Letting out a breath,
That occasional habit of hers was oddly childish and endearing for someone like her.
Subaru bounced upright, and Emilia turned the finger still resting on her lips toward her own eyes— "Anyway, you've never seen spirits before? Is your mana control unstable or something?"
"My mana control… huh?"
"Concentrating it in your eyes is the most basic step, right? At least that much…"
"Lia, it's not that simple. The people you've been around up until now just happen to be unusually skilled with mana for humans. Well, that's separate from Subaru's situation, which is a little special."
"Special?" Emilia tilted her head, and
"From what I've been picking up here and there, Subaru's gate doesn't open properly. Setting aside spirit arts or magic, it's not just closed—it's practically sealed shut."
"That's not normal. If you're living a normal life, that shouldn't happen."
"Yeah, that's exactly why it's weird. He wasn't living a normal life, was he?"
Their gazes met, they nodded in agreement, and with perfectly synchronized timing, they both turned to look at Subaru. Receiving their combined stares, Subaru responded: "The kind of shared world that makes me hesitant to interrupt… Geez."
"W-well, I understand he's not exactly normal."
"The definition of 'normal' is falling apart! Besides, saying someone's normal or not normal right to their face is pretty rude, you know! How about you, how's your kid doing over there?"
"She grew up into an honest, straightforward girl with no pretense. I couldn't be prouder as a parent."
"PARENT OF THE YEAR RIGHT HERE!"
Subaru covered his face with his hand at Puck's absurd level of daughter-spoiling. Watching his overreaction, Emilia said: "The two of you really seem to get along super well, huh."
She looked back and forth between them with a deadpan gaze and murmured that.
At her tweet, Subaru and Puck exchanged glances, nodded, and slapped their palms together (Puck throwing his entire body into the high-five): "Heck yeah, we're mega close. We're on the same wavelength. Why don't you join me and aim for the top of the comedy world!?"
"Come on, you just want to use my body as a bed."
"Love and fluffing are two separate things. But I'll always, always come back to you in the end. A man's wandering heart—just look the other way for a bit, fuffuffuffu…"
The tactile sensation of Puck's palm cut off their banter. Subaru was happily snuggling Puck when, having apparently given up on getting the conversation back on track, Emilia fully entrusted Puck to Subaru.
"Puck, go play with Subaru over there. I have spirits to keep happy. Seriously, stop getting in my way."
"Looks like we've been abandoned."
"Abandoned we have."
Subaru and Puck both struck exaggerated shrugs. Emilia wordlessly ignored them, quickly put some distance between them, and turned back to what seemed to be her earlier task—the spirits she'd summoned trailing behind her.
Her manner of speaking to the spirits was, as before, a fantastical sight. It was precisely to touch a piece of that solemn beauty that Subaru had acted out earlier.
"This wasn't really what I meant to do, you know. Bear with me on that."
"It doesn't really help when you ask me to bear with you. Well, I should probably hold back from causing more trouble. She's in the middle of an important ritual. As a spirit, I can't just stand by and let that happen."
"Even though you were having a pretty great time crashing the party yourself. So what exactly is she doing there?"
"A ritual of contract with spirits. — The fulfillment of a vow."
Hearing a barrage of unfamiliar words, Subaru answered with a confused scowl. Puck selected his words as if choosing a preface, starting with "Well, let me explain…"
"First off, spirit users can't use spirit arts unless they've contracted with a spirit. The terms of the contract differ depending on the spirit. Are you with me so far?"
"Like how different lenders charge different interest and require different collateral. Got it."
"I'm not the one who needs to agree, but I'll move on. The demands a spirit makes vary from case to case… but when it's those minor spirits like the ones over there, it's basically contact through the user's own mana. Something like that. You can secure their cooperation pretty easily that way."
"Sounds pretty convenient. But from the way you put it, a proper spirit's terms are different, right? How about it, Mr. Spirit?"
"Smart ones are easy to talk to, so that helps. …Though also, they think too hard and the conversation goes off on tangents before we get anywhere."
"Heh heh," Subaru scratched his head, embarrassed. Puck gave him a lukewarm look while fiddling with his whiskers.
"As Subaru said, spirits with consciousness, myself included, tend to have stricter requirements. But in return, we contribute more to the user. I'm a fairly powerful spirit myself, so the vow I've made with Lia is pretty demanding."
"By the way, I've been curious—that nickname 'Lia' is pretty cute."
"It still can't compare to your 'Emilia-tan,' though. Maybe I should start using that too."
"——Please, absolutely do not do that."
Subaru's dig derailed the conversation, Puck ran with it, and Emilia angrily cut in.
Looking over, the glow of spirits around her had vanished. It seemed the spirit talk show was over as well.
