true reality where he chose someone else… Someone else could support him more than she ever would.
Rem looked at the screen with a guilty expression…. "Subaru-kun… You really are amazing. To have been through so much… and to go back to try and fix everything no matter what… My hero…"
["Run away with me. Live with me!" Subaru closed his eyes and trembled while keeping his head bowed to the maid.]
"He looks so tired… so defeated…" Frederica pointed out as she watched with a sad expression for the poor boy.
"After what he's been through… I wouldn't blame him if he truly wanted to be dead…" Felt growled as she watched with tears in her eyes as the hero she cherished crumbled because of the cruel world around him.
Reinhard and Julius couldn't help but feel how much of astonishing losers they were that this kid who was their so-called friend was suffering through so many trials and hellish worlds no human could ever be sane after traversing them and yet they could do nothing but watch.
Otto just held his head and breathed heavily. He deserved to die at the cult's hands. He killed his friend, and and left him to die so he could save himself.
Al nodded his head and smiled wide with hope underneath his helmet. "This is the right choice, pal…"
Roswaal tapped his chin and smiled eerily. "So what changed your mind, Subaru-kun?"
[Rem looked at him in shock for a moment…
Her lips then turned upwards softly…
"Subaru-kun…"
The boy slowly looked up at the maid with a hopeful smile.]
Emilia gave her own Rem the stink eye for a moment, earning a glance of confusion from the maid. Emilia remembered the fight they both had before one of the viewings commenced in this arc, where she and Rem disagreed on who would deserve Subaru's love.
Emilia found it more heartbreaking that she was right about Rem deserving Subaru more. How could she not feel such pain… The maid was poised to take away the boy and live with him in the happiest of lifetimes without anything to stop her after Puck removed Emilia from Subaru's vision by making her leave him behind.
She couldn't find it in her heart not to feel a little bit of hatred for the maid…
[Rem had a disappointed look on her face. "I can't run away with you. We're supposed to laugh together as we talk about the future, remember?" The maid smiled warmly at the boy.
"M-Maybe we can't laugh now, but… You know, once we actually get moving, I bet we can-"
"I've thought about it, too."
Subaru's mouth shut as he looked at the Oni with confusion. Rem glanced at the clouds floating above them with a small smile.]
Emilia's eyes widened as she listened to what the girl had said, feeling her animosity suddenly grow weak in her constrained chest.
"H-Huh? Rem?" Emilia looked between her maid and the screen.
"Please just watch, Emilia-sama… You won't be mad at me for much after this." Rem said to the bewildered emotional half-elf who let go of her long legs, making them fall on the carpet as she sat upright in her seat.
["We would arrive in Kararagi, and rent a place to stay. As long as we had a home and work, we would get by somehow. Fortunately, thanks to Roswaal-sama, I've reached an education, so I think I could easily find work, even in Kararagi. You might have to either look for manual labor or take care of things around me." Rem smiled sheepishly at him.]
Rem slowly looked down as many in the cast glanced at her. She had the decency to blush beet red. "Just watch…"
Emilia's puffy and tired eyes looked fearful of the answer as she glanced back to the screen.
Many of the guilt-ridden tearful girls around Subaru began thinking what life would be like if they were in place of Rem and had Subaru waiting for them in the house.
["Once we had a stable income, we could look for a better place to live. You could study in the meantime, for perhaps a year, so that you can find a decent job until you can actually work. We would work together, and once we had enough money, perhaps we could buy a house. Maybe we could even open a shop. Kararagi is a thriving commercial area, after all. I'm sure we could earn a living on one of your fanciful ideas." Rem beamed with happiness and clapped her hands together.]
Anastasia soon felt her painful breathing calm down as she exchanged her guilt with memories of Subaru giving out his ideas to better the world and give her country so many advantages with that smile of his.
The merchant princess smiled a bit.
["And once our jobs were on track… " She hid her face behind her hands, looking embarrassed.
"Um, it's embarrassing to say, but… we could have a child… It would be half-demon and half-human, I'm sure it will be feisty."
"Whether we have a boy or a girl, twins or even triplets, I know they would be adorable." Rem's smile returned with a sad flare.]
Rem blushed deep red as Emilia and Crusch emitted sounds of shock and surprise while Garfiel and Otto couldn't help but give a sad chuckle and feel proud of their brother's score.
"I'm pretty sure they would be just like Natsuki, rash and in need of constant berating to not look like buffoons." Julius couldn't help but snort softly as he found something other than his guilt to focus on.
Rem pouted at the knight. "Mine and Subaru-kun's babies are going to be cute and amazing just like Subaru-kun is."
A pink-haired maid sitting on the top row snorted and smiled in amusement at her sister. Her baby sister.
"You say such silly things when you're a kid, huh? Wanting to have babies with trash, fufuf…" Ram chuckled softly at her sister's sense of humor.
"Your… babies…" Emilia looked down with a disturbed look on her tear-dried face. Her eyes turned soft as she picked the image of a little silver-haired boy with small cute elf ears and brown eyes.
She found her heart clenching as well as a blush so red it contended to be blood.
'D-Do I…. want that to happen?' Emilia pondered to herself as she frowned to the ground.
Taking the risk… Emilia slowly glanced at the boy… the boy she oh so cherished and wanted to love.
The boy she had hurt in so many ways and so many cruel ways, she was surprised no one spat in her face from the cast around her at how incompetent and selfish she had been.
'Even if he loves me… Nothing justifies what I did to him… I don't deserve him… Rem's the one that's always been there to help get him on his feet… that's why he loves her equally as he loves me.'
The half-elf was crying tears of anguish as she saw how inferior her relationship was regarding Rem and Subaru.
["I'm sure it wouldn't be all fun times, and not everything would work out as I imagined it. We might have only daughters and no sons, so you might not feel very proud of your family." Rem looked at him sadly.
"Rem…" Subaru looked at the ground with a defeated expression.
The maid cut him off by waving her arms frantically. "But, but… Even when the children grow up and reach the age where they start to treat you coldly, I'll still be on your side. We'll be famous in the neighborhood as a couple of old love birds, as we take out time spending life together and growing old… " Rem smiled softly at the boy.
"Rem…" Subaru looked at her in astonishment and disbelief.]
"Who wouldn't want that? Such a peaceful and full life." Frederica smiled a little at her usually stoic colleague's smile and compassion.
Petra frowned at it, however.
Wilhelm thought about his life and how regretfully he didn't get his last moments with her beautiful smile. He glanced at his guilt-ridden grandson and couldn't bear to look at him any longer than a second. His failures are too great. His guilt is heavy and his mistakes are numerous.
"I hope you could get your happy ending, Subaru-dono." The old man lowered his head in shame.
["I would feel bad for doing it to you, but I would prefer to die before you, if possible. I want to die quietly, lying on our bed, with your hand in mine, surrounded by our children and their children, and say, 'I was so happy,' as you all look on." Rem smiled softly with a look of fulfillment."I could end my life happily, so happily."]
"That's not a bad way to go…" Felix sniffled and found himself rooting for the maid.
Ram's eyes narrowed… This was a little too extensive for a joke. "Ram's sister won't die without her by the bedside! I'm not letting sister's children be raised by a monkey-like Barusu alone, he'd harm himself trying to get them out of the crib."
[Subaru stood rigid with shock. "If you… If you want it that badly, then… " He trembled with confused and tearful eyes.
"If you could wish for that future with a smile, I would be truly happy to die that way," Rem explained with a warm smile.
Subaru sniffed in desperation.
"As long as I could live with you… Just knowing that you want me with you when you run away makes me happy from the bottom of my heart." Rem blushed fiercely and bowed her head humbly.
"But I can't. Because I know that if we run away together now, I would be leaving behind the Subaru-kun that I love most."
"Subaru-kun, please tell me what happened."
The boy sniffled.
"If you can't, please trust me. I swear I'll do something to make it right."
Image of her twisted body hanging in the air inside a dark cave.
Subaru shook his head.]
Rem mirrored the rest of the cast's reactions as everyone grimaced and closed their eyes in pity.
