Natsuki Subaru: Warlock of Sin

Chapter 3

[A bet straight to hell]

※ ※ ※

"You doing okay Emilia?"

Subaru asks the half-elf who's gleaming eyes stared deep into the tomb. She nods and turns her head the other way, facing him with a lackluster smile, "Yeah, I'm doing fine Subaru" Having seen her condition every single night he returned only served to make him worry, but a simple nod from Emilia is enough to ease it away.

"Sorry, I really wanted to check on you one last time before I went to bed but I got caught up with something"

"It's okay. I'm sure it was a busy night, but I think I should be the one apologizing for not being able to finish the trials..."

She says so with a sorrowful tone, bowing her head down in forgiveness, "Don't feel so down Emilia-tan, you can always try again when you're feeling like it" She raises her head, and replies with a sigh, "I guess so... but I really did want to finish it in the first attempt." Her head perks up as she remembers something.

"Subaru"

"...?"

Prepared for what she was going to ask, Subaru lends an ear, "I heard that… when you went into the tomb to get me, you also took the trials" She mustered up the courage to say, though her gaze faltered in between sentences.

"Yeah, that's right, I took them too"

"How did it go for you…?"

With a grin on his face, he answers, "I passed, no biggie" Contrast to how Subaru held his head high, hearing it made Emilia feel… rather disappointed in herself, "That's great Subaru!" Nevertheless, she congratulates him. If it's Subaru, I'm sure he'll be able to do it, she thought...

"But..." His voice grows low, "It seems like I won't be able to participate in anything more than that…"

"Huh…?" Emilia gasped out in surprise, and questions him on it.

"Right after I completed my trials, I got this massive headache, Garfiel told me it's a reaction against the tomb. I tried going in earlier and it only confirmed it. It seems my qualifications were just limited."

Emilia thought hard about a reason why such a thing would happen "To begin with, me taking the trials itself is not supposed to happen. So it's only natural that I'd be rejected from going any further" He explains while shaking his head. Though this theory is certainly plausible, the real reason was something much more different. 'Satella' He thought. There's no other explanation.

"I see… so nothing really changed then" Emilia concluded.

Status quo maintained, whether it was good or not, they weren't entirely sure. Subaru would be more than happy to take the trials in Emilia's place but now that's no longer an option. If there's one thing Subaru has learned from his past loops, it's that counting on Emilia as she is right now to finish the trials is one heck of a dream.

"Hey, Subaru…" Emilia called out to him gently.

"Yeah?"

"Is it okay if we... talk about your trials for a bit? A-Ah, but it's okay if you don't want to talk about it… I just" Having the preconceived notion that the trials gave him an unsightly memory that he didn't want to see, Emilia asked him nervously, afraid of what sort of reaction she would get.

"If it helps in overcoming your trials, I'll gladly talk about it Emilia-tan!" He says nonchalantly. Emilia breathes out a sigh of relief as she gives him a grateful nod.

They both take a seat under a nearby tree, shading themselves from the gleaming morning sun. And so Subaru began, "Let's see, it's quite hard to start… but I'll explain the gist of it first. In short, I had a reunion with my parents"

"Your parents…" she repeated.

"Yes. I was back in my old house, in my old clothes, on my old bed. I was being woken up by a rather deadly leglock performed by a familiar shirtless old dude"

Emilia was rather frightened at that description, "Isn't that a rather dangerous way to be woken up?" "Believe it or not, before the days of Rem gently watching over me in the morning, my dad used to wake me up like that. It's not a big deal though, I got used to it over time…"

She let a chuckle out, "You must be really close to your dad…" Subaru glances to the side, as if to sneer at his dad, "Well, I'd be smacking him right back if I wasn't... Anyway, moving on. I also saw my mom again, all in all, it was a normal day in the Natsuki household. But after a while of walking around and talking, I finally realized that I was in the trials, and things went along almost in an orderly fashion…"

"So what was it you had to do pass?" She asks, rather curious now. Subaru answers with a slight droop in his voice "Well... resolving my lingering regrets..."

