Reinhard heaved a sigh so faint no one noticed it.
His handsome profile was rather despondent and his clothing was slightly battle-worn. His figure standing before the wreckage was such that an image of it would be a masterpiece in itself.
However, despite his objective brilliance, from his subjective viewpoint, his inadequacy brought him such chagrin that no amount of words could describe it.
Despite being blessed by so many divine protection he still couldn't be that helpful
Subaru had to push himself so far that he fainted
Reinhard looked up at the moon then thought if he didn't had any divine abilities would he still be reinhard van astrea?
Watching from afar like this was the best he could do, realizing that some part of him was calmly acting on this judgement increased his guilt even further.
He was shaken from his thoughts when emilia called for him
"―Alright, that should be enough."
"I've finished his treatment.― Looks like he is just physically fatigue ."
"That's splendid news. Now, Emilia-sama..."
"There are things that I wanted to talk to you about, Emilia-sama..."
Emilia looked at him with subaru on her lap
"Do you know about the witch cult? "
"I don't know much about it"
"The witch cult have 6 archbishops and each of them have their own unique and different kinds of abilities"
Emilia nodded
"Much like my divine blessings they also dont need any kinds of mana or do they have any kinds of magic properties... "
Emilia eyes widen and then she looked at the unconscious subaru on her lap
"Your understanding what I am saying right? Emilia-sama..."
She nodded and then looked at him and said "he doesn't seem like a bad person even though he has scary eyes..."
"Yes and thats why I am not sending him at the capital right now for questioning.."
"So what do you want me to do?"
"I want you to be careful and keep an eye on him for couple of days to insure yours and everyones safety"
Emilia understood his reasoning
Felt was talking with a seated rom on the stairs
Reinhard looked at felt remembering how the royal pendant for the dragon candidates lit up in her hands
"Let me carry Subaru on my back"
Emilia nodded
Reinhard looked at Felt and told her to follow him
They finally set out for Roswal Mansion
°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°
°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°
When Subaru fell unconscious
Subaru found himself back at the witchs tea party
He saw echidna waving her hand at him
Satella quickly ran up to him and hugged him
A deep red blush came to his face when he realised what IS touching his chest
He mentally noted that he now had to go to his previous reincarnations grave and thank him for already setting up everything
Satella looked at his red blushing face and asked "do you like it that much?"
His eyes went wide open when he realised they could hear his every perverted thoughts!!!
He quickly got down and started apologising to them
Satella started panicking!
Thinking if she said something wrong
Sekhmet look at him and said ehh?
Daphne started laughing really hard at his realization
Typhon looked at him and said "I dont think its a sin for man to have that kinds of thoughts"
Carmilla agreed with her
Echidna came near satella and placed a hand on her shoulder to calm her down and then looked at subaru and said "sit down, we need to talk about a lot of stuff first"
Subaru got up with a satella hugging his right arm
Naturally a blush has constantly on his face because of that
He sat down them looked at echidna who was siting in front of him
Satella moved her chair next to subaru so she could keep huging him
"Well let me first congratulate you and us on our first victory"
Subaru was feeling proud!
He saved emilia then got her name and now her previous reincarnation is hugging his arm!
What could be better then this!!!
"ohh there are far much things that are better then this" said echidna with a smirk
"Yeah like a field filled with food" said Daphne
"I have no privacy do I and dont answer that"
Echidna laughed at little by that
"its actually true, having your mind be invaded by 7 girls would be any guy's worst nightmare" said Minerva
They all nodded
"lets talk about the most important things first" said echidna
Subaru nodded
"We are the Seven Witchs of Sin" said echidna
"Oh now I get it, your titles mean which sin you represent" said Subaru
They all nodded
"400 years ago six of us were killed by satella the witch of envy" said echidna
Subaru face went pale and then looked at satella
Satella became a little worried on how he will treat her now
"Its not her fault" said Minerva
"She has a personality disorder, because of that she turns into the witch of envy sometimes" said echidna
"So you mean she is sick?"
They nodded
"You guys are so good friends!"
They nodded
"Then the witch of envy destroyed the half of the world" said echidna
Half of the world!
They nodded
Subaru saw that satella now had a sad look on her face
Seeing that subaru put his right hand on her back to reassure her that he wouldn't hate her for what she couldn't control
Satella gave a small smile at that
"Then by the hands of different warriors she was sealed..." said echidna
"You mean she is still alive?"
They nodded
"No one can kill.."
Echidna took a deep breath then look at satella then looked at subaru and said "all except you"
Subaru eyes went wide open understanding on what they want him to do
Satella looked at subaru with the saddest face that subaru has ever seen and then said "You have to come and kill me"
Subaru got up from his chair and then pulled her into a hug and then said in her ear
I SWEAR I WILL SAVE YOU
"You know how difficult that path is" said echidna
"Bring it on I will die as many times I need to but I will save everyone because my name is natsuki subaru and I am beyond broke!!"
