Rem had stayed dormant for several days. Neither Oki nor Ken were able to convince her to come out of the house she resided in. The only person she would talk to was Beatrice, only because she could answer Rem's questions.
The death of Ram had hit Rem hard. Before, a small part of her wished it wasn't true, wished that what the cultist had said to her was a lie. After talking to Beatrice, and seeing her sister's grave for herself, Rem could no longer deny the fact that her dearest sister was gone forever.
Tears were falling down Rem's face, "Did she suffer?"
Beatrice paused before answering Rem's question, "No, I suppose."
Beatrice had told Rem that after the attack, Roswaal had gone back to the mansion after safely escorting Emilia to the Sanctuary. What he had found was a burning mansion, and a lifeless Ram lying in the wet grass.
Roswaal had retrieved Ram's body and brought it to the Sanctuary where she was given a proper burial in the graveyard.
"I could not read his expression, but there was no doubt that he would have preferred her to be alive, I suppose." Beatrice however, showed no emotion when describing the death of Ram. Beatrice never really had a strong relationship with either of the twins so Ram's death had not affected her.
After hearing this, Rem realized that Roswaal had not appeared once since she had gotten there. This was strange, seeing as she had already been there for two days.
"Where is Master Roswaal?"
Beatrice closed her eyes with an annoyed look, "The foolish man died from his own actions, I suppose. Choosing to take on the Witch's Trials by himself."
Rem was in her assigned bed at the time, shocked to hear that the greatest, most powerful wizard she knew was dead. Everyone Rem knew was dying and she felt there was nothing she could have done to stop it. She felt like her whole world was collapsing in on itself.
Putting her hands together, Rem brought them to her chest, whispering, "Master Roswaal.....is dead?" Beatrice said nothing, a look of annoyance still on her face. "But how...how did Master Roswaal die?"
Beatrice, who had been standing next to the bed Rem was in, moved to sit down at a nearby table to look over a book she had saved from the mansion, "His reasoning is unknown to me, but he said it was something he had to do, someone he had to meet, I suppose." Beatrice stayed silent, reading her book.
Rem grabbed fistfuls of her blanket, "Lady Beatrice that does not answer Rem's question! Who killed Master?! We must escape, if they are that powerful and evil then we are in danger!"
Still not looking up, her blue eyes trailing the words in the ancient book, Beatrice explained to Rem, "Roswaal was killed by his own foolishness. He knew what he was doing, I suppose. Yet his sharp wit didn't stop him from acting inappropriately, I suppose." Beatrice closed the book, brushing off any dust on its cover. Walking to a bookshelf, Beatrice continued, "There is a tomb here, I suppose. It is said to be the final resting place of the Witch of Greed. Her soul embodies the tomb, protecting this wretched place for reasons unclear even to me, I suppose. Her spell casts a border around this place, preventing anyone from leaving unless someone were to complete the Trials, I suppose."
Getting up, Beatrice placed the book onto a bookshelf that was next to the bedroom door. Skimming through the other books Beatrice continued, "The Trials are reserved only for those deemed worthy by the Witch of Greed, I suppose. They each embody a human's past, present, and future. If one were to complete them they would, as I stated before, release the inhabitants from this filthy place, I suppose." Beatrice made a sour face, she obviously did not enjoy being at the Sanctuary.
Finally finding a book, Beatrice removed it from between two other books, "Again, for reasons unknown to me, Roswaal had decided to take on the Trials, I suppose. However, he failed to realize that he was not worthy of the witch's company." Beatrice took the book back to the table and began to read again, "Roswaal's failure at the trials was something everyone had seen coming, I suppose. Everyone but him." The whole time Beatrice's eyes never changed from boredom, "Roswaal had been hurt badly during his time in the tomb. Suffering from an ever increasing amount of wounds and broken bones, there was nothing healing magic could do, I suppose. Roswaal had died here." Beatrice turned a page.
Rem was conflicted, not sure whether to cry or not. She felt sadness for Roswaal, but it was nothing like what she felt for her sister, not even for Subaru. Rem had known Roswaal for over a decade but she began to realize that she learned next to nothing about him. He never held a real emotional part in her life. Roswaal was her boss, that was all there was to it.
"Rem...Rem doesn't know what to say." Still grabbing onto the blanket, Rem brought it up to her face, covering her mouth and nose.
Roswaal, the wizard that had rescued Ram and her all those years ago, was dead. Rem felt she should be more sad, but felt nothing more than a bit of sadness. He had saved them and given them a home, but they hadn't chosen that home. Roswaal had taken advantage of the twins' situation when he rescued them and used his cunning words to cement them as his maids. It was something Ram or Rem never asked for, but it was something they didn't know they needed. Rem concluded that she had no reason to weep over Roswaal, but that didn't mean she felt sorrow.