"Subaru-kun…" She had no idea he was feeling this way when she talked with him. He was suffering through so much on his own. "I'm sorry Subaru-kun…" Rem shook her head and looked at the ground in sadness for her hero.
Petra could only tear up at the sight of Rem's body. It had only been a second but she could see what the screen showed which made her think a bit more about her earlier outburst, rethinking Rem's sacrifice and the effort the maid took to keep Subaru alive.
The little maid found herself a little bit less tense in clutching her maid uniform at the hem.
Heinkel however looked away after seeing that imagery. "Holy fucking shit… What the actual fuck was that… The kid went through somethin' so fucked?!"
"He did indeed," Reinhard took no pleasure in the disgust on his father's face. "He had to die many times to be this defeated, father… The power doesn't make him a monster, it only serves to show how human he is to anyone who thinks the opposite."
"... Fuck off." Heinkel tried to wave him off but his arms were still being held in place. "I get that the kid's a loser with a curse. I don't think I'm that stupid to blame 'em for what he was given."
Reinhard found himself glaring a bit at the muttering from his father's begrudging feelings. His grip was tighter than before on the man's wrist.
["But for now, at least, we should go back. If we take our time and consider things calmly, maybe we'll find a different answer."
Image of Puck towering over him as the snowstorm picked up.]
Emilia's head turned away at the image, unable to show her disgust openly toward her father's face.
"Bubby…" Beatrice closed her eyes, not trying to see her brother after so much cruelty had been done to her contractor.
["I've already agonized over this. I've thought about it. I've suffered. That's why I gave up." Subaru closed his eyes and hung his head low in defeat.]
"He's...Scared." Garfiel looked down with a furious and saddened gaze that he had to see his captain suffer so much until he was forced to give in. "Cap'n isn't as tough as mine's amazing self… " The blonde boy trembled and shook his head as the tears fell. "But he can't give up like this! Raise yer head! Cap'n!" Garfiel shouted in anguish and heartbreak.
Emilia held a hand to her heart for the trauma Subaru had accumulated because of her and her lousy spirit.
["It's easy to give up, but…" Rem whispered to him softly.
Subaru slowly raised his head and stared Rem in the eye with a disturbed expression. His fists clenched.
"It's easy to give up?" He repeated emotionlessly, looking clenching his fist.
"Subaru-kun?" Rem asked, looking worried.]
"I didn't mean it…" Rem flinched immediately as she now understood how much Subaru was dealing with and how hard he'd tried to save all of them.
"She had no right to say that." Schult was the one to say this from beside Priscilla, bringing more eyes toward him.
"He's not going to take that well… It wasn't easy for him at all." Tivey shook his head and watched the scene with an expression of sadness.
"There's nothing you could do in such a situation, Rem." Emilia tried to offer the maid a small comfort in that she saw the blame Rem was putting on herself. "Don't forget that no one could read him well to understand what he was going through."
Rem pursed her lips together, understanding that Emilia was unintentionally putting distance between her and Subaru.
["Don't give me that! There's nothing easy about giving up!" Subaru choked out and screamed.
"You think I'm just doing nothing, thinking about nothing, cutting myself off from everything, and that's all it took to give up?!"
Time he died in the mansion.
The time he faced Betelgeuse.
The time he begged for help from a disappointed Crusch.]
Everybody had varied expressions of sadness and pity for the boy.
Rem held her hero's shirt tightly. Her tears blurring the screen within her eyes. "I never understood why you looked like that…" The maid whispered as her heart broke. "I never knew how much torture… You went through."
["It was not easy to give up! It was so much easier for me to think there was something I could do! But there's nothing I can do!"
The image of Rem dying in his arms after she freed him from his shackles.
"There's no way out!"]
"Oh hell…" Heinkel grimaced and looked away. "That girl's too fuckin' strong to be human…"
"She's not. She's an Oni." Reinhard muttered under his breath, still having his forlorn expression as he watched while holding his father down.
"Explains a lot… What a tough bunch…" Heinkel sighed to himself as he looked at the boy's face once again. "He needs to leave and fuck off."
"He won't," Reinhard replied defensively.
"O'course a monster like you wouldn't understand how it feels to be human and under that much failure."
Reinhard did all he could to stop squeezing his father's wrists and glared at the screen once more.
[Subaru sobbed as the image of Emilia's dead body after he killed her played.]
The half-elf and little spirit watched with agony invading their expressions.
"He shouldn't have lived through any of that, in fact," Beatrice said with a downward look away from the screen.
"I didn't mean to hurt you this much… I'm so sorry… Subaru…" Emilia whispered into her leg as she raised her knee closer to her chest while watching the screen above.
["The only path everything leads up to is giving up!" Subaru shouted in despair as the image of the beast crushing the frozen cultist played.
"If I could do something. I would… I would… " Subaru shut his eyes and trembled in misery and defeat.]
Felix's eyes widened in surprise. Tears of regret came out of his eyes as he truly understood the sheer suffering this boy had been through… it was enough to break the strongest of men.
"Ferri-chan had no right to call him weak…" The catboy uttered while biting his lip hard in guilt.
Crusch shook her head and held the boy's hand with all her strength. Had this boy given up here… How would she had fared against the great calamity? How much would she have suffered if not for this boy.
Imagining him as this heroic man that came out of nowhere to help them through an impossible fate was too naive.
"I'm sorry for what you've suffered…" Crusch whispered softly as she leaned closer on the boy's frame. Watching the boy give up… it was a testament to how completely unfaithfully they had viewed him.
["Subaru-kun," Rem called out sternly. "It is easy to give up. But it doesn't suit you."
Subaru slowly looked up in surprise.
"I don't know what painful things you've been through, or what you've done that makes you suffer so. And I know it would be wrong of me to thoughtlessly say I understand."
"But even so…" Rem whispered softly. "There is something that I do know." She looked at him with a stern expression. "I know that you're someone who can't give up on something halfway through."
Subaru stared at her, haunted.]
"You can't give up… You're too much of a stubborn runt to do that…" Julius gritted his teeth and watched the screen as if he were in pain for his friend's misery. He didn't want Subaru ever to feel like he was useless like this…
"The rest of you are some fuckin' precious lot, I must say." Heinkel's grunt made eyes turn to him.
Reinhard slowly lowered his head up with an expression of surprise and pure sadness toward his father.
"Why is yer trap open, old man?" Felt growled at Heinkel, looking at him with disdain.
The man snorted and looked up at the screen as if pointing his nose at it. "He's not given' up because of what all of you losers have done to make him break."
Heinkel's words effectively made everyone wince. "The kid's fuckin' nuts. He has no self-worth and doesn't believe in himself enough to fight all of that shit I've seen him go through the first time… And now I know there's more before this too, fuckin' hell."
Heinkel's eyes turned downward and closed momentarily with a guilty aura flowing from him.
"W-Why do you think you suddenly know Subaru to attest this?" Emilia was surprised she even spoke to the man again after what he'd done and said, but she was sure there was something more familiar to him than she realized.
"Heinkel-sama's been through something similar perhaps… Like the rumors speak about him…" Felix didn't let the chance go by to snare at the man with disgust.
"Rumors?" Emilia questioned the healer, seeing Heinkel's head fall and having a sigh come out of him.
"I'd rather we don't speak about such… Unsavory topics with the criminal here." Julius glared at Felix but looked back at the screen. "We have a more pressing occasion as of this moment."
Heinkel was still being watched closely by his son above him, who didn't let a small grunt coming out of his father's mouth go unnoticed.
"As if anyone would believe me if I told the truth…" Heinkel muttered to himself without anyone hearing him.
Anyone but Reinhard, who widened his eyes in shock and pity.
["I know that you're someone who can smile when you talk about your wishes for the future."
The image of his smiling face after the Ulgram invasion was dealt with played.
"I know that you're someone who can't give up on the future."
The memory of him fighting the pack on his own. The memory of him saving the little girl deep in the forest.
"You're wrong." Subaru's face twisted in panic and disbelief. "I'm not that kind of-"
"I'm not wrong." Rem cut him off sternly. "You haven't given up on anyone… Not Emilia-sama, or Sister, or Roswaal-sama, or Beatrice-sama, or anyone else."
