——He planted his feet firmly, kicked hard against the earth, and launched his body forward.
Sweat streaming across his forehead caught the wind, brushing past the corners of his eyes—he blinked it away without a thought.
His lungs stung with every breath he sucked in as his body contracted around his solar plexus.
"Ghh—!"
He clenched his teeth, driving every last bit of pain out of his consciousness.
The only image burning in his mind was a single word—just the one: "goal."
"————!"
From somewhere far off, he thought he could hear someone's high-pitched voice calling out.
It grew closer and closer, chasing after him as he sprinted through. He latched onto that voice, groping blindly toward it, forward, forward—— "————!"
Lured on by that desperate shout, he ran heedless of how the world blurred to white at the edges of his vision.
And then— "The goooal!"
He crossed the clumsy white line painted at his feet, and in that instant, heaven and earth flipped upside down.
His head was about to plunge straight into the patch of low weeds ahead when Subaru instinctively threw his hands forward into a roll. The motion—now thoroughly ingrained habit—absorbed the impact, then added two more unnecessary rotations before he finally sprawled flat on his back in a starfish pose.
"Buhaaah! Aaah! That's rough! That hurts! But—it's over! I did it!"
Panting raggedly between every word, he still forced himself to keep talking, voice loud and defiant.
Spitting out those complaints like curses was how he kept his flagging spirits up. He had to make sure he didn't file this exhaustion away as just plain tiredness, or file away all his effort as nothing more than suffering.
He had to convince himself that this wasn't the end—that there was still more beyond. Because every time he let himself draw that imaginary line where "done" met "satisfied enough," Subaru would press a hand to his chest and remember that night.
"Subaru, good work today, I suppose."
A small shadow appeared above his head, hanging upside down into his field of vision.
A lovely girl with long cream-colored hair luxuriously curled—
She swayed the hem of a dress entirely out of place for a grassy field as Beatrice gently offered Subaru a towel. He took it, slapped it over his head, and scrubbed roughly.
"Ah, that helps. But I hate this—it's slightly cold, and the thought behind that is almost worse."
"That was Petra's idea, cooling it down before Betty handed it to you. Tell her thanks later; that girl will probably jump for joy."
"Petra really is considerate. But, Beako, it's rare for you to come all the way out here. Did something put you in a different mood than usual?"
He swung his arms to push himself upright, then slid his rear across the ground to face Beatrice. Meeting her gaze from below, Beatrice placed her hands on her hips and averted her eyes.
"It's nothing. Just a whim, I suppose."
"Hehh, a whim, you say."
"...I suppose I also wanted to see with my own eyes what Subaru really looks like, given how he acts like he's putting in all this effort day after day."
She turned her face away completely, yet casually spilled the honest truth she'd been hiding all the same.
Subaru felt a genuine warmth at how much she'd opened up—this was the result of the time he'd spent slowly coaxing open her heart.
He grinned, and Beatrice made a displeased face at him, but ultimately said nothing more, letting out only a small sigh.
"Anyway, you're not done just from running around like a headless chicken, I suppose. What's the plan after this?"
"Just running around like a headless chicken is actually pretty exhausting too, you know, my lady. Whether I can live up to your expectations, I'm not sure—but next up, it's time to enter the dream Athletic Zone."
"...Ah, that reminds me. The stacking blocks in the forest that you had Garfiel build? Ath-le... what was it?"
"Athletic Zone. Don't worry about remembering it—just let it slide."
"I want to be able to understand every word Subaru says, I suppose."
She dropped that line with perfect nonchalance, and Subaru's grin only widened further. Beatrice looked at him with suspicion, then caught the implication of her own words and stiffened. A faint blush colored her cheeks—like a ripe fruit, utterly adorable.
"I-I didn't mean it like that... it just happened to sound that way, I suppose."
"No, no, no, it's fine—I'm not misunderstanding or anything. Don't worry, don't worry. I love you too."
"I don't want to understand you that well, you moron!"
Laughing and chuckling, Subaru sprang to his feet and scooped up Beatrice from behind by the backs of her knees, lifting her with ease.
Beatrice, cradled in his arms, wore a sulky expression—but offered no real protest at being carried.
"Subaru, you smell of sweat, I suppose."
"Then breathe through your mouth. Or just go ahead and siphon mana directly."
"Fine, I'll suck you dry until you're nothing but dust, then."
"You'd be the one crying if you did that, probably."
