After a heartwarming yet anxious exchange with
"Whoa, so this is it!"
In front of Subaru, whose voice and expression were bursting with delight, there stood a majestic presence in all its imposing grandeur.
Hard, green skin. A towering body you had to crane your neck to see the top of. Sharp, yellow eyes—this creature, which he had seen so many times yet never had the chance to encounter this close, was in the shape of a massive lizard.
Proudly stationed at the main gate of Roswaal's mansion was the means of transport that would guide Subaru and the others to the royal capital: a dragon carriage pulled by an earth dragon.
"Massive body! Scaly skin! Scary face!!"
Before a giant living creature—or perhaps not limited to living things alone—there is a universal male instinct for excitement. Subaru was, of course, utterly smitten by the sheer 'bigness' of it all, and combined with the early hour, his excitement was running at full throttle.
He bounced around the lizard in little hops, practically radiating his admiration.
"He's really going at it like a little kid."
"Adorable, sure, I suppose... but Rem's been pretty thoroughly corrupted by Subaru, hasn't she."
Emilia sighed at Rem as well, who was gazing at the frolicking Subaru with dreamy eyes.
Oblivious to the commentary happening behind him, Subaru reached out without restraint to pat the earth dragon, letting out squeals of excitement.
"This is insane, I'm so moved! Total fantasy! If I had a digital camera, I'd be snapping pics like crazy! How about a title — 'Me and the Lizard That Crawls Across the Ground—'"
Just as his excitement gauge was hitting the redline and his touch was beginning to transition from gentle to aggressive, the lizard's own gauge maxed out first.
To be specific— "Wha—oww, hot—what the—!?"
"Ah—"
With a low growl, the earth dragon pivoted and its tail whipped around, slamming hard into Subaru's shoulder. The impact knocked his balance askew, and Subaru went flying at a speed that could have left afterimages. Spiraling through the air, he crashed headfirst into a soft bush beside the gate. After a moment of silence, he managed to wriggle free— "Wha—what just happened?"
"Subaru-kun. Earth dragons are very intelligent creatures. Even if they don't understand words, they can roughly sense your intentions. So you need to be careful about how you handle them—be polite."
"Tell me that sooner!! I felt like I was going to die for the first time since my Mayonnaise Bath incident... Actually, that wasn't that long ago!"
Since arriving in this other world, there had been absolutely no shortage of occasions for him to brush up against death.
He'd just been thinking he'd enjoyed some peaceful days, and now this.
Subaru rotated his aching shoulder as he limped out of the bush and back to the front gate. He eyed the lizard warily, and the creature narrowed its yellow eyes ever so slightly and let out a forceful huff, as if to say, "That's what happens when you touch me without permission."
Getting rejected by humans was one thing, but having an attitude shown to him by a creature from this untamed land stung in its own particular way.
"I should probably be more mindful of my words, attitude, actions, and day-to-day behavior going forward..."
"A lot of self-reflection there. But that's so like Subaru, isn't it?"
"The kind of thing Emilia-tan likes about me?"
"You might want to pick your timing, your audience, and the situation, I think."
"Message received."
He raised his hand in a show of earnest obedience, and Emilia put her hand on her hip and smiled. "Good boy."
Just then, the front door of the mansion swung open. Out came Roswaal and Ram, arriving a touch late for the agreed-upon time.
Subaru tapped his bare wrist with his finger.
"Hey, hey, hey—you're late! What's going on? Roswa, aren't you the one who set the time? People who are loose with time are loose with everything else, right, Rem?"
"That's right! I'm the one who had to wake Subaru-kun up this morning when he still wasn't up even though it was time. So please, feel free to praise me."
"Good boy, good boy, good boy—now hush up for a sec, Rem."
Subaru silenced Rem with a few pats on the head. Emilia shot him a white-eyed glare, and he hurried to explain.
"No, no, no! There's a reason! A reason bluer than the sea, more azure than the mountains!"
