27 Setting off to Roswaal's mansion

"Whoa! This… It's huge! Its face is scary! I'm really fantasizing right now, amazing!" Subaru was calling out in shock as he stood in front of an earth dragon that was strapped to a carriage. His fists were squeezed in excitement as he observed the giant creature from various angles.

Emilia faintly smiled at the back. 'Subaru is acting like a child.'

"Oh my, Subaru-kun, could it really be the first tiiime you've seen an earth dragon up cloooose?" Roswaal said.

"Well, to tell the truth, yes…" Subaru turned back to Roswaal. "I've seen them on the streets before, but seeing the real thing up close is something completely different."

"Hooo…. Subaru-kun, you have quite a strange appearance and name as weeeeell. Are you also like Mordred-saaama, someone from beyond the Great Waterfaaaall?"

"If by 'from beyond the Great Waterfall' you mean 'from a parallel world', then yeah. It's my first time seeing creatures like this," Subaru said and his sight returned to the earth dragon. He tried to pet the creature, but he quickly pulled back his hand when it suddenly snorted back at him.

"Dear guest, can you get into the carriage? You're making a scene and you embarass everyone," a pink haired maid hurried Subaru emotionlessly as she sat at the driver's seat.

"Right, we're making quite a sceeeen. Shall we go theeen?" Roswaal added in a singing voice.

Emilia, Roswaal and Subaru soon entered the carriage and set off toward their temporary residence.

"Subaru, how do you know Mordred? Do you two come from the same place? You look very different," Emilia said as she looked at Subaru at her side.

She thought in her heart, 'Subaru is also not from our continent. Mordred seemed quite hurt when Subaru left him…'

Although Emilia didn't know what kind of relation Subaru and Mordred had, she disliked people who break promises or betray their friends. Because of that she didn't have a good first impression of Subaru.

"Ah, we met on the streets when I first came to this world. I had nowhere to go and he offered me a place to stay with Reinhard…" Subaru said as his voice gradually died down. He added, "Now that I say it, I sort of sound like a scum for suddenly joining you, but… I don't have any other connection to Mordred. I found out that I have a talent in magic, so I want to learn it. It's fair, right?"

Emilia hummed after a moment as if in agreement. "Mmm. It's fair, but you owe Mordred and Reinhard a favor. Favors must be repaid."

"Ah, yeah," Subaru casually said, not putting too much thought into it.

"Weeell, Subaru-kun was not Mordred's atteeeeendant. Although it was slightly rude to appear all of a sudden and recruit hiiim, there is no problem with it," said Roswaal. "However, it was quite a surpriiiiise when I found out today that Sir Reinhard decided to support Mordred-saaaama."

"Yes, it's reeealy a surprise that Reinhard-san chose a side," Emilia said.

Subaru only hummed, replying noncommittally. He said instead, "By the way, isn't the carriage a little too steady for the speed that we're traveling at? Also, the driver's seat is outside, is the pink-haired maid going to be okay?"

"Ah, don't worry about it! Earth dragons have the Divine Protection of Wind Evasion after aaaaaall!" Roswal answered with a smile.

"Divine Protection?"

"They're boons that may be given by the world when life is born," Emilia explained. "When earth dragons run they aren't affected by the wind and don't receive any wind resistance-"

"What about me then?! Do I have any Divine Protections?" Subaru cut in before Emilia finished her explanation, asking in excitement.

"It's hard to say this, but most people don't have any Divine Protections. If you don't even know about them, I doubt that you have one." Emilia looked at Subaru apologetically.

"It is as Emilia-sama saaaaid, Subaru-kun. Divine Protections are given at birth, so if you don't know if you have one, the chances that you possess one are incredibly sliiiiim. It's impossible to gain a Divine Protection later in life, you seeeee," Roswaal said. "In most cases at least."

"Oh well, I guess meeting you two is my boon." Subaru smiled.

