"Goodbye Onii-san/Chan!! Visit us again!!!!"
"See you soon, Kid!! Don't forget about us!!"
"I hope to see you again, Subaru."
“…”
Again… In the same place, with the same friends, wearing the same clothes…
…At the same time… the same day…
A black-haired human was saying goodbye to a visiting violet-haired merchant…
…Again…
"…Onii-san?"
“…”
He remains completely… immobile. Facing away from all of them… Subaru just stares at the sun, the sunset… The emptiness inside him…
Until he can feel a small hand gently tugging at his pants pocket.
"…Are you okay? You suddenly went still."
Hearing the little girl's voice… he thinks again… remembers…
…
"…Mimi-san?"
"Yes?"
"I… Am I… saying goodbye?"
"Huh?… Yes? You said you were going back to the place you're staying, Onii-san."
“…”
Subaru takes a small sigh, and now turns around, looking back at the kids who were there:
Mimi, Tivey, Hetaro, Julius, Ricardo, and Anastasia…
…They were all there… Again… Exactly as on the day he visited them… that day that was…
"…I visited you today, didn't I?… Today was when… we met again after so long?"
"Eh! Yes! That's right!… Are you forgetting again? Don't you dare forget about us again, Onii-san!"
She says in a slightly playful and dramatic tone. Her Onii-san was someone who behaved in a very strange way sometimes, right?
“…”
Subaru feels… a slight click in his brain… something telling him that… his suspicions about something unreal, about what he thought was just hallucinating… are confirmed.
He takes one last breath… and says with a calm look to his sister:
"…I… Okay… I think I was thinking about something… that's all."
"Mmm? So you're okay?"
"…Yes… Everything's fine… I think I should get going now."
Without really thinking much more about it, Subaru takes a few steps forward. Moving away from Mimi and everyone else.
"Ah… Goodbye, Onii-san! Visit us soon!"
Mimi is a little surprised by… her brother's last reactions… But she doesn't dwell on it much as she watches him walk away.
Neither she nor anyone else thought there was much more to it. She felt a slight unease seeing the boy's back recede. But nothing more than that.
Subaru walks through the streets of the capital… But when he sees he's far enough away, he decides to turn at one of the many intersections there.
Until he reaches one that's empty. With no one around to watch or judge him…
Taking advantage of the place… he leans back against the wall… And simply… sinks to the ground.
“…”
Sitting, legs stretched out and head looking down… Subaru looked like a person… dead…
"…White Whale… Otto… Rem… Patrasche…"
And he begins to murmur… in a voice low enough not to attract anyone's attention.
"The mansion… the feeling… everything… is the same. I… I… Died. Died? Am I dead? Have I died?… Again… another time."
Dying… this didn't seem to be the first time he had felt something like this.
And it seemed just as horrible as he remembered.
Unconsciously, he directs his hand to one of his arms, applying pressure and bleeding a little.
"Patrasche… Rem… Otto… Everyone… I… They… the pain… everything… was real… Ngh."
He forces himself not to lose control of his body by using pain as a tool… And it works.
He was hyperventilating, and felt like he was filling with despair… But this time, he had a little more control over his body than the first time he suffered this panic attack.
This time… he had made sure no one would see this side of him… just so he could… think alone for even a few seconds.
“…”
After a few minutes, a long few minutes of heavy breathing, created scars, and spilled blood… he finally manages to pull himself together.
He was still sweating cold. Still trembling… He was clearly not okay. He wasn't going to be okay.
But… he had recovered enough to be able to walk.
As he walks, seeking to vanish into thin air so no one in the capital would notice him, he directs his arms to himself again. Using his own healing magic on himself…
He has a thought… as unreal as it is terrifying:
"…Can I… Return By Death?"
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Subaru-kun. Welcome home..."
Several minutes later, upon arriving at his lodging place, he is greeted with the same words as always.
"I said it again... These last few days... I feel like a wife waiting for her beloved every day... It feels so good."
Rem thought with a smile and an imperceptible blush.
"...Rem..."
But Subaru... can't help but compare the Rem in her well-kept maid outfit, with a sweet smile...