Thinking back to Beatrice's explanation, still with the blanket over her face, Rem asked, "Where is Lady Emilia?" Rem had fond memories with Emilia. She was the third most important person to her, right behind Subaru and Ram. The amount of memories Rem shared with Emilia were minute, but they meant much to Rem. Talking to her about Subaru, talking about their interests, accidentally getting drunk together when Subaru had found the wine cellar in the mansion. Each one brought Emilia closer and closer to Rem's idea of a friend.
"Emilia is at the Capital as of this moment, I suppose." Beatrice, again, closed the book she was reading. She put it aside and crossed her arms, looking at Rem.
Rem was relieved that Emilia was safe, but she still had one question, "How did she escape the Sanctuary?"
Beatrice uncrossed her arms, "By passing the three Trials of course. Did I not make that clear, I suppose? Emilia was worthy of taking the Trials." Beatrice began to tail a finger into one of her drill locks, "Took her long enough, I suppose. Most of the people that once lived here left with Emilia, sick of living here. I don't blame them." She removed her finger and held her palm out towards Rem, causing Rem to widen her eyes. "Five months! It took five whole months for that dreaded woman to complete the Trials, I suppose!"
Rem was shocked but let her continue, "It wasn't meant to take five months, I suppose! We designed them to take one month if not, two, I suppose!"
Rem was confused, "We?"
Beatrice's face showed something other than boredom, as if someone threw her a surprise party, that was to say, not happy. "It is nothing, a simple mistake, I suppose."
Rem wasn't sure how someone like Beatrice could ever make a verbal mistake. "But Lady Beatrice made it sound like she knew a lot about the Trials."
"I read a lot, I suppose." Beatrice left it at that, neither spoke for a few seconds. "I suppose, it is my turn to ask the questions. You haven't enlightened me on anything for the past two days, I suppose."
Nodding, Rem silently agreed to her proposal. Shifting her feet under the blanket. "You have been gone for an unnecessary amount of time, I suppose. Why is it you return now?"
Rem removed the blanket from her face explained all about Subaru's idea to leave to Kararagi, his promise of coming back. His knowing of the fire and not telling her, her assumptions of the witch possessing Subaru to lie to her, his disappearance; she didn't leave anything out. Well, she did leave out the kissing parts, something she kept to herself with a blush.
Beatrice listened patiently. Her half asleep look never left her small face. The disappearance of Subaru didn't surprise Beatrice, she always saw him a weak willed person. Someone who cowered when cornered. While his stunt in the forest with the beasts amazed Beatrice, she only saw it as stupidity and not as bravery.
After hearing 'Subaru-kun' at least 50 times, Beatrice decided she'd had heard enough and ended up interrupting Rem mid 'Subaru-kun', "You have not answered my question of what brought you here, I suppose."
Rem took in Beatrice's words and answered, "Rem came back to Lugnica to....maybe find Subaru-kun." Rem purposefully left out the witch's cult because she felt like there was no need to mention them. "Rem did not find him, so Rem decided that if the mansion was attacked then you would have gone to the Sanctuary. So Rem wanted to ask-." Rem gasped.
How could Rem be so stupid! Rem's mind had been completely taken up by grief and sadness since she visited Ram's grave that she had completely forgotten about her reason of being here.
Subaru was somewhere out in the world being manipulated by the witch and Rem wanted to rescue him. It hurt her not knowing if Subaru was safe or not. Rem hated herself for forgetting about Subaru for two whole days, if anyone knew how to find him it would be Beatrice.
"Subaru-kun!" Rem put her hands to her head and shook it. "Rem has wasted too much time!"
Beatrice was on the verge of just leaving Rem to herself, "What are you on about, I suppose?"
Reaching out and holding Beatrice's hands in hers, the ex-maid cried pleadingly, "Lady Beatrice, Subaru-kun has gone missing and Rem doesn't know how to find him anymore. There is nothing Rem can do except ask for some assistance by Lady Beatrice!"
Beatrice recovered from the shock of having Rem grab her tiny hands. Removing her hands from Rem's, Beatrice glared at Rem for touching her. "Why should I search for that moron, I suppose? What good does that do for me? He's just another idiot among many, so one less one to worry about is best, I suppose!"
Slightly infuriated for hearing Beatrice insult her Subaru, Rem decided to calm down knowing that the little librarian would easily take her out if it came to it. Better safe than sorry.
Rem tried to thinking of an answer to please the little girl, she came up with none. Saddened that Beatrice would most likely not help her find Subaru Rem simply said, "Rem doesn't know." Her eyes stared at the floor, starting to cloud with tears. One of her hands went to grab the golden necklace she wore, her gift from Subaru.
Looking at Rem's downcast expression, the librarian felt there was no reason to be there anymore, turning to leave she said, "He wasn't one I would place hopes on, I suppose. Perhaps it's better that he ran off. Without him, your life should be much easier, I suppose." Beatrice opened the door, light flooded into the room.
