Uploading date: 12/11/2018 [M/D/Y]

Re: Life in a fantasy world ~ Arc 4: Beginning of the End

Chapter 1: Steeling her resolve

"Crusch Karsten, the duchess that is currently the head of the Karsten family, A noble with an extremely profound military profile, I heard she's participated in a hand full of battles and has helped in holding back the Great rabbit once. Someone like that is a very strong foe, not only because she's widely known, but also because people trust her…"

"Yes, she~ even directly gave word about her candidacy once she found out, taking full advantage of her position…"

There we were, all gathered in the conference room, talking about our rivals and possible threats for the Royal election. "Striking up an alliance with her was Roswaal-sama's first course of action in preparation for this long battle… with her as an ally, we would be in a much better position" Ram informed us, a great idea it is, if our camp manages to strike up a good relationship, we're destined for anything but last place.

"But… she still doesn't know that I'm a half-elf, so I'm afraid that the alliance might not work out…"

"I wouldn't worry about that Emilia… As a noble who's fought in the frontline, I doubt she has the tendency to act on rumors or myths and whatnot, people like her are usually calm and collected, judging people by how they've seen them, as long as you make a good impression, you'll be fine, you have my word for it"

"Hmm, that puts me at ease" Puck chimed in, as fluffy as ever, you'd never think that something so small could be a revered great spirit, then again, there's Beatrice, a scary one she is, speaking of great spirits, "Hey Puck, I wanted to know. Since you don't look all that imposing, I'd expect that people wouldn't suspect you as a great spirit on first sight, am I right?"

"Mhmm, that's right, when i'm cute and fluffy like this, I'm just your everyday Puck! But… I can do this too" Clasping his furry paws together, an ominous presence filled the room, a disturbing aura, this killing intent, this proof of power is among the highest, being able to paralyze your opponents with this fearful yet invisible force, you must be some monster.

"Oi, we get it, there are still people in the mansion…"

"Ooops, my bad, hehe…"

Retracting his killing intent, Puck floated back down to Emilia's shoulder, "Using Puck-sama's status as a great spirit, it won't exactly help us in achieving peoples trust from the masses, Barusu, if that is what were thinking… since this is the dragon kingdom, spirits don't get much recognition"

Indeed, Ram is completely right, they won't really care if Puck is a great spirit, he has no influence in the kingdom like Odglass of Gusteko, but, that's not why he's important, "Emilia's participation in the royal election… will most certainly cause an uproar. People would get anxious left and right, they may act rash and try to plan an assassination right of the bat, much like what happened with the two we just came across…"

"So, the reason for revealing Puck-sama is…"

"To ensure Emilia-san's safety, and her participation… the sage council may see it us forcing them into a corner, but they'd think twice before taking action on us, and they'll have faith that the public wouldn't do something as outrageous as voting a half-elf as the next king, we'll take advantage of the fact that they're looking down on us, and we'll crush them with it"

"Quite the violent choice of words you used there, Subaru-kun..."

"We're not walking into a contest… no, we're walking straight into hell"

Emilia shivered in fear when I said that, indeed hell is where we're approaching, with Emilia as a worldwide target, I would be surprised if nothing happened at all, "Well that being said, we have yet to prepare for next week, Emilia-san, I'd like you to fully explain your reason for participating, your ideals for the kingdom, and what you're willing to do in order to achieve them…" The first step is to know your team, this is exactly what we're going to do.

"Umm, okay… When I become king, I plan on spreading equality throughout Lugnica, people should all have the same rights, no discrimination, no more slums, I plan on changing that all. That's what I'd like everyone to know, but there is a personal reason too, Elior forest, the place where I came from, and the place where all my friends and family lived, has been frozen over by a sacred ice that can't melt, I wish to use the royal's store of dragon blood to save them and my home, however selfish that may seem…"

"What a nice and wholehearted resolve… but, it's too weak" I state rather bluntly to her, that might've stung, "That was rather rude, Subaru-kun, and after you made her say it all…"

"Sorry, but I'm not trying to be rude, let me explain. Equality is a rather broad term, when you're going for the throne, it's kind of what you'll be going after, it's nothing new you see. For example, if you weren't rooting for equality, then most of the people won't vote for you, at least that's the case right now. It's good for getting the masses to side with you, but we're not going to present to the masses just yet you see…"

"Might you be referring to~ the nobles Subaru-kun?"