With the Rem in wrinkled and torn clothes with scars, dying right in front of him...
"I hope your visit to Lady Anastasia's mansion went well... Rem made some dinner for the two of us. Would you like to eat with me?"
Her kind, gentle, and sweet tone of voice... doesn't help him pull himself together at this moment.
"...I... I'm not hungry."
That takes Rem by a bit of surprise.
Not exactly the fact that Subaru doesn't want to eat... but the fact that he looked... drained... As if... he had been through a bad situation.
"...Really?... Are you feeling okay? Wasn't the visit as you expected?"
"...It's not that... They treated me... wonderfully... I think I'm just tired... Sorry."
"...You have nothing to apologize for, Subaru-kun. Rem can prepare something light if you need to lie down and sleep."
"...Thank you, Rem... that would be great."
Rem... knew there was something more, Subaru wasn't telling her something...
But she also knew that that something was something with which he needed help... If he doesn't want to talk about it right now, the best she can do is create an environment where he feels like doing it.
So, even with slight doubt, she heads to the kitchen to prepare a new dish. Something small and easy to eat. Just as he would like.
"...Hey, Rem...?"
"Mmm? Yes, Subaru-kun?"
Although she stops the instant he calls her.
Subaru... just as a final confirmation... decides to ask one more thing.
"...About... about Otto... What did you think of him?... He's... he's a good friend, right?"
"...?"
That surprised reaction... was enough for him to know the answer... But as if it weren't obvious...
"...Subaru-kun."
"Yes?"
"...Who is Otto?"
“…”
"I knew it..."
He murmurs sadly and resignedly.
"Never mind... I think I'm talking without thinking much... I really need to sleep."
"...Okay?... I'll be in your room in a few minutes."
"Yes... See you there."
Subaru finishes talking with Rem and proceeds to head to his room. Without looking back even a second more.
When he opens the door, he closes it quickly,... before walking to his bed and throwing himself onto it...
"...Did I treat her coldly?"
He thought for a second about the chat he just had...
Even in a situation where he can barely handle his own thoughts, everyone's well-being was his number one priority.
So he can't help but feel guilty about this...
But at the same time... he has things to think about.
"...So... has everything I experienced disappeared?"
And he begins to remember.
"...My date with Rem... Our time at the clothing store... The talk I had with her... the night we spent together... my reunion with Otto... our conversation about our past... All the jokes, teasing, and banter... All those moments simply... are... gone."
Subaru hadn't realized how truly painful it was that everything he had experienced... simply... was already gone.
Or that simply... simply never happened in the first place.
He hadn't realized how much this hurt him inside. Mainly because he himself didn't even know if all that had really happened, or if it was him going crazy.
Even, although that last option could still be a probability... the truth was that what seemed unreal... seemed to have been confirmed.
"Return by Death."
In anime, manga, and video games, when someone is summoned to a new fantasy world, they usually receive a broken superpower. With which they could solve all problems with much, or at least, relative ease.
Subaru didn't believe he had obtained a superpower that strong. Sure, he could cast darkness-type spells, something not very common in this world. But it was still enough for him.
In fact, he wouldn't even consider that kind of magic his superpower. If he had to say what the superpower he received upon arrival was, it would be the dozens of super powerful and influential contacts and friends he had made.
People like King Fourier, the Sword Saint Reinhardt, the royal candidates, the Great Sage, and the Divine Dragon... Being friends with all of them and being on very good terms could be considered a broken power.
But that was it... He didn't believe he could obtain another ability that was so... incredible, broken.
Can he even call it an ability? The condition for it to work seemed to be... death...
Taking that into account, he could call it a curse without any problem...
"...Is that something I obtained recently?... Or did I receive it when I arrived in this world a month ago? Or perhaps... maybe I had already died... since I was a child?... Could it have to do with my memory loss?..."
Subaru... curiously, was thinking with relative clarity...
Everything he had experienced in these two days... technically 4 days from his point of view... had pushed his sanity to the limit.
He didn't believe there could be anything that would make him suffer something even worse.