"...Sorry... I knew I shouldn't have asked…" Emlia says as she too suddenly feels down from asking him such a question. But Subaru just nudges her shoulder in response "Calm down Emilia-tan, they're alive and well, it's just... I don't think I can see them anytime soon"

Though it wasn't as horrible a situation as Emilia had originally thought, it seemed to still be a bit sour, "Did you perhaps have a fight and can't face them anymore? Or is it because you've associated yourself with me..." He shakes his head, "No, no, it's nothing drastic like that… it's more like a misunderstanding."

"..."

"You see I wasn't exactly an ideal kid you know? I skipped out on school, I'd be in my room all day doing nothing but indulge myself in distractions, I'd go out of the house at night randomly and come back whenever I felt like it, it made me feel like a total freeloader… I thought deep down they must hate me as a son. The only reason they ever bothered with me was that they were legally responsible for me…"

Hearing such a thing from the usually cheerful Subaru, was something new for Emilia. Having only known him for a couple of months, it has become clear to her just how much she doesn't know about him, "But that's only what I thought. I built up the courage and talked to them about it, both of them…"

"And…?" Emilia urges him on, wanting to know the conclusion to his story.

"Well, they kinda gave me a wake-up slap and told me how I shouldn't wallow on about it on my own… 'A mother would never turn her back to her son' and 'Try burning down half the world and see if that'll make me hate you' they said..."

Hearing how they'd reply to him really moved Emilia, "You have really great parents, Subaru..." He nods, "I really do, and I wish I could've thanked them for taking care of me all this time. But alas, what I saw was only a dream made up by Echidna's trial. It could've just been based on my what my memories and feelings were at the time... but one day, I'll face them for real..."

Resolving his case like that enlightened Emilia a little bit, talking to Subaru about it surely was the correct thing to do she thought. Perhaps thinking about her trails on her own won't help her move forward.

"Then Subaru, could I tell you about my trial…" She asks as she was waiting for her turn to tell a story. Subaru smiles and replies with a nod, "Of course, I'm all ears"

"Well… It started as I woke up in a snowy forest. It was Elior forest, my home from before I came with Roswaal..."

He hasn't heard a lot from where Emilia came from, so this information is pretty new to him, "But it was weird... it wasn't like the Elior forest I knew. Puck wasn't there, and the frozen statues that were usually all around the forest were nowhere to be seen... and what's more, there were people I couldn't recognize everywhere..."

"..." Subaru listened intently.

"It seemed so familiar, but at the same time, so out of place. Like a memory that shouldn't be..."

"Amnesia?" Subaru thought almost instantly. It isn't rare that one would forget such a meaningful event in their life, especially if it was such a traumatic experience. One's mind could mentally just shut the memory away. But, if they do, there wouldn't be any regrets to have at that point, then the point of a trial to overcome those regrets is meaningless, this sudden realization struck Subaru.

"If so, doesn't that make it fundamentally flawed..."

The very reason Emilia kept on failing the trials wasn't because she couldn't get over her past. She had no idea what the past she was shown was about.

"Have you tried talking to Puck about it?"

"Well, the thing is, Puck hasn't been responding to my calls this morning, and I'm a little worried..."

"The moment we needed him the most, he decides to disappear off somewhere..." "He's been coming out less and less these few days, I wonder if I've done something to upset him…" Having his questions answered only served to add up more to the unknown, but a step forward is a step forward.

"No way Puck would sulk over something like that, so you should be fine... Maybe I can ask Lewis or Garfiel about this… maybe Beatrice even…"

Asking the witch herself would also be an option if he hadn't been stripped away from his powers as an apostle of greed. "Well, nothing I can do about that…"

They both got up, and Subaru looked like he was about to say one more thing, "...?" Emilia glimpsed at him, awaiting what he was about to say, "...No, it's nothing, I've got something to do so I'll see you later" Waving away at her, he goes back towards the village.

"So~ Subaru-kun took the trials?" Roswaal asked Ram.