"W-who said anything about crying, I suppose! Don't be ridiculous!"
Bickering back and forth, Subaru took off running again with Beatrice in his arms.
His breathing had evened out during the conversation. From the grassy stretch of the running course to the forested grounds of the next athletic area, the weight of someone roughly Beatrice's size made for perfect resistance training.
After all, this girl was remarkably light despite her appearance—like a feather.
So with the lightness of having sprouted wings, Subaru flew through the forest with Beatrice in his arms.
※※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ The new mansion that had replaced the one burned to the ground was, just like its predecessor, surrounded by green.
Lush foliage and the deep verdure of the mountainsides. A cool breeze swept through, and Subaru felt it wash over his short bangs as he kicked off the earth.
"Yah! Hup! And!"
Beneath a canopy of green that blanketed his entire field of vision, the sprinting Subaru lightly tapped a hand against a horizontally toppled log, then cleared the obstacle with nothing more than a brief hop and a shift of weight.
A technique called "Vault," it was a movement art designed to shine in zones like this—tangled with obstacles—or amid the dense buildings of a city. The sport built upon this system of techniques was called parkour, and Subaru had often watched the superhuman exploits of parkour practitioners on TV, utterly dumbfounded.
He'd never imagined that he himself would come to master a fraction of those awe-inspiring feats.
"Ya, ha, sshh!"
The climbing wall composed of multiple logs was the centerpiece of the Athletic Zone Subaru had asked Garfiel to build.
Using a massive tree as the main support pillar, logs crisscrossed in every direction—a full-scale jungle gym born from a somewhat avant-garde aesthetic sensibility.
Just climbing slowly up the thing would leave anyone confused about where to put their hands and feet next.
And into that, Subaru threw himself with the full momentum of a sprint, clinging to the sparsest of handholds and the tips of his toes, hauling himself upward in a motion like scaling a vertical wall.
He reached the top of the jungle gym in the blink of an eye.
But the marvel of parkour's techniques—and the purpose of this full-scale jungle gym—didn't end there.
"Heh, heh, heh—!"
Arriving at the summit, Subaru hopped across the narrow footing with a few bouncy steps until he stood at the edge, peering down. The drop was roughly six meters.
The ground below, conspicuous for its weeds and moss, was of course bare—no padding of any kind. Even the softest soil had long since been packed solid by repeated landings.
In other words, a normal landing meant guaranteed damage—his legs would buckle. But— "Hah!"
Without an instant's hesitation, Subaru leapt off the edge. The completely unprotected jump might have been taken as mere recklessness pushed to its absolute limit.
Yet Subaru met the ground with both legs extended, straight into the impact that threatened to tear through his entire body—only to avoid being sent tumbling.
"————"
He bent his knees, dropped his hips, and dispersed the shock, then flowed seamlessly into a forward roll that bled off even more of the force. He tumbled twice, three times across the ground before rising to all fours—no injuries. He simply brushed himself off with his hands, clearing the mud from his track pants.
This, too, was a parkour technique: "Landing" and "Roll."
Landing was the art of the initial impact; rolling was the rotation that dispersed it. The two combined into one seamless maneuver.
From any reasonably tall drop, this combination let you absorb the impact and resume movement unharmed. For other superhumans it might be trivial, but for an ordinary, utterly average human like Subaru, it was a matter of life and death.
Mastering this alone should have dramatically expanded what he was capable of.
"So—those are the results so far. Think a little more of me now?"
He held both arms out and looked toward Beatrice, who had been watching his entire sequence of movements.
Seated obediently on a log stump reserved for spectators, Beatrice's already-round eyes went even wider.
"I'm honestly, just a little bit surprised. Perhaps I've revised my opinion slightly."
"Smitten all over again?"
"I've been having trouble figuring out what you want Betty to say lately!"
"All I want is the reassurance that you're crazy about me."
That particular reassurance, Beatrice communicated loud and clear through her attitude alone—no words needed.
Subaru smiled at the reddening, indignant Beatrice, then turned to look behind him.
As his parkour demonstration had shown, a section of the forest had been converted primarily into an Athletic Zone for Subaru's training.
It was on Roswaal's land, so nobody was going to complain—but Garfiel had carved out the forest and built all of this so effortlessly that Subaru had half a mind to seriously recommend the guy take up civil engineering.
It turned out Garfiel was surprisingly deft-handed and meticulous for all his wild energy. Young as he was, that untamed talent would no doubt blossom across countless fields in the years to come.