The image of his head rolling across the snow as Puck glared at his frozen form infront of the mansion played.]
"He faced that spirit more than once?!" Schult shivered in Priscilla's arm as she held him.
"Yeah… Pal running away is a good thing you know… It would be so much better if he wasn't involved anymore…" Al spoke with an offish tone that made Schult glance toward the man.
Al's head wasn't raised enough to be able to see through his helmet properly, which led to the butler thinking that Al was more inclined to listen to Rem and Subaru talk rather than see any visuals.
Which meant what the knight had said was an inner desire from within.
"Why does Al-sama wish for Subaru Natsuki to run away?" Schult asked himself and his lady, the one who simply hummed and patted his head lovingly.
"Do not worry your master of the low grumbling from dogs, Schult-kun." Priscilla showed disinterest in the entire topic as she went back to glare at the window with annoyance marking her expression.
"How loathsome has this waste of mine time been."
[Subaru stepped back and stared at her with his eyes wide in disbelief. He shook his head and uttered slowly.
"I have… I have given up! Carrying it all was impossible from the start!"
Subaru looked at his hands. The memory of his ice-turned body lying on the snow with all of his limbs broken into pieces.]
"Pathetic." Priscilla showed no remorse or compassion at the memories playing over Subaru's words. "How a dog like you catches the world's interest is obscene and a misery for a miracle."
"What is your problem now if this gal can inquire, hm?" Anastasia's tone was sweet but her eyes had a lot of frustrations being held back because of the words she had heard.
Petra and Emilia looked at Anastasia with surprised expressions because she decided to defend Subaru suddenly.
Priscilla scoffed at the woman below her. "She-fox, Mine divine self doesn't need to help you comprehend what you are seeing before you. The pig refuses to give up on his mindset because he is a man with no worth."
Heinkel lowered his head and sighed as Priscilla earned more glares because of what she said.
["My hands are so small that it all slipped through my fingers, leaving nothing." Subaru's hands trembled and twitched as he choked on his spit from sadness and depression.
"No, that's not true. You have-"
"What do you know?!" Rem flinched in surprise as Subaru madly glared at her and shouted.
"What do you know about me?!"
*SLAM! * The boy slammed his shaking fist against the ledge behind him as he glared at the maid.
"This is the kind of man I am!"]
Emilia blanched at the look on Subaru's face, backing away slightly from her knight as she stared upwards like a fish that couldn't close its mouth.
"Hang your jaw lower, half-witch," Priscilla commanded with arrogance. "This here is proof that you've had a most defective dog behind you for a knight."
"Shut your mouth!" Rem squeezes Subaru's shoulders and glares at the lady above. "You have no reason to condemn him so harshly."
"But I must, for the half-witch had to discard that role to let him guide himself to a better idea of his worth in this world." Priscilla showed no mercy in letting up the hate she spewed. "He's merely walked in circles to act his temper tantrums on the innocent."
"Do not forget what you have done to break him as well. We had an entire loop dictate that failure loudly for all of us, Priscilla Bareille." Crusch firmly told the fellow candidate from beside Rem.
Petra nodded at Crusch's words, facing the red lady with anger clear in her eyes.
"Which I enjoyed, very much." Priscilla hummed and leaned back in her seat to close her eyes and imagine herself kicking Subaru again.
"It doesn't get better with her…" Heinkel sighed from his place on his knees, earning attention from Reinhard. "The first time we met, she had her heel crushing my damn skull for no reason."
Reinhard had to smile at the hateful grumbling from his usually drunk father.
[His face turned to one of anguish and guilt as he faced Rem.
"I have no strength, but I want it all."
Image of him leaving against Emilia's wishes.]
Emilia couldn't look out the window but didn't want to stare at the amused Priscilla who trampled over everyone's compassion for her ideals. But she clenched a fist and looked at Subaru beside her with a small frown.
"Can ya shut the fuck up… we're trying to watch this idiot lie about himself." Felt sighed and glared at Priscilla for a second before turning away to glare at Subaru's face. "Wish I can kick that face."
"Get in line…" Otto spoke interactively, earning a small glance of surprise from Garfiel and Julius.
"I'll gladly do his right cheek while you do the left, ya coward." She sounded amused even though she was still insulting Otto with the soul-breaking memory of his betrayal.
The merchant minister simply gave the small blonde a rigid smile, obviously falling into Felt's cruel trap and earning a laugh from the candidate.
"Ya gotta feel better when yer bro wakes the hell up," Felt said after ending her laugh with a yawn. "This shit will always end with him coming on top." She had a proud smirk as she winked at Emilia from the side.
"Felt…" Emilia whispered in surprise. Otto looked back at the screen, feeling stupid to have spoken in the first place after what he had been revealed as.
A cowardly dog.
["I have no knowledge, but all I do is dream. There's nothing I can do but I struggle in vain!"
The memory of him failing time and time again to make an army to fight the cult.
"I… I… I HATE MYSELF!" The boy shouted as he choked once again.]
Emilia and Beatrice gasped in shock while Crusch held the boy's hand and glared at the screen in sadness.
Otto and Garfiel were so shocked from where they were sitting, far apart from one another, that they could only lean back and watch with open mouths.
"N-No! This isn't what you promised!" Petra shouted as she watched with a pained and horrified expression for what Subaru truly thought of himself.
"And there it is… What the Deputy Commander was saying…" Julius said to his lady beside him who watched with an uncomfortable expression. "How far before this did he think about himself in that light…"
"I'm sure we're gonna have t' apologize to that guy after not listenin' to 'em." Ricardo sighed as Julius glared toward the man on his knees before the theater's occupants begrudgingly.
"Do… you have an inclining of relatability with Subaru, father?" Reinhard swallowed the lump in his throat as he asked this.
Heinkel didn't respond to his son's words. Opting to adopt a familiar way of treating Reinhard since he was a child over six years old. The silent treatment.
["All I do is talk a big game, and make myself sound like a big shot when I can't do anything!"
The memory of him shouting at Emilia and making her leave him behind.
"I never do anything, yet I can complain like a pro! Who do I think I am?! It's amazing that I can live like this and not feel ashamed! Right?!"
"I'm empty! There's nothing in me at all! I know that… Yeah, that's so obvious. I know it's obvious." Subaru whimpered in anguish and waved his arm as he shouted.
"Before I came here… Before I got into the situation that led me to all of you, do you have any idea what I did?"
Subaru's eyes looked dead as he trembled and whispered hoarsely.
"I did nothing."
Image of him in the grocery store.
"I've never done a single thing!" His eyes widened in haunting and filled with dilated despair.
"I had all that time, all of that freedom… I could have done anything, but I never did a thing!"
Images of him reading a manga, eating fast food, and walking while rubbing his eyes because of playing so many video games.
"And this is the result! What I am now is the result!" Subaru shouted as darkness covered him from the clouds blocking out the sun. He shouted in despair. In hatred. In defeat.
He glared at Rem and shouted. "All of my powerlessness, all of my incompetence, is the product of my rotten character." Subaru sobbed and whimpered with an agonizing scarred expression.
"Wanting to accomplish something when I've never done anything goes beyond the limits of arrogance! The cost of my laziness and all the wasteful habits in my life just ends up killing both you and me!"
Subaru closed his eyes and remembered the times he was frozen alive. The times Rem died because he was too weak to save her.
He put a trembling hand and covered his anguished face.
"That's right. I have no character. Even when I thought I could go on living here, nothing changed." He whispered sobbingly.
His eyes trembled as he lamented his existence. "That old man saw that part of me perfectly. Right? I wasn't trying to get stronger, or trying to make things better. I was just striking an obvious pose to justify myself, to say that I was trying, that it wasn't like I wasn't doing anything. I wanted to say I couldn't help it. I wanted to be told that it couldn't be helped! I was only pretending to push my body to the limits so that would be possible!" Subaru's entire form shook in place as he shouted in agony.
In the darkness of the cloud, his face twisted with rage and insanity as he looked at Rem.
"Even when I had you help me study, I was just posing to cover up how embarrassed I felt!" Subaru sobbed.
