Let me make this declaration once again:
Since arriving in this other world, he had run into one stunning beauty after another—people he would never have encountered in his original life—but her presence towered above them all.
Sure, there was the matter of her pure physical beauty. But more than that, it was simple: he was smitten, and that was his weakness. So long as that condition held, his combat strength would keep climbing ever higher.
Therefore, no matter how gorgeous the opponent, Subaru's heart could never be swayed toward anyone other than Emilia. It absolutely, positively could not.
"That's why this perfect bed-making has absolutely no deeper meaning than me wanting a good night's sleep."
He jabbed a finger aggressively toward the bed, firing off a spirited excuse to no one in particular.
Fresh from the bath and returned to his room, Subaru was greeted by a bed that had consumed every waking moment since his return.
The laundry basket sat abandoned—he'd thrown himself into the task with such vigor that despite having just gotten out of the bath, he was now sweating from his forehead. For the first time in a while, he'd completed a job he was satisfied with.
"There's no hidden meaning. No hidden meaning whatsoever. Empty the mind, empty the mind. One Emilia-tan, two Emilia-tan, three Emilia-tan… Is this heaven?!"
"You're so noisy, Barusu. It's already nighttime—keep it down."
"Fuaaa, no way!"
He leaped backward with a violent flinch, pressing himself against the wall. Standing at the room's entrance—having opened the door without a sound—was
"What the hell is with your personal rulebook?! It's nerve-wracking just listening—you keep throwing my common sense off balance! What do you want from me?! What do you want me to become?!"
At Subaru's tirade, Ram let out a small, dismissive "Hah." That contempt, which she didn't even bother putting into words, left Subaru with no recourse. He slumped into sullen defeat.
Ram brushed past him with deliberate strides—not toward the bed, but toward the small wooden desk in front of it.
Each room came with one for writing and such, but for Subaru, who couldn't read or write in this world's script, it was utterly useless. He could write in Japanese, of course.
"Come to think of it, I should probably use it anyway, right? Even if I can't carry anything over, writing things down might help me remember… that'd make things clearer…"
"What are you muttering about, Barusu? Come here."
The way she spoke—like she was disciplining a dog—sent a vein bulging on Subaru's forehead. But getting rattled and falling into her pace here would only put him at a disadvantage. The whole point of Subaru's brand was pulling the other person into *his* pace.
Above all, he steeled himself: whatever shocking statement came flying next, his unbreakable steel heart would not waver.
With the resolve of a man marching into battle, he stood before Ram.
"So? What kind of impossible task have you brought me this time?"
"What are you talking about? I'm saying I'll teach you how to read and write, so sit down already."
"First time I've heard that!"
Steel, instantly dissolved.
Having confirmed that his heart—just hardened to crystal—had melted into mush in a heartbeat, Subaru glared at the desk, where he spotted a notebook spread open to a blank page, a quill pen, and a book with a faded red-brown spine. He swallowed hard.
This wasn't a joke, or a prank, or some twisted harassment. She genuinely, seriously intended to teach him literacy.
"But… why the sudden—"
"Barusu, you can't read or write. I figured that out watching you work today. So I'm going to teach you. If you can't read and write, you can't even make a shopping list, much less leave a written note."
Ram gave a perfectly reasonable answer to Subaru's bewildered question.
Subaru's mouth opened and closed like a gaping fish. Unfazed by his reaction, Ram held up the red-brown book.
"We'll start with a simple children's fairy tale collection—beginner-level. From now on, every evening, either Ram or
It was a generous offer, but he honestly felt more confused than grateful.
This development, like the earlier bath scene, was something that couldn't have happened last time. By Subaru's own estimation, compared to the fourth day of the previous loop, the gap between him and the twins was still wide.
Yet here they were, holding a well-meaning study session. Why?
"That's obvious. To make things easier for me."
"You really don't budge an inch, huh?"
"Naturally. The more Subaru can do, the less work Ram has to do. And if Ram's workload drops, Rem's does too. It's nothing but good."
"I'm the one getting worked to the bone in exchange, though!?"
"…?"
She cocked her head, genuinely perplexed by his retort.
That reaction—like she had no idea what he'd meant—left him too drained to even argue.
Exasperated as he was, though, the truth was he was also happy about it.
"Okay, roger that. I suppose we should study, then?"
"With your level of conversational grammar, it shouldn't be that difficult. You can't blame a man for being born with talent."
