Natsuki Subaru: Warlock of Sin

Chapter 2

[Mutual benefit, aka friendship]

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Subaru woke up facing the open curtains, the dim morning rays shining onto his eyes, "Ughh…" His eyes flicker open, he yawns and turns his body over to the other direction, away from the light, but he slaps himself back awake, "No time to sleep Subaru… you're racing against the clock are you not?" Picking up his body from the mattress he used, he looks around, pretty much everyone else was still asleep, take or give a few.

"Well… guess it's time to start thinking… Oh-"

As he tries to move out of his makeshift bed, he realizes the presence of his spirit in front of him, retracting his feet as to not accidentally trip over her, he stumbles a bit. "Sorry bout that Beako… guess I'll go around…" He maneuvers his legs to go around the spirits sleeping figure, and then again to the countless other villagers that were sleeping in the same hall he was.

"Haah… being cooped up in here will take its toll on everyone sooner or later… gonna have to figure that out as well…"

He makes his way to the doorway, while trying his best not to disturb anyone's sleep.

"Good morning sanctuary, not that this is anything new…" He opened up the door to see the bare minimum of people up, not more than a handful of people were walking around, it really is early isn't it? He thought.

He headed over towards the well right outside the building and washes his face, "Good morning, Subaru-kun… You're up early aren't you?" As he wets his eyes to keep them from drowning in drowsiness further, he is greeted with a nice sweet smile by Rem who stands beside him.

"Morning Rem. I'd like to sleep a little more but I felt like there were going to be a lot of things happening today you know? Speaking of which, is Emilia up yet?"

"No, Emilia-sama is still asleep in Lewis-sama's house, she's had a rough night indeed"

"Hah, I guess so, seems like I'll have to wait before speaking to her then…"

Putting on a slightly worried face, Rem gazes over to Subaru and asks him, "Subaru-kun… you're not going to do something again, aren't you? Don't you remember what you promised Rem" She says with eyes of concern.

"You read me like a book Rem… but don't worry, I'll tell you all about it, I just need to get my thoughts together. I'll let you know before you return to the mansion. Anyway, I'm off to do a morning walk, you wanna join?"

"I'm sorry Subaru-kun, but Nee-sama needs Rem for the morning. Rem won't have much free time until Rem returns to the mansion, perhaps when we all return, Rem shall join you"

"Ah well, can't help it now, can we? Then I'll make do on my own"

She bids farewell, as she goes over to the hut that Roswaal was in, Ram can be seen waiting outside for her, with a quite fed up expression directed towards Subaru, "Even at a distance, her gaze pierces through me…" He turned his back and walked away, not really knowing where his destination would be.

"Now that I think about it, I've never really gone on a walk to just look around Sanctuary before, it's always just been… yeah, I don't think I wanna talk bout that…"

Gruesome memories of blood and bunnies aren't gonna up his morale about the perilous situation, and what he's told Beatrice was incomplete, the problems they were going to face, he's left her hanging on one of them, "Roswaal…"

He kicked aside a rock on his path, keeping it clear of any obstacles, "If I were to take her words as truth… no, there's no doubt that it's true, she has no need to, nor the knowledge to play around with the situation I'm in. In someway, this Roswaal most likely has the gospel of his ancestor, Roswaal A Mathers…"

The conclusion of such a thing hadn't dawned on him because of their names being coincidentally similar, but of what he said to Subaru and Emilia when they first arrived at Sanctuary, about the White Whale and the witch cult's attack. It's as if he predicted them perfectly, and the fact that he had faith that Subaru and Emilia could accomplish it.

"The more I think about his actions, the more I feel like he does have one…"

The faith he had in the two of them, no, the faith he had on Subaru specifically was uncalled for. A person like him, who's been made fun of in public, been yelled at by Emilia, and has in essence been abandoned at the capital for safety, no one in the right mind would put any hope on him.

It's simply too unnatural for even him, and the risks would have been way too much, and not to mention that the only reason Subaru resolved the situation is by Return by Death, and for Roswaal to know that such a disastrous event could even happen is just pushing the limits of belief.

"I hate that it all makes sense…"

Before he realized it, he made it to a nearby bed of yet to bloom flowers, "Huh? Didn't know this existed here, would've thought the whole place was just endless forests or something. Guess there are small things like this that make it worthwhile to explore…"

Though they may look a little dull right now, with time, they will blossom into a beautiful field, "I heard they were going to bloom sometime this season, Natsuki-san" The sudden intrusion to the peace took him by surprise, he turns around, calling out to the one behind him, "Otto, don't walk up behind me like that"

"Sorry about that"

"Anyway, what are you doing here?"