"At heart, I'm just a small, cowardly, filthy piece of trash who's always worried about how others see me and nothing… "
"NOTHING ABOUT ME HAS CHAAAAANGED!"
*Pant…* *Pant…*
"I knew it all along. That all of it was my fault… I'm the lowest of the low.".
Subaru shut his eyes one more time and gritted his teeth in misery. "I absolutely hate myself." He whimpered.]
"... Then why try so hard…" Frederica was the first to speak, giving him a look of sympathy and understanding that was missing from the shocked faces of the others.
"Frederica Nee-sama?" Petra's face showed heartbreak and confusion and she used her mentor's words to distract herself. "You want Subaru to give up?"
Frederica's eyes lowered in shame. "If you remember what he does… Felt what he went through… Would you still be able to fight your fate constantly? With everyone doubting and belittling you on every corner… I think you were right, Petra-chan…"
Frederica hugged the little maid as tears willed in her kind eyes. "I wish to support Subaru-sama as much as you do… To ignore this is to be complicit in something dark…"
Petra tightened the hug from her end, bringing her mentor close as Subaru's self-hate speech played overhead.
"Bring yourself some credit, young man…" Wilhelm muttered under his breath, being heard by Felix who looked down at his knees. "That's nothing but your doubts and fears speaking… Wish I can tell you this in person…"
"You care about him, huh, Old Man Wil?" Felix chuckled under his breath with a bit of a pained expression. "Everyone cares about him… Except for those who hated him for his weakness…"
Wilhelm didn't say anything as he looked down at the healer beside him.
"Who knew that he hated himself more than I hated him?" Felix gave an empty smile, tears renewing at the corners of his eyes.
The old man beside him gave a slight pat on the shoulder that surprised Felix.
Above them, Priscilla had the most satisfied grin on her face as she fanned herself.
"Look like you were right, princess." Al sighed and earned a chuckle from the noblewoman.
"But of course, fool." Priscilla huffed arrogantly. "A pig has no sense of self so long as it keeps eating and dancing in the mud. This one shan't be any different from his biological confirming."
"You do know he's not a pig right? And I find it hilarious that you say this right now… But you were glaring pretty much with murder in those wonderful eyes of yours when he was talking…" Al received a glare from his lady that would put most men to death. "Yeah, kinda like that!"
"Thou mustn't speak about unwarranted things, buffoon." Priscilla sounded dismissive of the whole ordeal but a third voice began talking from her other side.
"I-I saw it too… It was pretty scary… Not that you can ever be something other than beautiful, Priscilla-sama!" Schult gave her a weary smile that earned a sigh from Priscilla.
"You have much to learn once you grow out of that adorable look, Schult-kun. Do not disappoint me again by hearing this jester's words and taking them as facts." Priscilla cups the boy's cheeks and squeezes them harshly earning a yelp from him.
"But… I saw it myself— ow ow ow ow!"
Al chuckled at the pained boy while Priscilla toyed with his baby cheeks. "It's as if you're giving him the cold shoulder by acting so distant from caring about him… Isn't that it, Princess?"
Priscilla didn't give the knight an answer, simply letting go of the boy's cheeks and allowing him to rub the spots where she pinched.
"... Yeah." Al let the silence hang over for a second before leaning back in his own seat. "You still want him to impress you but that kid's disappointed you a lot…"
"..."
The silence hung loudly between them both. Priscilla's eyes glared downward to where Subaru was for a moment longer than intended.
"Ya kiddin' me… What the hell is this, Big Bro?" Felt sighed and cringed into her palms after giving Subaru a deep frown. "I thought it was just the pain of being fuckin' BUTCHERED all the time! But this guy's a whole wreck in the head…"
"It seems like that, doesn't it?" Crusch mused to Felt's words with an empty expression.
"What's got ya keepin' to yerself like that? Ain't ya gonna give that whole speech any reaction?" Felt raised a brow at the woman.
"Do you know the comical thing about this prison?" Crusch crossed her legs and leaned her head on her chair rest, having the others hear what she had to say since Felt was louder than most in the theater. "I keep realizing just how exemplary Natsuki Subaru's origin comes into play."
"His… Origin? Ya mean the home he was taken from?" Felt didn't have the emotion to give that statement.
"It seems he gave up on going home simply because he thought he would be able to make a better life with Lugunica…" Tivey noted what everyone had heard from Subaru. He earned a nod from Crusch.
"Indeed… And if we didn't see the early viewings to figure out how Return By Death worked… I'd have said that he may have had the ability before coming to Lugunica…" Crusch earned a sharp look from Anastasia particularly.
"Ya sayin' that him being in Lugunica and dyin' over his ambitions was better than his old life?" Anastasia looked at Crusch with a surprised face.
"Betty's Subaru is so much like Betty in fact…" The spirit sitting on his lap had been holding a miserable face the entire time. She muttered to herself as she heard everyone speak about his mindset, the way he thought.
"He would rather die and keep moving for an ending he wants, rather than sit around and be ambitionless." Crusch's words earned Beatrice memories and flashbacks of 400 years in a room, doing nothing.
"That is… That is amazing…" Emilia couldn't help herself, she stuttered with heartbreak but kept a long glance of amazement on the boy sitting next to her. "He's… He's done so much… Even with so little… I never thought about it before…"
"You say that like he doesn't have a power that helps him from death, Emiia-sama." Otto's heated words shock the front row entirely along with some in the second who heard him.
"What?" Emilia looked at Otto with tearful eyes.
He held a glare of contempt for the window above them.
"All that power does is make him feel alone. Putting all of that pressure on yourself is completely the work of a madman who's running himself into a deep hole." Otto's glare intensifies.
"You mean like the one you're putting yourself in?" Julius' words hit Otto before the others could say anything. "Why have you separated yourself from Garfiel-dono and the others since the last viewing had ended?"
"A coward has no place amongst his friends, I presume that's what's in the boy's head." Anastasia giggled in amusement at Otto's downtrodden expression. "Why not stop being a Natsuki-kun and give yerself a break already? In this room, some have done far worse yet keep huggin' 'em all day…"
Otto didn't acknowledge the small glare Rem gave the fox woman beside her. He simply shook his head and looked down at the ground.
Garfiel and Julius glared at him from their seats.
"Just like Cap'n… Ya need t' be punched…" Garfiel growled under his breath at the stubbornness displayed by Otto.
As Julius was about to nod in agreement, his eyes widened once he saw something happening in the front.
"Reinhard!" He calls out, earning the whole theater's attention.
The knight had unhandled Heinkel's wrists, allowing the drunk man to stand up freely on his numb legs.
"I used my divine protection of wind reading on him, I can sense that he's telling the truth about not attacking anyone again." Reinhard's voice was calm and friendly, earning relaxed expressions from the twins and Felix but those beside them were outraged.
"You cannot let that man go!" Petra shouted with disdain as many nodded with her.
"He's acted on his own to kill a person in this room! Even if he says he won't do it again, he must not be let free for the crime he already committed!" Crusch sternly reprimanded the knight, making Reinhard smile sheepishly.
Heinkel strutted upward through the rows, passing by a glaring Felt and a disgusted Frederica. He waved them all off with a middle finger.
"No disrespect to the candidates 'round, but I only got one master in 'ere," Heinkel said smoothly as he walked upward to his row. "And ya should prosecute those who are responsible for bringing the Witch Cult that killed the kid before I had done anythin'..." He snorts as Emilia flinched in her seat. "Yeah, I heard about the Ordeal before Sloth was killed."
Heinkel sat down beside Schult, earning a pleased smile from the boy as everyone glared at them.
"My bad, my lady…" Heinkel looked nervous for the first time since his ascent.
"... I'll overlook it graciously this once since it was entertaining." Priscilla hummed pleasantly which earned a look of relief from the man.
"Can we please ignore the idiot who happens to be the father of the man holding him and continue watching what happens with Barusu?" Ram asked this with an annoyed glance at Reinhard, who was looking more sheepish.
"Why the fuck wouldya do that?" Felt asked her knight as soon as he came back to sit by her side.
"..." Reinhard looked at the spot he and his father were at with a whimsical expression. "I was just tired of him insulting me."
