Re; A Hero’s New Life in a New World!

Chapter 11 — “A Bird’s Chains”

Irlham Village was a small village with about two-hundred residents, give or take. The village was tranquil and was close to the Roswaal Manor. Ram and Rem were shopping for spices and other seasonings as they were running low on them. Subaru taught everyone, young and old, how to do radio calisthenics while making sure everyone touched him in different places. While Justice played with the children and taught them how to use Magic.

Ram was disappointed and a bit irritated when she saw what Subaru was doing while she and her sister were shopping. “So?” Ram asked Subaru, irritatingly. “Was your much-desired trip to the village a success?”

“When Muraosa patted my shoulder at the end, my trip was complete.”

“Aw, you guys are leaving?”

“When are you guys coming back?”

“Bye!”

Some of the children voiced their opinions about their visitors leaving, all while grouping around Justice. “It seems that you’re popular with the children,” Ram said to Justice. “I guess,” he happily replied. “I like playing with kids and I know what they like, as I’ve lived in an orphanage for most of my life.”

“Or are you just into little girls?”

“Eh…?”

One of the children tugged on Subaru’s sleeve. The girl had olive green eyes and blue hair that was braided on one side. She wore a blue dress with a light blue collar. Justice was surprised, for until that moment, the braided girl had religiously maintained an arms-length distance from the other kids while they’d piled onto him together, never entering the fray herself. Subaru crouched so that their gazes were at the same height.

“What’s up? If you want to say something, I’d be happy to listen.”

“U–Um… over there,” she said, as she pointed at a forest. Subaru looked at Ram, practically asking for an answer. Ram sighed and crossed her arms. “Fine,” she said. “Do whatever you want for a little longer.”

The blue-haired girl—who introduced herself as “Taiqa Lavala”—took Subaru and the other kids to the corner of the village where there was a fence, while Ram, Rem, and Justice remained at the rendezvous point, where they would wait for Subaru to come back. The children showed Subaru a dog, however, he seemed to have made it mad, as it bit him, angrily.

The group headed back to the mansion. Once they were at the mansion, they saw Roswaal wearing formal clothes, Gordon was with him too. The latter man had a broom with him. Roswaal stated that he needed to check on someone called “Garfiel,” and that a few visitors would come to the mansion soon, to negotiate with Emilia. Subaru stayed outside, while the three others went back inside the mansion, as Gordon needed to tell Subaru something.

“…Subaru… I sense a curse on you…”

“R–Really?! Can you remove it?!”

“…Yes… Stand still…”

Gordon closed his eyes and touched Subaru’s forehead with his finger. His hand would then emit white light. Moments later, black mist would surround Subaru’s hand—specifically the area where the dog bit him. Subaru’s eyes widened.

“Gordon… does the black mist show where the shaman touched me…?”

“…Yes…”

Gordon extended his arm. “…Done…” he muttered, as he basically “crushed” the black cloud. Before Subaru could say anything, Roswaal narrowed his eyes and said, “Weeeellllll, it’s time we leave, right Gordon-kun? Please take care of Miss Emilia, Subaru-kun.”

Roswaal jumped into the air and began to fly. “…See you soon, Subaru…” Gordon said, as he jumped on his broom, and flew away, like Roswaal. Subaru immediately ran inside the mansion and called for Ram and Rem who came as fast as they could. Before Subaru could say anything, they hear a knock on the doors.

“Oh, I suppose our guests have arrived. Good on you for calling us as fast as possible, Barusu.”

Ram opened both of the doors and saw two people. One of them was female. She possessed long, jet-black hair, and bright red eyes. Her outfit consisted of a shallow cut black and red dress with black shorts underneath, with a series of beaded necklaces and a belt that wrapped around her waist, which had a scabbard that carried a blade.

Attached also is a long black object that is either fur or feathers, with a red and white bandana material like hanging from behind her. Her forearms bore red armored gauntlets that protrude outwards and solid black gloves. She wore black mid-thigh high leggings with red splatter patterns and black heels.

The other was a male. He was a tall man with a lean build. He possessed messy and wavy long black hair. One of his distinguished features is his burn mark on the lefthand side of his face.

He wore a black full body suit with a pair of belts he uses to carry his chains. He also carries a pouch strapped around his right thigh. His boots are black with a pair of belts that hold each of them together. Additionally, he covered his attire with a dark red cloak buttoned together around his right shoulder.

“Hello, I am Raven Branwen, and this is my associate, Revchi. We are from the Branwen Tribe. We are here to negotiate about why my tribe should support the Emilia Camp, as a request from Roswaal L. Mathers.”

“Yes, we have been expecting you. Please follow me to the visitors’ room. Emilia-sama will be with you in a bit.”