"Ram-san told me about this place when I asked if there was any sightseeing I can do here"

"Sightseeing? Never thought you'd be the type for that really"

"You can call it an acquired hobby from traveling…"

Things quieted down once more as Subaru was now joined by an unexpected Otto. It got hard to think things out when there's someone obliviously standing right next to you, and it got him thinking about other things, "Hey, Otto…" he called out to him with a rather somber tone.

"What is it, Natsuki-san?" Otto replies back, rather curious as to the sudden change in his voice.

"I think… it's a good idea if you went ahead out of Sanctuary with Rem and the villagers"

"Huh? What are you saying all of a sudden?"

"I've been thinking, the longer the villagers stay here, the more frantic they'll get, and we may have food shortages while we're here, so in order to avoid that, I'm gonna try and get them all back by tomorrow, I think you should go with them and stay in the mansion for the time being… no, perhaps not in the mansion, I think it'd be better for you to wait it out in the village in the outskirts of the mansion for a while until we return"

A sudden on the spot plan by Subaru, but a well thought out one as well, it made a lot of sense to Otto, but he couldn't help but questions any ulterior motives he may have.

"Am I perhaps a bother to you all right now?"

"No, nothing like that"

Subaru says while shaking his head frantically, not trying to forcefully push him away, "Then I think it'd be fine for me to stick around, I'm not sure how much I can help you with the trials, but you never know what could happen, right? But if I really am a nuisance, I understand"

"You may not be a bother, but you're really nosy aren't you?"

"Is that a good thing or…"

"I'll be real with you here, since I'm the one who dragged you out here to finish up our deal, I feel obligated if anything were to happen to you… anyway, you're probably feeling I'm gonna screw you over or something right? I'll tell you the reason why then…"

A sudden shift in the atmosphere, he got tense all of a sudden, like he was about to be shown a dark side of the situation, but that was it. He told him about what's to happen to sanctuary in a few days, and the situation that's going to happen in Sanctuary as well, all he could reply with, was confusion, and shock.

"Natsuki-san… do you really wanna get rid of me that much!"

Subaru sighs at his stubborn paranoia, does he really look like such an untrustworthy guy? "I'm telling you, it's all the truth! This isn't the kinda stuff I'd be joking around with you know?"

"Sorry for not questioning something that seems a little preposterous! Does anyone else know about this?" He asked.

"I don't wanna worry Emilia about this, she has the trials to do, Rem's returning to the mansion so she doesn't need to know about what's going to happen here. I'll probably inform Ram, Garfiel won't listen to me, and I'm a little doubtful about Roswaal, I've been suspicious of him lately… Other than you, I've told Beatrice, but that's about it…"

"So if I'm getting this correctly… you plan on stopping all of this… yourself?"

From the start, that's what he's been thinking of doing. Since the story is pretty bizarre to Otto he'll probably not believe, but as long as he's away from the problem, Subaru would be at ease. "Well, yeah, that's basically it, I guess? That's why you gotta get outta here quick-"

"Natsuki-san... have you ever tried, I don't know perhaps… asking for help?"

The sudden cut in his train of thought had him a little bit astonished, "...Pardon?"

"Perhaps, getting 'help' would be the better alternative to doing it all yourself right?"

"And where the hell am I supposed to get help from? I already told you that no one's gonna cut it"

Otto seems to be getting irritated and replies, rather annoyed, "Aren't you forgetting someone?!"

"Ah now that you mention it, perhaps I can ask Lewis-san to help me out…"

"Me! What about me! I can help too you know?"

"You?

"Yes me!"

"Uh… you wanna… help?"

"Of Course I do, we're friends, right? Is it really weird for me to help out?"

"Say what now?"

"Don't tell me you've only thought of me as an acquaintance all this time? I even thought you lightly making fun of me was our thing…"

"No, you're just the type of character to be made fun, Otto"

"So it was all just blatant insults? How cruel!"

Subaru pressed his hands onto his forehead and lets out another big sigh. He looks over to Otto, visibly confused, but with a dead serious look, he asks him"Otto… you sure you wanna do this? By helping me out, you do know you're putting your life at stake, you could die a rather gruesome death…"

"Heh, you can say I'm gambling with my life right now, you may not be a very good person to put my bets on, but I'm getting a feeling that this was fate, I feel like if I help you out now, it'd be a big thing for me… though the me a few seconds ago would think I've gone senile"

"Was that an indirect insult?"

Otto lets out a small chuckle and replies, "Don't get me wrong Natsuki-san, I admire your resolve and drive… but you barely have the skills or abilities to make up for it"

"Oi, you're totally making fun of me right now!"

He flings his arms around Otto's neck and brings him in close, "Fine, if you really wanna help that badly I can make you Emilia-tan's meat shield" "Wait, isn't there any other, more important role I can fill?" He joked about it with him for a little bit longer until he heard some footsteps heading towards them.