He was at the limit. He wanted to scream whatever. He wanted to hit whoever. He wanted to release all the anger, rage, sadness, and helplessness into the air. Even if it was pathetic or stupid or meaningless, he wanted to do that just to free himself from that burden...
...But right now... He knew something.
If he acted carelessly again... If he acted without thinking or without any plan in mind, what happened in the first or second... loop, could repeat itself.
So, he could scream, cry, and act pathetically in private another time.
Right now... he has to pretend to be sane. At least until this week is over.
"...This week... has already lasted too long for my liking."
First of all... he tries to remember everything about the last few days.
The more information he has, the better. Maybe it would help him remember important information and have a plan to work with.
"So... let's see..."
Day 1
Rem, Emilia, Puck, Roswaal, Patrasche, and I departed from the mansion to the capital. Leaving Ram and Beako-sensei alone. The journey didn't last long as there were no complications on the road. We walked and I was able to reunite with old man Kadomon, and re-recognize Julius and Prisca-san again.
Day 2
Emilia, Puck, Roswaal, and I went to the royal castle. There I was able to meet and reunite with many more people: Reinhardt, Julius, Felix, Aldebaran, Prisca, Ana, Crusch, Felt, and Fourier... (God, I got involved with too many important people). At the end of the day, everyone invited me to visit their camp during the rest of the week. So I stayed in the capital along with Rem and Patrasche while Emilia, Puck, and Roswaal returned to the mansion.
Day 3
After the carriage departed for the mansion and having eaten with Rem, the first camp I visited was Felt's camp. There I was able to talk with her again and calmly talk with Reinhardt about how we met... Reinhardt informed me that he would be leaving the capital for important meetings to another place along with Felt. So they were no longer in the capital.
Day 4
The next camp to visit was Crusch's camp. The only candidate with whom I don't have a friendship since childhood. There I was able to talk more calmly with Felix, and he told me about his childhood. He helped me better recover my memory and also taught me to use healing magic. Something I've been practicing on myself these days... as it also seemed I did as a child...
Day 5
Prisca's camp. Besides being able to talk with her and Aldebaran, I was able to meet little Schult with them. Also, by that day I was also able to fully complete the memory of Shaula-neesan... Not much else happened that day, it was just a very pleasant day for me... (And it seemed like it was months ago...)
Day 6
The last camp I visited was Ana-chan's camp... where there are too many friends to be honest. I was able to reunite with her and Julius. Besides re-recognizing Mimi, Tivey, Hetaro, and Ricardo as my demi-human family... Besides talking about our childhood, and getting... hundreds of gold coins, the key point was when I was leaving the visit... When... the divergence point happens.
...Here... is where everything gets complicated...
Day 7, Loop 1
I was able to fully remember Vulcan-san... Also wanting to invite Rem on an outing for helping me all week. We enjoyed a lot of time together throughout the day. Without complications. When night fell, she and I couldn't make it to the mansion on time, due to the fog blocking the main road. So we stayed at a different hotel, one halfway. Rem and I slept together... And in peace... I think that was the last peaceful day I've lived until now...
Day 8, Loop 1
We had gotten so comfortable in bed that we had woken up late that morning. It wasn't far to get to the mansion. And when we arrived... there was a snowstorm surrounding the mansion...We found Nee-sama's horn buried under the snow... Rem reacted impulsively and ran inside the mansion.When I chased her I could see... dozens of corpses bathed in blood all over the hallways... I tried running looking for someone alive. Beako-sensei's library was frozen for some reason and I decided to look for Puck... I found Rem's footprints ending at Roswaal's office, at some stairs leading down under the mansion... When I tried to advance I saw a frozen door at the end of the hallway... and when I touched it... I... froze...Every part of my body... froze, was destroyed, and vanished into the air... No... Not even a trace of my corpse remained... I had died...
Day 6, Loop 2
I reappeared again right at the moment I was saying goodbye at Anastasia's mansion... I was so lost and confused that I started having a... let's say, panic attack... If not for everyone's help, I might have ended up committing suicide...I spent the night at Anastasia's mansion along with Rem and the others... Perhaps it's necessary to remember that that night I had nightmares about someone... who loved me... Nightmares that didn't seem new to me...