Felt raised an eyebrow and shook her head. "Even without Wind Readin', I can tell when ya lie. Whatever…" She looked up at Ram and wondered something. "Ya think she's scared for her sister to be hurt again?"
"I think Ram-sama will always be scared for both, Rem-sama and Subaru's will beings." Reinhard had a knowing smirk at the look of intrigue from the blonde.
"Damn… That's what's gotten her so nervous then."
[(Styx Helix: Piano version.)
Rem stood there listening to him silently with a patient expression. Once she understood that he was done, she gently and calmly began to speak.
"I know… that no matter how deeply you've fallen into darkness, you still have the courage to reach out your hand."
Subaru looked at her with an expression of surprise and confusion.
Images of when he pushed her away to let the monsters eat him.
When he held his broken sword and faced down the bossgarm.]
Heinkel had to narrow his eyes at the images showing things he couldn't watch with the others. "In every one of them, he's doing something so fuckin' stupid. It's an understatement how much I loathe this kid's willingness to fight without care for himself."
"I don't think he's a bad guy…" Schult looked saddened by Heinkel's assessment.
"I'm not sayin' he is… Kiddo… It's just… He's the worst type'a guy ya can meet…" Heinkel sighed and closed his eyes away from the screen.
Schult gave the man a look of interest and confusion that wouldn't be answered as Heinkel closed himself off from talking.
["I love it when you stroke my hair. I feel as if we can understand each other through the contact between your hand and my hair.
I love your voice. Just hearing you say one word makes my heart feel warmer.
I love your eyes. Normally they look stern, but when you're being kind to someone, I love the way they soften.
I love your fingers. For a boy you have such lovely fingers. But when they clutch mine, I know they are the strong, slender fingers of a man.
I love the way you walk. When we walk together, I love the way you occasionally turn to make sure I'm keeping up."
"Stop…" Subaru uttered, looking at her in disbelief and agony.
"I love the way you look when you sleep. You look unguarded, like an infant, and your eyelashes are on the long side. When I touch your cheek, you calm down… And when I playfully touch your lips, you don't even notice… " Rem looked down with her eyes tearing up. "And it makes my heart ache terribly."
"I love you."]
Crusch's and Emilia's eyes widened in shock at the sheer passion the maid had revealed those words.
The duchess felt extremely happy for the maid and even a little proud that she dared to speak her feelings. "I hope he believes in himself once again after hearing your words, Rem." The duchess smiled warmly at the blushing and somewhat exhausted maid.
Emilia simply continued to stare at the screen with shocked saddened eyes. "Rem… does love him… She knows what love is… She knows how to keep Subaru safe and stable…." The half-elf felt the anger of jealousy and the sadness of guilt overwhelm her.
"She should be the one to receive your love, Subaru," Emilia whispered brokenly.
Ram shivered at the thought of the boy with her sister. Even if she felt a little sympathetic toward him, she still had the urge to slap her sister silly for her preference for men. But she knew that the boy was still a puppy for Emilia and he would pay dearly if he didn't let her sister down easily.
"He needs someone to tell him those things anyway," Ram whispered as she agreed with what her sister was doing but completely denounced it.
Roswaal gave Ram a surprising pat on the hand, showing her a small smile.
"Be happy for her… Rem might be seeing this for the first time, should this be a failed loop."
"Your gospel didn't specify this?" Ram raised an eyebrow.
Roswaal's expression dimmed. "No… And I wish it had… Because it seems that Rem's confession was the thing he needed most as he finally broke…"
Ram removed his hand from her own as she heard that. "That is an evil way to tell me you reject my sister's choices in men."
Roswaal simply chuckled and leaned back to watch the rest.
[The boy closed his eyes and faced away in shame. "Why?"
"When you said that you hate yourself, it made me want to tell you all the wonderful things I know about you." Rem smiled widely with red-hosed cheeks.]
Emilia's heart gave a tug as she heard those words before… "Is this why he loves her too?" Emilia asked as she felt the true measure of her incompetence at giving him the love he truly desired from her to the way Rem's passion seemed to place an indomitable amount of warmth and love through everyone who was watching.
[Subaru shook his head in refusal and shouted.
"That was all phony! You just don't know me! I know myself better than anyone!"
"All you know is yourself!" Rem shouted toward him with her tears beginning to fall.
Subaru looked up, dumbfounded at the sight of Rem trembling and glaring at him with a pained expression.
"How much do you know about the Subaru-kun that I see?!"
"Why… do you like me so much?" Subaru asked in astonishment.]
Rem had calmed down and was focused on nothing but hugging her love as tightly as she could without hurting him. "Because you saved me even after everything I put you through." She whispered into his ear.
[(Inori Minase: Wishing)
"I'm…"
"I'm weak and small. I'm running away. Just like I ran away last time! So why?"
Just then the clouds hovering over them parted just enough to make a shining ray of sunshine fall on Rem as the breeze picked up around her. "Because you are my hero, Subaru-kun!"
Subaru stared disbelievingly as she smiled through her tears.]
Everyone looked at the screen with a sense of wonder and catharsis.
Emilia held a hand to her heart as the feeling of inadequacy returned to full force constraining her ability to breathe properly.
[Birds flew around them with Rem continuing to speak as they both remembered her moments in that forest.
"In that dark forest, when I didn't even know who I was anymore and couldn't think of anything but violently lashing out, you saved me.
When I woke up unable to move, and Sister was exhausted after using too much magic, you faced the mabeasts as a diversion so we could escape. There was no way you could win, and your life was in real danger. But you still stayed, and came back to my arms, still warm.
When you woke up, you smiled, and said the words I wanted to hear most, when I wanted to hear them most, from the one I wanted most to hear them from.
My time has been stopped for so long. Ever since that fiery night, the night I lost everything except my sister, my time has been stopped. It was you who melted my frozen heart, and kindly made my stopped time begin to move forward again. I'm sure you have no idea how you saved me, or how happy I was at that moment, on that morning.
That's why I believe. No matter what painful things happen, even when it looks like you'll lose… When no one else in the world believes in you, when you don't even believe in yourself… I will believe…"
The scared shaking Subaru was suddenly pulled to his knees as Rem wrapped her arms around his head and made him rest on her chest.
"that the Subaru-kun who saved me is a true hero," Rem whispered as she leaned down and kissed the terrified Subaru on his forehead.
His widened and he lost all hold over himself, his muscles appeared to have lazed and his arms fell to his side in defeat.]
"That's because… He's a goddamn fool." Otto grumbled quietly under his breath, glaring upwards with a pained expression. "He saved us too. Even after all I did to him, he still saved me…"
Otto wanted the maid to shout some sense into Subaru. Even punch him a little just to wake him up and see how awesome he was.
"C'mon Rem! Show the Cap'n how amazin' he is!" Garfiel gave a grin.
Ram winced and looked down at the unpleasant memories of her sister almost dying. "For a moment, I feel grateful to him for being here… Even if it goes against my nature to let you listen to me thanking him, Roswaal-sama…" She chuckled as the lord gave her a small shrug.
"Stupid, Barusu. Only Ram should be able to say that she hates you. You're not allowed to hate yourself, scum." The pink maid smirked at the screen, cheering her sister on from within her heart.
"I want him to talk to me again, I suppose. Betty shouldn't be crying alone, you promised me to hug Betty if you did, infact." The little spirit girl hugged her contractor's waist and sniffled on his jacket. She always wanted Subaru to believe in himself more but she never truly knew that he thought so lowly of himself to this extent.
Crusch smiled a little at the words. She truly believed that those words applied to herself as well. "He does have that effect on a lot of people." The duchess squeezed a bit on the boy's hand and smiled softly.
Frederica smiled softly and cooed internally as she cheered her fellow maid on. She always knew that the cold disciplined Rem would be a staunch romantic.
Petra watched the screen with sadness and a bit of jealousy but she couldn't focus on anything other than Subaru's low opinion of himself changing. She wanted him to know how dear he was to her so badly, but since she was stuck here, she would allow Rem to say that stuff to him. This time.