Subaru stood up and brushed the grass off his backside: "Social hour's over? Surprisingly painless, all things considered."
"It's because the two of you kept interrupting. You mess with people's nerves even from a distance… honestly, some talent you two have."
"Two people who should never have met, brought together by fate… That sort of thing. I've got this feeling something's about to start. My heart won't stop racing!"
He thumped his chest to the beat, and Emilia extended her palm. Puck detached from Subaru and landed on it.
He looked up at Emilia with his round black eyes and smiled, as if keeping something in: "It's fine. From what I sensed, there's no malice, hostility, or ill intent in Subaru. His personality's a little twisted, but he's a good kid."
"W-what…?"
Emilia was struck speechless by Puck's damning assessment.
She watched Subaru out of the corner of her eye, then quickly nudged Puck: "Why would you say that to his face… and with that kind of evaluation? Even if it's true, it'd hurt to hear!"
"Ah, it's fine, it's fine. It's only natural to probe someone. I'm a Nice Guy of dubious background—being suspicious is the default. …Though I'm hurt by the way Emilia-tan covered for him just now!"
Emilia instinctively covered her mouth, and Subaru gave a wry smile at her honest reaction.
He'd suspected as much—that Puck was probing him. It wasn't hard to figure that the spirit who could read his emotions was testing the waters.
The fact that Subaru hadn't offered a single coherent piece of information up to this point meant they wouldn't accept him without some caution. Even
"That said, I've got no good way to explain."
He had memories but no civil records—that was Subaru's situation in this world.
Explaining would be difficult, and the odds of being labeled a lunatic were high. In that case, he might as well ride on Puck's personal judgment.
Puck, who could read emotions to some degree, would convey Subaru's situation more accurately. That had been the calculation behind their earlier exchange.
It was a gamble of sorts, and Puck laughed at Subaru's scheme: "It's fine, Lia. Actually, Subaru already figured that out too. Using my mind-reading to his advantage like that—what a bad kid."
"That's quite the compliment. Smooth things over for me, will you, my friend?"
At the address, Puck blinked in slight surprise. Then, with a thoroughly delighted grin: "It's been really, really long since someone treated me like that. Yeah, I like it."
Puck's happy attitude carried a hint of something deeper to Subaru, but before he could comment, Subaru appeared right in front of Emilia's face.
Then he pressed his forehead against hers as she shut her eyes, creating a strangely surreal scene.
"TAKE THIS! Puck-style Transcendent Secret Technique—'Forehead Cat Impact'!!"
He narrated his own attack to stave off the loneliness of being ignored by both of them. But the two, deeply focused, showed zero reaction, only amplifying his loneliness.
"Damn, how powerless am I… I can't think of any more strategies to get their attention. I'm gonna cry."
"…Yeah, got it. Huh, Subaru, you think about all sorts of things… Why are you sitting with your legs tucked under you and sniffling?"
"Don't mind me! So what was that just now?"
"It's like shared consciousness, or something along those lines. Rather than explaining with words, isn't it faster if you feel what I feel directly?"
Puck answered Subaru's question concisely and returned to his usual spot beside Emilia's silver hair. Emilia placed her hand on Puck's shoulder as he settled there and nodded, as if to say "that's what it was."
"Through Puck, I was able to understand about Subaru. …I'm sorry for doubting you. Even when you know better, it doesn't feel good."
"Getting probed by a beautiful woman—doesn't that sound kind of exciting when you read it? Next time, I'd love it if Emilia-tan herself dug around in my brain instead of Puck."
He gave a thumbs-up with a flash of teeth. Emilia was speechless at this. Seeing her reaction, Subaru's inner regrets immediately began sprinting at full speed—he'd gone and done it again.
His bad habit of running his mouth when he got carried away. And then: "No no no, not in that kind of perverted way—I mean, in our industry, even that kind of cringe stuff is like a reward."
His follow-up managed to sabotage itself in classic Subaru fashion.
Subaru felt the awkward grin on his face and the cold sweat trickling down. By now, he was well past the point of no return—a liquid that was three-quarters guaranteed to make people cringe was running down his chin.
In this state of full-on dirty-comedian mode, Emilia tilted her head slightly: "—You really are strange, Subaru."
"Huh?"
"You treat spirits with physical forms like it's the most normal thing in the world, and on top of that, you can even flirt with someone like me… a half-elf."
"It surprises me even when I'm joking," she said with a small laugh.
*If it weren't a joke, would I really be getting this kind of reaction?* was what Subaru wanted to say, but he'd even forgotten about that—dazzled by her smile.
That smile was the same kind of clear, pure one he'd seen in that alley. Far from fragile or wistful—it was the kind that made you happy just looking at it.
——For the first time, Subaru became aware of his own feelings as he gazed at her expression.
"…Oh no."
"Hm?"