Subaru then extended out his hand outside the window curiously, feeling no wind pressure at all as if the carriage stood in place. As he noticed a kind of air barrier, he stretched himself farther outside.

"Subaru, no!-" Emilia started, but it was already too late.

Not a moment later, because Subaru lost the earth dragon's Divine Protection of Wind Evasion that extended to the carriage behind it, he shot out through the window as if being pulled outside by a vacuum. Luck had it that by chance he managed to grab the frame of the window with his hand before falling out completely and tumbling along the road.

The carriage sped through the street with the speed of a race car while Subaru desperately clutched the window frame with a panicked expression on his face, his body dangling backwards like a flag.

Panic flashed across Emilia's face as she looked at Subaru who was about to fly away.

Ram also noticed what had just happened at that moment and her usually expresionless face flashed with shock, and she quickly began to slow down the carriage.

Only Roswaal secretly faintly smiled at the scene. 'Emilia has never interacted with boys before. This foolish and useless boy will be a perfect tool to make her realize just how special Mordred is to her. Soon, this naive thing won't be able to do anything without Mordred, she will rely on him for everything!'

Through a panicked expression, Roswaal laughed coldly in his heart, inwardly even wishing that Subaru would fall out and break a couple bones, requiring severe medical attention.

***

Nearly the entire day passed as Mordred was taking care of matters in the Astrea Manor, also meeting up with various nobles.

Mordred had already given Reinhard a list of orders for the time that he would be gone.

Reinhard's priority was to take care of and protect Felt, and he was also asked to recruit the three thugs that attacked Mordred, and to train them. Some men of the Astrea family were also sent to help Old Man Rom with cleaning up his business.

Apart from that, Reinhard received an important task of spreading various rumors across the capital - before the Royal Election even began, Mordred already planned to start his campaign!

At this time Mordred along with Reinhard and Felt had just met up with Reinhard's father - Heinkel Astrea.

The meeting, however, was only a formality. It appeared that even though Reinhard's father holds the position of the Lord of the Astrea family, it was pretty much a certainty that the entire Astrea family would support Mordred because Reinhard, the Sword Saint, had already made that decision.

Reinhard's father was nothing but a figurehead and a useless drunk. However, as rude and disrespectful as Heinkel was toward Reinhard, and according to rumors toward others, he didn't dare to boss Mordred around much, also seeming aware of Mordred's strength which was enough to chase away the Bowel Hunter.

Right now Mordred escorted Felt back toward her room, while Reinhard left to take care of other tasks.

"What an unpleasant man, completely different from Reinhard," Felt grumbled, looking quite pissed off. Heinkel had displayed clear disgust earlier when her slum origins were mentioned, looking at her as if she was a filthy thing; she really didn't like that man.

"You should watch out where you're saying things like that, but yes. He has the reputation of a drunk and a wastrel," Mordred said as he walked along with Felt. "Anyway, Felt, I'll be leaving for a while. A few weeks maybe."

"I heard from Reinhard," Felt murmured without looking at him. "You're going with the half-witch girl."

"Don't call her that. She's simply a half-elf, she did nothing wrong," Mordred said.

"Whatever, she looks like a witch. What's so great about her anyway? She let her insignia get stolen from her like a fool," Felt said, displeasure clearly evident in her voice and attitude.

After hearing Felt's words, Mordred couldn't help but snort and then he chuckled. Yes, it was clear jealousy that he felt from Felt. He felt that Felt was quite cute.

"What?" Felt asked in annoyance.

"Nothing." Mordred laughed.

After calming down after a while, Mordred stopped and placed a hand on Felt's shoulder.

Felt paused her footsteps and looked at Mordred curiously.

With a serious expression on his face, Mordred said, "Felt, you won't lack anything from now on, but don't forget that you work for me. When I'm gone I want you to spend two hours every day studying with Reinhard, studying etiquette, politics and various things. We are participating in the Royal Election for the throne after all. Other than that you can do whatever you want. Can you do it for me?"

Felt looked at Mordred for a while. She murmured, "Two hours, sure. No problem."