"Subaru…" Emilia whispered in sadness as she felt her heart breaking even more by how distraught and despaired her knight looked. Her heart shattered even more when she remembered that she played a large part in breaking this wonderful boy from another world.
[Rem gently removed her hands and moved away from him as he stayed on his knees while looking at the ground with an expression of hopelessness.
Eyes dead. He spoke in a soft, broken tone. "No matter how hard I tried, I couldn't save anyone."]
"No one will tell 'em that he ain't gonna need to save anyone… Just fuckin' run away and don't do something stupid to get yerself killed…" Heinkel rubbed his palms together, looking away from the screen.
"Look how broken he is…" Felix whispered with sadness and anger in his eyes.
"It's as if he's shocked by the fact that someone's willing to believe in him." Crusch shook her head and kept her grip tight around the boy's hand.
"This… idiot…!" Otto gritted his teeth and stopped his admonishment for his brother's stupidity.
"… Stupid moron." Anastasia gritted her teeth as well as she truly found it infuriating how little the boy thought of himself and refused to blame her and the rest for abandoning him. As if they were good people who had done nothing wrong towards him.
"It's not amusin' how much I feel need to teach him a thing or two about ambition." The western candidate muttered while gazing at the sleeping knight.
["I'm here. The Rem you saved is right here." She brightly smiled while saying it to him.
"I've never done anything. I'm empty. No one will even listen to me." He said without hesitation.]
"Subaru-dono…" Wilhelm grounded his teeth in frustration at what he was hearing. "No way to speak, young man… That is no way to speak about yourself."
That statement was shared by all three angry and saddened royal knights who were glaring at the screen with grimaces of frustration at their uselessness for doing nothing to help their friend.
It was a worse sentiment for those who were not a part of the knight guard, but the Emilia camp.
["I'm here. I'll listen to anything you have to say. I want to." She replied without a heartbeat missed.
"No one expects anything of me. No one believes in me. I hate myself."]
"Stop…" Petra whispered to herself as the others all gave expressions of hurt and surprise at his words. "Stop being so cruel and ignoring the people who will help…" She glared at Subaru with disappointment clear on her face.
(Copypaster:- who)
[Rem softly caressed his cheek and forced him to look at her. She smiled with tears in her eyes. "Well, I love you, Subaru-kun." The maid whispered happily.]
"I don't… I love you so much, my hero." The blue-haired Oni whispered softly as she kept her face nuzzled into the crook of her beloved's neck. The boy that had saved her and her sister. The boy who died for her. That died because of her and her ignorance.
The same boy who kept on fighting the entire world to get her memory back after she had selfishly sacrificed herself because she thought of herself as lowly and worthless.
She would never put Subaru through that again. She won't make him feel guilty for her weakness again.
She would swear it.
"I swear it."
Emilia and Crusch looked at the scene with a smile of happiness for a friend tainted with sadness and a small anguished look of heartbreak.
Both princesses wanted to be able to say those two words to the boy as the maid had done. They both wanted to comfort him.
But the guilt of the pain they had caused for him truly forced them to feel small relative to the maid's impact on him and how much more passionate she's been about her love for him while the two of Emilia and Crusch dilly-dallied over nonsense.
[Subaru stared at her for a moment. "You really don't mind that it's me?" He asked in disbelief.
"I want it to be you. I wouldn't want for it to be anyone else. If you can't forgive yourself for being empty and having nothing, then let's start from here, right now." The maid stepped back and smiled down at the kneeling boy.
"Start what?" Subaru asked in bewilderment, standing up from the ground.
"Just like you started my time for me when it was stopped, we'll make the time that you feel is stopped for you begin to move again. Let's start her, from square one."
The breeze blew… the clouds fully parted… and the sun shined on Subaru's struck face.
"No… from zero!"
Subaru's eyes widened as light finally was brought back into them.
"If it's too hard for you to walk alone, I'll hold you up. We'll share the burden and support each other as we walk. Isn't that what you said to me that morning?" Rem smiled at the awed Subaru.]
"Nayn, he really looks different noyw." Felix wiped away his tears and smiled softly and tiredly at the boy he wanted to call a friend. Happy for his newfound hope.
"Hope… Subaru truly is a simple man." Reinhard commented while watching the screen with something akin to a proud smile.
"Yeah, he's still fightin' like I said he would." Felt shook her head and smiled fondly at the boy. "Just like he came back to the loot house even though he didn't have to… Only to save me and Old Man Rom…"
"I don't think Betty should say this… But I like that aspect about him, I suppose." The little spirit girl guiltily admitted with a small smile as her remorse-ridden heart found comfort in the scene.
Emilia's slowly moved to grab the boy's hand. She softly caressed it and enjoyed the warmth and comfort she'd been missing in a while.
"Subaru…." Emilia remembered all of the times he had told her he loved and adored her. "You weren't lying, right, Subaru?" She held a look of pleading guilt as she held her gaze on his face.
"Because I want to be there beside as well, my knight," Emilia whispered while feeling as if her great friend would disappear.
The feeling of inferiority to Rem and how much she has done to help the boy overwhelmed the lonely elf. Emilia's selfish desire to hang on to her knight for comfort and hope was shattered as she understood how much she's been hurting him and letting him suffer by himself.
She vowed. A vow that was silent to all but louder than ever in her selfish heart. A vow that only Emilia would know and fulfill towards this klutz of a knight.
Rem slowly looked up at the screen with an expression of shame. "I'm sorry… I wouldn't have made him go back and face those traumatizing troubles-" The remorseful maid was cut off by everyone cheering around her with varied reactions of hope.
"Go Cap'n!" Garfiel shouted while holding a fist up with happy tears in his eyes.
"Come on you idiot!" Otto slammed his fist on the handle with a pleading look on his face, eyes honed on the screen.
"Seriously… What a buffoon to go through everything and have a speech carry your spirit forward…" Julius smiled softly at the scene and felt relieved that his friend had such great help in his time of need.
Wilhelm couldn't help but grin at the knight's words, feeling a familiar nostalgia about some of the people he knew from his fighting days.
["Show me how awesome you can be, Subaru-kun."]
"Yeah!" The twins shouted with cheer although Tivey started saying some stuff about the true capabilities of the numeral Zero and how it wasn't a true start but Mimi was quick to slap him out of it.
Otto and Garfiel both looked at the screen with hopeful gazes for their third. Otto was beginning to feel his sense of wanting to help his friend resurface. His guilt for cowardly throwing him to die was still there… but it was as if hearing Subaru's self-deprivation sent him back into a seething rage to smack his brother awake and scream at him how it wasn't just about Subaru's mistakes, it was everyone else around him that were incompetent and idiotic that had brought him so much death and suffering.
Subaru wasn't alone. He wasn't the only one that felt like a loser. He shouldn't be the one blaming himself for every death that had happened in all of these loops.
Otto truly felt as if his guilt was making him want to help his brother more and more.
"That's a stupid phrase." Heinkel shook his head and sighed in frustration. Once again, the disgusting thing was dragging others to ruin. "The need to be someone's hero… What a joke…"
"It's not that bad, pal… Not like anyone could remove Natsuki Subaru from the world so easily…" Al sighed from beside Priscilla who only looked annoyed by the screen's events.
His brother from another world, the only person like him, will be tortured and killed because of his idealism.
The helmeted knight was punched off his sweat by an annoyed princess who had heard what he said and decided that she didn't like it.
[He closed his eyes for a moment. "Rem… I won't give up…. I won't let anyone else die… I won't let anyone get hurt… " Subaru opened his eyes and looked at the maid with conviction and determination.
"Rem…"
"Yes?"
"I love Emilia."
The maid smiled sadly. "Yes," she affirmed while looking up at him.
"I want to see Emilia smile. I want to be of help to Emilia's future. Even if she says I'm in the way, even if she tells me to stay away… I want to be next to her." Subaru smiled brightly with hope shining in his sharp ugly-ass eyes.
"Using my feelings for her as an excuse to get her to understand everything was arrogant of me, huh?" Subaru looked down in guilt.
"It's okay if she doesn't understand. I just want to save her. If there's a bleak, painful future waiting for her, I want to take her away to a future where we can all laugh together."]
