"
Having finally finished laughing,
Traces of laughter still lingered as teardrops in the corners of her eyes, and she scooped them away with her finger as they talked.
Subaru, who had been mercilessly laughed at, busied himself fiddling with
"That was, you know— I was trying to stage a dramatic reunion with maximum impact, so I was being thorough about every detail, fluff-ball."
"Mm, but jumping off the terrace and landing in the flowerbed was probably overdoing it."
"Sorry, that was an act of God. I'm not a rowdy little brat or anything."
If people started thinking he was the kind of idiot kid who leaps out of windows every time he gets carried away—and ends up impaled in a flowerbed only to get blasted by a flash flood from Puck—that would be a problem.
"Oh, so when you said you were wondering why I was late, does that mean you were waiting for me?"
"...No, not really? I mean, I did think I should thank you, and I figured it'd be a shame if I moved around and we missed each other, and I also considered whether it was right to make someone who just recovered from being sick walk all over the place looking for me, but my staying here was more of a coincidence."
"Mm, it was totally a coincidence, Subaru. He made up all sorts of excuses to drag out my grooming session, kept bringing up the same topic over and over to tire out those little lesser spirits... He did all that, but he definitely wasn't waiting for you. Right?"
Puck seized the opportunity to pile on right as Emilia inadvertently self-destructed.
With Puck showing no signs of dropping his teasing attitude, Emilia turned toward him with her smile still intact.
"Puuuck~?"
"You should just be honest. That's the one thing about my daughter that's endearing... Subaru thinks so too, right?"
"Absolutely! Emilia-tan is the best! I'm completely head over heels!"
"Subaru, you too with Puck's bad jokes... Also, what's with that '-tan'? Where did you even come from?"
The question about the nickname that was quickly becoming their standard banter.
Up until the last loop, they'd sort of glossed over it, but this time Subaru and Puck were going to push through with it together. They locked eyes in tacit agreement.
"Don't you know? It's the highest form of affectionate address you can use for someone. Try saying it slowly, savoring each syllable. That's right—Emilia-tan."
"R-Really...? But I've never heard of something like..."
"Well, it's from a long-forgotten, ancient era. It's only natural that Lia wouldn't know. Even I took a while to remember it."
Puck countered Subaru's fabricated conversation with fabricated memories of his own, distant look in his eyes. Subaru nodded solemnly at his words.
"Something ancient and moldy—like a fairy tale that's already vanished from history. But the sentiment behind it still lives on today. Quietly."
"But so few people know about it now... Could it be, Subaru? Are you from that lost kingdom...?"
"A related party... no, should I say a direct participant? Have you heard? The royal family of that lost kingdom was a lineage with jet-black hair and eyes like pools of midnight...!"
"You two are laughing way too hard!"
"Gyaaah!"
Just as the conversation was getting fun and the mood was building, Emilia launched an ice chunk at them, forcibly shutting them down.
It was a chunk of ice about the size of a sugar cube, but it flew at him fast enough to fill his entire field of vision before plastering itself across his face—a form of harassment that doubled as a comeback, in its own way.
Trying to peel off the ice by force would just hurt his skin, so he had to leave it alone until his body heat melted it. And having his entire face go hypothermic was genuinely painful.
"It stings subtly! It's subtly exhausting! Hit me right in the weak spot! The effect is devastating!"
Subaru rolled around on the grass, raising his core temperature to speed up the melting process. Emilia watched him tumbling about from above and let out a troubled sigh.
"Honestly, you always do this sort of thing... You won't even let me get a proper word of thanks in. That's beyond unfair."
"That suffering just now was pretty serious, actually. Ah, if I try to peel it off wrong, it'll bleed, it'll bleed."
Emilia didn't quite grasp the severity of the situation, while Puck watched Subaru's undignified display with evident amusement. The question was, why wasn't Puck—the supposed accomplice—suffering any damage himself?
"Well, you see, I can easily dodge Emilia's magic with one paw."
"Oh my."
"But all I did was have someone standing nearby take the hit for every attack I deflected."
"And that's why the damage was so overdone!? You— you're awful, especially considering how cute you look!"
Subaru finally scraped the ice off his face, rubbing vigorously, and shouted. Puck stood before him touching the top of his head, letting out a sheepish "Well, now—"
Deciding that dealing with Puck was only exhausting, Subaru glanced over toward the mansion.