"That was definitely an insult disguised as encouragement!"
Saying so, he pulled up a chair, picked up the quill pen, and got ready. He'd never had the chance to hold one before, but the feather pen was light, and when he glided it across the notebook, it surprisingly produced a rather elegant script.
His first ever pen stroke in this other world. Subaru aimed at the notebook's cover and swept the quill in a grand flourish: "Natsuki Subaru, reporting for… ah."
"Skipping ahead, but you don't have time to draw pictures and play around. Tomorrow comes early, and time is limited."
"No, this is my native language… Yeah, I figured it wouldn't carry over."
He'd half-hoped that since spoken conversation worked, maybe writing would get translated too. No such luck.
Just as this world's writing looked like pictograms to him, Japanese probably just looked like messy, scrawled scratches to them.
Subaru's beloved stock of four-character idioms wouldn't be much help here either.
"On the flip side, that means I could write down the dirtiest fantasies in the world and nobody would have a clue. That scenario… has its uses on a primal level!"
"First, let's master the basic I characters. You'll move on to Ro and Ha only after you've perfected I."
"Three sets of them?! Just hearing that makes me want to give up."
The prospect of learning a whole new writing system already had his spirits sagging. He could now sympathize, just a little, with foreigners trying to learn Japanese. Three systems—hiragana, katakana, kanji—were enough to make anyone despair at the mountain they'd have to climb.
"Once you've got the I characters down, we'll move on to fairy tales. Study time… one o'clock冥日 is the absolute limit. Tomorrow comes early. And Ram is sleepy too."
"That little flicker of honesty at the end—gotta say, I don't hate that about you, Senpai."
"Ram loves that about Ram, too."
Her comeback was so immediate that he couldn't tell if she was being genuine or joking. While sensing with high probability that it was the former, Subaru's literacy lessons began.
When learning a new language, the first step was to grasp the types of characters used. Just as Japanese had what was called the fifty-sound chart, every language had its basic characters first—everything else was built from their combinations.
So, acquiring a language meant starting with character practice, but— "This hurts more than I imagined… It's like studying cursive all over again."
Ram wrote out the basic characters, and Subaru copied them onto the page at a rate of about four hundred characters per sheet. The repetition was enough to trigger a Gestalt breakdown, but he forced himself to accept that this plodding effort was the only way forward and threw himself into it.
His eyelids were heavy with fatigue and drowsiness, but thinking of Ram—who was staying up to help him—he refused to slack off. Besides, the fact that she was being friendly with him starting from the second loop's very first day was precious. He couldn't let this chance slip away.
"Hey, I know you said something about making things easier for yourself, but… I'm still happy about it."
Fighting back his embarrassment, he conveyed his honest feelings to Ram behind him.
Between the faint scratch of the quill gliding across the notebook and the monotonous act of inscribing the same characters again and again, Subaru reflected on the previous loop's four days.
Come to think of it, whenever he'd had time, he'd spent those days chasing after Emilia's tail. But the person he'd spent the most time with during those stretches was probably Ram.
Every manner of work around the mansion—cooking, laundry, cleaning—all of it, and she'd had to train Subaru, who was about as useful as a complete novice. That must have been grueling. On top of that, she'd been handling her regular duties as well.
Naturally, the burden had fallen on Rem too. That was why Subaru hadn't interacted with Rem all that much during the previous four days. Rem, being exceptional, had taken on the extra workload—Ram had said as much—but the indirect burden he'd placed on her still weighed on Subaru's conscience.
"Honestly, I didn't think I was that well-liked."
Here he was—already a burden on people who were busy enough—and he'd shown up as an incompetent underling. They had to do their own work, carve out their own time, and still teach him all sorts of things.
For someone with as little interpersonal experience as Subaru, the mere thought was agonizing. And being seen that way was something Subaru was all too familiar with.
That was precisely why the current situation—where nothing had been rejected—made him happy.
"So, I know I'm probably gonna keep being a pain, but… thanks. I mean it."
He creaked the chair slightly, turned just his head back, and spoke to Ram, who watched on in silence.
Words that had welled up suddenly from his heart—and to those, Ram quietly replied: "Gnu."
She was curled up on the perfectly made bed, breathing softly in sleep.
Shoes off, apron removed, headress set beside the bed, blanket pulled up to her shoulders—the epitome of a proper sleeping posture.
*Snap.* The quill pen broke in Subaru's hand.
