This was done as a request because I really like the few Rem lines in this scene. It’s really sad considering the current situation…

[Ferris: Crusch-sama decided to subjugate the Hakugei for Wil-jii’s sake, huh.]

Ferris suddenly whispers these words quietly.

Subaru lets out an “Eh?” in response without thinking about what he said and Ferris says

[Ferris: Subjugating the Hakugei is Wil-jii’s dearest wish. The previous sword saint――it seems like Wil-jii wasn’t able to be by his wife’s side when she got killed.]

[Subaru: The previous……]

[Ferris: He desperately gathered information on the Hakugei. He researched all these conditions to consider, including where it was before, where it was after that, the season, the hours, the weather, and finally understood a weak but definite pattern. However, nobody listened to him……]

Just how many nights did that old swordsman spend alone, looking into books and references with bloodshot eyes, aiming to seek revenge for his wife who was killed by a monster?

――That tenacity earned Wilhelm a slight glimmer of hope by learning the Hakugei’s tracks. That was

[Ferris: That type of strong spirit for a subjugation group to challenge a destructive opponent, which damaged a sword saint, was no longer at the kingdom. Having said that, no supporters came along when they were sought for either. I think they thought Wil-jii was desperate.]

Even when he sought to take revenge, he couldn’t even reach the feet of his hated opponent.

Subaru knew that self inflicting despair caused by that sense of hopelessness. The sin called weakness would never let him free, after all.

[Ferris: Seems like he thought of challenging the Hakugei himself and abandoning everything too. I believe it is more shameful to not fight than it is not win. ――Men are foolish. His wife surely thought so too, after all.]

[Rem: That’s right.]

Then, the person who showed her agreement was the girl standing up next to Subaru, Rem.

The girl who had been attentively listening to the conversation the whole time in silence shakes her blue hair, looks carefully at Subaru’s face, puts her hand on her chest, and says

[Rem: I want the people I love to always be cheery. Even if I’m gone, I want them to remember me with a smile on their face.]

[Subaru: …..Isn’t it too early to talk about how you’ll become a memory?]

Subaru nudges the sentimental girl’s head, Rem, being unable to bear her words. After that, he opens his fist, slowly puts his fingers into her soft hair, and starts to give her a head pat.

Rem closes her affectionate looking eyes slightly while accepting Subaru’s reckless gesture and says

[Rem: And the person who spoke out to Wilhelm was――]

[Ferris: It was Crusch-sama.]

Ferris lets out an admiring sigh as if he was thinking back on that time and says

[Ferris: Crusch-sama really is the kind one. She despairs, griefs, and even then she still reaches out to everyone, even if they are people who look like they’re ignoring it. Like that time――wait wait wait.]

Then, Ferris shuts up, puts his hand on his mouth in a seemingly flustered manner, seals up the next part of his words, and sticks his tongue out to make an embarrassed grin.

[Ferris: Okay. I have nothing more to say. To put it brief, as for what I want to say to you, it would be my thanks for Subaru-kyun.]

[Subaru: Your thanks…..?]

[Ferris: We wandered off topic, but that’s what the conversation was about at the beginning, right?]

The conversation jumped into Wilhelm’s past, and Subaru remembers the topic they forgot about. It was related to the beginning of the busyness of the preparations for the subjugation of the Hakugei.

[Ferris: Not “Fault”, but “Thanks”, that is. These two words seem similar, but they are completely different, you know? With this, Old Wil-jii can finally get revenge for his wife. Even with how she called herself with the family name……]

[Wilhelm: Ferris, you’re speaking a bit too much.]

[Ferris: Nya!?]

Ferris jumps slightly in response to the voice that came behind him. What he saw in front of him when he turned around with an awkward look was an old gentleman standing with his hands put together behind his back.

He looks at Ferris, who cowers, with narrowed eyes and says

[Wilhelm: I don’t really think it’s a good habit to reveal a person’s shames.]

[Ferris: I guess you could say I exposing your pasttt, or I’d like to think of it as explaining the workings of Wil-jii’s hearttt…..]

Ferris pokes his fingers, speaks his words longer, and flatters him while looking displeased. He seemed puzzling with how he had cat ears on top of a charming appearance, but he was a man.

Naturally, those seductive techniques could not work on Wilhelm, and he says

[Wilhelm: Either way, you mustn’t run your mouth about a person without their permission.]

[Ferris: Okayy]

Ferris gets cut off bluntly. He drops his shoulders, and runs away dejectedly. Once he sees off that back, the room falls into silence.