"Oh, Ram and Rem are—"
"They really are. I wonder, is it time for breakfast already?"
It was apparently unusual for the twins to set foot in the garden during their daily routine. As Subaru watched Emilia tilt her head in puzzlement, he silently understood.
On the first day at this hour, Roswaal's return would fall right around this time. The twins had probably come because they'd been summoned.
The twins walked up to the group and, in perfect unison, bowed politely.
"Lord Roswaal has returned. Please come to the mansion."
No matter how many times he heard it, that synchronized audio was delightful.
Emilia shrugged helplessly at the message. Subaru stood up, did a few stretches to check his physical condition, then turned back toward the twins.
The twins looked him up and down.
"Sister, Sister. In the time we weren't looking, our guest has become a mud-covered drowned rat."
"Rem, Rem. In the time we weren't looking, our guest is filth-covered and looks like a ragged mop."
"I know that without being told. Where's my tracksuit?"
Subaru fired back at the stinging remarks and glanced up at the mansion's façade.
He'd get changed, clean himself up, and face Roswaal once more.
—Because this time, he intended to take a different approach from the ones before.
※ ※ ※ After greeting the returned Roswaal in the mansion's entrance hall and passing through their third first meeting, Subaru was guided to the dining hall for breakfast—it was the same flow as before, of course.
By now on his third time through, it was practically familiar territory. Subaru suspected that Roswaal's strong will was the reason these patterns were so faithfully repeated.
On his first day in this other world—the day he met Emilia—those four repeated iterations of the same day had shown him that events driven by strong will tended to recur almost without fail.
If
There were small variations in between—a person's whim here, Subaru's actions there—but the broad strokes stayed on track, probably because of that kind of deliberate intent.
Which meant it was inevitable that the topic at this first breakfast would turn to Emilia's insignia, eventually leading to the revelation that she was a candidate for queen, and then to a reward for Subaru's role in resolving the matter.
He couldn't deny that he'd steered the conversation that way somewhat deliberately.
"Sooo, the way I see it, I'm Emilia-sama's patron. Which means, if you want me to keep quiet about the information you got on the insignia theft, you'll have to pay an appropriate price, yeees?"
"A price, huh..."
Having steered the conversation there skillfully, Subaru closed his eyes, adopting a posture of seeking common ground.
In the first and previous loops, he'd settled for the reward of "being hired as a servant." Last time, he'd had a specific purpose in mind—to follow the first loop's script. But this time, Subaru had no intention of simply reenacting the previous loop.
So the reward he sought from Roswaal this time was something different.
It was— "In that case, Ros-chi, let me stay at the mansion for two or three days. After that, I'll be heading somewhere else, so if you could spare a little travel money, that'd help."
"Hmm, when you say 'a little'... that could be enough to build two or three houses, y'know?"
Roswaal squinted, reading deep into Subaru's proposal. Subaru waved his hand with a wry grin.
"There's no hidden meaning behind it. I'm literally just talking about enough to not have to worry about lodging and food for about ten days. After that, I'll manage on my own."
"That's, as Emilia-sama said, quite the... unconcerned request, yeees?"
"It's fine. I'm not making any grand demands... Ah, but if Emilia-tan says she can't bear to part with me, that's a different story!?"
"I do think it's selfless... but Subaru must have his reasons. It must be something important, so I really shouldn't try to hold him back."
"I've been dismissed with a generous interpretation!"
Subaru had no idea what kind of idealized image Emilia had built of him in her mind, but her response treated him like some sort of honorable gentleman, and with that, the negotiation was concluded.
Roswaal straightened the collar of his kabuki-esque costume while watching Subaru hold his head in his hands.
"If you insist that much, then I suppose I have no choice but to accept. I'll have Ram and Rem prepare things—shall we say three days for your stay? Anything else you need?"
"Right. Then... some paper, a quill pen, and lend me a fairy tale book."
Roswaal raised an eyebrow slightly at Subaru's request.
Subaru scratched his head, keeping the twins in the corner of his vision.
"I made a promise to keep up my nightly reading and writing practice. I know I don't look it, but when I make a promise, I keep it."
He winked at the twins as a signal. The twins exchanged glances, their eyes going round at this unilateral commitment they'd apparently been roped into.