※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ Following a sudden impulse, Subaru opened his mouth wide and yawned.
The drowsiness he'd been suppressing overflowed as tears at the corners of his eyes. He rubbed them away roughly and straightened his back.
The evening sky was stained orange by the sun's parting gift, and the drifting clouds moved in a leisurely pace, saluting the end of the day.
Watching them go, he rolled his joints one by one, checking his body's condition. The toll of heavy labor was still there, naturally, but it was better than before.
"Still, my body's resilience hasn't really changed… Guess I just learned how to move without tiring myself out as much."
It wasn't physical adaptation to the work itself, but rather an improvement in efficiency from pure familiarity with the tasks. That must have been what accounted for the slight reduction in fatigue.
If there was a possibility of continuing to loop, he couldn't count on physical strengthening through repetition. All he could do was preview events and hone his household skills.
He had to accept that, or he'd never make it. After all— "Subaru-kun, sorry to keep you waiting. Are you feeling all right?"
"Hm? Yeah, yeah, totally fine. You finished shopping, Rem-rin?"
"Yes, everything went smoothly. Subaru-kun, you look like you've been through quite a lot."
The blue-haired girl—Rem—tilted her head slightly as she spoke, a shopping bag in hand. Dressed in her ever-present maid uniform, she held down her hair blowing in the breeze and watched Subaru with an expression that had loosened, if only by a fraction.
The Subaru she was looking at, who was filthy with mud, dust, snot, and tears staining his butler uniform to the point of no return.
"You were quite popular."
"I've been like this since I was a kid—don't know why, but I have this thing where young'uns take a shine to me. Maybe it's like, some kind of uncontrollable maternal energy inside me that keeps drawing in their innocent hearts."
"Children are like animals—they instinctively rank people. They can tell at a gut level whether someone's harmless."
"That—doesn't sound like a compliment at all!"
Subaru propped his chin in his hand, signaling his dissatisfaction, but Rem offered no response.
Getting hit with that kind of cutting remark—yeah, definitely sisters, Subaru nodded to himself in private understanding.
Ram was blunt. Rem was roundabout. You had to be mentally tough to handle either of them. Though, of course, you also had to be physically tough or the work itself would bury you.
Chuckling, he rolled his waist and craned his neck to take in his surroundings.
Behind them, toward the square, the children's laughter still echoed in the distance. Just moments ago, Subaru had been part of that circle, battling it out against flailing limbs and drool in a lone, mercyless fight where no one held back.
Right now, Subaru and Rem were in the village closest to the mansion.
As a border count, Roswaal naturally held several territories as part of his fiefdom—a minor noble, all things considered.
This village, situated right next to the mansion, was no exception. The people living here naturally recognized his face. The two maids, who went shopping frequently, got called out to by name almost every time they passed through.
As for Subaru himself, his existence had apparently become known to the villagers at some point, even though this was his first time actually visiting. Being welcomed warmly—however ticklish that felt—made him happy.
Still— "Those kids' casualness with me is seriously weird… Can't they tell I've got a hard-boiled vibe going on—one wrong touch and you'll get burned?"
Hard-boiled and adult-like. Or as he preferred to abbreviate it: hard-boilidic.
He wanted to murmur that title in a low voice while exhaling cigarette smoke. As he grumbled, Rem walking ahead glanced back at him with just her eyes.
"One minute it's maternal energy, the next you're trying to act like an adult. Subaru-kun, you stay busy."
"If I were really busy, I wouldn't have ended up in this mess. Damn, I really should've just gone shopping with Rem-rin."
Even if he had tagged along on an actual shopping trip, Subaru couldn't tell one ingredient from another or know their names, so he'd have been useless. Rather than be a burden, he'd hung back—but getting spotted and kidnapped by the village kids had been beyond his predictions.
"I don't have many complaints about the big picture… but something bugs me."
"What is it?"
"No, it's nothing. Hey, Rem-rin, it's a relief that you can talk without me having to be on guard. With Ram-chi, you never know what angle she's going to look down on you from."
"Big sister is wonderful, isn't she?"
Their conversation wasn't quite clicking.
Rem's chest puffed out a bit as she praised her sister—no hidden meaning there, so it had to be genuine, Subaru figured. But— "Honestly, doesn't Ram-chi's personality cause problems? Seems like she'd be causing friction pretty regularly."