"That's a remarkably lame excuse... Go on, I'm listening."
"I was too excited to sleep!"
"You're not a child."
Seeing Emilia let her shoulders slump in resignation, Subaru declared himself the winner by forfeit. Trying to dodge any further interrogation, he redirected the conversation toward Roswaal.
"So what about you two? Why were you late? It's not like you were all gathered together at breakfast time like normal. Rem did most of the packing anyway."
"Well, you see, sorry, sorry. The thing is, Ram is going to be house-sitting, so we won't see her for a while, right? Soooo, we were having a little extra-thorough farewell."
Roswaal wagged his raised finger as he explained, then straightened his collar. Beside him, Ram was quickly tidying her hair and clothes—the sight of it alone was enough to convey a raw, visceral quality.
"Nope, don't wanna hear it! Let's pretend that didn't happen and move on to roll call. Number one, me. Number two, Emilia-tan. Number three, Rem. And Roswa for good measure."
"For good measure, you say—how could you. The dragon carriage is my property, you know."
Roswaal chuckled softly and reached out, gently touching the ill-tempered lizard's chin.
Subaru instinctively flinched, envisioning Roswaal getting launched—his heart actually raced for a moment at how hilarious that would be, but it was a fleeting hope that quickly faded.
Rather than swatting Roswaal away, the lizard pressed its snout against his hand, expressing affection much like a horse would with its owner.
Quite the contrast from how it had treated Subaru.
"Somehow, I don't feel satisfied about this."
"It's Roswaal-sama's dragon, so naturally it's fond of Roswaal-sama. It's different from you, Barusu, who go around touching things haphazardly and get rejected."
"The way you say 'his dragon' sounds so badass... But where were you lurking when you saw my humiliation?"
"Oh, so it really happened?"
Ram confessed with a straight face that she'd been making it up, and Subaru flared up. She pointed at his head, then snorted with disdain, and— "There are leaves stuck to your head and all over your body. On top of that, there are marks from where you scraped against the dirt. You'll get the inside of the dragon carriage dirty, and we'd rather avoid that."
"I'm not the one who's going to be cleaning it..."
"Roswaal-sama will be riding in it too. It's a servant's duty to ensure he isn't inconvenienced. As for you, Barusu... you really are Barusu through and through."
"Don't use my name like it's a synonym for 'hopeless'—I'll actually cry, you know."
That would be a full-on tantrum, complete with flopping onto the ground and flailing his limbs.
Of course, for Ram, that would only serve to pile on further contempt and mockery.
While they chatted, Rem was busily loading the last of the luggage into the dragon carriage.
The conversation had reached a natural break, and the air shifted toward departure. As the others said their farewells to Ram, who would be staying behind, Subaru suddenly recalled— "Oh yeah, come to think of it,
What a cold-hearted loli, Subaru thought of the cream-haired girl.
He'd expected as much and had spent the previous day pestering Beatrice to his heart's content, milking their farewell for all it was worth, but it was still lonely to not have her here at the actual moment of departure.
She really lacked a sense of occasion, that girl. Subaru pouted and glared at the mansion— "Oh."
Just barely visible behind the fractionally opened door, a figure in a dress had been secretly watching. Their eyes met.
The girl flinched for an instant at being noticed, but quickly recovered and continued her sneaking mission with dignified composure—still hidden behind the door.
Subaru smiled wryly at the stubborn girl and raised his hand in a gesture that said: "If we make it back safely, I have something I want to tell you."
The girl returned a look of pure indifference and waved him off with a perfunctory flick of her hand. Then she shut the door, as if to say she'd fulfilled her duty to see them off.
"Subaru? What is it?"
He turned around. Emilia was leaning out of the dragon carriage's passenger cabin, looking down at him. Unnoticed, the boarding process had already begun, and Subaru was the only one still standing on the ground. Panicking, he reached for the cabin door— "Here."
A slender white hand reached out before his own could touch the handle.