Day 7, Loop 2
As soon as we finished eating breakfast, Rem and I left Anastasia's mansion heading towards Roswaal's... Mainly thanks to my insistence. Because I wanted to return as quickly as possible. During the journey, we met Otto, who seemed to be having a hard time selling some oil. He turned out to also be one of my friends, so we met at a restaurant and started talking.After eating, we set off again for the mansion along with him. Since I wanted to arrive at the mansion that same day, we decided to take an alternative route where there was supposedly no fog, thus avoiding the danger... But...The White Whale appeared... When it started attacking us... we barely lasted a few minutes before... dying... again...
Day 6, Loop 3
Which would be today...
...
After a good, and somewhat long summary, Subaru has a better understanding of these last... 11 days that have repeated.
This week has almost completely doubled in terms of time.
Subaru... for now, will focus on resolving the several doubts he has at this moment.
Would it be weird to think that he's taking... this in a better way?... Perhaps he had good mental fortitude...
Or he was just forcing himself to have it.
"...First of all... I can... return by death."
Although it seems totally nonsensical, unreal, and absurd... Subaru... has to accept that fact.
Can he do it? It's not a question of whether he can or can't do it. He must do it. Otherwise, he simply won't be able to continue with his reasoning.
So... Return by death... That name he had barely mentioned a few hours ago... Now is something he accepts he has.
"...But is that... something I already had as a child?"
Except for nightmares he had suffered at home (which he believed he suffered in his original home), Subaru couldn't remember any sensation and emotion as... terrifying as feeling death.
The two deaths he had felt so far... Feeling your organs fail, starting to lose consciousness, when you reach and understand the point that you won't survive... It made him feel truly... terrified, horrified, traumatized...
Could he really have lived that as a child?... This was a dangerous world. He already knew that. Death was something that could have happened to him. But wouldn't it be traumatized and etched in his brain for life?
"...Wait... and what if... if that was the reason why I lost my memory?"
He had never considered that possibility... But maybe that was what explained his lack of memory.
"Felix mentioned that my memories were still inside me... Very, very deep and hidden... And that there was something that made my mind refuse to let those memories come to light..."
Trauma... could cause something like that, right?
Subaru is not a philosopher, far from it... But it sounded convincing that if a child, at such a young age, had suffered a scene so horrible that it left him with mental scars... his mind would decide to block all those memories, in a desperate measure of self-protection.
Did... that happen to him?
...And even if it was only a possibility... it was a... strong option to take into account.
...
Let's pretend that is the truth, even if just for a few minutes.
Even if it's only a theory, what can we discover if we assume that he had died before the age of 13?
"...The way all my friends talked to me until now... I always seemed animated and happy. At least most of the time... Except for a few things, I didn't seem truly traumatized."
That could be a sign that Subaru hadn't died or gone through such a traumatic experience...
But at the same time, he knew perfectly well how good he was at hiding his own emotions and problems. He couldn't rely on those words.
"...The nightmares... I remember... I remember telling Shaula-neesan and Vulcan-san about some nightmares, similar to the ones I've had recently... If at least I can take that into account I can conclude that... I wasn't really completely okay..."
Saying something like: they're nightmares, they're just simple nightmares, would be something very stupid on his part to dismiss...
But... it wasn't enough to conclude about a past death.
Now then... was there a situation that could be considered life or death? One that he remembers where it happened?
"...!"
Yes, there was... And it was related to the girl who was in the same place where he was staying.
The attack on the oni clan.
"...I met Ana-chan before I met Ram and Rem. And Prisca after those two... Besides... I'm sure I mentioned them in a conversation with Shaula-neesan..."
Subaru spent approximately 1 year in all the time he was in the oni village. Or at least, that's what he had been told.
From ages 8 to 9... And the date matched along with the testimony of the rest of his friends.
"...Could... could I have died in that attack?..."
It's very hard to draw a plausible conclusion. He still has many unknowns about how Return by Death works.
Does he return literally? Physically? It didn't seem so. Rather, it was his memories that were able to return to the past.