"Anyway, I think that's enough for today."
"Here, I suppose."
He caught the towel tossed to him and wiped away his sweat, just as he had in the field.
Then he dropped into squats on the spot, stretching the muscles around his legs and lower back. The importance of a flexible body had been discussed back in his original world too, but ever since he'd thrown himself seriously into retraining his body, he'd felt the benefits every single day.
He couldn't do the splits, but his joints had become noticeably more limber.
He propped one leg against a nearby tree trunk and stretched his body forward. He sat down and spread his legs—and without a word from him, Beatrice had circled around behind and was pushing him forward with her body weight.
"Stretching's done. All right—let's go back to the mansion and slack off."
"That we shall."
For once, there was no pushback on words that would have provoked an argument from her before.
She'd grown so accustomed to dealing with Subaru that Beatrice had fallen into a comfortable routine lately.
He reached out, caught the hand she extended, and they walked hand in hand toward the edge of the forest.
"Beako, are you maybe holding back on the mana drain? I feel like you're taking less than usual."
"I have enough consideration to be gentle with someone who's tired, I suppose. Even Betty has that much."
"My, my—only two hours of jogging and already your opinion's changed so much. But don't overdo it on my account. Just do what you always do."
Subaru gave a wry smile at Beatrice's newfound modesty, then raised their joined hands. Beatrice glanced sideways, sighed—and in that instant, the familiar sensation returned.
Inside the closed gate within Subaru, a vessel called Beatrice broke through directly—a back door that bypassed the proper channels, designed to draw mana straight out of his body.
A back door only Beatrice could use—now Subaru's lifeline.
Having driven his gate past its limits and lost its function entirely, Subaru could no longer access mana through normal means.
But even with the gate gone, the faint trickle of mana that welled up from his od wasn't going to disappear.
If anything, despite having lost the exit, mana kept being produced, batch after batch.
If left unchecked, the mana with nowhere to go would run rampant inside his body—eventually, like a frog inflated with a straw, he would burst. Or at least, that was Subaru's understanding.
Whether it would actually explode was another matter, but Beatrice had been the one to warn him about the danger. And so, in order to both satisfy the mana needs of maintaining his contract with Beatrice and to keep that buildup in check, Subaru and Beatrice made a point of physical contact once a day without fail.
A minuscule but ever-accumulating stockpile of mana in Subaru, and a spirit who needed that mana to keep functioning. Beyond just personality compatibility, their physical constitutions were a perfect match.
Still— "If Beako's mana drain could work on people other than her contractor, you could maintain that super-loli form from before no problem."
"Don't go getting wistful about it. We already discussed that thoroughly and came to terms long ago. And besides, even if it's only a trickle, I am storing it up bit by bit. Even if it amounts to a sparrow's tears."
The catch with Beatrice's Mana Drain was that it was limited to her contractor.
At Roswaal's previous mansion, she'd apparently siphoned mana freely from anyone who came and gone—but that had been a special method mediated through the Forbidden Archive.
"Using the Forbidden Archive as a conduit for Betty's mana absorption, the Archive itself was set up to collect mana from anyone residing in the mansion," was how Beatrice had explained it.
Because of that, Subaru's plan to draw mana from seemingly mana-rich individuals like Garfiel—or
He'd been disappointed at first, but now he was glad it had worked out that way.
The act of making contact with Beatrice on occasion felt like an important ritual for what their relationship meant now. Having that tangible sense of connection had a positive effect.
The partnership between Subaru, a spirit user, and Beatrice, his contracted spirit, was fundamentally different from the norm. In their own way, they needed moments like these to confirm who they were to each other.
"That's enough for today. I suppose today has been sufficiently fulfilling."
"Yeah... I had... plenty of margin... haa, haa..."
"I decided I wouldn't bother commenting on the tough act anymore, I suppose."
Their daily routine complete, Beatrice looked at Subaru with a gaze that was anything but impressed.
The path home led them out of the woodland trail and onto paved ground—a sure sign the mansion was near. It was a similar road to the one near
"Though Betty did prefer the quiet forest we had before, I suppose."
"I think noisy cities have their charm, and quiet forests have theirs. Can't really say one's better than the other. That said, the only big city I'd ever seen was the royal capital, so Costuul is definitely fresh."
"Hmph, I see. I suppose Subaru and Betty just don't have the same aesthetic sensibilities."