He hesitated for a fraction of a second, but Subaru took that hand. A grip far stronger than her delicate wrist suggested pulled him in, dragging his body into the passenger cabin.
Once Subaru was aboard, Rem nodded to Ram, who remained behind.
Between the twins, no words were needed—a single gesture was enough to exchange everything they felt. Rem took the reins, and the earth dragon stepped forward at her command.
Feeling the carriage creak and lurch into motion, Subaru moved to the window. He stuck his head out and looked back at Ram, who stood gazing up at him.
"Well then, we're off! Take care, both of us!"
"And Barusu—if something happens, you'd at least make a decent decoy. Your talent for that—I'll admit to that much, at least."
"I'm sure I have other good qualities too!"
This exchange of unflattering words became the farewell for that morning.
The dragon carriage picked up speed, accelerating rapidly. The distance from the mansion widened in an instant, and even Ram's figure by the gate grew smaller and smaller.
Before disappearing from sight, Ram pinched the hem of her skirt and gave a small, precise bow. She lowered her head deeply, sending them off like a model maid.
"...If only her work performance matched that, she'd be perfect."
Once they entered the gently sloping road, Ram's figure disappeared entirely. Seeing that, Subaru finally sank into his seat with a sigh of relief.
He shifted around, getting a feel for his first-ever ride in a dragon carriage. The comfort of the seat presumably depended on the quality of the cabin's construction, but as for the actual ride, it was surprisingly smooth.
The road, by any real measure, was not particularly well-maintained. The dragon carriage's wheels shouldn't have been any more advanced than those in his original world, yet the vibrations reaching Subaru's body were far weaker than he'd anticipated.
Honestly, it was comparable to the ride quality of a passenger car back in his world.
"Seems like the dragon carriage is quite the novelty, huh."
"More like a fresh surprise than a novelty. Isn't everything like this the first time around? I might be a little noisy, but try to bear with it."
Subaru answered Roswaal from his creaking seat, feeling the vibrations transmitted through the carriage floor into the soles of his feet. If they were traveling at a leisurely speed, he might not have noticed, but the scenery outside the window was racing past at anything but a gentle pace.
It matched the speed of a passenger car—by rough estimation, they had to be pushing close to a hundred kilometers per hour.
That raised the question of Rem, who was sitting outside alone on the driver's seat.
"Hey, we're going at serious speed here—is she really okay out on the driver's seat, fully exposed like that? I mean, I'm sure she won't get thrown off or anything since she's Rem, but... won't her hair and clothes be completely wrecked by the time we reach the royal capital?"
"The dragon carriage is protected by a blessing, so you don't need to worry about things like that."
Emilia answered Subaru's rather belated question with a puzzled expression. When Subaru tilted his head at her reply— "Blessing?"
"That's another word I hear from time to time. I've heard it less often than 'mana,' so I've never really gotten a chance to ask—what exactly is it?"
"A blessing is a blessing. A divine grace bestowed upon you by the world at the moment you're born. Hmm, you really don't know?"
Emilia held up a finger and pointed it at Subaru, who swayed his body side to side and declared his ignorance with a sheepish grin.
Emilia tapped her own temple lightly.
"A blessing is, as I just said, a grace granted by the world. There are all kinds of blessings, so I can't generalize, but some species are always given a specific blessing. The earth dragon's 'Wind-Dodging' blessing is one of them."
"The 'Wind-Dodging' blessing, you say..."
"It means the earth dragon can run across the land without being affected by wind resistance in the slightest. And that blessing extends to any dragon carriage hitched to it. So this cabin here isn't affected by the wind at all."
"And that means Rem outside is protected too."
Subaru turned Emilia's explanation over in his mind, then nodded in understanding.
Emilia smiled her "Good answer" smile. Subaru rewarded her with a grateful wink that left her exasperated, and then he thought back to the blessings he'd heard of so far.
In that case— "What about me? What about me? Hey, Emilia-tan—do I not have any kind of blessing?"