It's very similar to how the D-mail from the anime about time travel that he had seen works.
Another question was how far back did he return... Was he able to decide it?
So far he had returned to the same point twice... It wasn't enough to be sure, but still, instinct or naivety, he wasn't convinced that that was something he really had under his control.
So, moving on to another unknown... Did it have a limit? Could he return as many times as he wanted? Could he die and die non-stop? Would he use that to his advantage?...
That would be... truly pathetic if he decided to use it as a tool just to get what he wants.
Subaru would never do something like that, unless...
"...Unless... it involves a friend..."
...
"...Nee-sama... said there was a moment when she got distracted in the battle... and that she was going to receive a fatal attack when I... jumped... to defend her..."
...Subaru has two thoughts about that event.
Number 1...
"Did I... die?"
The scar he got on his back was deep... Not even he himself knows how he recovered from it.
But what if he hadn't?... What if in reality... he had died back then?...
"But... if I had died, I would have returned, right?... Then I shouldn't have any scar at all."
That was something that could crumble that whole theory... unless...
Number 2.
"...Did I know... I would come back?"
What if we assume that that 'death'... wasn't the 'first' death that had happened?
Subaru says this in part because... No... He doesn't have any real reason to believe that... he just believes it could be possible. It was highly possible for him. That would explain why he...
And with that line of thought... another idea comes to him... repugnant.
"Did I... jump to defend Nee-sama... only because I knew nothing would happen to me?"
Subaru... feels a bit of contempt for himself with that possibility.
"...That... 'sacrifice'... All the efforts and danger that 'PERHAPS' I went through to help my friends... Did I... Did I do them only because I knew nothing bad would happen to me anyway?"
Was he really so..?
"…Ram is… genuinely grateful to you, Barusu… for life… Thank you for protecting Ram's horn… Thank you for protecting Rem… Thank you for saving our lives back then…"
“…Hahaha… Shit… I’m truly pathetic…”
Subaru laughs with disappointment in himself.
“…Don’t thank me for anything, Nee-sama… you don’t owe me anything… It can’t even count as a sacrifice… Maybe I just did it to play the hero and make you like me more…”
Subaru knew that was a possibility… in his opinion, very possible for someone as pathetic who desires acceptance as him…
The child Subaru… could have used that power at will just to win everyone’s affection…
It’s just a theory… But if it were true… it would confirm another thought of his.
That Subaru Natsuki… was always a pathetic person…
…
Thinking about that… as much as he really wants to do it… won't serve any purpose. He must stop wasting time there. He must think about the now.
If he did nothing… Loop 1 and 2 could repeat again.
He wanted to avoid that at all costs. He would bother and disappoint himself later.
Right now… he has to discover everything he can about these loops.
…Loop 1, Day 8.
Let's see all the doubts I have left about that day.
Did all my friends… had… died?
Subaru, just thinking that, fills his body with a cold chill that leaves him frozen.
He hadn't found any sign of anyone alive in the mansion… But there was also no trace of anyone. There wasn't a body he recognized.
Sure, anyone could think that if there's no body, there's no dead.
Maybe they were able to escape?… That day, Subaru and Rem didn't check Arlam village. The state of that place was unknown, and therefore… he couldn't rule out a possible escape there…
…But… there is also another option.
“…When I reached the depths of the mansion… when I… died… my frozen and dismembered body… began to be destroyed in the air…Also, Rem's footprints had headed to that place… But there was no trace of her inside… Did that mean that she… had died… and vanished into the air?”
Faced with that possibility, the worst, as incredible as it sounded, wasn't that Rem had died back then… it was that…
“Did that mean that everyone… that everyone else… had also died and vanished in the same way?”
What if everyone was dead… and it was the same snowstorm that made all trace of them vanish completely?
That was only a probability. But… The snowstorm occurred at the mansion… When it occurred, it is the last sign of life that could remain of his friends.
But what if the snowstorm had occurred days ago? A while ago?… If that were true, Subaru… had woken up on day 8… without knowing that there was no one alive inside the mansion anymore…
“…No… Think… Think another way!”