"I don't think there is any reason to have pride on, being broke" said Minerva
I agree
Huh
Yeah
Sweat started coming om subaru's face until he heard someone's small laugh
He looked at satella and saw her smiling
"Arigato subaru for promising to save me" said Satella
A smile came to subaru's face
Suddenly echidna looked at subaru and said "You just thought of having a harem with both emila and satella"
Aaaaaa!!!!!
Sekhmet looked at him and said "well up 4 wives is legal in this world"
"On top of it both of them are the same person" said Minerva
They all nodded
Subaru sat there trying to protect any kinds of respect he had left
They kept talking until subaru woke up
For Subaru, it was a far cry from waking up from a bad night's sleep.
When he opened his eyelids, what met his eyes was a dim white glow that was seemingly artificial. The ceiling was unfamiliar to him, and the crystals on it somehow managed to emit a faint glow that illuminated the interior of the room.
Subaru had a reputation of being good at waking up, so once he woke up, he would immediately become wide awake.
Fully awake, Subaru got off the bed and lightly turned himself around to check his current condition.
First of all, he checked his shoulders, then the various joints in his arms and legs, and then his cardiovascular and endurance strength by lifting his legs and doing squats, and lastly, while taking a breather due to being out of breath, he pulled up the clothes he was wearing to see if he had any wounds
Then Subaru bounced on the bed and used the springs to land on the floor. "For now, I'd like to figure out where I am."
"Then it's the beginning of a new adventure...no, no, no, no, don't dread these changes! Get back on track, me! -Are you really going to go back to those reclusive days when you were a pain in the ass who didn't want to do anything for himself?! Do you really want to go back to that kind of thing where you just eat and play games and watch anime and go to bed at the time you want to go to bed and check out what's on the internet and post comments occasionally...actually, yes, it would be nice to go back, wouldn't it?"
It wasn't that Subaru had any desire to be summoned to another world or anything.
It wasn't that he was dissatisfied with the shut-in life in the first place. It's just that he never thought that the days that passed by were boring or wasted, and to be able to sleep as long as he wanted to was all he needed as a shut-in.
"I do feel a little bad for my parents, who had to deal with me...but it's almost like they just let me do whatever I wanted without getting in the way."
He exercised, ate meals with his family at the table, went out occasionally, and even begged for an allowance. It was a relatively normal life for a teenager except for not going to school, so it would perhaps be better to call Subaru a drop-out rather than a shut-in.
"What a shocking fact, huh. If I didn't have the opportunity to look back at myself in another world, maybe I wouldn't have realized that I wasn't a real shut-in for the rest of my life...no way
OK! Now that I've figured out what I want to do, I'm going to stop procrastinating and start my journey... Starting something new is always super exciting!"
After he casually whispered that, Subaru carefully turned the doorknob and opened the door.
The chilly air from outside flowed into the room and crept over his bare feet, causing him to let out a "Wah!"
Outside the room was a long hallway painted in warm colors. There were long stretches of walls on either side, and he could see similar doors dotted along the way. All of the rooms had probably been constructed similarly to the room he'd slept in. -With this many rooms in the 350 square foot class, this must have been a more luxurious mansion than he had previously imagined. He couldn't
help but think of the status of the owner of this mansion, and then he cleared his throat. "The only thing I can say is, wow. It's super spacious. But with all this space, I wonder where all the people are?"
Walking barefoot down the hallway with floors made out of a smooth, polished material-similar to the floor of his school-Subaru couldn't help but raise an eyebrow at the quietness of the hallway.
"This is even more quiet than the room. Almost too quiet...to the point where I'm afraid of making a sound..."
Normally he'd be shouting, "Is anyone here?!" It was in his nature to do as much as he could in whatever circumstances he found himself in, but under the current circumstances, it didn't feel safe enough to do so.
At any rate, Subaru didn't have a shred of understanding of his current situation at this point in time.
He had been sure that he was in the home of a benefactor,
"Maybe I should just wait for something to happen after all? I should just go back to my room right now and offer a prayer to God while trembling on my knees."
You know that you wont die even if you die said echidna
Your talking as if dying is fun
Your really like a kid getting scared because of being alone in a room said sekhmet
I am not scared!
Hmm..
Only a little....
Hmm said sekhmet
While looking at the furnishings that also adorned the hallway, Subaru hummed nervously as he began to plan his escape.