"Not as much as an incompetent Subaru-kun who can't even contribute half as much as she does."
"Ri·ght·, yeah…"
Learn from others' mistakes to correct your own.
From Subaru's mouth—currently contributing less than half of Ram's capacity—the right to criticize Ram's abilities and personality would get him laughed out of the room. And this was the upgraded version of that Ram.
Because she wasn't as direct, her barbs cut even deeper than Ram's.
Following behind Rem as she walked, Subaru scratched his head in thought.
—In the previous loop, it had been Ram who accompanied him on the village shopping trip.
"By the way, Subaru-kun, how are your studies going?"
"I'd like to say 'swimmingly,' but it's really not that easy. Anything worth doing takes time and care. Just like love!"
"Hopefully you won't wither halfway through."
"That comment had no love in it at all, Rem-rin!"
He shouted, and Rem's expression shifted into the faintest smile. Subaru smiled too.
—It had been four days since Ram proposed the nightly tutoring sessions. They were supposed to be taking turns teaching Subaru his letters, but in that time, Rem had never once taken the instructor's role.
The likely reason was that Rem couldn't afford to leave gaps in her work schedule—and that, apparently, weighed on her guilt.
Seeing her stammer and hesitate—unusual for her—Subaru kept his smile going: "Don't be all se·ri·ous about it. It's not like I've been abandoned, and I've got no complaints about Ram-chi as a teacher? Well, when she just falls asleep in bed mid-lesson, that does kind of kill the motivation…"
"Big sister does that on purpose to spur Subaru-kun into action."
"What is this next-level positive thinking that surpasses even my own? Her adoration for her sister is on another level—she's totally gone."
"Kamigaru…?"
Rem tilted her head at his recent favorite phrase.
"It's the demon version of kamigaru. Onigaru—doesn't that sound cool?"
"Do you like demons?"
"Maybe even more than gods. Gods basically never do anything for you, but apparently demons will laugh with you when you talk about future prospects."
He'd heard they got particularly fired up when discussing plans for next year.
Imagining himself arm-in-arm with red and blue demons, laughing uproariously, Subaru suddenly noticed a definite smile etched on Rem's face.
"Oh…"
He'd seen her smile a few times before, but this was the first time she'd shown him an expression that could properly be called a smile.
He didn't know what string he'd plucked, but he snapped his fingers.
"That smile's worth a million volts of nighttime scenery."
"I'm telling Emilia-sama."
"That wasn't a pickup line!?"
He straightened up, thrust both hands forward, and struck a solemn pose of supplication.
Rem lightly raised an eyebrow at his posture.
"What's wrong with your hand?"
"Hm? Oh, those little monsters were playing with a dog and it chomped on me good."
The bite marks on his left hand were vivid—there'd been minor bleeding, but it had already stopped. He remembered getting bitten the same way last time, so this was just history faithfully repeating itself.
Incidentally, someone had enthusiastically blown their nose on the back of his butler uniform, but he wouldn't notice that until he got back to the mansion, just like last time.
"Shall I heal the wound?"
"Huh? What, Rem-rin, you can use healing magic and stuff?"
"It's something simple—just first aid, really. Would you prefer Emilia-sama instead?"
"Mm, that's an undeniably attractive offer. But… I'll pass."
Glancing at the canine tooth marks on the back of his left hand, Subaru declined the offer.
He judged the scar to be a useful marker, in its own way. The moment this loop had begun, the very thing that had made Subaru aware of the fact was the disappearance of his wounds.
The presence or absence of scars was effective as a point of reference. If the dog hadn't bitten him, he would've had to resort to cutting himself with whatever blade or quill was handy.
"Heh—my youthful fascination with facial scars ended in middle school. Looking back now, the me back then was covered in marks…"
He'd been obsessed with facial scars, diligently scratching wounds into his own skin. One wasn't enough, so he'd kept making more—only for the wounds to get infected and fester, turning him into a mummy wrapped in bandages. His middle school graduation album featured him as the sole mummy man.
"Oh no, I was adorable…!"
"Scars are called a man's medals, you know. Come to think of it, Roswaal-sama brags about the scars he never removed too. —Around his chest area."
"That sounds like it's about to get really graphic, so can we pass?"
Realizing the conversation was headed toward an awkward topic about the maid and her master's suspicious relationship, he hastily cut it off.