"I was wondering what was happening, but it was just two idiots bickering…"

"Good morning to you too Ram, you really don't wanna soften up to me at all do you"

Ram huffed at him arrogantly with her hands at her hips, "As if someone as trashy as you would get any attention from me" Her words don't sting, and they have a sort of familiarity that comes with it, in other words, Ram, is someone Subaru can trust his life with, but…

"Ram…"

"Seems you've figured something out, Barusu…"

His eyes widen a bit, "How can you tell?" "We've known each other long enough, I've been watching you very closely you know. You always seem to have this completely goofed and useless aura around you, with a childish smile everywhere you go, but once in a while, I get this chill in my spine whenever you appear to know more than you do, how you'd learn about things you shouldn't have learned about, how you do things no one would think about doing, don't think people don't question it Barusu…"

He knew from the very beginning that Ram has always had a sharp eye, especially with that clairvoyance of hers, but to think she's been attentively watching him, enough to derive meaning from his sudden change in demeanor, "Ram, who's side are you on?" he says, narrowing his gaze at her.

"What a trivial question to ask Barusu… of course Ram is on Ram's side"

She replies with her usual stuck up vagueness, "What counts as 'Ram's side' for you" "Whatever is beneficial to me, is on my side, anything that I don't like, is on the other side… now let me ask you, how much do you know?" It seems it's going to be another round of questions and answers from both sides, not that Subaru minds, as long as he gets what he needs to know.

"I know about the clones in Sanctuary, Garfiel is able to control each and every one of them, but they're only able to take simple commands. On top of that, Garfiel can leave Sanctuary cause he's only a quarter, not a half. That being said, he doesn't wanna leave here cause he's afraid of something from the outside. Other than that, there's Lewis's multi-personality state, and Roswaal… he has a gospel doesn't he, Ram?"

"How horrifying you are, to find out this much in a mere weak, are you some kind of mind-reading monster?"

"Heh, I can't help but snoop my nose into everything if it's for everyone's safety… so about Roswaal"

She is hesitant to talk about it for a moment but gives in, sighing heavily as she opens up her mouth, "Yes, Roswaal-sama does indeed have a gospel… unlike the ones the witch cult possess and the one Beatrice-sama has turned over, Roswaal-sama's gospel is still giving him instructions, and one with terrifying accuracy and precision. But he's been secretive about what it was… Barusu, tell me, what's going to happen"

She asks, with a certain glint in her eyes, perhaps worry, perhaps desperation, whatever it may be, she deserves to know what's to happen, "Sanctuary is going to be overrun by the Great Rabbit, and the mansion is being targeted by an assassin, all of this is going to happen within the next few days from now"

Ram flinches as she hears this, her right hand starts to quiver for a moment before her tight grip forced it to stop, "I see… so he's gone that far…" She says with a voice not befitting of her, it was gloomy and rather sad, "Barusu, a request if I may?"

"What is it?"

She clears out her throat and looks him in the eye, dead serious but calm, "Whatever you have to do to stop all of this, if it means taking lives, if it means going insane, if it means losing your own life, please, keep Rem safe… I can't promise my complete cooperation, but I can at least keep Roswaal-sama at bay, it may cost me my life, but as long as Rem is-"

"You really are a troublesome person to deal with aren't you, Nee-sama?"

Stopping her mouth from saying any further, Subaru takes a step further, "Emilia, Beatrice, Rem, Puck, you, and by extension maybe even Roswaal a little bit, though you may see me as some douchebag who just barged into your lives one day, even if you've all once upon a time turned your backs to me, even if you've all decided to just throw me away as some tool, I'll never do the same thing to you. You've all helped me out one way or another, and I from the bottom of my heart have always appreciated that, no way in hell I'm letting you die in a place like this Ram, not you, not Emilia, not Roswaal either…"

He walks closer to her until he's about an arms length away, "I know you can't betray Roswaal, and I don't intend to make you, besides, we still need Roswaal in order to actually win the royal selection, so all I ask you is to trust me and make sure not to throw your life away like that, Rem would be sad…"

Bringing his hands up to her, he asks for her affirmation, "So, what do you say 'bout helping me out?" She takes a look at his hands for a whole second, and lets out an uncharacteristic smile, it was so unexpected that it creeped out Subaru, "Sorry, I've shown a terrible side of myself, asking for help from my junior like this"

She lifts her hands up and brings it up to his hand, firmly gripping it, "...Ram, that hurts you know…" Her gips strengthens into a painful pinch and Subaru's face tries to hide off the pain in his face but it started to curl in agony, "Don't you even try fluff up your words with me, it's uncool and makes me cringe. You'd be better off dying than doing it again"

"Again you go with the death threats! Nee-sama really is scary"

As she lets go of his hands, she turns over to Otto and glares over towards him, "You heard nothing from my mouth, understood" "Y-Yes mam!" As Ram tries to silence Otto, Subaru is on the ground blowing on his hands to stave away the lingering pain from Ram's monstrous grip.