"Yes Roswaal-sama, but he returned sickly, and Garfiel concluded that it was a reaction against the tomb…"

"How~ troublesome…"

As Ram wrapped up a fresh new set of bandages on his arm, Roswaal was left to think about the current situation, with all the happenings last night that he had missed, a big hole has been punctured in the middle of his plans. An anomaly, a disturbance in reality itself one can say. His face grew displeased.

"Hmm?"

Just as Ram was about to finish up, the sound of knocking had intruded the room. They turned heads towards the entrance as the squeaking of a door followed up.

"Oya~ What brings you here, Subaru-kun?"

"Why the frown Ros-chi?"

Meeting eyes, Roswaal stares at Subaru for a brief moment, and speaks up, "Oh~ I'm just saddened at the events that unfolded last~ night, it's truly a shame that Emilia-sama wasn't able to clear her trials…" Roswaal feels different this time, Subaru thought, he felt less spunky then when they last talked.

Subaru turns his head over to Ram, "Hey Ram, mind if Roswaal and I have a one on one?" Finishing up with his arms, she glances over to her wounded lord and he simply nods, "Then Ram shall excuse herself…" Picking herself up from her chair, Ram walks to the door and shuts it tight as she exits the building.

"So~ What calls for the occasion Subaru-kun~?" Roswaal says, trying to brighten himself up.

"Let's skip the formalities and get straight to the point Roswaal... you've got a gospel, and I wanna know what's in it"

A glimpse of hesitance from his face, but it suddenly turned into a grin as he chuckles, "Now this~ is a surprise... so~ tell me, Subaru-kun how many times has it been?" He asks, and Subaru, knowing full well what he meant, answers quite reluctantly, "I'll have you know that I don't count stuff like that…"

Having him say that was more than enough to tell Roswaal that it's been a good few times, "Have~ a seat Subaru-kun, I'm guessing this is going to take a while…"

Grabbing a seat opposite to Roswaal's bed, he sits himself down, facing the clown. "So tell me Subaru-kun… what's different now?" his grin starts to drop as he takes on a more serious face.

Subaru replies with a confused look, not quite getting what he's asking, "What do you mean?"

"The trials… what could have happened for you to have been rejected by her?"

"I'm confused about it too, It just happened all of a sudden, she didn't even give me a word about it…"

Roswaal is visually ticked off by this, "There must have been a change somewhere. Between then and now, something must have triggered it, for you to have lost your title as the apostle of greed. Disregarding it as a coincidence is nothing but foolish…"

Roswaal seems extremely pushy on this topic, and the reason has been made clear the time they confronted in the burning village. "I'm telling you, it happened almost instantly…" Who knows what would happen if he were to mention Satella right here and now.

Roswaal let out a long sigh as his hands press onto his forehead, "Everything I've built up crumbles in the end..."

"..."

Subaru is rather conflicted, facing a depressed Roswaal, he doesn't really know how to handle the situation. Perhaps he'll burn the village again, to force Subaru to restart and choose his words differently, but that's a no go. Subaru takes a deep breath, he can't mess it up, "Roswaal… you plan to revive Echidna, don't you?"

"And what of it...?"

He says with a deadpan expression on his face, clearly disinterested in everything now, "Emilia can't finish the trials in her current state, but with me, there was a possibility to finish it all within the time limit, and by then you'd have already been on your feet and we could have solved all the problems someway… but now your plans have backfired"

"...Yes, without you taking the trials, there is no conceivable future for us… but even then, from the start, there wouldn't have been a future where both of us were satisfied, that's why I had to resort to such a measure..."

"Heh, then let's make a deal Roswaal..."

Roswaal was still rather disinterested, but he kept on listening, "What if I said I could get us out of this impossible hell that you've created..." Roswaal scoffs at him, "Nonsense is what you're talking about" He retorts rather quickly, "Emilia has no memories of her past, thus has no way of ever passing the first trial. Garfiel, the strongest obstacle is against the liberation of the Sanctuary, the mansion is endangered and the impending calamity that is the great rabbit is approaching Sanctuary, just the mere thought of you saying that this can be solved is nonsense"

It's impossible, end of story, is what Roswaal is relaying over to Subaru, "You underestimate me too much Ros-chi. Nonsense this, impossible that. Sure, for someone like you, who's only ever living in the present, such a daunting task would obviously seem 'impossible', but not for me...!" Subaru loudly proclaimed

"..."