Beatrice pouted her lips, making her dissatisfaction known.
Subaru took her hand, murmuring "yeah, yeah," and steered them toward the path to the mansion. Then— "——Subaru-sama! Beatrice!"
A high voice called out both their names, and Subaru and Beatrice looked up in unison. Ahead of them, on the far side of the road leading to the mansion, a girl was running toward them.
A familiar voice, a familiar face. Her expression lit up at the sight of them—radiant and adorable—and her shoulder-length reddish-brown hair fluttered gracefully in the wind.
Her large, round eyes—cat-like in their shape—made the already expressive girl all the more captivating. She radiated the kind of easy warmth that made everyone who saw her smile.
A delicate flower blooming wild in an open meadow, untouched by anyone's hand.
If one were to describe
"I was just about to come looking for you two. Glad we didn't miss each other."
Petra arrived breathless, pressing a hand to her chest as she spoke.
Subaru responded by patting the head of the girl—whose height now reached his chest.
"What's the rush? It's not like I'm going to run away. Did the tart you've been baking come out perfectly golden or something?"
"If that were the case, I'd understand the urgency. Is it something important, I suppose?"
"Oh my! As if that's what it is! Subaru-sama and Beatrice are both teasing me!"
Petra puffed out her cheeks and scolded Beatrice, who was nodding sagely. Then she reached up to swat Subaru's hand off her head—but the moment she grabbed it with both hands, she stopped pushing it away.
Instead, she held his hand in both of hers, her running-flushed cheeks still bright red.
"The tart can wait—this is about something else. We have a visitor at the mansion. And so, Emilia-sama asked me to come get you and Subaru-sama..."
"Hold on, Petra. That's enough. That setup is triggering my bad premonitions."
"Eh?"
At the content of Petra's message, Subaru's guard went up and he called a stop.
Petra looked taken aback, but Beatrice wore an expression that said, "Well, obviously."
Of course she did. Since relocating the mansion, Beatrice had been at Subaru's side through everything—and had seen the same patterns he had.
From the day they left the Sanctuary to this very day, all sorts of things had happened.
"And the overwhelming majority of those follow the same pattern of entry. When Petra comes to fetch me, or when it's Frederica, or Otto or Garfiel—there's always trouble at the core. Even I've learned my lesson by now."
"An unexpected visitor, and Subaru just happens to be out... this is definitely the setup for disaster, isn't it?"
"E-even Beatrice is saying stuff like Subaru-sama now...! Beatrice, don't teach her weird things!"
"Regarding how Beako is being raised, we're letting her grow freely under the household's collective will. That aside—we've got a visitor. Petra, Beako and I have a sudden stomachache and will be sitting this one out."
"You ab-so-lute-ly cannot! Emilia-sama will be angry! I have no reason to go against Emilia-sama! Now, come on!"
Subaru's rejection was immediate, but Petra on a mission was not to be trifled with.
The same Petra who used to cling to Subaru's every opinion had grown into a fine young woman during her time here, and she now pushed back against him without hesitation.
She grabbed his right arm with both of hers and pulled with all her meager strength. Being dragged along, Subaru looked to his left—at the hand still connected to Beatrice.
"Beako."
"Have a safe trip, I suppose."
"You're coming too!"
"Wha—gyah!"
His plea for help instantly pivoted into an attempt to drag his partner down with him. Beatrice tried to yank her hand free in surprise, but Subaru had locked it down with a firm grip. His right hand was meanwhile locked by Petra—escape was cut off on both sides.
And so, with Subaru refusing to release a struggling Beatrice while Petra refused to release Subaru—an utterly incomprehensible formation—the three of them headed for the mansion together.
"I know you can't turn away someone who's already shown up, but... I'd really appreciate it if you gave me a heads-up beforehand next time."
"You mean the 'use a messenger to warn about a messenger' thing? But then you'd never know how far in advance to warn, would you? Even I understand that much."
"For the sake of our mental health and our future relationship, I'd like just a little more forewarning. Anyway—do you know who the visitor is, Petra?"
Since someone was coming to the mansion, the reception would have fallen to Petra, Frederica, or
"Hmm, I'm actually not sure."
"Not sure? You at least saw the messenger, didn't you? Even if you didn't recognize the family crest, they would've told you who to fetch..."
"I was in a huge hurry, and I was told it was an important guest. But they didn't really look the part at all."