※ ※ ※ —Effectively the third time through his week at the Roswaal mansion.
On this third repetition, what Subaru prioritized above all else was identifying his cause of death and uncovering the identity of the attacker.
"The keywords are magic and chains... but just those alone still don't tell me much."
All he knew for certain was that on the night of the fourth day, someone would attack.
If he brought this to Roswaal at this point, some countermeasures might be taken, but without being able to explain the source of his information, it was too much of a gamble. At the very least, knowing what the assassin looked like or what their objective was would make a significant difference.
"So this time, I'll accept it. This time, it's a one-shot gamble on information gathering. If the conditions for 'Return by Death' are the same as last time..."
At the very least, there should still be one more chance to try again.
That was Subaru's best strategy at this stage.
Regarding the previous loop, he'd confirmed three deaths and a breakthrough on the fourth attempt. Assuming that pattern held, he was guaranteed at least one reset.
Then, armed with the information gathered in this loop, he would aim to break through on the fourth go.
"Honestly, it's a strategy that seems like I'm giving up from the start, which makes it hard to choose..."
Since Subaru's options were limited, paying this kind of sacrifice was inevitable. And besides, he had absolutely no intention of just passively watching events unfold.
Even with the resolve to start over, it was always better to avoid having to do so. Naturally, he fully intended to break through the loop this time if he could.
"I already gave Puck a heads-up to keep an eye on Emilia-tan, too."
After their exchange in the garden, Subaru had secretly asked Puck to watch over Emilia while she was unaware.
He couldn't go into specifics, but he'd asked Puck to be careful of her safety during the night. Puck had tilted his head at the lack of detail, but as a spirit who could read emotions, he'd probably determined that Subaru's sincerity was genuine.
"I can't say I'm convinced, but it does seem like you genuinely care about Lia."
Puck had accepted Subaru's forceful request with his characteristic magnanimity.
That should provide a reasonable degree of safety for Emilia. Puck was not the type to break a promise—Subaru knew that from their brief acquaintance. He'd given up his precious fluff privileges for this promise. Puck wouldn't disregard it.
Subaru felt relieved that he hadn't been pressed further, and he was able to set that burden down. Though, why he was relieved about not being pressed, he couldn't even bring himself to think about just now.
"Now there's that loli, and then giving Roswaal a subtle hint... How do you even do 'subtle' when your interpersonal skills are this terrible?"
He scratched his head roughly, shoved the quill pen under his nose, and straightened his back.
The sheer number of problems waiting for him was giving him a headache.
Even though this was a trial run with nothing to lose, choosing to use them as expendable pawns still came with pain. If possible, he wanted both Ram and Rem to make it safely past the fourth day. Roswaal and
Even if the summit seemed impossibly distant, that was no reason not to climb.
"So, what should I—"
"Excuse me, Guest."
He'd been leaning back against his chair, making it creak under his weight, when a voice came from outside. Before he could even respond, the door opened and in walked the elder of the vibrant pink-haired maid sisters—Ram.
She carried a tray with tea on it, and upon seeing Subaru at his desk, furrowed her brows.
"My, you really are studying, aren't you, Guest?"
"That's incredibly rude. For the record, I'm currently a guest in this mansion."
"A freeloader in the guise of a hanger-on. I'm well aware, Guest."
Unapologetic, she barged into the room, set the tray on the desk, and offered him a steaming cup of tea with a simple "Here you go."
The tea in this world was similar in both appearance and taste to black tea from his original world. Subaru was frankly not great with tea-based drinks, but he'd half-resigned himself to the fact that searching for cola or soft drinks in this world was pointless.
Besides, his total time living in the Roswaal mansion amounted to about ten days.
Though his role had shifted from injured person to guest to servant, the tea served during that time never changed in quality. Only Subaru, who'd been through the loops, could appreciate the evidence that Ram—who maintained that aloof attitude—hadn't cut any corners.
So today, too, Subaru lifted the cup to his lips and savored it slowly.
"Mm... yeah, it's still bitter."
"You're making a face like you're being punished for drinking the finest tea leaves served in this mansion."
"Bitter is bitter. No good— I still can't think of it as anything other than leaf water. Drinking it with you doesn't exactly make me feel sophisticated. It tastes like a plant."
"You're awfully familiar, Guest."
