...
{3rd Pov}
“Lady Crusch Karsten, nyaaah~ I apologize if this sounds rude, but Meowyh genuinely cannot understand your current actions at all,” Felix Argyle asked carefully as the two of them remained alone inside the private quarters that had been arranged for them within Roswaal L Mathers’s mansion.
The playful tone Felix usually carried was still present, but beneath it there was obvious confusion and concern. Too many things about Crusch’s behavior today had felt strange to him.
Far too strange.
Crusch quietly stared at the femboy standing before her.
In the previous timeline, Felix had died long before many of the later events unfolded. Enough time had passed afterward that much of the emotional intensity connected to his death had gradually faded from her heart.
Of course, she still remembered that they once shared a deep bond. In her former life, Felix had been one of the closest people to her, someone whose presence had mattered greatly.
And when he died back then, it had affected her deeply.
Very deeply.
However—
That had been the old Crusch Karsten.
The Duchess of House Karsten.
The Royal Candidate fighting for the throne of Kingdom of Lugunica.
The woman who placed her ideals, duties, and ambitions above almost everything else.
But the current Crusch Karsten no longer viewed herself as that same person.
Not anymore.
In her own eyes, she was no longer primarily the Duchess of Karsten.
Nor was she first and foremost a Royal Candidate.
Those titles still existed externally, but internally they no longer defined her identity.
Now she considered herself something else entirely.
The servant of Natsuki Subaru.
His most devoted knight and his wife.
That was precisely why Crusch Karsten found herself unable to feel much of anything toward Felix Argyle now.
There was no lingering nostalgia, no anger, no warmth, and no hatred either.
Only the lingering distance of being strangers.
The emotional connection that once existed between them felt strangely distant to her now, as if it belonged to another person entirely rather than herself.
However, that did not mean she intended to cast Felix aside carelessly.
‘I still need to play my role properly,’ she thought calmly. ‘Felix is one of the greatest healers available, and his abilities could become extremely useful in ensuring that Subaru-sama does not suffer unnecessary injuries.’
She did not know how far Felix’s attachment toward her went and how he could act if circumstances changed drastically. If she knew perhaps he would have been in her list of to be eliminated.
After a moment of thought, she quietly cast a Wind spell around the room, creating a barrier that prevented their voices from traveling outside.
Only after ensuring privacy did she finally speak again.
“I need Subaru-sama for a specific reason,” she said calmly. “And you already know that he was the primary reason we succeeded against the White Whale.”
The moment those words left her mouth, Felix’s expression changed sharply.
“Meowyh cannot accept it!” Felix Argyle repeated sharply, his voice rising further as his frustration finally began slipping through the cheerful facade he usually maintained. “There is no way that boy was truly that useful! It was because of Crusch-sama that we won!”
His emotions were becoming harder and harder to suppress.
“It was you who led everyone properly,” he continued immediately. “It was your strength, your judgment, and your strategy that allowed us to kill the White Whale! You were the one who figured out how his scent could be used as bait in the first place!”
Felix had already been pushing himself to remain calm ever since earlier.
Seeing Crusch Karsten act so respectful toward Natsuki Subaru had disturbed him far more than he wanted to admit.
Because in his mind Subaru, that boy did not deserve it.
He did not deserve Crusch’s respect.
He did not deserve her concern.
And he definitely did not deserve her affection.
The more Felix remembered the earlier scenes, the more agitated he became internally.
Especially that moment.
The moment when Crusch had gently held Subaru’s hands.
The way she had soothed him.
The softness in her voice.
The concern in her expression.
Just recalling it caused Felix to clench his fists tightly.
He knew Crusch better than almost anyone.
Or at least, he believed he did.
Romantic feelings were not something that came naturally to her. Crusch had always been someone focused on ideals, responsibilities, and duty rather than emotional attachment.
Which was exactly why that scene disturbed him so much.
Because despite everything he believed it had looked intimate.
Far too intimate.
Almost like the behavior of someone in love.
And Felix absolutely could not tolerate that thought.
Inside his mind, irritation toward Subaru continued growing more intense.
He wanted to tear that boy apart for making Crusch act that way.
For damaging the image of the noble and composed Crusch-sama he admired so much.
For making her look like a woman genuinely in love with someone.
Even Felix understood that, if anyone should have received such a Crusch Karsten, it should have been his best friend, Fourier Lugunica.
That was what he had always believed.
Even though Lord Fourier had passed away long ago without the feelings between them ever being fully resolved, Felix still considered him the most appropriate person to stand beside Crusch. In his heart, that image had never completely disappeared.