The paintings on display were more like the landscapes in the room, but many of the paintings in the hallway were quirky and abstract. As Subaru looked at the geometric patterns, he thought to myself, Hmmm, so the brushstrokes went this way and that way... as if he were a know-it-all.
"Well, I'm not going to let the flag slip away because of that weak-ass thinking. I already decided on a course of action. As if I swore an oath. I don't remember making an oath or who I made an oath to, but I'll keep that in the back of my mind and act on it." Erasing the option to go back, Subaru walked off with the goal of finding people for now.
Right or left-without much hesitation, he chose the right. This was because he remembered seeing a conversation in a manga that said, 'There are many traps on the left, hee-hee-hee,' which was reason enough.
The distinction between right and left changed depending on which room you left, but Subaru only realized that after walking for a while, so he just went along with it anyways.
"Oh well. Everything looks alike and I still can't see any sign of anyone."
He hadn't even reached the end of the hallway yet or saw a place to turn into, and after another five doors, Subaru was baffled.
There would be a limit to how long it could be. A minute or two might not sound like a long time, but the distance he'd traveled in that time was easily 1,000 feet.
It wasn't normal for there to be a hallway that went on for 1,000 feet without seeing the end of it.
"It couldn't be.." Said echidna
What?
Nothing...
"I'm not going to be able to get a good idea of what's going on," he said, scratching his head. The worst thing that could happen is that he would have to return to the room he came from.
"Huh?" With a bare voice, Subaru deepened the angle of his neck in further confusion.
Behind him, from where he had just come from-the problem is that he couldn't see the end of that hallway either, assuming it was in the same condition.
"Didn't I already see this painting when I first left the room...?"
He's pretty sure he remembered joking about the brushwork or something like that.
It was possible that they had the exact same artwork on display, but it would be in bad taste to display the same artwork outside of every room. In other words, "I mean, to put it more bluntly...I'm on an infinite loop."
Perhaps it just felt like he'd moved down a hallway to some extent and was simply transitioning to the other side of the map? Or there was a moving floor contraption that subverted the clichés of otherworld-fantasy and operated so casually that Subaru didn't notice it.
"With the whole moving-floor thing, it's totally going to screw up the spirit of the time period. Since Return by Death is already part of the story, does that mean that it has an affinity for looping things, perhaps?"
After speaking cleverly to no one in particular, Subaru opened the door to the nearest room. It was a simple 350 square foot room with a bed and basic furniture inside. In other words, the very room where Subaru had come from.
" What the heck is this supposed to mean? That it's useless to move around, and I'm supposed to just quietly stay put?"
-So this is how they limited Subaru's movements after he woke up. He felt like this was a total waste of time and magic, but it may be that they had a plan to deprive him of the energy to resist by showing the difference in power.
"Well, now that I have a basic understanding of what this thing is, it's really a clever way to sap my spirit, huh. There is no reason why I wouldn't be shocked by the creation of such a mysterious space, if I think about it in a normal way..."
He stretched his arms, legs, and hips with an "Mmm." Then he put his hands on the wall to firmly loosen his Achilles tendons, successfully warming up his muscles for his upcoming actions.
"My usual mode of action would be to jump into bed like, Hey! I'm just gonna chill until someone comes along..., but not this time! If they think this is enough to make me give up, then they are in for a big surprise!"
"Oh I am surprised, you have indeed improved" said echidna
What do you mean?
I am always like this!
"no, I just thought you would become more like sekhmet" said echidna
Hey!! Yelled both of them
He crouched in the middle of the hallway and assumed a starting position.
Get set, ready-
"As expected, after sleeping for half a day, I'm full of energy!"
After a not-so-cool boast of his amazing amount of energy after getting a lot of sleep, Subaru started running as fast as he could.
He definitely wasn't as fast as Felt, and frankly, he felt like even Old Man Rom would give him a run for his money.
His stamina wasn't anything special, and his 100-meter dash was so disappointing that he got out of breath at the 70-meter mark, but in this moment at least, he felt like he could sprint like an Olympic sprinter.
Run, run, run. -He kept internally thinking this to push himself forward.
The end of the hallway was still out of sight, and he kept returning to the same starting point no matter how much he ran. It was like it was mocking his determination and telling him 'Resistance is futile'.
"Even though its was really fun to see you running like a fool, I think its time to think of different plan" said echidna
Subaru stopped and then waited for her suggestions
"I think you should try opening those doors, I have a hunch that I know who is behind this" said echidna as she drank some of her tea
What do you mean asked subaru
After hearing no answer he went to open the doors
first door is always the best choice."
With that intuitive guess, he opened the door, and the response he received was, "...What a deeply bothersome guy, I suppose."
He received a resentful look from a curly-haired little girl staring at him in an unfamiliar library.