Ram lead the two to the visitors’ room, while Rem told Emilia about what was going on. Justice went with Emilia, to talk with their new guests, as Ram, Rem, and Subaru were employees at the mansion, and them going with Emilia would seem informal, and Beatrice probably didn’t want to help the Emilia Camp. Even if she did, it would be impossible to find her.

In the room, there were two sofas. Justice sat next to Emilia on the sofa that was parallel to the sofa that Raven and Revchi were sitting on. There was a small coffee table with some biscuits and some drinks on it, filling the gap between the two items of furniture.

“I know who you are, Emilia, but who’s the man next to you?”

“Oh, this is Justice. He works as a bodyguard to me and my friend.”

“Nice to meet you. I’m Raven, and this is Revchi.”

“It’s a pleasure to meet both of you.”

“Anyway, you two are here to negotiate with us, right?”

“Right,” Revchi said. “As you know, both of us are from the Branwen Tribe, and we believe in equivalent exchange. What will we get, in exchange for our support of the Emilia Camp?”

“Well, Mr. Revchi,” Emilia responded with. “After I manage to gain the position of Lugnica’s King, I shall do my best to secure the thriving and success of the Branwen Tribe.”

“…But, what if you don’t become the king?” Raven interjected.

“Hm?”

“That’s the thing. We, more specifically, our tribe, only want to support the Camp that has a guaranteed chance at winning. …What makes you so sure that you’ll be able to win the Royal Election?”

Emilia seemed taken by the sudden change of Raven’s personality and the passive-aggressive-ness of her statement. Raven rested her chin on her fist, with a displeased expression, meanwhile, Revchi sat beside her with a large grin on his face. Moments later, Raven let out an annoyed sigh.

“Okay, let’s quit the third-rate acting, Revchi. I’m going to be honest with you two. We aren’t here to negotiate. Our employer only sent here to kill everyone here, and obtain the artificial spirit living here.”

Immediately, Justice pulled out his sword from his scabbard and defended Emilia from Raven’s fast strike.

Internally, Subaru was freaking out. There was a monster attacking the village, all the while, he was in the Mansion. Eventually, Subaru couldn’t take it anymore. He ran towards the doors, until he was stopped by someone, who grabbed his hand.

“Barusu, where are you going?”

“The village is being attacked by a monster! We need to go help the villagers, right now!”

“A monster…?”

Ram muttered to herself. An explosion could be heard from the room Emilia, Justice, and their new visitors were in. Just then, Justice and Emilia jump out of the smoke coming from the room, and land close to Ram and Subaru.

“Uh… What’s going on…?”

“Raven and Revchi are here to attack the Mansion.”

The aforementioned woman jumped towards all of them. She held a great sword, with a red blade, in her hand. As she tried to strike Subaru, Justice blocked her attack by using his own sword. She hastily jumped back and dodged her opponent’s counterattack. She examines the four in front of her. “Heh,” she said. “This doesn’t look like it’ll be too difficult.”

“Perhaps you are underestimating us too much.”

With a swift comeback, Ram enveloped her arm with Wind Magic, and immediately shot the gust of wind at their foe. Raven put her blade back in its scabbard. The inside of the scabbard started to spin and it ended on a black color. She pulled out her sword, and instead of the blade being red, it was black.

One slice of her sword was enough to clear up the shockwave of wind. Though, she did not slice through the gust of wind—her blade absorbed the wind. Raven put her sword back in her scabbard, the inside spun once again, and ended on a green color.

“My wind is superior!”

Raven launched a beam of wind at Ram, who moved her right hand up diagonally, just as the wind hit her. Doing so, allowed the pink-haired maid to take control of Raven’s wind, and send it flying in a different direction of the mansion. “I think not,” Ram said. Justice’s arms started to generate fire. Meanwhile, Emilia began to summon more and more icicles.

“Huh? It seems that I might’ve underestimated y—”

Raven quickly used her sword to block an attack. A spiked iron ball that was connected to a long chain was the thing that collided with her sword. Another person appeared.

“I was in the kitchen, then I heard people fighting.”

“Rem…!”

Raven looked around. “Tch,” she said. “Looks like I’m outnumbered as well. Where is that dumbass…? Oi! Revchi! Where are ya’?! Hurry up, and come here! I may be strong, but a five versus one situation isn’t my forte!”

In the visitors’ room, Revchi sat on the sofa, by himself. Ever since Raven attacked the two that were sitting with them, he couldn’t help but chuckle quietly, with a big grin on his face. While they were battling, he began to eat some of the biscuits that Ram placed on the coffee table earlier.

When Raven yelled at him to help her, he couldn’t help but laugh a bit. After finishing all the biscuits by himself, he pulled a grey grimoire out of a pouch that was strapped to his pants. “This place has many valuable items,” he said to himself. “We’ll need to stay here a while after we’re finished with them.”