And yet—
At the same time, Felix could not deny another ugly truth buried deep inside himself.
A selfish truth.
Part of him had always wished to become the person who received that affection from Crusch instead.
Even if such feelings betrayed the memory of Lord Fourier.
Even if it made him feel guilty.
He still wanted it.
He would rather be the target of Crusch-sama’s tenderness himself than watch some strange outsider receive it instead.
Especially someone like Natsuki Subaru.
Because from Felix’s perspective, Subaru was not worthy of standing beside Crusch.
Not worthy of her concern.
Not worthy of being looked at with those eyes.
And certainly not worthy of receiving the kind of gentle treatment she had shown earlier.
The more he thought about it, the more frustrated he became internally.
In his emotional chaos he had been repeating these thoughts for multiple times by now.
Meanwhile, Crusch herself was barely restraining her own anger.
Only years of self-discipline prevented her expression from changing visibly.
If she already had Subaru back completely by her side, if her Lord had truly returned to her properly, she would not have tolerated this conversation any longer. She would have thrown this femboy out of her room without hesitation.
No, she would have thrown him out of her life entirely.
That was how little emotional attachment remained now.
However, despite her personal feelings, Crusch still forced herself to remain rational.
‘I could dismiss him right now,’ she thought coldly. ‘But doing so would immediately make Wilhelm suspicious.’
And suspicion was something she could not afford carelessly at the moment.
Whether she liked it or not, both Wilhelm van Astrea and Felix still represented a massive portion of her political and military strength in this timeline.
That was simply reality.
And Crusch understood reality very well.
She did not keep them close because she cared about them emotionally anymore.
She kept them because they were useful.
Because they increased the chances of protecting Subaru.
That alone justified their existence beside her.
After all, she clearly understood one thing.
A Crusch Karsten supported by monsters like the Sword Demon and Blue possessed far greater ability to protect her Lord than a Crusch Karsten who stood alone without them.
“Felix Argyle,” Crusch Karsten finally spoke, her voice calm on the surface despite the irritation she was forcibly suppressing internally.
The pressure in the room immediately shifted.
“Are you questioning my judgment?” she asked bluntly, her amber eyes locking onto him directly. “Do I truly appear that incompetent or clueless to you?”
Felix froze instantly upon hearing the sharpness in her tone.
Crusch did not stop there.
“I already told you that I have a plan,” she continued firmly. “And that plan requires Natsuki Subaru regardless of whether you personally approve of it or not.”
There was no softness in her words.
She spoke as if the matter itself had already been decided beyond debate.
Felix immediately stiffened, realizing he had allowed his emotions to go too far.
“Crusch-sama, I…” he started before quickly lowering his head slightly. “I think Meowyh overreacted.”
His voice lost much of its earlier aggression, his yellow eyes glowing almost blue as if reacting to his emotions.
“Crusch-sama naturally must have a proper plan,” he added quickly, almost as if trying to convince himself while speaking. “It is simply that Meowyh failed to understand your intentions and became frustrated because of his own incompetence!”
To Felix, there was only one acceptable conclusion.
How could he possibly question her?
This was Crusch-sama.
The perfect Crusch-sama.
The noble, intelligent, and capable woman he admired more than anyone else.
Surely someone like her would never act irrationally without reason.
If she was treating Subaru differently, if she was showing him unusual respect and concern, then there had to be a deeper purpose behind it all.
There had to be.
Because in Felix’s mind, Crusch’s ultimate objective had always remained the same.
Victory in the Royal Selection.
That belief had become almost absolute inside him.
So what if she temporarily tolerated someone like Subaru?
So what if she acted kindly toward him despite him supposedly not deserving such treatment?
In the end, Crusch-sama would still emerge victorious.
She always would.
And together, they would fulfill the dream they once shared with Fourier Lugunica.
They would also avenge their best friend.
Felix desperately held onto that conclusion because it was the only explanation that allowed everything to make sense in his mind.
After all, without knowing the true reason behind Crusch’s actions there was nothing else he could believe.
Crusch Karsten did not move to comfort Felix Argyle.
Not even as an act.
She simply remained seated in silence, her expression calm and controlled while Felix struggled with his own thoughts before her.
Because the truth was simple.
The woman with amber eyes no longer felt warmth toward almost anything in this world.
Her previous self might have still possessed attachments, loyalties, and emotional bonds toward people around her.
But the current Crusch Karsten was different.
Far different.
After everything that happened in the previous timeline, after the losses, the suffering, and the endless obsession that consumed her afterward, something fundamental inside her had changed.
To her now almost everything in existence was unbearable.
Everything irritated her.
Everything felt insignificant.