A special blessing granted at the very moment of birth—wasn't that exactly the kind of cheat ability he'd been dying for ever since being summoned to this other world?
Like the earth dragon and Reinhard, blessings could be limited in their applications. It was possible that the blessing supposedly given to Subaru had narrow enough uses that it simply hadn't bloomed yet.
Subaru's eyes, shining with newly kindled hope and anticipation, were met with— "It's hard to say, but there are far more people born without blessings than with them. And those who do have one are usually aware of it without anyone telling them..."
The end of her sentence faded out, and Emilia looked at Subaru apologetically. That alone was enough to convey what she'd left unsaid, and Subaru felt the tower of hope he'd just rebuilt come crashing down.
A fleeting hope, he thought bitterly, his cheek twisting with self-deprecation.
"No, it's fine. It was too much of a luxury for me anyway. Because I've received something far more precious here. That's right—the miracle of having met you, Emilia-tan, is a blessing that surpasses any blessing out there."
"Mm-hmm. It's about four hours to the royal capital, so be good until then, okay?"
"Emilia-tan, you're so cold! But what's really frustrating is that even that cold reaction makes me happy..."
Through his daily interactions with Emilia, Subaru was rapidly acquiring a fairly advanced level of pervertedness.
While Emilia and Roswaal began discussing their plans once they arrived in the royal capital, Subaru—told to behave himself—looked around the dragon carriage interior with restless eyes.
The carriage, despite its lavish exterior, was surprisingly compact inside—a cozy four-seater you might see in a movie for rich people. The seat material was quite high quality, designed for long-distance travel, so there was no fear of a sore back after hours of sitting. On the downside, the tight quarters meant that Subaru, who was famously restless, was already starting to fidget.
"Emilia-tan, Emilia-tan, swap seats with me—I want the window!"
"What's the matter? Oh—you're feeling sick even though it's not that bumpy? It's pretty common when you're not used to riding. Fine, I'll lend you
"I appreciate the concern, but that's not quite it. Also, I don't understand what you'd accomplish by handing Puck to me in my current state. Emergency vomit bag?"
"If you did something like that, even Puck would probably get angry..."
It was still early morning—at this hour, the cat-like spirit was still sound asleep. The very thought of what Subaru was contemplating sent a chill down his spine.
Then Emilia took a breath and turned back to Subaru.
"If that's not it, then why?"
"Well, because you and Roswa are going to be busy talking about future plans, right? I'd just be sitting around bored and lonely. Napping a second time feels like a waste, so I'll just stare out the window and zone out."
"Oh, sorry, I didn't realize. Here you go."
At Subaru's request, Emilia shifted, and in the narrow carriage, the two of them swapped seats. Subaru had naturally been sitting right next to Emilia, so when she passed over him, their bodies touched here and there, and he let his cheeks loosen with a satisfied grin.
Once the seat swap was successfully completed— "Alright, make sure you actually behave yourself. Got it?"
"Yeah. I'll spend a while quietly savoring the warmth of this indirect sit-down with Emilia-tan."
"I have no idea what you're talking about, but I have a really bad feeling about it, so keep it in check."
Saying that, Emilia glanced back at Subaru several times with a look of concern—he was squirming in his seat—before returning to her conversation with Roswaal.
Subaru answered her gaze with a smile and a wave, then turned to the small window visible from his seat. Set into the upper portion of the boarding door, the tiny window framed the high-speed scenery beyond, flowing past in a blur.
From the downward angle, the view was mostly sky—without any tall clusters of trees in sight, he realized they'd already left the forested area around Roswaal's mansion.
"That said, I have no idea how far it actually is between the mansion and the royal capital..."
Emilia had mentioned roughly four hours, but without knowing how fast the dragon carriage was actually traveling, that was just a rough reference point.
Subaru lifted himself from his seat and pressed his face to the small window. The scenery rushing past laterally seemed far faster than he'd expected. Despite barreling down a rough road at full tilt, no vibrations reached the interior of the carriage—the mechanism behind that was a mystery.