Subaru had unintentionally found out about Wilhelm’s past, so it was a given for him to feel extremely awkward. He thought to confess his own history he wanted to be kept secret in order to make them equal, but that felt too much like a hindrance to communication, so he stopped himself right before he did.

As a result, the room continues to be in a state of silence. Subaru racks his poor brain to find a different topic and――

[Wilhelm: My dearest apologies for having you listen to something unpleasant. It was an old man’s boring times of idleness. Please forget about it.]

That’s when Wilhelm told him this before he made his move. In his heart, Subaru decides to respect the will of that bitter, weak smile.

“Don’t ask anything”, is what the will of that smile says. He must not ask anything.

[Rem: ――You sure do love your wife.]

――Rem-san!?

That is what he says in his inner thoughts, disturbed enough to add on a “-san” honorific to her name. Rem steps into an unexpected minefield with about that much force.

Subaru’s anxiety is put aside. Wilhelm pauses for a second with his eyebrows raised, and says

[Wilhelm: Yes, I love my wife. More than anything, more than anyone, and no matter how much time passes.]

Wilhelm’s confession was heavy just from the time aspect that he included.

In the past, Subaru heard several times from Wilhelm about how he was a devoted husband. When he did, he understood just how much Wilhelm treasured his family. However, when he thought about how she was the deceased, he felt like Wilhelm had other deep emotions within him.

[Wilhelm: There are still preparations needed to be made tomorrow, so let’s end the conversation here. Please rest thoroughly tonight, you two.]

Wilhelm turns his back on them as he tells them these words, and then begins to go far off.]

[Subaru: Tomorrow is――]

Subaru unexpectedly calls out to that back that was becoming distant.

Wilhelm stops walking. Subaru speaks out to him with his back turned on them and says

[Subaru: Rem and I will also participate in the battle.]

[Wilhelm: That is…..]

[Subaru: The alliances say we are going to fight against a strong enemy, but can you really overlook us and stay silent like that? Rem will of course be fighting…..and even I have things I can do too.]

Subaru quickly comes up with words to say, one after another, and interrupts Wilhelm before he could reject. And then he says

[Subaru: Let’s work together and beat up that whale bastard! I’ll be helping you with all I’ve got, after all!]

Subaru gives him a thumb up with his teeth glistening and swears to unite with Wilhelm.

Wilhelm kept silent for a short amount of time in response to that declaration, but

[Wilhelm: My wife was a woman who preferred to love flowers.]

He mutters a few words. With words differing from the meaning of Subaru’s reply he says

[Wilhelm: She did not like swinging the sword, but she was loved by the sword more than anyone else. She accepted that fate again, disapproving only the way of living for the sword.]

If he found out about the abilities of the current sword saint Reinhard, then he would find out it seemed that he had an abundance of divine protection for a person’s body.

He’d find out about how the future of that divine protection given to him, and how it was so extraordinary that it could be narrowed down in an infinite amount of ways.

[Wilhelm: The person who broke that sword…the person that made her throw away the sword saint title…was me.]

Subaru felt like Wilhelm was calling himself things like incompetent.

He also felt like he was telling him how he devoted half his life to the sword up until now.

Just how many times has this old man’s heart been crushed, tasting frustration while trying to reach his dearest wish? And then――

[Wilhelm: She threw away her sword, and I made that lone woman my wife, thinking to myself that now she had forgiven everything and that she could live as the Theresia that wasn’t a sword saint. ――However, the sword did not let her free.]

She should’ve been someone who threw away her sword, and yet why did she join the group to subjugate the Hakugei?

However, Wilhelm’s recollections did not touch on that matter, as he says

[Wilhelm: Subaru-sama, I thank you.]

He says at once

[Wilhelm: I’ll find the answer in my sword in tomorrow’s battle. Let’s make it possible for me to finally head towards the front of my wife’s grave, too. I’ll finally be able to meet my wife.]

Wilhelm states his will, and now exits the room.

The boy left behind, Subaru, surely had various feelings of respect for Wilhelm, as a man himself.

He felt that people were beings that could go to such extents and could sincerely have their love come through.

[Rem: Subaru-kun would you……]

Then, Rem’s suddenly lowers her voice in this quiet room with only the two of them left in it.

When he looked in that direction in silence, his eyes met hers, as she looked up at him clearly.

[Rem: If I’m gone, will you remember me for about as long as that?]

[Subaru: ……That doesn’t sound like good luck, so I don’t want to answer.]

Subaru says those words with a discouraged voice and pokes Rem’s forehead with his finger.

When she touched that finger that was on her forehead with her hand, she had a smile on her face as if indicating she received the answer she was looking for.