A tear fell into the blanket that covered Rem. "No." Beatrice stopped. "You don't know Subaru-kun like I do." Beatrice looked over at Rem to see tears were falling down her cheeks. Rem had an angry expression, her hands were gripping the blanket hard again. "Subaru-kun would never run away from Rem and abandon her.....Subaru-kun is Rem's hero and Rem will not let Lady Beatrice call him such vile things."
Saying nothing, Beatrice only stared at Rem. While Rem glared with anger, Beatrice's eyes responded calmly, unfazed. For once, Beatrice finally saw the hurt in Rem's eyes.
After what seemed like an eternity, Beatrice was the first to blink. Looking away, Beatrice stepped out the door. Holding her hand out to stop the door from closing, Beatrice said, without looking at Rem, "I no longer have access to the Forbidden Library, I suppose. Without it, my magic will act weaker. It will take a few hours for me to track down Subaru, but in the end I will have his location for you, I suppose." With that Beatrice left, the door closing behind her, cutting off any light the door let in.
Rem was left in awe. Her eyes had softened, extinguishing any anger she once had in them. Rem hadn't expected Beatrice to change her mind so quickly, maybe she wasn't such a heartless spirit after all. For all the years Rem knew Beatrice, the girl had never shown any love for anyone except Puck, Emilia's cat spirit. To Beatrice, it seemed everyone else was just an obstacle she had to go through everyday. Every conversation was one Beatrice couldn't wait to escape and every meal time Beatrice would either not come or come, but not talk. At first, Rem had tried to get Beatrice to warm up, but she soon discovered that Beatrice was one to never be bothered with unless you wanted to be blasted by her magic.
With nothing else to do, Rem got out of bed to explore the village. Maybe now she can enjoy it, finally able to put her grief for her sister to rest.
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.
.
Rem walked the streets alone. Earlier she had finally gone to Ken and Oki to talk. Of course she didn't want to talk about Ram, so they left that off the table. Rem missed her time spent with the two and regretted ignoring them.
The abandoned buildings stood like shells, nothing was left in them since the inhabitants left when the magical barrier fell. A few hours had already passed, Rem was now on her way to see Beatrice in hopes of receiving the location of Subaru. Deep down, she knew that there was always a small chance of something going wrong and Beatrice would be unable to locate Subaru, but right now Beatrice was the only person capable of telling Rem where he was. If Beatrice couldn't find him Rem wouldn't know what to do.
.
.
.
"He was untraceable, I suppose." Beatrice had broken the news to Rem, stating that Subaru was simply nowhere to be found. She tried anything and everything she had within her power to find him, but to no avail. "Subaru is simply gone, as if he never existed, I suppose. There is nothing else I can do or think of doing."
Rem was broken, her chances of ever seeing Subaru again were gone. There was nothing she could do, nothing she was able to do. Subaru had disappeared from anyone's vision except the witch's. Beatrice kept talking, but nothing reached Rem's ears.
Rem slowly made her way back to her assigned house, dragging her feet the entire way. Her will to live was slowly crumbling to nothing, but a small part of her wanted to live, to be happy. It's what Subaru would have wanted and Rem wasn't one to go against what Subaru wanted.
Distraught, Rem made it to the house and laid in her bed. She stared at the ceiling for almost an hour wondering what her life would be without Subaru. She would have nothing to look forward to seeing every morning, nothing to hug and say goodbye to when they left for work, nothing to love when they spoiled her with kisses, nothing to say goodnight to when she laid in bed next to them, nothing.
Deep in her own thoughts, Rem slowly succumbed to the darkness and fell asleep.
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Bzzz Bzzz Bzzz Bzzz Bzzz
"Huh?!" The sudden vibration of the metia jolted Rem awake. Rubbing the sleep from her eyes, Rem got out of bed and relit a candle that had gone out before on her nightstand. Looking outside Rem noticed the sun was just about to hit the horizon.
Rem grabbed her metia that was next to the candle, still vibrating. Rem read the call ID.
Call from:
Oki
"Hmmmm..." Rem ignored the call and placed it back on the nightstand, not really feeling ready to talk to other people. Falling back into her bed and enjoying the feel of her pillow, Rem contemplated whether to go back to sleep or just leave the Sanctuary now and go home.
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Bzzz Bzzz Bzzz Bzzz
Not even a minute had gone by before the metia started to vibrate again. Scoffing, Rem turned her head towards the metia and wished Oki would just get the idea and leave her alone. She instantly got out of bed again and grabbed her metia, ready to tell Oki off.
Rem glanced at the caller ID, her heart skipped a beat. Without wasting another second, Rem flipped open the metia and answered it.
Rem finally had something to look forward to.
Call from:
Subaru
Hope never abandons you, you abandon it."
-George Weinberg