"I'll just chalk that up to blessings being incredible and leave it at that... So the lizard is fast, huh. Looks like we're doing close to a hundred?"
The speed of the passing landscape was reminiscent of the view from inside a car on a highway. If this speed could be maintained continuously, it made sense why dragon carriages would become popular. The upkeep and feed costs for the lizard itself would be substantial, but the same went for any iron vehicle. As for which was more convenient, that was a matter of preference.
"And I'm the type of guy who isn't interested in machines but gets excited over big creatures, which is a real shame."
So, in terms of personal preference, he wanted the dragon carriage to win.
Internally ranking passenger cars and dragon carriages, Subaru thought "Well then" and cast his gaze around. Staying here was only going to make the restlessness pile up faster.
He knocked lightly on the door with the back of his hand, drawing both their gazes his way.
"I'd like to go sit with Rem—is it okay if I open this door or something?"
"Ohhh, now there's an interesting idea, Subaru-kun. As long as you're in contact with the carriage, the blessing protects you from the wind. Sliding around the outside of the carriage body to reach Rem wouldn't be too difficult... but if you fall off, you'll die, you know."
"Hey, hey, Roswa—don't underestimate my athletic ability! If you gathered every high-schooler in the country's go-home club and measured them, I'd be confident I'd rank quite high—except in long-distance running!"
"Leet's at least let Rem know first, shall we?"
Roswaal flashed a thumbs-up with a grin and tapped on the small window connecting to the driver's seat. It was just big enough to pass cargo through. The window opened from the other side, and Rem's voice drifted in.
"Yes, is something the matter?"
"Ah, Subaru's bored and wants to sit next to Rem. Aww, someone's loved~"
"Subaru-kun is? What should we do? Should we stop for a moment? It'll take a little time for the earth dragon to start running again once we've halted."
At Rem's words, Subaru cocked his head, and Roswaal touched his chin.
"Blessings aren't omnipotent, you see. In the case of an earth dragon, once the 'Wind Blessing' has been activated like this, it takes a teensy bit of time to deploy again. We could make it an early lunch break, if you'd like?"
Subaru nodded in understanding at Roswaal's explanation and proposal, then shook his head in refusal.
"Nah, it's fine, it's fine. I'll just circle around and come to you, Rem—just sit tight. Oh, and whatever you do, don't let the earth dragon drift or anything. Inertia would send me flying."
Drifting, triple axels—whatever the dragon might be capable of, he'd appreciate it if it refrained.
Until he knew exactly how far the blessing extended, the last thing he wanted was unnecessary acrobatics.
"Understood. I'll be waiting. There's space right next to me. Hurry, hurry."
Through the small window, Rem's voice was barely masking her impatience behind a veneer of calm. Subaru answered with a wry smile, then waved to Roswaal.
"Well then, I'm off."
"My, my—Rem really has been tamed, hasn't she. I'm getting jealous."
"I don't know what good jealousy from Roswa would do me... I'd be all for it if Emilia-tan were jealous, though!"
Subaru fired off a casual reply to Roswaal's quip, then whipped around toward Emilia with enthusiasm. But she hadn't heard a word of what he'd said—she was busy pulling something from the cabin wall.
Then she said "Here," and handed it to him.
"It's not that dangerous, so I won't stop you, but make sure you hold on to this."
"A cord attached to the wall of the cabin... like a seatbelt?"
"The dragon carriage could roll over or something, so these belts are installed for emergencies. It's a long one, so use it as a lifeline. Once you get to the driver's seat, unhook it and I'll take it back."
Subaru gratefully accepted Emilia's concern and wound the belt firmly around his right wrist. As he secured the makeshift lifeline, he reflected belatedly that he should have just sat on the driver's seat from the start.
Actually, he should have just stayed in his seat and waited to arrive—but the fact that this option never even occurred to him was proof enough of how strong-willed he was.