"No, it's just—I haven't felt like this in, like, forever… you know? No, seriously."
His mouth went completely dry, his breathing grew labored, and his heartbeat quickened.
His vision started flickering, and he couldn't raise his face properly. Heat surged from his neck to his face, and he couldn't control his emotions at all.
"What's wrong? Are you okay?"
Emilia looked up at Subaru from below as he backed away. That worried expression, looking up at him with those upward-gazing eyes, was just too cute— "Fwoooooooh!!"
He let out a battle cry and launched himself backward in a huge leap. He attempted a backflip escape from the situation.
With his body upside down, he planted his hands on the ground and was supposed to execute a graceful spin, but the morning dew made his hands slip and he landed on his head. He slid across the grass on his crown and collapsed at the one-meter mark.
"W-what just happened!?"
"Owwww, ow, it really hurts. Crap, is my hair—is it not falling out? …Oh, white."
Emilia rushed over to Subaru, who was rolling on the ground clutching his head, and fumbled with what to do. Looking up at her from below, Subaru managed one line.
For a split second, Emilia's expression turned suspicious—then, realizing what he'd seen, her cheeks flushed crimson in an instant.
She'd come over wearing a short skirt, and now Subaru was rolling on the ground right in front of her— "It was force majeure, force majeure! I didn't aim for that, I swear!"
"And your real answer?"
"Thank you for the meal."
He sat seiza, pressed his palms together, and bowed his head to the silver-haired goddess.
When he raised his head, Emilia was smiling at him. — Unlike the previous smile, this one held a hint of something almost sadistic— "That look was charming too, apparently."
"——Reflect on your actions!"
The chunk of ice that fell on him was, even accounting for mercy, quite substantial.
※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ "Ahhh, ow… I'm not actually going bald from this, am I? You sure?"
"You've just got a slightly larger bump, that's all. —You should be grateful for my kindness."
Subaru sat cross-legged on the ground, rubbing his head. Emilia, her face turned away, responded coldly and with clear displeasure at the half-teary Subaru.
Several meters separated them, and the rift created by earlier events had manifested as a literal physical distance.
He glanced sideways at her white profile with a sidelong look. She turned her face away.
Glance. Turn. Glance. Turn. Glance. Turn. Glance-glance. Turn-turn.
"Stop playing around. I'm angry with you."
"I didn't do it on purpose! It was just a little misunderstanding that ended in self-destruction!"
If this were a manga, you'd want to slap a bandage on it—the bump on his head was impressively prominent.
The moment of impact had literally seen stars. With enough force, he might've been dragged back to that vegetable stand.
Right now he was chipper, but right after the hit, his consciousness had been foggy. Incidentally, whether she felt she'd gone too far, Emilia had watched over the fallen Subaru with helpless little-animal-like concern, which was adorable in its own right.
Subaru had been peeping at that through half-closed eyes, which only earned him more wrath.
"You really have a difficult personality. You should try to relax more."
"I've been living the easy, half-assed life and this is what I've gotten. You've got it made over there."
Jealously, Subaru's gaze drifted to where Puck was lounging comfortably on Emilia's lap. The spirit, who'd been palm-sized moments ago, had now grown to roughly the size of a human toddler, resting his head on her slim knee and enjoying the sensation.
"That sort of indecent thought has nothing to do with me—"
"Shut up and stop reading my heart. It's a teenage boy's brain in here—it's a complete mess. Emilia-tan's no exception."
"If you keep thinking lewd things about my daughter, I'll erase you—"
"Don't go trying to assassinate me with just that level of threat!?"
He said it with a joking air, but he was sweating inside. He genuinely meant it.
Even so, Subaru observed the two of them with a preamble: "You never miss your morning grooming session, huh. Somehow, spirit contracts and vows just seem so easy now."
"That's not really true. Some spirits make much stricter demands. Giving the user several times the mana of an average person, or if the spirit's aggressive, one kill per day—things like that."
"Your comparison point is way too extreme… And you're way too soft on your daughter."
Compared to those examples, Puck's conditions were a breeze. Contracts with family being lenient—that was probably the same across every world and every era. Long live nepotism.
Mulling over nepotism in his head, Subaru stared blankly and silently at the interaction between Emilia and Puck—an unusual quietness for him.
The truth was, Subaru kept chattering about unnecessary things because he felt distressed by silence in a space where other people were present.
When others were around and no one spoke, Subaru felt a kind of oppressive pressure—as if people were giving him the silent treatment *because* he wasn't talking.
Normally, this nagging compulsion would torment him, but oddly enough, right now that self-centered anxiety didn't rise up anywhere.
——Silence. Stillness. Quiet.
Perhaps Subaru could sense that the warm scene before his eyes was somehow sustained by that very quietness.