"I don't know what you intend to do, Barusu, but I trust you'll have everyone's best interests in mind?"

"That's a lot to ask for, Ram… but yeah, it's not a victory if everyone's not satisfied…"

Ram turned back and took off towards the village square once again, Otto and Subaru following closely behind her, having forged an unintended yet fortunate consequential alliance.

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A few hours after the three have returned to the village, they all gathered around the village entrance with Beatrice and Emilia now awake to see Rem off as she returns to the mansion. As Rem was preparing to leave for the day, everyone bundled up together.

"Rem, I'm counting on you to handle things over at the mansion alright?"

"Ofcourse, Rem won't disappoint you Subaru-kun!"

With a smile, they shoot each other a thumbs up.

She walks over to Emilia next and grabs her hand, with a nod she tells her, "Emilia-sama, Rem believes you can clear the trials and free Sanctuary so don't look so down. Subaru-kun, Nee-sama, and Beatrice-sama will all be here to help you, so you can't just give up!"

Feeling a slight tug at her heart Emilia nods back, "Nhh, thanks for the encouragement Rem, I won't ever give up until I've passed" With a smile the two bid the farewells for the moment and next was Ram, "Nee-sama, please don't push yourself too much, okay?"

"Don't worry Rem, I'll be sure to have Barusu tank have my workload, so make sure you don't do anything too risky"

"Of course! But please go easy on Subaru-kun..."

With a loving embrace the two bid their farewells too.

Rem crouched down to Beatrice's head level and smiled at her too, "Take care of Subaru-kun for Rem, okay, Beatrice-sama?"

"There's no need for any affirmation, it's a given that Betty will take care of her rambunctious and helpless contractor"

"That's a word you don't hear every day isn't it…"

With the final words out of her mouth, she waves off to Lewis and a few other elderly people who came to see her off, and she hopped on the driver's seat on the carriage and readied the reins, "Take good care of Patrasche, Rem! She's a feisty one!"

"Will do, Subaru-kun!"

And with that final exchange, she was off on her way, Garfiel was in the front leading her the way to the edge of the Clemaldy forest, leaving everyone else behind.

"Guess it's time to get back to what we were doing huh… also, it's not like she's leaving forever, why'd you make it seem like it's the end of the world, Ram, that's overreaction if I've ever seen one"

"A single day without Rem by my side is hell, I'll have you know that Barusu"

"That's a lot of hell you're gonna have to make through before you see her again! And how'd you even survive the multiple weeks at the mansion away from Rem anyway?"

As the forest continues to thicken in her field of vision, she takes care not to lose sight of her guide who steadily and confidently walked onwards without a need to bat an eye. The canopy darkened the pathway quite a bit but she could see shining rays breaking through the little gaps in between the leaves.

"Rem"

Garfiel stops all of a sudden and calls out to her. She pulls on the reins to stop Patrasche from moving any further and flickers her eyes towards Garfiel's direction, "What is it, Garfiel?" his jade eyes looked at her blue sapphire ones, and in a moment she knew what he was going to talk about.

"Why do ya trust that guy s'much? He's weak, scrawny, noisy… all he's got for emself's talk and no shit, and ta add, he's got the smell, I'm sure 'you' of all people would know about it"

"True... Subaru-kun is weak, it's true he's loud, and overbearing a lot of times, but it's those things that make him that much more likeable Rem thinks. He's always looking forward, to the future, thinking about what we'll do next, where we'll go, how we'll have fun and all those lovely things. In the beginning, Rem didn't trust him at all, but he's more than proven himself, perhaps it's not much coming from Rem but if you can't hold yourself, try not to rough Subaru-kun up too much, he's a very special person to Rem…"

"Whatever, s'not like I need ta beat em up or anything… the exits right over there by the large clearing, you'll know it when you see it"

"Okay… thanks…"

Once more whipping the reins, Rem finally sets off on her eight-hour journey back to the mansion, with Garfiel being the last person to see her off…

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"Oya oya, now~ what do we have~ here?"

"There's been something I've wanted to get off my chest Ros-chi, you sly old clown..."

A/N

The first two episodes really made me realize just how much Subaru's one-sided love for Emilia makes sense, guess I just wasn't paying attention to the first few episodes during my first watch of it in the early 2017s

Anyway, other than that, nothing much to really say other than thanks for reading I guess?

Two days, to Eight days. That's the schedule, figured I needed more cooldown time between writing the chapter and proofreading, if I proofread too early, I tend to miss some mistakes.