Everything was hated.
Except for one person.
Natsuki Subaru.
He alone remained the exception.
The only existence capable of stirring genuine emotion inside her heart now.
Which meant that, in the end, a cat was crying before someone who had already lost most of her humanity long ago.
…
“Onee-sama…” Rem muttered quietly as she stared at Ram from across the room.
The two of them were currently sitting together while drinking tea inside Rem’s room.
Under normal circumstances, moments like this were actually quite rare.
Not because Rem disliked spending time with her older sister.
Rather, it was the complete opposite.
Rem respected and adored Ram so deeply that she usually prioritized helping her instead of relaxing beside her. Most of the time, she would rather silently take over part of Ram’s workload or assist her in small ways than interrupt her precious leisure time for something like tea together.
That was simply the kind of person Rem was.
A devoted younger sister and a devoted maid of Mathers mansion.
Someone who instinctively prioritized Ram’s comfort above her own desires.
Even so, despite how rarely they sat together like this, they had never truly felt distant from each other before.
Not until now.
That was why the current situation disturbed Rem so much internally.
Because despite sitting directly in front of her beloved older sister, despite looking at the same familiar face she admired and loved she could not shake away the strange feeling lingering inside her chest.
As if the person sitting before her was simultaneously Ram and yet somehow not Ram at all.
Like she was drinking tea together with a complete stranger wearing her sister’s face.
“Lil Sissy…”
The words rolled awkwardly off Ram’s tongue, carrying a sense of unfamiliarity that immediately irritated her internally. Even saying the nickname felt unnatural to her now, despite knowing that she was apparently supposed to use it naturally.
At the same time, her mind was working rapidly, trying to figure out how to properly handle the current situation without exposing too much.
Because the truth was simple.
She had no memories of Rem.
None.
Everything she currently knew about the girl sitting in front of her had been pieced together entirely through what her hubby, Natsuki Subaru, had told her in the previous loop.
That was all she had.
Secondhand information, fragments and description of what Rem was supposed to be and how they acted but not actual memories.
The memories that were supposed to return to her simply never did.
No matter how much time passed.
No matter how much she tried recalling them.
Nothing came back.
Which made the entire situation deeply confusing.
At this point in time, Lye Batenkaitos and Gluttony had not yet devoured Rem’s name. By all logic, there should have been no reason for Ram to lack memories related to her sister in this timeline.
And yet the memories still remained absent.
It made no sense.
Of course, Ram herself had no understanding of how she had even returned from the future in the first place. She did not know what caused it, what rules governed it, or why certain things changed while others did not.
Because of that, endlessly questioning the inconsistency was ultimately pointless.
No amount of thinking would magically provide her with answers she fundamentally lacked.
“Barusu’s so hopeless…”
Ram could not help but mutter those words aloud as the earlier scene replayed repeatedly inside her mind.
More specifically the moment when Natsuki Subaru had tried to take his own life.
Even now, merely remembering it caused irritation, anger, and unease to build up inside her chest.
Ram could never forgive the fact that he had attempted something like that.
And more than that she could never forgive the people who had pushed him into such a mental state in the first place.
‘My hubby actually tried to kill himself…’ she thought silently to herself, still finding it difficult to fully accept what she had witnessed earlier. ‘That should have been impossible. My hubby is not that kind of coward.’
That was what genuinely disturbed her the most.
Subaru could absolutely hurt himself.
She knew that very well.
He was the kind of person who would throw himself into suffering if he believed it would help someone else or if he blamed himself for something going wrong.
He was self destructive.
Too self destructive.
However, despite all of that, Ram never considered him the type of person who would simply abandon everything by taking his own life out of cowardice.
That did not match the Subaru she knew.
Which meant the situation must have pushed him far beyond his limits emotionally.
And that realization only made her more irritated toward everyone involved.
Still, now that the issue regarding the Royal Candidates had been temporarily resolved, Ram finally had time to properly think about the future instead of merely reacting to crises one after another.
Meanwhile, across from her, Rem quietly listened to Ram’s words.
And strangely enough, hearing her sister use the familiar nickname “Barusu” again and saying he was hopeless, even if the tone behind it felt somewhat different than before, gave the blue-haired Oni a sense of reassurance she had not even realized she was searching for internally.
“Onee-sama, this is definitely the fault of those Royal Candidates!” Rem hissed angrily, unable to suppress the hostility in her voice any longer. “They are obviously using Subaru-kun as a way to eliminate Emilia-sama politically! They are only using Subaru-kun for their own goals!”
Her blue eyes were filled with irritation and hatred as she spoke.