Puck scooped up his short fur with his fingers, smoothing and grooming it with gentle movements. His expression had forgotten the earlier spat with Subaru—his profile, absorbed in grooming, was earnest yet serene, captivating enough on its own to draw one in.
*My eyesight's definitely gotten worse*, Subaru thought.
"Heh heh heh."
Puck looked up at him with that verbalized chuckle. A mind-reading cat—the worst.
That cat, capable of reading others' emotions without even touching them, surely had a grasp of the bittersweet sensation filling Subaru's chest right now.
He'd inadvertently shown his weakness. Of course, it wasn't funny—but *—Even I know I'm picking a thorny path here.* Her silver hair flowed beautifully, ethereal as moonbeams. Her skin, white as fresh snow, was almost translucent, and those violet eyes seemed to cast a bewitching spell that drew Subaru's awareness in. Her slender limbs and delicate frame held a fragility that made it seem as though she'd break if embraced, yet Subaru knew she possessed an unbreakable core at her heart. Noble, beautiful, the ideal person.
There was no way she'd ever have eyes for an immature, shut-in kid from another world.
"Just being like this feels like such a luxury…"
Thinking about it only made the nameless emotion cloudier.
Subaru stood up and shook it off, swinging his wooden sword again.
The last time he'd felt this kind of emotion, he'd have to go back to elementary school. And in the end, that feeling too had been dragged out for nearly ten years without ever being conveyed.
Each time those feelings resurfaced, his swings grew sharper.
"Disappear, worldly desires! Drop dead, regrets! Don't care if there are a hundred and eight of you—I'll cut you all down! Cut you all down!"
He slashed at something invisible, and with each strike, bold words poured out.
Right—wallowing in melancholy wasn't like him at all. Don't worry, be clear, and pick a reckless answer on the fly. That's who
"Oh my, what a man. Hehehe, never gets old watching him."
"Sure, sure, don't move. …But he really does, doesn't he."
Watching Subaru continue his battle against inner conflict, the two of them offered their commentary.
Watching his thrashing back, Emilia's lips softened just slightly. The awkward anger from before was nowhere to be found on her profile.
And Subaru's failure to notice that—that was quintessentially Subaru.
——Then, "What's wrong? Both of you?"
At Emilia's voice, as if she'd noticed something, Subaru stopped swinging and looked toward the manor. Emerging from the building with composed grace were the twin maids, distinguished by their pink and blue hair. With a poise befitting servants, they bowed elegantly.
"「My lord, Master Roswaal has returned. Please come inside.」"
A perfectly synchronized stereo voice without a split second's delay.
The seamlessness of their coordination was impressive, but what truly surprised Subaru was the difference in their attitude from moments ago.
Gone was the lightness they'd shared with Subaru, the casual banter. Standing before him now were two young girls who carried themselves with a dignity befitting household staff.
In short, they'd switched from private mode to work mode.
"Roswaal's back. …Then I should go welcome him."
"「Yes. Also, for the guest—if they're awake, they've been asked to join as well.」"
Puck shrank and sank into Emilia's silver hair. She stroked her own hair to accept him, and with a face that had quietly settled its emotions, she stood up.
Though something about her profile struck Subaru as odd, he wiped his sweat as well. The blue-haired maid stepped gracefully to his side and, producing a cloth from her apron, took over the job.
"Sorry about that."
"Not at all. It's only proper duty as a maid, you know."
"Not at all. It's just normal work for a maid, really."
It was the blue-haired one who did the work, but the pink-haired one puffed out her chest as if it were the most natural thing. *The dynamic from earlier seems to be creeping back a little*, Subaru noted with relief as he turned around.
"So who's this Roswaal?"
"The owner of this manor… Oh right, I never explained, did I."
Emilia seemed to catch her own oversight, pressing her palm to her lips. Then she furrowed her brows, deliberating how to respond.
"Let's see… Roswaal is… you'll understand when you meet him."
"That was fast for giving up! Isn't there anything more you can tell me about him?!"
"「「「Nope, the opposite.」」」"
A quadruple chorus of denial hit him, and Subaru was so shaken he dropped his wooden sword.
The blue-haired maid lightly kicked the falling sword, caught the spinning blade effortlessly, gave a solemn bow, and retreated to stand beside her sister. Then the pink-haired maid gestured toward the manor: "No amount of words will do it justice. Master Roswaal's character is something you'll need to understand for yourself by meeting him. Yes, I'm sure you'll be fine."
The pink-haired and blue-haired maids exchanged a glance and nodded, and Emilia reluctantly agreed. To the confused Subaru, she gave his shoulder a light pat as she walked toward the manor: "—I'm sure you and Roswaal will get along, actually. Even if it's a bit of a headache."
With that, she murmured in a tone that only made things sound heavier.