Sent off by Emilia's deeply worried gaze, Subaru opened the cabin door and leaned out. As before, the dragon carriage was hurtling along at high speed. The fact that the pace seemed to have slowed slightly was probably Rem's doing.
Even though the speed was visibly confirmed by sight, the complete absence of wind resistance was utterly baffling. It felt like being transported inside a transparent box—the illusion was almost dizzying. Reaching out, Subaru gripped a handhold on the carriage body and began carefully making his way around toward the driver's seat.
Without even a trace of wind resistance, the movement itself was remarkably smooth. The only inconvenience Subaru felt was the minor hassle of navigating the narrow, uneven exterior path.
"This is genuinely a surreal experience. Blessings really are something else."
Tasting the world's mysteries firsthand, Subaru glanced at the scenery rushing past. A world at roughly eighty kilometers per hour—a fragment of an urban legend he'd heard in his original world flickered through his mind: "At eighty kilometers per hour, the wind resistance you feel is supposedly like the sensation of breasts...!"
In a cruel twist, the blessing prevented him from feeling the wind, making it impossible to verify. If it were true, then in a world without blessings, in his current position, Subaru would have been able to experience, in full and with his entire body, the softness of a woman's chest.
"And on top of that, if I just shift my gaze a bit, Emilia-tan is right there inside the carriage. —Hey, what if I tried imagining it while looking at Emilia-tan? It'd be a victory of the imagination, right!?"
In a bizarre place, a bolt of inspiration struck, and Subaru grimaced further at the frustration.
His lingering reluctance wouldn't let go, and his fingers reached out toward the void, scratching emptily at the blue sky— "That's right, Subaru-kun—I forgot to mention, please don't lean too far out from the dragon carriage. You'll move outside the blessing's range."
Rem said it at the very instant those words left her mouth.
"No way—"
The instant his fingertips grasped nothing but air, a forceful wind struck him as if to tear his hand away.
Caught completely off guard, his grip on the carriage body slipped easily. His support gone, his body was flung sideways—as if by natural law, he was launched clean out of the dragon carriage.
The scenario Rem had just warned him about was unfolding in real time.
There was no room for quipping about flags being collected too quickly or predictable outcomes.
Tumbling in the wind, lost in the chaos of up and down— "Ahhhhh—!? This is bad, this is seriously bad, no way, no waaaay—!?"
Just as he thought he was about to slam into the ground, his body was yanked parallel to the dragon carriage, pivoting from his right arm. A searing pain shot through his right wrist—looking down, the lifeline Emilia had fastened for him was literally doing its job, barely holding on to the fading spark of his life.
But even in that moment, Subaru's right hand was screaming in agony, his wrist and beyond turning purple-blue almost instantly.
"Pull! Can I pull myself up!? The swaying is too intense—it's basically impossible... but! My tongue—! I bit my—ngh!"
One single carnal desire nearly spelling total disaster.
His right wrist's endurance was hitting its limit, and a dark mood began to dominate his chest—that feeling of being about to throw everything away. But at that very moment, a chain of high-pitched sounds struck his eardrums.
He looked up. Before him, a writhing silver serpent appeared. The tip of the serpent's body was large, round, and covered in thorns.
"—This is bringing back some trauma."
The snake undulated with a high-pitched sound and coiled around Subaru's body. The constriction was tighter than he'd imagined, and he gasped—but in return, it secured him in an iron grip. His floating body was yanked upward at once, soaring over the dragon carriage, past the earth dragon itself, and then released.
Cast into the air once more, his vision spinning, Subaru looked down—there was Rem. With one hand gripping the iron handle and the reins, she reached out toward his landing point.
He'd somehow managed to survive. Just confirming that much— "From now on, I'll try to live a little more quietly..."
For the first time, he truly took to heart the words so many had told him—and before he could witness the result of his fall, Subaru slipped into a 'second sleep' ahead of schedule.