"Don't judge by appearances—that's what I always say. No matter how dangerously they curl their hair into vertical rolls, some of them might be terrifyingly powerful little girls. Even if someone looks like just a loli in a fancy dress, they could possess power beyond human compre—"
"Shut up, I suppose!!"
Beatrice cut him off, so Subaru shut his mouth.
And to the silent Subaru, Petra answered with a troubled look: "I promised myself I'd stop judging people by how they look, after what happened before."
"Oh, good for you, Petra. I don't know what happened, but that's a big deal."
"When a new guy came to the village with these creepy eyes, doing odd jobs—I thought he was bad news. But he totally... wasn't."
"Boomerang!!"
Taking an unexpected hit from that remark, Subaru tilted his head at Petra's words—setting aside her first impression of him, it was the part before that that caught his attention.
If Petra had sworn off judging by appearance, then whoever this person was must have struck her as peculiar even by those new standards.
"So—who was it?"
"If I had to put it simply... a kitty?"
"A kitty?"
The first image that popped into Subaru's mind at the word "cat" was that of a small cat-spirit with gray fur and a long swaying tail—a being entangled with complicated feelings that Subaru would eventually have to face and say his piece to.
"I'll have to tell the young lady to hand over her cat to me, huh."
"Betty was thinking of you-know-who too, but Petra has surely seen you-know-who before. So it must be someone else. Petra, what kind of kitty was it, I suppose?"
"Even Beatrice calls her a kitty—how cute."
"Pe-tra!"
Beatrice bristled at Petra's teasing tone.
"Sorry, sorry," Petra replied breezily, then looked up as if remembering something.
"It's not exactly a kitty, come to think of it. I haven't gotten a good look at her, but I think she was a demi-human from the cat-people tribe. Whenever I hear 'demi-human,' I always end up picturing Garfiel, though."
"Garfiel's a half-breed with no immediately obvious tells. At most you might notice his slightly scary eyes."
There were also those overly sharp canines, if he was being picky.
According to Garfiel, those fangs grew continuously like a rodent's front teeth, and he had to bite down on hard things regularly to maintain their length and sharpness.
It wasn't uncommon to catch Garfiel gnawing on the mansion's railings now and then, only to get yelled at by Ram or Frederica when spotted.
"So that means a proper demi-human showing up. The cat-people tribe would put her in the beastman category—there are a few familiar faces in that department."
In the royal capital, and certainly in Costuul, beastman-type demi-humans were a common sight.
In Roswaal's territory—well known for its demi-human-friendly policies—prejudice against demi-humans had been carefully unraveled over long years. As a result, it was a far more hospitable place for demi-humans than other regions. That was what the dandy rabbit-eared bar owner Subaru had become friendly with had told him.
But Petra, who worked primarily at the mansion and spent her rare days off visiting Arlam Village rather than Costuul, naturally had limited familiarity with the local demi-human scene.
"Is that so? Then, next day off, will you take me around Costuul?"
"Sure. I'll have plenty of chances to head into town for errands anyway, and you should make as many friends and acquaintances as you can."
With that easy promise from Subaru, Petra pumped the fist not holding his hand in a victory pose.
Beatrice let out a sigh, and Subaru—who was being held by both girls—could only smile ruefully.
"Oh—we're here. Welcome home, girls."
As they'd talked, the gate had come into view. He raised both held hands high, ignoring the girls' protests as they were pulled onto tiptoe, straightened his back, and looked up at the mansion.
The new mansion that had replaced the one lost to fire—its exterior atmosphere followed the design lineage of the original, a Western-style manor of the same family.
The distance from the main gate to the front entrance was greater now, with manicured lawns flanking a gravel path. To the right of the main gate was a fountain; to the left, a road curved around the side of the mansion toward the stables, where dragon-carriages were hitched and earth dragons were housed.
Behind the fountain lay flowerbeds bursting with color, and the fountain itself—set to erupt at fixed intervals each day—doubled as an irrigation system. Incidentally, at the far edge of the flowerbeds was the small vegetable garden Subaru and Petra had started, where they modestly grew seasonal produce. In good harvests, it actually attracted a fair bit of praise.
Passing through the front yard and crossing the gravel, a set of grand double doors welcomed them. The door knocker bore the Mathers family crest—a motif resembling a hawk—befitting the distinguished air of the Mathers main estate.
"There was an unfamiliar dragon-carriage parked near the stables. Was that the visitor's?"