Maybe it was Subaru thinking optimistically. But he wanted to search for all the more probable possibilities that could have happened.
The corpses of the Witch Cultists were in the hallway. They had wounds, they were dead, yes. But if the corpses were there, it meant there was a possibility that the other bodies, his friends' bodies, hadn't vanished into the air. No matter how naive and optimistic it sounds.
Moreover. Ram's horn was outside the mansion. At the entrance. If Subaru stepped on it just by stepping a little into the snow, it means it had to be recent. Even if she were… dead, it doesn't explain why her body wasn't there.
On top of that, we must not confuse the snowstorm as the cause of death for everyone.
Perhaps the snowstorm appeared after the Cultists' attack. If that were the case… it remains to discover… when the attack was…
“The blood…”
When Rem ran towards the mansion, she stepped on the corpses that were there. Or at least, the blood. Because her footprints had spread with each step she took.
That meant the blood wasn't frozen. It was fresh. Even if it wasn't very cold, it clearly would have frozen within a few hours.
1 day… Maximum one day.
The fact that the snowstorm wasn't an event everyone noticed. That the battle didn't seem to have happened long ago, that there was evidence that this wasn't such a distant event… It was enough for Subaru to conclude a time limit.
And even, he has another way to shorten the time even more.
“Ram and Rem's synesthesia…”
The twins shared a unique connection between the two of them. Perhaps not 100%, but for something of this magnitude, it should undoubtedly have been activated.
Rem hadn't mentioned any situation of danger coming from her sister in the previous loops at all. She didn't know, she hadn't noticed.
There were two options that could explain that:
Either Ram had been attacked and killed in a surprise attack.
Or she had died while Rem couldn't feel their connection.
The first option was very improbable.
The corpses at the entrance of the mansion were clear evidence that there was a fight from both sides. There were enemy bodies at the entrance. Quite a few.
That is, Ram could easily defend herself against them. There was no way she would have died that quickly.
A surprise attack was still an option, but it was very improbable to happen.
As for the second option… A way of not feeling the synesthesia, at least from what he understood, was if one of the two parties couldn't feel anything in general.
The only way Rem couldn't feel her sister's synesthesia, was if she were dead, unconscious, unconscious…
…Or asleep.
Subaru considers that maybe the morning he woke up late with Rem, could have been the night of the chaos.
So his suspicions remain that the hours of the attack… must have been during the night between day 7 and 8. Perhaps even the morning of the latter.
“…Then…”
Once he obtained the time of the attack… comes another doubt.
“Did Nee-sama… lose?”
Ram's horn was cut. That was beyond doubt. He and Rem had confirmed it. She had died, and it wasn't from a surprise attack… Or at least, not from the first surprise attack.
Ram had maintained a battle and had lost…
Was that… that possible?
She was strong… Very strong… EXTREMELY STRONG. The only people Subaru knew who could face her were Reinhardt, Puck, Vulcan, and maybe Roswaal?… He had his doubts about the last one. Perhaps he could beat her, but he wasn't so sure.
But each and every one of them were ABSURDLY STRONG beings.
So… how? How could she lose?
Subaru understands that although Ram was strong and powerful, she didn't fight often. She didn't like that.
But she would defend the mansion with all her being. Even if she were rusty, he can't imagine how she was defeated.
What kind of enemy are they dealing with?
“…If Ram couldn't win… I doubt Rem and I can do anything in combat that makes a difference there…”
Subaru doesn't know who defeated Ram… and he knows that the more he thinks about it, the more time he will waste in vain…
If fighting makes no sense…
“The best option… is to evacuate… We have to arrive at the mansion earlier to avoid that attack.”
…But that… leads us to another confrontation…
Day 7, Loop 2
“…I have more than one doubt about this night.”
Subaru has to consider each detail carefully.
“We took an alternative route to avoid the main road full of fog. We took the Lifaus road. It was supposed to be the best to get there quickly and without danger. But…”
But still, the Whale appeared…
“Why? We should have avoided it. Why the hell could it follow us?”