Rem swung her flail at Raven, who parried it with her sword. While Rem acted as the vanguard, everyone else—aside from Subaru—supported her, by casting long-ranged Magic spells at their opponent. Raven effortlessly dodged the spells, but, she found Rem’s weapon to be a nuisance, as one hit from it could injure her heavily, it had way too much range, and Rem could use it as an extension of her body.

Raven put her sword inside its scabbard and pulled it out, moments later. The blade was a light-blue color, instead of the previous color it was. “How do ya’ like this?” she asked, as she swung the sword. The blade of the sword elongated and moved more like a whip, at that time.

Watching the battle, Subaru learned something.

“Oh! I get it! When she puts her sword back in her scabbard, she changes the blade’s color and its properties! The red color gives her sword fire abilities, the black one allows her to absorb Magic attacks, the green one gives her wind Magic, and the blue one turns her blade into a water-like whip.”

“I’m surprised someone like you knew that.”

“I may seem useless at times, but I’m not always useless! Right guys?”

“Barusu, you’re useless.”

“You didn’t have to say that to my face!”

Ram narrowed her eyes at the area of the floor Subaru was standing on. She grabbed him by the collar and threw him back, while also jumping back herself, at the same time. Chains sprouted from that area, upwards. Revchi jumped from the visitor’s room to the same floor everyone else was on. Landing did not hurt him.

“You took your time when it came to helping me, huh?”

“Let’s just hurry up and kill all these people. This place has valuable items.”

“I won’t let you…!”

Rem swiftly shot the spiked ball of her flail at Revchi, who simply moved his head, to dodge the attack. He opened the gray grimoire in one of his hands, and pointed the other hand at Rem. He smiled once again.

“[Chain Magic]: Mabaku Tessa.”

Several chains behind Revchi were created. They all flew at Rem, at a speed that left her unable to dodge. The chains wrapped around her torso several times and embedded their arrow-tipped ends into the ground. She dropped her flail, as the chains wrapped around her very hard, to the point she was forced to let go of the weapon.

“Rem!”

Revchi used the same spell on Ram, who was held by the chains in place.

Justice ran towards Ram, to free her from the chains. Raven changed the color of her blade to brown. She got on her knees, and shoved the blade into the ground. The ground in front of Justice rose up, preventing him from running anymore.

“You two will be facing me.”

On the other side, the two maids were being held back by Revchi’s magic chains. Subaru was the only one who could try and face Revchi, at that point, due to Raven’s interference. Ram struggled and tried to escape from the chains, to no avail.

“I can’t use my Magic…!”

“Don’t bother resisting. My Chain Magic spell, Mabaku Tessa, restricts the Magic and movement of the ones it captures. In other words, while those chains are holding onto you, your Magic is sealed.”

Revchi fired one of his chains at Rem. However, instead of harming her, the magical chain picked up her flail. “And, I’ll be taking this,” he said, as he picked off Rem’s flail from his chain. “Who are you…?” Rem asked him, sulking.

“Until recently, I was a pretty well-known Magic Knight,” he said. Subaru remembered that Vanessa was also a Magic Knight—as was Revchi. “I was called Revchi of Chain Magic. But, I got kicked out, and now I’m just a wretched bandit that lives in the Branwen Tribe.”

“Barusu, do something!”

Subaru pointed at him. “G–Give it back!”

Revchi covered his face and began to laugh. He then moved his hair to the side and made the burned-side of his face more visible. “The outside world is a place where crooked deeds like this can be overlooked, lad,” he said. The pages in his grimoire began to turn by itself. “But you’ll be dead before you find that out, for yourself.”

A grey-ish portal appeared next to Revchi. Out of the portal, came many chains with pointed tips. Subaru didn’t know what to do, but before he realized it, his body began to move already. He was running towards his opponent. Amazingly, Subaru was able to dodge all of the chains and get close to Revchi. Just as he was about to punch his foe, he saw that two chains had restrained him, preventing him from moving.

He tried to move, but the chains were too strong for him. Revchi’s floating grimoire flipped one more page by itself. The owner of the grimoire grinned, as he was excited for what came next.

“[Chain Magic]: Saja no Mai!”

All of Revchi’s chains began to move as if they were alive. The pointed tips of the chains changed into the heads of snakes. The chains all hurled themselves at Subaru, fatally injuring him. The impact from the attacks sent Subaru flying towards a wall. Hitting the aforementioned wall, Subaru fell down. Though he did not lose consciousness, he wasn’t able to move.

“What a heavy blow…! So this is the power of a Magical Knight. There’s no way I can even think about beating him, in a fight. I’m going to die again, aren’t I?”