As she spoke, Ram casually picked up the second cup that had been on the tray—naturally, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world—and sat down on the bed behind the desk without hesitation, taking a sip.
Was she slacking off under the pretense of being a server? Subaru glared at her with a sidelong look.
"Openly slacking off in front of a guest— your sheer audacity is beyond words."
"Don't mind me, Guest. Ram has no particular demands of you, either. As long as I can kill some time with tea as an excuse, that's enough."
"While your little sister is working herself to death out there, the elder sister sure has it easy."
"The little sister's workload was increased by you, Guest."
Each put a hand over their mouths and exchanged polite, expressionless laughs—a standoff disguised as etiquette.
As Subaru traded barbs with her, he couldn't shake a nagging feeling.
This third loop had already entered the night of the second day.
During that time, Subaru had spent almost every moment cooped up in his guest room focusing on learning to read and write, aside from when he was trailing after Emilia. The exception was the occasional visit to tease Beatrice, of course.
In other words, in this loop, his interactions with Ram and Rem had gone no further than the guest-and-servant dynamic. After the first loop, his relationship with them had only grown more distant with each iteration.
And yet, Ram kept finding excuses to visit his room. She brought tea, sure, but she also dropped by to check on him, commenting on his study progress, picking a fight, and then leaving. It was a repeating cycle.
Ram's attitude felt more intimate than in the first or second loops.
It was welcome, but it was also a relationship that gnawed at Subaru's conscience.
For Subaru, who had already decided to treat this loop as a mere stepping stone, it made him feel that this world was something too precious to simply let slide.
"I don't get it... Could it be? The sight of me, the brooding literary type, solemnly putting pen to paper— did that make a maiden's heart skip a beat?"
"Literary type..."
Ram reacted to Subaru's muttering. Still sitting on the bed, she looked him over, her gaze traveling from head to toe.
"Pfft."
"You— you do that sometimes and it's genuinely unsettling."
Completely dismissing him with a contemptuous sneer, Ram's disdain was enough to make Subaru's cheek twitch involuntarily.
In front of the unfazed Subaru, Ram shrugged with her usual indifference.
"Your body, which is visibly rigid with bulging muscles. Your eyes, which aren't so much sharp as just outright malicious. A personality nowhere near delicate. And yet, a literary type. Could it be that this 'literary type' exists only inside the Guest's head?"
"You'd say that!? I mean, yes, it's true that at the Natsuki household, Subaru was famous in the neighborhood for looking like a total jock while being a shut-in—"
His mother had come to his room door to share this tidbit, barely containing her laughter, every single time someone mentioned it. The humiliation of those memories surged back, and Subaru had to fight the urge to roll around on the floor.
Face flushed, Subaru battled that impulse. Ram stood up from the bed, passed by his side, and glanced at the notebook on the desk.
"And this atrocious handwriting. —A literary type would weep with despair, Guest."
"I've never seen a maid who does nothing but say 'Guest'... Even a maid café would give you better service."
He'd never been to one, so this was secondhand knowledge at best, but he'd heard their hospitality was apparently something else. He had no idea since he'd never actually gone.
Subaru's resentful remark was cheerfully ignored. Ram flipped through the pages filled with text, her expression utterly disinterested.
While staring at that impassive profile, Subaru suddenly picked up the fairy tale book that had been left untouched.
"Oh yeah, since most of this book is written in the 'I-letter,' I should be able to read it by now."
On its reddish-brown spine, the title was printed in this world's characters—simply something like "Fairy Tale Collection." The book's construction was similar to those in his original world: a table of contents and page numbers at the front, followed by individual stories by chapter.
From a quick glance at the table of contents, the book contained about ten tales. The book itself wasn't very thick; reading it would take at most a small hour if he set his mind to it.
"Meaning, the time has come. I want to feel the results of all this studying."
"They're all the sort of common stories you'd be ashamed not to know. A literary type should naturally have these down pat. Right, Guest?"
"Fine, fine, stop pulling me. What, did my claiming to be a literary type really bother you that much? Do you have some kind of unusual fetish for literary types?"
Ignoring Subaru's borderline-harassing question, Ram tilted the remaining cup on the desk and drained it. It was the one Subaru had been drinking from.
"Hey— I've never heard of a server drinking all the tea she brought!"