And even after Rem's attack took effect, and they were able to gain some space… still, the Whale found them easily.Something was guiding it towards them.
What signal could they have given it for-?
“…The Witch's miasma…”
And another click sounds again inside Subaru.
“…Beako and Rem confirmed to me that I… that I have that smell… And in the library books I learned about mabeasts… Mabeasts hate the Witch. That's why they especially attack anyone who has her smell…”
And the White Whale was known to be one of the Three Great Mabeasts… which means that…
“…The reason the Whale found us, and killed Rem, Otto, and me… was my fault.”
…
Subaru lets out a great sigh of guilt, rage, and disappointment…
…I really… am the worst…
“Knock Knock.”
A light knock is heard outside the room door.
“…Come in…”
Subaru responds, knowing already in advance who it is.
And upon hearing his confirmation, a blue-haired girl enters the room.
“I made a bit of light food, Subaru-kun… it won't hurt you to eat a little before sleeping.”
Her voice sounds soft, understanding, and passive… A sweet girl.
“Would she still act this sweetly with me if she knew I technically killed her in another loop?”
Subaru can't help but joke about it.
“…Yes… Thank you, Rem…”
He says nothing more as he takes the small plate and starts eating. It's a light and easy-to-prepare dish. And yet it's very tasty. It showed it was made by a professional like Rem.
“…Are you feeling better?”
“Mmm?”
“I mean… even though you said you were okay… Rem couldn't help but worry about your mood…”
Rem just stands still while she watches him standing. And reflects her worry for him.
Not making him feel pity, pressure, or annoyance.
Just being understanding… Rem knew that was the best she could do for her hero.
“…I'm… ahhh, I just had to think a bit about something.”
“…Is it something serious? If so, Rem is willing to listen to you, Subaru-kun.”
“I'm glad about that. But the truth is it's something… personal…”
The truth is that wasn't entirely true. Subaru had simply already thought enough for one night.
He didn't want to continue with this.
“…If you change your mind… Rem will be here, Subaru-kun.”
“…She never changes, huh?”
Subaru feels a little that he doesn't deserve that kindness.
But still… he feels as if even those few words cause an effect of relief within him.
“…Rem… tomorrow… can I ask you to wake up earlier?”
Maybe it's bad to take advantage of that kindness. But he had no other choice.
“Huh?… Of course, I wouldn't have any problem… Why?”
“Let's return to the mansion as early as possible… by early afternoon at the latest…”
“Huh?… Are you in a hurry to get there?”
“…I… would like to leave as soon as possible.”
“Sorry, Otto. I won't be able to come for you tomorrow… Maybe I'm doing you a favor.”
Arriving as soon as possible was the best plan. Arrive before the Whale. Arrive before the attack. Arrive early to evacuate…
Subaru was even considering asking Rem to leave right now. Or to skip tomorrow's breakfast… But maybe that would be too much.
Arriving before tomorrow afternoon… will be enough.
“…Just do me this small favor, okay?”
“…If Subaru wants it… just… promise me you'll tell me what's happening to you later.”
“Yes… Tomorrow… I think I can tell you tomorrow. Now… I just want to eat and sleep as soon as possible.”
“I understand… Rem will… will go to sleep early too then… rest, Subaru-kun.”
“Rest.”
The door closes shortly after.…
Did he treat her too coldly?
In any case… his plan is just to evacuate… Arrive early, to avoid any events on the road and hope… that this is the only time he will live these days…
Let's hope that's the case.
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Good. Another episode to the list… As I said, there wasn't much action… In fact, there was no action. The title fits well, it was literally just Subaru understanding in a single episode the entire summary of the loops.
Is this a skippable episode?… I think there were still things worth reading. Although I wonder if I broke canon.
You'll have to help me when I go to write arc 4. I'll ask for your help when we get to that part.
Alright. So, what did you think of the chapter? Please, don't kill yourselves telling me that in canon it wasn't like this, that this makes no sense…
I mean, if you want to say it, but you should know that you don't have to take canon so seriously in this fic.
Alright. The usual. Comment. See you in the next chapter and, please… Support me! I thank you all for continuing to read.
See you. Byeee!