Emilia's eyes widened and teared up in happiness. She leaned down and hugged the boy with a happy smile on her face as the sense of warmth overflowed through her soul. This intense feeling filled her with relief and gratification. Emilia vowed once more.
She will protect and help him throughout all of the horrors that he has endured because of her.
She would keep him by her side.
Because he made her feel so happy!
So loved.
That's why she also just as equally felt for her knight… She felt LOVE.
"This… Is what it feels like to love someone… you feel so complete when you're with them. And so broken when they're doing something far away from you. It's what I feel for you, Natsuki Subaru. My wonderful hopeless fool of a knight." The half-elf smiled in content and happiness, letting her guilt go for a moment to enjoy this warmth provided by her reliable heater that was Sir. Lolimancer.
Crusch smiled and felt a small pang of guilt as her plans would force a little wedge between the two. She was a patient lady. She was also determined… She wanted this kind of interaction as well. This warmth comfort and need for companionship… was something truly gratifying for the duchess and she wanted to fully develop the extent of it.
She wanted to feel this love too. And she knew exactly from whom she wanted it.
"A fool of a knight…" The duchess uttered with a smirk as she crossed her legs and caressed the boy's hand softly. "Hehe, I guess he truly is a fool for not seeing your love for him all this time, huh, Rem-san-?!" The duchess's soft smile turned into a startled frown when a loud commotion was heard from behind them.
She, Emilia, and Beatrice looked back with alarm on their face.
"Please stop this, sissy! Don't hurt my Subaru-kun!" Rem cried out in despair as she begged the demon she was hugging.
Ram simply looked confused as she walked to her sister's row. "What are you talking about, sister? I'm only here to hug you."
Rem allowed the arms to engulf her body and managed to shed a few tears while adopting a surprised face. "B-But… I thought you disapproved of Subaru-kun… And now seeing him reject me…"
"Ram will disapprove of any man that thinks they are good enough for my sister. No one will ever be good enough for Rem's heart." The hug tightened, and Ram's tone changed to one of amusement. "But Barusu already expressed that he isn't a man who thinks much of himself. As much as I loath the idea, I'd be a terrible Nee-sama if I ignored that his heart is big enough to have you in it after everything he sacrificed."
"Sister…" Rem choked, emotionally vulnerable enough to tighten her own arms around her sister.
"I already told you… He isn't the problem… Barusu never was someone who had issues with the love he held for us… It's you who kept him in line and it will be you who will damage him enough to step out of it…" Ram whispered in her sister's ear with a familiar warning.
"I understand, sister… I understand…" Rem nodded her head while nuzzling Ram's neck with her chin.
"Rem…" A soft voice filled the air, making the two sisters step back from the hug to look at the half-elf who stood from her seat before the both of them.
Emilia ruffled his hair while looking at Ram and Rem with a look of honesty and understanding.
"Subaru was just affirming his desire to protect all of us. Although I don't know why he said that at the end, I don't think he meant it to reject Rem's feelings. He did tell me that he loved her too… And… I…"
"I already love him." Emilia proclaimed confidently to the shocked crowd.
Rem teared up in happiness for her knight's wish coming true.
Emilia ignored all of the looks she was getting and proclaimed once more. "I love him, I think… and I won't let go of him. But I'm willing to give Rem a chance with him."
The mentioned maid looking at Emilia with an expression of surprise. "Emilia-sama?"
The half-elf ruffled the boy's hair and smiled warmly to the astonished maid. "Thank you so much for saving Subaru. I know why he loves you so much now. I couldn't do anything to help him at all and I feel like you deserve a chance with him more than me-"
"That's not true! Subaru-kun loves you because you saved him from so many things! When I hurt him and was just another obstacle that caused him much pain and torment, you were the only one to stand by him and support him." Rem yelled out with tears of denial in her eyes.
Emilia looked at her with equally tearful eyes as her lips formed into a small smile.
"Thank you, Rem. I wish for us to stay close friends even if he doesn't choose one of us." Emilia knew how selfish and disgusting she was for saying that to the maid. It was clear that the boy had his heart out on herself… but they weren't there when Subaru proclaimed his love to be equal for them both.
The maid looked a bit apprehensive at first.
"Do you have something in mind?" Emilia asked softly as she noticed Rem's hesitation.
The blue-haired maid nodded her head and steeled herself.
"M-Me and Subaru have agreed to tell you this after everything has… calmed down."
Emilia winced as she understood what the maid was saying.
Gluttony.
Wanting to think nothing of those cold empty nights where she would hear Subaru's whimpers beside Rem's bed in Crusch's mansion, Emilia shook her head and gestured for the maid to continue.
"I think… I would like for us to watch the rest first…" Rem rubbed her thumbs over each other nervously.
"Why would you want to not tell me before we see things reverse themselves?" Emilia asked with a sad frown.
"Emilia-sama… Um…" Rem's eyes widened in remembrance as everyone looked at her. "I-I didn't tell anyone this but…"
"Holy shit, this ain't a failed loop!" Ricardo cut her off and laughed alongside the twins which he held close. "That kid's not gonna die and she remembers sayin' all the embarrassin' shit about havin' kids!"
As some started chuckling with Schult guffawing to the point he fell off his chair in the back, Rem blushed harsher than Priscilla's dress.
"Sister… Is this true?" Ram looked at her twin with a pleading look. "These are events that you remember? Unlike all the hell Barusu had gone through?"
Rem gave a soft nod and a small smile, earning relieved faces across the room and bright smiles from the Emilia camp.
Ram looked at Emilia for a moment and nodded at the half-elf. "Don't hurt my sister." She mouthed while narrowing her eyes in warning. Emilia nodded her head and smiled as the pink-haired maid turned and sat down beside her amused lord.
Emilia turned to Rem so that they could continue their talk but the maid just smiled and took her seat behind Subaru. "Um, if you don't mind, Emilia-sama. I agreed with Subaru that we would tell you together… and I want him to be the one to say it."
Emilia smiled at the nervous blushing maid. "Okay."
The half-elf nodded her head to the blue-haired maid and sat down in her seat beside her knight, feeling hopeful and happy that she still had a chance to help her Subaru and not drown in guilt.
"I'm starting to worry for our safety here," Otto muttered as he sat down beside back where he had been sitting since the start of their abduction, beside Garfiel and in front of Julius.
Julius snorted. "Now you start to worry? Truly a competent interior head you are."
Otto slowly turned to the smirking knight with an annoyed glare but felt uplifted by the casual tone he received. "Man, Natsuki-san was right to call you a self-made prick."
Julius waved his hair and snorted the boy off with a smile of amusement.
"You two seem good now?" Ricardo raised a brow in confusion.
Julius just smirked as he remembered all the times the merchant had shouted support for the boy after Subaru had shown how low he thought of himself.
"He's just a good friend." The knight ominously spoke about the merchant while smiling happily.
Ricardo shrugged and turned to the screen while patting his sibling's heads as they sat on his legs.
[Subaru stepped closer to the maid and held his hand out.
"Will you help me? I can't do anything alone. I lack in everything. I'm not confident that I can even keep walking straight. I'm weak, fragile, and small. So, to make sure I keep walking straight, to help me realize when I'm wrong… Will you help me?"]
"He really needs to trust himself more." Crusch shook her head with a sad smile.
Emilia and Beatrice frowned a bit and leaned some more on the boy.
Most of Subaru's friends were holding expressions of sadness and upset as well.
"I never knew that he thought so low of himself like that." Petra lamented with a sad tone while holding a hand to her heart.
[The maid tilted her head and chuckled. "Hehe! You are a cruel man, Subaru-kun. You ask all this of someone you just rejected?" Rem smiled with fake hurt in her eyes.
"Hey, it's also hard for me to ask this of the one who rejected my once-in-a-lifetime proposal." Subaru shrugged and smiled uneasily.
Both stood there for a moment… and then both burst out laughing and giggling.
Laughing innocently and wholeheartedly.]
"It feels good to see him laugh like that," Mimi commented while smiling softly.
Everyone was watching the scene with comfortable, satisfied smiles of relief and ease.