Justice and Raven clashed their blades. Each time, Justice would generate fire on his hand, and go for a punch. Each time, Raven would dodge. He attempted to punch her once again. She ducked, and kicked him in the side, pushing him back. Emilia fired hordes of icicles at her, all of which she would either dodge or deflect with her sword.

Justice used his fire magic to attack Raven. She jumped up into the air, and changed her blade into a blue one. As she was descending, she swung her sword, and the blade of her sword began to move like a whip. She attacked Justice with it, whom used fire-defense magic, to create a barrier, which broke the blade.

Raven changed her blade into a yellow one, when she landed. Once again, her sword clashed with Justice’s, causing sparks to fly into the air briefly, and then disappear as soon as they flew into the air. Emilia supported Justice by shooting out icicles to make Raven lose her balance. One final clash of weapons pushed both of them back. Raven swung her yellow blade two times, causing many beams of lightning to fly towards her opponents.

“[Fire -Enchantment- Magic]: Hati!”

“[Ice Magic]: Kesshou Hyoujin!”

As the beams of lightning were approaching, Justice strengthened his fists with fire, and punched through the attacks, easily, with his fists absorbing the magic attacks. Emilia raised her hand forward and created three large snowflakes of different sizes and shapes, which defended her from the attacks.

“Heh. This is the first time in a while I’m actually enjoying a fight.”

“Enjoy it while you still can!” Justice said. He thrust his hand downwards, and a burst of flames manifested on the ground, surrounding him. “[Fire -Destruction- Magic]: Bakuran Homura!”

“Fire Destruction Magic?” Emilia thought to herself.

From that circle of flame, multiple fireballs manifested and launched in every direction. The fireballs avoided Emilia, due to Justice’s control. They melted the ground wall, but missed Raven, due to her black blade nullifying the fireballs before they could even reach her.

“I wonder how Subaru’s doing,” Emilia thought to herself, as she stared at the cloud of smoke blocking the area Subaru, Revchi, and the two maids were in.

Revchi sent Subaru flying with his chains, once again. He crashed into Gordon’s room, which was full of books. There were even some creepy books, such as “My Observation Diary of my very Best Friend, Subaru Natsuki,” and, “My Observation Diary of my very Best Friend’s Friend, Justice Hendricks.”

Despite his body hurting, Subaru immediately pushed those creepy books off of him. Subaru stared downwards, his back hunched to a wall. Revchi walked closer to him, and put his foot on Subaru’s shoulder. “Ahha,” he laughed. “Thank you for that useless struggle, brat. You know what? Since you worked so hard to beat me, I’ll tell you something, think of it as a reward.”

His chains surrounded him.

“I have the ability to find out just how much Mana and Magical Power one has, with these chains. And, you have no magic, whatsoever. You were probably born that way. No wonder you weren’t even able to touch me, because your physical abilities are trash, and you have no Magic ability.”

Subaru’s eyes widened, hearing that. He’d always thought that he would become the strongest in the new world he was transferred to, with enough Mana and MP to rival the entire world. He thought he would become the overpowered main-character that was always portrayed in all the “transferred to another world” series. So, when he heard this, he couldn’t help but be devasted.

“…I’ve never thought someone like you existed, in this world. When I think about what you’ve been through, and what you’ll face in the future, I really am being honest, when I say I pity you.”

Revchi continued to kick the motionless Subaru’s shoulder, while chuckling.

“I’m sure your friends—no, everyone you’ve met makes fun of you as well. In this world, you won’t be able to do anything. Nothing at all. Fufu. You should give up on everything. You were born to be a loser!”

“—Hey. Who are you calling a loser?”

Revchi turned his head, and Subaru lifted his, a bit. Through the narrow margin, which was the door, connecting Gordon’s room to the hallway, Subaru could see Justice eyeing Revchi.

“Subaru is no loser. Sure, he may not be the strongest, or smartest, but, we all can take pride when we say that he’s our friend. Because Subaru never gives up, we don’t, either. And… I like to think that Subaru, is my rival.”

“Huh? Y—”

Hearing those words, Subaru used all of his might and push Revchi’s foot off of him.

“…Sorry for showing you all the pathetic side of me. Hold on. I’ll kick this guys butt, and propose to Emilia-tan!”

A book flew towards Subaru, at high-speeds. Once it reached him, it stopped, but still continued to float. The book was no ordinary book. It was a grimoire—a textbook for Magical spells, and such. The book was tattered and covered in dirt. It emitted a very darkish-red light. Behind all the dirt, was a dragon with five wings.

“It’s that book…! The one from the previous timeline!”

Subaru went to reach for the book.

Re;Hero Q&A #1

Q: What do you like?