"You were drinking it with such a disgusted face that I figured you didn't want it. Besides, if you're going to drink tea, you'd rather have someone with a proper palate, wouldn't you?"
"That's why I said it tastes like leaves... Ah, forget it. I'm going to dive into this book, so get lost or go kill time however you want."
Subaru waved his hand dismissively to shoo Ram away, leaned back in his chair, and finally opened the first page of the fairy tale book.
Right at the start was a foreword by whoever had compiled the collection, but the sudden flood of non-"I-letter" characters tripped him up immediately.
"The best I can make out is some kind of 'circles crossing out and becoming squiggly' type of prose... Damn, I could skip it, but it's making me uncomfortable."
What if he hit a passage with characters he couldn't read mid-story?
Worried about that, Subaru squinted one eye and flipped through the pages casually, trying to avoid spoilers while scanning quickly.
A glance confirmed that the main text appeared to be almost entirely in "I-letter" script, so he recommitted to reading.
"Let's see... once upon a time."
Sure enough, no matter what world you were in, fairy tales started the same way. He read on.
As fairy tales went, the narrative structure was clear and concise. That simplicity left plenty of room for imagination—no different from the fairy tales of his original world.
"There are even those slightly moralistic twists aimed at kids, just like back home. There's even one that's basically 'The Crying Red Ogre' verbatim."
If asked what his favorite fairy tale was, Subaru would say "The Crying Red Ogre" first. If asked what his least favorite was, he would also say "The Crying Red Ogre."
A story he both loved and hated: "The Crying Red Ogre." He felt nostalgic for his kindergarten days, when he'd added his own original ending to every single picture book copy of "The Crying Red Ogre" in the school library.
"The blue ogre deserves better, y'know! It's sad, right? C'mon..."
"You've suddenly got tears in your eyes and I have no idea what's happening. Would you stop making a scene? It's embarrassing, so please don't cry in front of me."
"So cold toward a man's tears!"
Cut off sharply, Subaru rubbed his eyelids to evaporate the tears. Then, with Ram still in the room, he lightly tapped the cover of the finished fairy tale book.
"Done. Surprisingly interesting. It's like, you get to enjoy these subtle differences in common sense— yeah, it's basically cross-cultural exchange, right? Maybe I'll study art here and go spread tales from back home. Do you think copyright laws follow you across worlds?"
"About half of what you just said made no sense. ...And that's your review after finishing it? Weren't there any stories that stood out to you?"
Subaru's sense of ethics as a creator wobbled at the thought of plagiarism. He raised his head and flipped through the fairy tale book.
"What caught my eye were definitely the dragon story in the middle and the witch story at the end. No matter how you look at it, those two are in a completely different category."
The two stories that had left the strongest impression on Subaru were those within the fairy tale collection. One was clearly treated as special, and the other seemed— "The witch story has this 'we had to include it so we just threw it in' kind of throwaway energy that's pretty extreme. It throws out all notion of narrative structure and just covers the basics."
"...The witch story can't be helped. As for the dragon story being treated as special— well, this is Lugunica, so that's only natural."
"Yeah, 'the Holy
Subaru set the fairy tale collection on the desk, resting his hand on its cover as he nodded.
The great nation where Subaru currently resided was called "the Holy Kingdom of Lugunica." When he looked at the world map, this country occupied the easternmost position—and there was a reason it bore a name like "the Holy Kingdom of Dragon Friendship."
It was simple. Since ancient times, this country had been aided in its prosperity through a covenant with a dragon.
"Famine, plague, and wars with neighboring countries—the dragon lent its power in each of those crises to protect Lugunica."
"And so the name 'the Holy Kingdom of Lugunica' was attached. What a grandiose label. The fairy tale even says it was a covenant between the royal family and the dragon—this is less a fairy tale and more a legend..."
"Indeed, because it's the truth. Even now, the noble dragon watches over this nation's peace from far, far away—beyond the Great Waterfall. Until the fulfillment of the promise made with the royal family."
Ram delivered those words with solemnity. Subaru swallowed hard as he listened.
A promise made with a dragon ages ago. —The fairy tale didn't describe its contents, but it was a promise that had saved the kingdom from crisis time and again.
Some form of consideration must have sealed it between humans and dragons.
Thinking that far, Subaru suddenly realized.