"I'll get us out of here, every single one of us, I'll even help in realizing your selfish fantasies of reviving Echidna... All I need you to do is to throw away that precious gospel you treasure so dearly. From the moment we escape this deadlock, you will wholeheartedly devote yourself to Emilia's success as the next to the throne… Echidna's revival becomes secondary..."

"A fools gamble is what you're asking me to make. Throwing away my meaning, my whole existence?" Roswaal seems agitated hearing him say this, but he can't think of another way around.

Subaru sighs, "But of course a deal can't be one-sided after all… if I fail, then it only proves that I'm incapable... If I have to restart once more, then you can use me as you like, I'm all yours…" His eyes widened, an opportunity he feels, a grand opportunity that would make put his plans back in track, and not only that but accelerate it.

"Have~ you gone mad, Subaru-kun?" He asks with a smile, his lingering accent sneaking its way back into his voice. "Sounds like we agree?" Subaru also smiles, rather victoriously at him.

Roswaal brings out his hand, "Such~ a grand opportunity would only present itself once every century, how~ could I not act upon it..." It's now or never, if he fails here, there is no turning back.

"A contract goes beyond the constraints of time-space, it is etched into the very world itself, as such, your 'ability' won't be able to reverse it, if that is what you were expecting" Roswaal remarks, but Subaru only smirks at him, "Pretty big of you to assume I'd restart so easily..."

Their hands met, "I, Roswaal L Mathers, will fully devote myself to the success of Emilia-sama and throw away my gospel, if you are break free from this situation..."

"I, Natsuki Subaru, will bend to your will if I'm unable to break free from this situation..."

With that and a small glow between their hands, they've forged a contract.

"Get ready to eat those words once I'm done with you Ros-chi..."

"Likewise~ Subaru-kun..."

※

"All your's Ram"

Subaru opened up the door, leaving the house to Ram who has been waiting for a while for their talk to finish. "I'll be counting on you if Roswaal does anything crazy" and without looking back, she answers "I'll be sure to do everything I can…"

Leaving the rest to Ram, Subaru makes his way to the other two who are waiting on him.

"So how'd it go Natsuki-san?"

Otto asked as he and Beatrice sat by the side of a house, with hopeful looks in their eyes, "Though I wanna say it went smoothly, he was getting so depressed that he scared me a bit..."

"Still, to think that damned Roswaal would pass on his Gospel, just how much of a perfectionist is he, I suppose. Not even Betty could entrust something as special as that to anyone..." Beatrice said.

"You entrusted it to me tho?"

"Betty has done no such thing, I suppose! I simply threw away that gospel, in fact," She retorts.

"Well we can talk all we want about Roswaal, he's no longer our problem, for now... We have to focus at the task at hand. Saving both sanctuary and mansion from this madness..." Three threats, Elsa, The great Rabbit, and the Mabeast. The great Rabbit is already hard enough but to fight both Elsa and the Mabeast is overkill.

"Currently the most vulnerable of the two locations would be Sanctuary since the time it would take for us to evacuate would depend on how Emilia-sama can handle the trials..." Otto said. No matter how much they trust Emilia, what she can do is limited to what she can do. Subaru can't expect her to just magically be able to blaze through it by sheer will power.

"I propose that we evacuate the remaining Arlham villagers from Sanctuary and have them notify the rest to evacuate arlham somewhere, but then again, where they would evacuate is beyond me..." Clearing away any hostages is of course number one priority, with those out of the way they can solely focus on repelling the attacks, is what Otto's getting about.

"Crusch-san... she should be able to house them for a little while, it'll only be a day or two anyway... But other than that, Sanctuary's residence... we're going to have to convince the half that doesn't want to leave..."