"Right on the spot Roswaal, if people like them hear about equality, it'd be the same as threatening their authority"

"Huh? But shouldn't nobles be helping the people, shouldn't they be happy that we're standing up for the people?" Ah, such a naive mindset, I can see why Puck so overprotective of her, "We are all subject to sinful nature Emilia-san, the people at the bottom are full of Envy, the people in the middle are full of Greed, and the people at the top are full of Pride, understanding this is crucial. People with envy want to see people fall below them, people with greed want what betters themselves regardless of the externalities, and people with Pride wants to stay at the top… Understanding these three main points, and how to address them, that's how we'll win"

"I… I see…"

"The most difficult to deal with would be the nobles, even if we manage to round up all people from the lower class, the nobles have a much higher authority, if we can't sway them to our side, then we might as well just drop out…"

"Exactly, Ram is right, if there's anyone's support we need, it's most definitely the people in the higher class" That's going to be a difficult task with how stubborn some of them can be, they look down upon you in the start, but when you rise above their expectations, they'll deny it like their life counts on it, "That's why, making a weak impression is something we must not do, under any circumstances. And also, we mustn't reveal your plan for saving the elves before we take down their discrimination towards you "

"That… makes sense, but how do we do that?" Emilia asks, "Quite simple, we'll differentiate you from any discrimination, inforce your ideals and selfishness on them, say something like 'I'm sick and tired of this and that' don't give them time to retort what you say. Being a little bit rude and selfish isn't a bad thing, they are necessary qualities for the king to impose their authority on their subjects"

Emilia nods, as if mentally taking down notes, I'm not even sure if what I'm saying is truly correct, their mostly bits and pieces that make sense to me in the stories i've read, it would be rather optimistic of me to think that this would end like those story, "Now, does Emilia-san have some presentation problems? Like stage fright or stuttering?"

"Nope, my Lia is a confident flower, even if there was a crowd of a million, she'd be able to speak looud and clear"

"A million? There isn't going to be that many people right?"

"Of course~ Emilia-sama, I'm sure Puck-sama was just exaggerating. We'll only be presenting to~ the sage council, the royal knights, and a handful of nobles, I doubt it's anything you can't do…"

"Ah, but I'm not sure how I'm going to counter anything if they bring up the assassination, or the mabeast attacks, it's like Subaru said, one of them might use that to their advantage and kick me out of the election…"

"You don't need to worry about it, if they decide to make a move… I'll make them regret ever laying their eyes on us as easy targets…"

After discussing everything else related to the Royal election, we had a practice session where I had Emilia face off against most of the scenarios that I expect could happen there, we gathered a few people that were moving things around in the former library and got them to help us out, "S-So you want us to speak as though we were part of the audience in the election?"

"Yes, be as rude as you can, we need to steel her resolve so she doesn't falter during the actual thing"

"But being as rude as possible to Emilia-sama would be…"

"Don't worry, no hard feelings right Emilia-san?"

"Yes, I won't take anything you say to heart, this is a practice session after all…"

The guys gulped, fearing that there might be something even worse in store for them if they weren't going to cooperate, a false sense in insecurity when being in the attention of someone with authority, we need to eliminate that with everyone working inside the camp if we're to make a functioning team, well, I don't think that's a problem as of right now.

"If you say so… Ahem… Letting a half-elf run for king, what a blasphemous idea, there is no way the country would allow such filth related to the witch to roam around the kingdom, let alone give us orders..." He spat out in a venomous tone, only then trembling as he awaited judgment.

"Oooh, I like that language, and the way you said it was perfect. So Emilia-san, how are you going to respond to that?"

"Umm… Maybe something like, I'm sorry but it's rather rude of you to associate me with the witch like that, and I don't like being described as filth, thank you very much… was that good?"

"Eh, could use some work, try to be a little bit more forceful like... How dare you think of me like that scorned witch! We are two completely different people! How would you like it, if you walked outside every single day, only to have people look at you like trash? I'm sick and tired of all you people getting on my nerves like that! I'd say something along those"

They shivered, maybe I raised my volume a little too much for that one, but at least the message got sent through, "Okay, next one!" And it went on and on until we practiced for pretty much any kind of insult they were going to throw at us. I also practiced myself, on how I'm gonna enter myself in to stop any kind of conflict with other opposing candidates, there are many things to prepare for.

We had Roswaal tell us the basic procedure of what we can and can not do as to not get ourselves carried away. Before we knew it, half the day has gone by, time does go fast. The rest of the day was used for relaxing in preparation for the upcoming day, it's going to be a busy week, isn't it.

.

"Hmm, it seems everything is proceeding just as planned…" I say while I open up the door to the former library, let's call the room my room for now since the former library is a rather hard word to say all the time, "It's rather spacious without the books, I suppose, and Betty still feels conflicted about letting them go…"

"Well it won't matter soon, you'll forget those book like a mosquito you killed on a summer's day, damn those things are annoying… speaking of which, are you going to come with us to the capital for the royal election or are you going to stay back with Rem? Or are you able to teleport on a moments notice because of gate crossing or something?"

"Such a feat isn't possible if it isn't a place Betty has no connection to, I suppose, but I will be staying back nonetheless. Things like royal elections and sightseeing mean nothing to Betty, in fact"

"Once a shut-in always a shut-in… well, guess I'll just have to drug you down and bring you along against your will, seems to be the only way"

"What a crazy nonsensical thing to say, I suppose! If I must come, then you can just ask me you know!"

"Really now? At first, I thought you would stubbornly refuse and kick around like a bratty child… it seems my image of you has improved"

"I'm only a child in appearance and name, I suppose! Please remove all suspicions that I act like one!"