Rem tilted her head in puzzlement—either she didn't get the implication or she genuinely didn't know. Either way, Subaru pushed her forward from behind. "Come on, come on," he urged, hurrying along the path home.
He had zero confidence in following that conversation further, and besides, Subaru himself was pretty tense.
—After all, the second world had now reached a full four days.
"The real showdown is whether I make it safely through tomorrow morning. Before that, though…"
Whether he could even manage to make a promise with Emilia in the first place was another critical battle.
"…Still, I'm a little worried about Ram-chi and Rem-rin's… knowledge in that department. I'd hate for them to get taken advantage of by that master of theirs."
As he learned more about what had happened the previous week, that particular question began raising its head. Once he'd sorted out his own affairs, he'd have to probe a little.
Subaru silently solidified this resolution as well.
※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ Natsuki Subaru's second week at the Roswaal mansion had reached its greatest crisis.
The fact that he hadn't been replicating the previous loop with much accuracy from the start meant this was hardly a smooth ride—and now, the biggest crisis yet had struck.
Specifically: "Because of the study sessions eating up my time, I can't show my face at Emilia-tan's place!"
His hope for the second night had been this: moonlit garden, two lovers whispering sweet nothings, a pinky promise under the stars.
For Subaru, who'd harbored that hope, something blocking the event's progress was the worst possible development.
The studying was only on day four, and he'd casually pitched it to the twins before dinner—"Hey, wouldn't it be fine to take a break or two today?"—but: "Sister, sister. The coward named Subaru-kun is already throwing in the towel."
"Rem, Rem. The mongrel beast inferior to livestock named Barusu is barking something in dog language."
They'd shut him down with a level of cold rejection he'd never experienced before.
In that case, even if he skipped out, he'd want to rush to Emilia's side— "If word of my skipping gets to Emilia-tan through Ram and Rem, she'd definitely cancel the promise, given her personality…!"
Even if they managed to exchange a promise, it would be meaningless if it was broken afterward.
A secret rendezvous. Then the two of them burning like a flame in a flower field, vanishing into the night. Only after all that could it be called a Subaru-style HAPPY END.
"But if I knuckle down on studying, I'll be out like a light before I even get to meet Emilia-tan."
Which left Subaru with only one optimal answer.
Namely—finish the assignments as fast as humanly possible, then descend into the garden before the moon hid behind the clouds. That was it.
"Or: use the ultimate bed-making to lull Ram to sleep, exchange the promise while she's unconscious, come back, and finish the assignments—a pincer attack!"
Or more accurately, a squeeze between two grinding stones. A man's heart, caught between his homework and his promise.
He'd prepared a secondary plan as well, and the bed's adjustment was already complete. The bedding, having soaked up a generous amount of sunlight, was in peak condition—the warmth you could feel from just touching it was powerful enough to drag anyone into the land of nod.
And with every ounce of the hotelier's power sealed within him, Subaru had channeled it all into completing the most extraordinary bed-making job known to man.
"I don't think I'll ever surpass this…"
A true masterpiece, poured out from everything he had.
He was so taken with the result that he usually would have been jealous of Ram just flopping onto it without a second thought—but right now, he wanted nothing more than for her to climb in quickly.
"It feels like I just bought a new roach trap and I'm eagerly waiting for a cockroach to walk in—the worst!"
He tried to dress it up, but facts were facts, so he made no correction.
Still, the fact that he obediently waited for her anyway—that was the Japanese in him, unable to go completely cold-blooded.
He sat ready at the desk, tapping his knee with a finger, awaiting her arrival. But— "Why are you late today? If the start gets delayed, the end naturally gets pushed back too. Unlike school, there's no bell signaling the end."
At school, a teacher showing up late was something students rejoiced at. But here, it was nothing but dead time that extended his confinement.
If it was dead time, he could use it for review—though he couldn't deny the thought crossed his mind. But with his current state of mind, settling down to focus on writing was a tall order.
It was ridiculous to think he could finish his assignments quickly with this kind of mindset, but Subaru himself failed to notice.
As the minutes ticked by, his impatience mounted—and the moment he heard a knock on the room's door, he was already on his feet, striding over and flinging the door open with reckless force.
"You're slow as hell! Every single second might have been nothing to you, but for me it's like my soul's being ground away!"
he snapped— "…I'm sorry you had to wait so long? I've never really come to this part of the house before."
Standing outside the door, the person who said those words was Emilia—and the blood drained from Subaru's face in an instant.