For some reason unknown to them, quite a few people don't want Sanctuary free, though they don't know who exactly, they can safely say that Garfiel is the one behind it all. He too doesn't want to leave, even though he plays like he's dying to get out. But the past loops has shown his true intentions, he has a deep hatred for the outside world.

"Not necessary, I suppose..." Beatrice butts in, "If they wish to stay, let them stay as they wish. Unlike an assassin, or a hoard of mabeast, the Great rabbit only searches for one thing, I suppose."

"And what's that?" Subaru asks.

"Food... but to be more precise, an area with a high density of mana" It started to tick inside Subaru. Roswaal weather changing magic, the scale of it should have been extremely large, and just as he thought, Emilia couldn't have done something like that by herself, it definitely was Roswaal. That's why the rabbits attacked a day earlier that night, Roswaal has even more control of the situation than he had thought.

"All we need to do is simply divert the Great rabbit's-"

"No can do Beako... Roswaal's got us there..."

"...I see..."

Otto was sat back there trying to think of something, but the scale of the thought of 'Beating The great rabbit' was perhaps a bit too much, and his brain kind of short-circuited. "Perhaps I should have just left with Rem-san..."

"If you leave now, I'll hate you to the grave you know..."

Beatrice scratches her head, "Whatever, I suppose. Betty can hold them off for an amount of time, perhaps with Emilia's help, we can do with a few hours at best..."

"You say that... but is there a way to finish them off for good?" Holding them off will do nothing if they can't kill them for good. Subaru was worried if all they could do was stall and call for reinforcements or something.

"Listen, Subaru, my gate crossing usually doesn't work across long distances... so under normal circumstances, travel between the mansion and Sanctuary shouldn't be possible... but there is a certain door that works..." she says.

"..."

"Our contract limits my sources of mana to only you and perhaps a few other things, I suppose. But it doesn't limit your sources of mana. Though your gate may be damaged, you can still gather mana from the surroundings, other people, and other objects, in fact. The only way I can stop the Great rabbit is with high caliber spells that I can't possibly perform right now. Betty's current mana pool it's barely enough, I'll probably fall into a coma when I finish, I suppose"

Subaru gets what she's telling him and he so he snaps his fingers, "So you need me to go over to the mansion and bring back some sort of mana source so you can safely cast this spell of yours?" She nods. But does the mansion even have enough magic stones? "So in the end, it's all still a gamble to see if we can get the stuff we need huh..."

And as Subaru was drooping down, Otto chimed into the conversation having fixed his composure, "It's okay Natsuki-san, I know a supply route that cuts through Roswaal's domain. We can have Rem-san and Fredrica-san go and buy some from them"

"Otto... Just how many perks do you get as a merchant, isn't that a cheating a little!" Subaru complained, feeling like things are going a little too well.

"I'll have you know it's not easy being a merchant! We need all the information we can get"

Subaru took a while to think about it and after he's done formulating it all in his head he speaks up to them, "...Okay, so first things first we try our best to evacuate the village and write up a letter to Rem and Fredrica-san. After that, we try and figure out how to get Garfiel on our side... it's gonna be difficult but I trust that Ram can help us there... After that, we'll have to help out Emilia somehow..."

The only thing remaining, is how they're gonna deal with Elsa and the mabeast. Rem and Fredrica couldn't possibly hold them all off by themselves.

And so they kept on thinking...

※

"Subaru, come with Betty for a bit, I suppose..."

Grabbing his arm, Beatrice drags Subaru over to a dirt path into the forest, "Is this about that door you were talking about?" "Yes, but not only that, I suppose..." They walked for quite a bit until they could see a shack by the side, hidden quite well by the shrubbery.

"This..." Subaru let out.

"It's quite an important place, in fact... There, the caretaker's coming right now, I suppose..." Beatrice said as she points towards the side of the shack. All of a sudden, Lewis approached the two, seemingly out of nowhere, surprising Subaru.

"Lewis-san!"