To Rem, the situation looked painfully obvious.
The other Royal Candidates had noticed Subaru’s importance after the White Whale battle and were now trying to use him as a political tool while simultaneously weakening Emilia’s camp.
That was the conclusion she naturally reached.
However—
“Ha…” Ram quietly exhaled instead of immediately agreeing.
Because this was another thing she fundamentally failed to understand.
Why exactly were the other Royal Candidates so obsessed with getting her hubby into their camps?
The intensity behind their actions felt abnormal.
Far too abnormal.
‘The most obvious explanation would be that they also Returned by Death somehow…’ Ram thought internally while narrowing her eyes slightly. ‘But even then, this entire situation still feels too confusing.’
In fact, she knew she had thought about this matter several times before already, but still this was the sanest yet insane conclusion she could come at.
Normally, Ram would have continued analyzing the situation further.
But in the end—
She simply stopped caring.
Understanding the deeper reasoning behind other people’s actions was never really her specialty to begin with. That kind of thing was usually handled by her hubby instead.
Subaru was the one good at understanding people.
Subaru was the one who always figured out complicated emotions and motivations.
Not her.
So rather than wasting time trying to fully comprehend the other Royal Candidates’ intentions, Ram reached a far simpler conclusion.
It did not matter why they wanted him.
Because in the end they were not going to have her hubby.
However, the moment her thoughts circled back toward Subaru, her expression darkened again.
‘But my hubby really tried to kill himself…’
That fact still disturbed her deeply.
And then—
Suddenly, a terrifying possibility flashed through her mind.
Her eyes widened slightly.
‘The reason I returned to the past… was because I died…’
The thought instantly connected itself to Subaru’s earlier suicide attempt.
And in the very next moment—
‘Can it be?!’
Ram abruptly stood up from her seat so quickly that the table between them was dragged violently forward from the impact.
The teacups rattled helplessly before hot tea splattered across the table and floor messily.
“Onee-sama?!” Rem asked worriedly, completely startled by Ram’s sudden actions.
The violent movement, the overturned tea, and the abrupt change in Ram’s expression immediately made Rem tense up in concern.
Meanwhile, Ram herself remained frozen in place, her fists clenched so tightly that her nails dug painfully into her palms.
An emotion she had not fully recognized until now was rapidly bubbling up inside her mind.
Anger.
No—
Not just anger.
Fury.
‘He knew the Mabeasts were going to attack…’ she thought as her breathing slowly became uneven. ‘Then just how many times…?’
The moment that possibility surfaced properly in her mind, countless memories immediately began replaying themselves one after another.
All the moments when Natsuki Subaru somehow knew information he should not have known.
All the impossible coincidences.
All the moments where he acted as if he had already seen disasters before they happened.
And above all—
That expression.
That horrible expression of despair he sometimes carried.
The face of someone who had stared directly at death too many times already.
Ram’s eyes widened slightly as more and more pieces connected together inside her head.
‘How could I be this foolish?’ she questioned herself internally.
Her fists trembled harder.
‘How could I act so entitled?’
More memories surfaced.
Subaru throwing himself recklessly into danger.
Subaru desperately trying to save everyone no matter the cost.
Subaru occasionally reacting with fear or exhaustion that never matched the situation around him.
And yet she had ignored it.
No—
Worse.
She had accepted it naturally.
‘How could I be so blind?’
At this point, Ram finally realized something horrifying.
The signs had always been there.
Always.
She simply failed to understand what they actually meant.
All this time, she convinced herself that Subaru succeeded because of his strange luck, his instincts, or his own capability to somehow survive impossible situations.
She believed he was extraordinary.
But she never once stopped to seriously consider what that extraordinariness might truly cost him.
She never realized that behind every miracle—
There might have been suffering.
Terrible suffering that he could never explain in mere words, while she ignored that suffering as if he was alright.
“Onee-sama!”
Rem quickly grabbed Ram by the shoulders and shook her lightly, forcing the pink haired oni to snap out of the spiral of thoughts consuming her mind.
Ram blinked several times before finally focusing back on Rem properly.
“Rem…?” she muttered quietly.
For the first time since returning to this timeline, her voice sounded visibly unstable.
She was barely holding herself back from crying.
The realization she had just reached regarding Natsuki Subaru had shaken her far more deeply than she wanted to admit.
And before she could stop herself—
“I love him.”
Those simple words left her mouth directly.
The confession instantly froze Rem in place.
For several moments, the blue haired oni simply stared at her older sister in complete surprise.
“Onee-sama…” she said slowly, still processing what she had just heard. “Why…?”