"It was a dragon-carriage, sure, but what was pulling it wasn't someone like
"A big dog pulling it... wait, could that be—"
The image of a certain familiar—and heard—creature surfaced in Subaru's mind, giving him the first clue to the visitor's identity. But before his thoughts could reach the answer, it came from the other side even faster.
Namely— "Ohhh! Big brother, long time no see! How've you been!?"
A wildly energetic, high-pitched voice burst through as Subaru opened the door, and he was thoroughly startled.
At his side, Petra gave a wry smile, and Beatrice tightened her grip on his hand—whether out of nerves or something else. Subaru looked past the two of them at the figure charging toward him with boundless enthusiasm.
A small figure.
Shorter than Petra, and only slightly taller than Beatrice—a child's height. Though for beings like them, that might well be as tall as they'd ever grow.
Covered head to toe in short orange fur, with pointed cat ears perked adorably upright. Bright, curious round eyes and a mischievous, grinning mouth. Long orange hair braided into three plaits—that, and the white robe enveloping her small frame, completed a picture that was thoroughly endearing.
A kitten standing upright on two legs—for certain cat lovers, a living dream.
A member of the cat-people tribe—and a familiar face at that.
"Mimi! Long time no see! You look crazy energetic as usual!"
"Yup! Super duper energetic! Big brother gets it! Oh, and I grew taller than before and became an adult. Ehehn!"
She planted her hands on her hips, swished her tail, and struck a smug pose with a self-satisfied grin.
She looked like nothing more than a spirited, cheeky little girl—but in truth, this girl was the vice-commander of the beastman-only mercenary group "
She and Subaru had once cooperated during the subjugation of the
For the record, the "Iron Fang" served as something like private soldiers for
But harboring that kind of hostility toward Mimi would be nothing if not tasteless.
"I see, I see—thanks for making the long trip. Oh right, let me introduce you. This cute maid over here is Petra. She's the future jack-of-all-trades maid working at our mansion. And this one beside me, bristling with suspicion, is Beatrice."
"Ohhh! Got it! The maid named Petra, and Subaru's kid! Got it! Mimi got it!"
"I-I feel like that's a seriously wrong impression...!"
Beatrice looked stricken but was still fidgeting behind Subaru's back, trying to stay hidden. She seemed genuinely intimidated by Mimi's full-force frontal approach—though Mimi had no intention of holding back.
"What's wrong? If you stay that tiny, you'll never grow big like Mimi! Come on, come on, come out!"
"S-Stop that, I suppose! Betty isn't self-conscious about being small—and besides, you're one to talk, you're barely any bigger!"
"Hmm hmm~! That's what happens to white-mages! Mimi's big on the inside, so eventually the outside will catch up too. That's what the boss said!"
"That makes no sense, I suppose!"
Beatrice was pulled forward by the hand, spun around by Mimi's whirlwind energy.
She looked toward Subaru as if seeking rescue, but Subaru merely watched with a satisfied, almost paternal expression—content to see Beatrice, who was shy around new people, slowly making friends.
"Hey, Subaru-sama. Beatrice is giving you a really scary look, you know?"
"A person grows by fighting the things they find difficult. Beako's too quick to reject things she hasn't tried, so I think gradually building up that sense of challenge is the way to go. We'll just watch quietly, won't we, dear?"
"D-D-dear...?"
Petra went red and fell silent—Subaru reflected that he'd chosen the wrong word. But correcting it would be awkward too, so he let it slide for now.
He turned his attention to Mimi, who was spinning in circles while clutching Beatrice's hand.
"So—you being here means the others are around too? Your brothers, Ricardo? Please tell me Julius didn't show up unannounced."
Subaru's relationship with Julius Euclius, Anastasia's knight, was extraordinarily complicated. Honestly, he couldn't see himself handling a face-to-face meeting with any grace.
His wariness toward Anastasia was also a factor, though the prospect of dealing with Julius was considerably worse.
But Mimi shook her head at Subaru's concerns.
"Hetaro, Tivey, the boss, Julius, the young lady—none of them came! Today it's just Mimi! I came all by myself! Ehehn!"
"That's impressive and all... but then why are you here?"
"Well, um—oh yeah, I remember now!"
She tilted her head at his question, then hopped right up onto Beatrice's head. Ignoring Beatrice's frantic efforts to keep her balanced, Mimi announced brightly: "It's a party invitation! See, the young lady wants everyone to have fun together! So I came to deliver the invite! It's gonna be awesome! Super awesome!"