But she just walked past the two, as if she didn't notice them at all, "...Or not..." 'Seems like it's one of the clones...' Subaru thought to himself. A tad bit relieved, Subaru let out a sigh. The clone opened up the door to the shack, and the two of them followed it inside "So, Beako, whats this place got to do... with... Sanctuary..."

Before them stood... what could only be explained as a giant crystal, and inside that crystal was a little girl. "Okay, okay wait, things just got a whole lot weirder here!" The girl was no doubt the very same as the clone in the room, what, why, and how was just racing through Subaru's mind right now.

Turning his head over to Beatrice, Subaru expresses his confusion and bewilderment, "Beako, please my brain is going to explode... also, my nose too, what's this wretched smell!"

It seemed like it was coming from somewhere around the crystal.

"That's the original, I suppose..."

The original Lewis Meyer, this means that every single Lewis he's seen, including the one that has free will, is a clone. He kinda knew that but seeing the real one made him realize it even more. "So... what does this have to do with Sanctuary?"

"She was the catalyst that started the barrier, though now, she's only used to maintain the 'clones' and whatever relates them, I suppose" Beatrice heads towards the crystal, and taps it once.

Subaru blinks, "...Nothing happened...?"

"What were you expecting, I suppose?"

"Well, nothing in particular..."

It was anticlimactic, perhaps too anticlimactic for Subaru, but as he thought that, the clone suddenly faced towards Beatrice. "..." Staring at her, like some sort of doll, though that is technically what she is.

Beatrice puts a shoulder on the clone, and says, "Listen here... continue taking orders from Garfiel, and act normally, but any information he wants you to find is going to be filtered through Betty, I suppose..." A curt nod and she walks away.

"Hah? Did she just agree?" All the talking in the world couldn't help Subaru gather a response from it before, yet just a touch of that crystal...

"What exactly does it do?"

"Only an apostle of greed can take control, I suppose, since you've lost yours, I doubt you could do it..."

With the way she's saying things, it means that Garfiel is also aware of it, and he was right. "Since you've made sure to tell everyone that you've lost your qualification, I imagine he's been less strict on the guarding of this area, I suppose…"

'So that's why he wouldn't let me wander out in the past loops, he was afraid of me finding this' Subaru thought to himself. "So with this, we can cover up our tracks…" Quite convenient Subaru thinks to himself. It opens up a lot more ways they can do things, but Garfiel won't like it when he finds out.

Well... Ram's gonna have to deal with that... I do hope she can handle it though…"

Tap tap

A sound from behind them made them tilt their heads, "Was wonderin who'd it be… but surprise, surprise, who'd thought I"d see you of all people here..." A shiver ran down Subaru's back.

"…"

A/N

Can I have my title as the least dependable writer ever? No? There are still people worse than me? I don't know if I should be happy or not...

Are you all doing well? Hope you haven't kicked the bucket while I took off somewhere? It took a rather long time, and I'm sorry for the delay but here's the chapter. It should've been a little longer, but I decided to split the chapter into two for Chapter naming sake. The next chapter has already been written, I just need to proofread it so it'll take a day or two.

Anyway, other than that, I do hope I can start getting back into things. With the pandemic going on, I should really be using my time properly...

Wicked A.

I think you should somehow include satella more if she is to be a major character...

I get what you mean, but currently, in this arc. There really is no place to put her. She starts getting more common from the next arc onwards. Look forward to it!

Bobberhd

2-8 days regular updates one year later ... but in all seriousness, I love this story before the reset and this start seems even better so keep it up please don't abandon this

You... YOU... Are absolutely right, I have no idea what took so long. I just... stopped, it was always in my head, and I was always thinking about it... but I just never put my thoughts into words... I'll be sure to try harder!

Gabriel

Will there be a continuation and will there be Subaru x Rem?

Yes, and... no... sadly no...

Superdupee

I like that it's not gonna be a power fantasy

Ya the original plot line was structured that way, so I decided to rework it a bit so it felt more like "Re:Zero" and less like "Re:Zero but Subaru is strong"