Waving my hands in a way that told her I was joking, I walked over to a couch and sat down, "So Beatrice, let's talk about something, I'm bored…" "Saying that right out of the blue, you expect too much of me, I suppose… If you really want to talk, then do tell Betty… about making me disappear"

And in we enter deep waters, "Are you not lying about it, I suppose? Disappearing is a word with a rather vague meaning when you think about it, twisting it to what suits you, doesn't sound so far-fetched in my opinion…" She's doubting the contents of our contract? This is a new one, didn't think spirits would have the guts to do such a thing, it's one thing for the contractor to doubt, but for the spirit that's being contracted, it's almost like a taboo, or so I've heard anyway.

"I'll repeat what we've agreed to… if you follow me, I can make you disappear… that was the basis, now, have any questions? I'll answer any and all, except for how we're going to make you disappear…"

"The contract explicitly states that you can make me disappear, why did you make on such a term, I suppose? If you put it like that, there is no guarantee that you would do it, that's where my doubt stems from… also, on another note, Betty would like you to elaborate on what 'follow me' means"

"Okay, question number one, I said 'I can' and not 'I will' because of your instability back then, and possibility in the future, leaving the world without a trace is a rather scary thought, at the time, you might not have been thinking straight, I wanted to create a situation in the future where you could choose whether to disappear or not… question number two, I've a goal to reach, and in order to reach that goal, I'm going to need a lot of help, think of it like helping me out or something like that"

"Hmm… fine, that's satisfactory, I suppose…"

"Really? Thought you were going to press further"

"No, Betty will just have to trust you from here on out, I suppose…"

"A daring spirit you are, trusting a man you met for the first time…"

"Met for the first time, you say…"

.

A/N

A rather short chapter, sorry, took a while to put some of my thoughts into words...

Okay, kick-starting this off, I want to say a few things here and there. First of all, because this Subaru is not from our world, there will be no such idea as parallel worlds, no reincarnation things, essentially, there is only the world of Re-zero, and as you can guess, this will affect other characters and other plot points too, like the constellations relating to bishop names and Aldebaran...

Astrology is a rather forgotten topic in this story's world for the characters, that's why so little people know about it, and that's why Subaru has an advantage when dealing with theWitch-cultt. Having known the story for most, if not all of the constellations and star clusters.

Also, if anything from his world pops up, just associate it with Kararagi.

Mike202303

Wonderful work you never disappoint. I look forward to the next chapter. Your story is severely underrated. You deserve way more attention!

[Flustered emote!]

If I may be allowed to act like my Subaru for once… I don't think you assuming my story is underrated is because I'm actually underrated, in my mind, I think it's probably due to everyone else's stories being so below average in terms of writing, as such, naturally people would be surprised by- Okay let's stop, this is too out of character for me! I'm terrible at writing, I purposely dropped out of English this year because I didn't want to write essays! They hurt me, they're scary, there are much better people at writing than me! I hate it!

Ahem…

Back to the topic, thanks! Although my skill in writing is closer to that of a student who just scribbled in notepad, I feel like i'm getting enough attention that my story can get, also when writing a story, especially fanfiction, attention usually gets attracted by more familiar characters from the anime, for Re Zero, people [as far as I've seen] come here either for Rem confession, Emilia endings, or for a continuation of the story, I craved for those too when I was new, other characters don't exactly get that much attention, but that's why I've decided to write something different! Betty, Satella and Subaru for the win!

Spookysharma

Fucking great man, if only copyright laws would have been in favour of fanfiction writers, I think your version of the story would have sold way more than the original although this also depends on the people who had watched anime first and then they had either read the light novel…

[Multiple flustered emote!]

Indeed, as a fellow reader, I do know how it feels to wait for an agonizingly long time for the next chapter of a series I crave for, cough cough Middle cough cough. Since I no longer have any more exams to stress out about, I'm gonna start spamming out the chapters, though, I am going on a one week trip soon, I just hope it doesn't interfere with my writing schedule.

SisyphusWorker

Yooo dude. This is a nice AU where Subaru doesn't really much scream in pain. Though I haven't read yet the succeeding unanimated novel chapters (currently in the part where Rem and Crusch pit heads with Roy and Regulus) I don't really mind getting spoiled, though I'd really like to find a…

[Flustered emotes galore!]

Being a follower of Typhon is one reason why he's got his pride, but another would be the fact that he's never lost a fair match, the only time he's been beaten fairly had caused him to die, and those causes of death are usually inevitable and seeing that he's alive right now, we can assume that he's beaten anyone that's tried to kill him, some little story lore for ya!

I don't want to say too much, but I will say one thing, this story isn't about Rem, it isn't about Emilia, it isn't about romance, I'm not saying something like that won't happen, I mean, it probably will, but this is a tragedy, so please prepare yourself…

Crash source for the synopsis would be the Wikia for rezero, on Subaru's character page my friend. Currently, we've got Arc 4 fully translated, Arc 5 half-way, and Arc 6 a quarter (of what is expected to be the full arc).