If the dragon had made its covenant with the royal family of the Lugunica kingdom—then— "Wait, hold on— the family that made the deal with the dragon... didn't they just get wiped out recently?"
"That's right, quite abruptly."
"Isn't that, like, a huge problem? I mean, I have no idea what specifically makes it a problem, but..."
A dragon that had made such a promise and provided this much support. Its price must have been enormous. And if the royal family that was supposed to pay had been annihilated, it wouldn't be unreasonable for the dragon to be furious about "Where's my paycheck?"
"No, no— negative thinking is bad, right? Instead, I should push the theory that the royal family had already paid the dragon in advance. That way, the nation is safe, the dragon has no complaints, and we all live happily ever after."
Subaru denied his worries while rhyming, wanting someone to reassure him. But Ram dismissed his plea with a single shake of her head.
"What the dragon desires— even the fairy tale says it's unknown. How the dragon will act under the current circumstances, only the heavens kn—"
She paused, took a breath, and said: "—only the dragon knows, Guest."
Subaru's throat went dry, and despite the heat not being particularly oppressive, he felt sweat tracing down his forehead.
After chewing on Ram's words, swallowing them, and stirring them around in his stomach, he finally managed— "So the pressure on Emilia-tan is no joke."
"Indeed. Bearing an entire nation on her shoulders, carrying its fate in both hands, negotiating with a dragon that holds the power to save or destroy that nation at will— just thinking about it is enough to make it a tale in its own right."
It was probably on the last night of the second loop that Emilia had looked at this fairy tale collection with such a complicated expression. Only after dying did Subaru realize why her hand had stopped turning the pages.
The magnitude and weight of what she carried far exceeded his imagination. The thought of how much burden those slender shoulders bore was enough to wring a scream from Subaru's heart—something caught between fury and sorrow.
"It can't be helped."
"—What?"
"Everyone is born with innate qualities, and the responsibilities that come with them. Emilia-sama was born under that kind of star. That's why, no matter how steep the path, Emilia-sama must climb it, enduring the pain."
"You're dumping all that on one girl?"
"It would be nice if there were someone to share the burden with her, yes. But at the summit she must eventually reach, she must be the one standing there."
An anger of unknown origin made Subaru's voice tremble. Ram's voice, in response, was cold and rational.
He detected a deliberate coldness in her tone, and his nearly-furious mind grasped a fragment of calm.
After all, getting angry at her was pointless. Ram bore no responsibility whatsoever—she was simply stating the right mindset for accepting one's circumstances.
"Right, Ram. There's one other story, though..."
Feeling that an apology would be off in some way, Subaru changed the subject, pointing at the fairy tale book.
Set in the center of the book as a clear counterpart to the dragon tale that had received special treatment, there was a story at the very end told in just a few pages.
It was titled "The
"I don't want to talk about that one."
Her words cut him off even more sharply than her dismissal of the dragon story.
Subaru's eyes widened involuntarily. Ram quickly gathered the cup and tray.
"I've overstayed my welcome. I shouldn't trouble Rem any further—I'll be heading back now. I'll come call you again at dinnertime."
"A-Ah..."
"Excuse me."
With an attitude that brooked no argument, she turned her back. Her small frame disappeared from the room. Subaru watched in silence, waiting until the door was firmly closed, then let out a long breath as he collapsed onto the bed, every ounce of tension draining from his body.
"What was that about...?"
Muttering, Subaru held the fairy tale collection in front of his face and flipped to the last page.
The final story, "The Witch of Envy," was a mere four pages long.
"An awful witch, a terrifying witch. Even to speak her name is dreadful. And so everyone called her 'the Witch of Envy'..."
There was no narrative structure to speak of—nothing but a relentless effort to convey the witch's terror. Written in characters simple enough for a child to read, it only served to emphasize the story's stark, straightforward eeriness.
"I finally studied enough to read this book, and this is what I get..."
His sense of accomplishment, satisfaction, and even the pleasant aftertaste of finishing a good read—all of it had been thoroughly ruined in one go.
Subaru rolled over on the bed, momentarily separating the fairy tales from his thoughts. What occupied his mind instead was the trial-and-error strategy for this loop, with only two days remaining.
Shaking his head as he cycled through this and that possibility, Subaru's consciousness gradually dissolved into the soft bed and sheets, melting away until it disappeared entirely.