"It does feel very euphoric and cathartic to see him bounce back out of insanity and rage." Julius nodded his head and enjoyed the feeling of guilt and despair being lifted out of the room as the warmth and passion from the scene washed over the entire room.
"Thank you for that, Rem. You could've had him all to yourself but you urged him to believe in himself instead even knowing that you might not get a chance to win his heart." Emilia thanked the maid with a bow of her head and a guilty smile on her face.
Rem shook her head and bowed down in turn. "I wouldn't have felt right about taking him away from you because of his desperation and fears. I wanted him to truly consider his feelings and maybe win his heart while he would've been the fair way to do it."
Emilia and Rem smiled at one another.
[Rem smiled up at the boy and bowed her head with her skirt held by both hands as she did the maid pose.
"I humbly accept. If it will help you, my hero, greet the future with a smile, then yes." Rem looked up with a beaming expression.]
Rem smiled wide, proud that she had accomplished something that helped her hero do the right thing. Even if she made him face down horrible memories and trauma along the way.
"My my…" Roswaal was the only one watching the scene with something akin to negativity the whole time. "So you were a variable I couldn't count on all along, Rem… You pulled him back from the brink of what I wanted him to be…" His whispers were lost on Ram as she smiled proudly at her sister.
[Subaru smirked and nodded his head as he held his hand out. "Yeah, just watch. You get a front-row seat… "
Rem suddenly found herself pulled against Subaru's chest as he held her hand tightly and patted her head while staring at the sky with a smile filled with determination.
"to see the man you fell for become the most awesome hero ever!"
Subaru shouted as he held Rem, glaring with his eyes filled with convection and the light of hope.
Rem's eyes teared up. No longer able to stop herself, she trembled and began softly shedding her tears into her beloved's chest.
Subaru held the girl and closed his eyes.
He imagined Emilia's smiling face.
I'm watching you.
He held Rem's head as she pressed further into his chest while trembling.
You're watching me.
So I won't look downward.
Natsuki Subaru's story will begin right here, from zero.
Subaru glared up at the sunny sky.
The rays fell on him…
My life in another world starts here, from zero!
Title card:
From Zero]
The entire cast burst out in cheers and howls at the scene.
Heinkel grumbled a bit about how it was an idiotic decision to go back and concern himself with something as stupid as saving people. With Al shaking his head in exasperation from the side.
"This was amazing to watch…" Schult gave a small giggle and looked at the screen with delight covering his innocent face. "I hope Subaru-sama never has to go through something like that horrible monster again."
Priscilla sighed and toyed with the boy's hair pleasantly between her fingers, sinking her gaze on the chair handle beside her in deep thought.
"A disgusting pig is all you seemed to be after so many tries… How come a few words made you change…" The red baroness glared with contempt, replacing the chair arm with Subaru's trembling face.
Roswaal gritted his teeth as the image of the perfect partner and knight that paves the way to his salvation and future was shattered completely by Rem's motivating speech.
"Cap'n's gonna win dis time yeah?" Garfiel bounced in his seat excitedly as he couldn't believe that he will get to see his captain finally acting as a hero should. He also couldn't wait to see Subaru kill that fucking whale.
"That's right, Subaru-kun amazingly came up with the plan to get the three-way alliance he needed to fight both the Whale and the Witch's Cult as soon as he asked me to help him on that hill." Rem nodded her head in pride, making the crowd around her grow more excited.
"You know, I truly wanted to join in on the fight with the White Whale. I also wanted to see Natsuki's efforts firsthand. The knights that were present seemingly grew fond of him after the fight." Julius pondered with an excited smile of his own.
"Subaru managed to beat the Whale…" Reinhard looked at the screen with an excited smile as well.
Wilhelm glanced upward after hearing his grandson speak, noticing the look of interest on Heinkel's face as well as the Deputy Commander trying to sneak a glance towards his family at the bottom.
When they locked eyes, the commander's hateful expression returned full force and he gave Wilhelm a most miserable glare.
The old man closed his eyes and clenched his armrest out of courtesy for a reaction.
"Kyu! You should've seen him as he brought down the monster from the sky!" Felix teased feeling relieved that the darkness hovering over everyone seemed to have lifted and gained back some of his cheer.
"He really did?!" Otto asked in shock as his brother was just full-on jumping in his chair. "Hell yeah, tha's ma Cap'n!" Garfiel shouted with his fist out. Emilia and Beatrice looked worried but a little excited.
"Hmph! It's only natural for him to do something legendary, I suppose. He's Betty's contractor, in fact." The loli smugly leaned into the sleeping boy's chest some more and comfortably sat on his lap to enjoy his heroic deeds.
"Isn't this a lot better?" Frederica asked Petra with a warm smile. "Subaru-sama gets to win this time against everything he's faced so far…"
Petra gave the older maid a relieved sigh but frowned slightly. "Just because this is a successful loop doesn't mean that Subaru didn't suffer a lot because of them… They're just trying to relieve their guilt by focusing on the excitement of this ending.
Frederica glanced at her prodigy worriedly but the screen continued regardless.
[The camera opens up on the Karsten mansion at night time. It pans to show a bewildered Crusch sitting with Wilhelm and Felix standing at her side.
"What?" The lady asked Subaru in shock.
It was revealed that he sat opposite her with Rem standing beside him.
"Okay, I'll say it again. An alliance between the Emilia and Crusch camps, on equal terms. The information I'll offer for that purpose is the time and location of the White Whale's appearance. That's the one card I can play." Subaru proclaimed with confidence as he met the duchess's eyes with his own.]
At this sudden meeting, many eyes widened, especially those of a certain pink-haired boy who looked at the man sitting to his right with a wide smile.
"Holy fuck this kid is actually doing the deal of legends…" Heinkel's tone proclaimed a sense of surprise equal to Schult's excitement.
"Ah… Using his previous experience to manage something of a win," Julius smirked at the seemingly bitter Iron Lady who was being duped by Subaru. "Politically speaking, he had played you."
"We both know that he cheated but I overlook it since it's convenient." Crusch allowed herself to smirk.
["The White Whale?" The old butler muttered from beside the lady as an aura of fury and murderous intent flared around him.
Subaru and Rem stared at the old man with alarm.
The older butler bowed his head and calmed his anger down. "Please forgive my indiscretion. I suppose I still have much to learn."]
"I wish to apologize once again, Crusch-sama. Though I am happy to finally have the feeling of remembering something happening on this screen as opposed to watching something I never lived before… I ended up giving away your position in the negotiations." Wilhelm bowed his head deeply to the candidate.
"That's not fair to you at all, Wilhelm-dono." Crusch waved him off with an equal smile. "Though I agree that this feels a lot better."
Heinkel glared at the old man before turning his eyes to glare towards the person sitting in front of Wilhelm.
Reinhard had a small smile when they locked eyes and Heinkel's expression faltered to one of surprise for a second.
[Crusch shook her head. Subaru leaned back and smiled in relief to see that he brought the right information to the table from the old man's outburst.
"And? It is rather sudden of you to bring up the White Whale."
"No not at all. When we began this negotiation, I mentioned the magic stones found in Elior Forest in Roswaal's domain. If sharing the mining rights is insufficient, I need to offer an additional push." Subaru leaned forward with a determined look on his face.]
Emilia's heart clenched painfully at the prospect of using her forest as a bargaining chip… but she understood that sacrifices had to be made and after everything Subaru had gone through, she would be prepared to do anything to make it easier for her knight.
"Hmm, the boy is doing an adequate job so far. If only his mistress wasn't so lazy and could help him." Priscilla mused from above with a haughty smirk at the jab she shot towards the half-elf.
Emilia's eyes hardened as she squeezed the boy's hand tightly. She would make the most of what he had gone through and learn where she was lacking as a leader.
"You won't go through this again," Emilia whispered as she watched the screen in anger at her own incompetence.
["Crusch-san, I'm certain that my information will aid in your plan to subjugate the White Whale."
"Let me ask one thing, Natsuki Subaru." The boy looked taken aback by the lady's hardened eyes staring at him.
"What gave you that idea? That remark was not one you could pass off as a baseless accusation."]