Even though Rem had already suspected this possibility due to Ram’s strange behavior throughout the day, hearing the words stated so openly still shocked her deeply.
Ram’s eyes trembled slightly.
“We cannot hand Barusu over to anyone else,” she said firmly, emotion leaking into her voice despite her efforts to remain composed.
To her, that point mattered more than anything else now.
No matter what happened.
No matter what the other Royal Candidates wanted.
She absolutely refused to lose him.
Meanwhile, Rem quietly reached forward and gently grabbed Ram’s hand before intertwining their fingers together.
The warmth of the contact caused Ram to pause slightly.
“I love Subaru-kun too,” Rem admitted softly with a small smile appearing on her face. “He really is an amazing person.”
There was no hesitation in her confession either.
Then, after a brief pause, Rem smiled even more brightly before adding something that completely caught Ram off guard.
“And if it’s Nee-sama…” she said happily, “then I do not mind becoming the second wife at all!”
Ram was completely stunned by Rem’s words.
For several moments, she genuinely did not know how she was supposed to feel toward the younger sister she no longer remembered.
Her emotions became tangled in a way that even she struggled to process properly.
Because the truth was ugly.
Very ugly.
Deep down, Ram knew that a part of her had selfishly wished for Rem’s name to remain eaten forever. She had secretly thought that if Subaru became emotionally vulnerable enough, then it would become far easier for her to slowly crawl back into his heart without competition.
That thought alone filled her with shame now.
And worse—
Ram also understood that Rem should have already sensed many of her emotions through their connection of Synesthesia. Even if Rem could not directly read her thoughts, she should still have felt fragments of Ram’s possessiveness, jealousy, and selfish desires toward Subaru.
Yet despite all of that—
Rem still reached out to her warmly.
Still accepted her.
Still smiled at her sincerely.
‘Forgive me…’ Ram thought silently while tightening her intertwined fingers slightly. ‘Even now, I was still acting so entitled.’
The guilt inside her chest only deepened further.
Because what right did she actually have to deny someone like Rem?
And more importantly what right did she have to monopolize the person both of them loved?
Even so, Ram understood that, at least for now, she was still essentially a stranger to Rem emotionally.
Because despite knowing the truth intellectually, despite understanding that the girl before her was supposed to be her beloved twin sister, Ram still lacked the memories necessary to genuinely feel that connection naturally.
And because of that, a complicated feeling lingered inside her heart.
Part of her genuinely hoped those lost memories related to Rem would eventually return.
However, even Ram understood that her reasons were still selfish in many ways.
It was not purely because she loved Rem as a sister.
Nor was it solely because she wished to reconnect with her properly.
A major reason behind that desire was far simpler.
She wanted it to become easier for herself to accept the reality that her hubby would belong to another woman as well.
After all, accepting her own blood sister as the second wife of Natsuki Subaru felt far easier than accepting some unrelated stranger standing beside him.
That was the truth.
Not to mention at this point in the timeline, Subaru already loved Rem deeply.
Meanwhile, Ram herself was still the overbearing older sister who constantly insulted him daily.
Compared to Rem, she was already far behind.
And perhaps because of that realization for once, Ram decided to stop clinging entirely to her selfishness.
“Rem…” she finally said quietly before a small but genuine smile appeared on her face.
“Let’s get our hubby back.”
The words caused Rem’s eyes to widen slightly before her own expression immediately brightened.
“Yes, Onee-sama,” Rem nodded happily, showing a smile just as beautiful as her sister’s.
To be continued...
(A/N: This brings to our Chapter 1 of Wives Reboot to an End.
To those who don't know all these 20 chapters were sections of Chapter 1 of this fanfic.
I think I have also repeated some points throughout the story to show the obssession and conflict of the characters, I don't know about you. But if I am hurt or happy I cannot help but think about same thing again and again.
Some have often complained I do it for word count... But tbh I have always believed only 2k words are needed for per chapter, so I just detail that 2k words into more words. Since the chapter will remain same whether it's 2k or 4k in contents, will people love more detailed chapter or less detailed one?
I am sorry if it was not to your tastes, but I am not changing it or anything for the matter.
There are readers who threaten me to delete my story because they don't like it, change chapters because they don't like, include this ship or remove it because they don't like it.
I am not here to cater to your wishes, only write a story for myself and people love this, not for griefers.
This story will probably have only have 5 to 7 chaps at the end, I do not think of stretching it any longer. Once major plot points are covered it will end.
I never thought about making it a long-running series, and I don't want to ruin this fanfic!
On the contrary the plot of Great Sage was made to be long running so it's basically it's plot, and won't affect the series. Anyway thanks for reading~)