"Good. I hope you'll take the lessons seriously then. I'll later ask Reinhard if you've been slacking off," Mordred said and moved his hand toward Felt's head.

"Don't treat me like a kid. It's just two hours," Felt said as she dodged Mordred's hand.

Mordred smiled silently. Although two hours every day seemed like nothing, he felt that convincing Felt to take etiquette lessons would be a real pain once she actually learns of what they entail.

"You should also take this chance and practice your combat skills with Reinhard. I'll have a spar with you when I come back to test you," Mordred said.

"What? You want to spar with me? Don't you have any shame, Onii-san?"

"Reinhard has exceptional Divine Protections for training and is a skilled instructor. It would be a shame if you didn't make use of it. Me and Reinhard will protect you when we can and I don't want to place you in the front lines, but you can't be weak yourself. Or are you just a useless princess?" Mordred looked down at Felt with an inquiring gaze.

Felt only snorted in response.

Mordred read Felt's expression for a while. It seemed to him as if she was determined to show him that she's far more capable than he thinks. He was quite satisfied with that.

Mordred wasn't sure just how strong Felt could get, but he felt that it wouldn't be bad if she attempted to start training early.

***

Soon a night passed. That night Mordred had dreams of his life as Mordred Pendragon from the Typemoon world once again. However, this time around he was dreaming of more insignificant things like every-day life and training.

Fortunately the dreams were only dreams, otherwise it might have turned out that the year that Mordred spent training in a loop was all pointless, so Mordred was quite relieved by that.

In the early morning, the carriage of the Emilia camp arrived at the Astrea Manor as scheduled, carrying Ram, Emilia and Subaru. Roswaal wasn't present.

After bidding his final farewell to Reinhard, Mordred finally entered the carriage. Unlike the previous meeting in the Astrea Manor where he wore a black suit, he now simply wore his comfortable and casual clothes, as it wasn't a formal and important meeting in his mind.

'Felt didn't come to see me off in the morning. What a stubborn cold-hearted little girl she is…' Mordred thought as he glanced outside the carriage's window for the last time with a faint smile after already greeting the others inside and taking a seat.

At this moment Subaru sat on the same side with Emilia, while Mordred sat with one of his own companions.

On this trip toward Roswaal's mansion Mordred didn't come alone, but brought two people with him - Nadia as his maid, and also a personal cook who was currently sitting in the driver's seat outside along with Ram, giving more space for the VIPs within the carriage.

Mordred knew that Ram and Rem struggled with cleaning of the enormous mansion in the novel, so he didn't want to burden them with even more house work, especially since Subaru would not be a butler this time around and Mordred himself might eat quite a lot. These two servants should alleviate the Oni twins' workload quite a bit.

Soon the carriage set off.

For a long time, there was an uncomfortable silence among the four people inside, while Mordred mostly calmly gazed outside the window, taking in the sights of the capital once again - the sight of his future kingdom.

"Subaru, you seem a little pale. Is everything okay?" Mordred finally asked as he looked at Subaru.

"Subaru strained his Gate," Emilia answered instead. "He overloaded a spell and it exploded, damaging his Gate."

"Ah…" Mordred was surprised. Subaru damaged his Gate already?

"I'm fine. I only need some time to recover, heh." Subaru smiled awkwardly.

Yesterday he eagerly asked for magic lessons from Roswaal and learned a spell called Shamac. He wanted to fire off the most powerful Shamac he could and shock everyone with his talent, but it didn't work out as he expected.

As a result, Subaru's Gate was damaged and a dark shadowy cloud covered a huge region around him that persisted for half an hour, making quite a commotion. In the end, Roswaal also had to pay a remuneration for the damage and the panic caused.

"Yes, Subaru, you must be a good boy now and not practice magic for a while. Don't do anything reckless again," Emilia admonished Subaru.

"Yeah, yeah, I know. Thank you for worrying about me, Emilia-tan! I think I might fall for you at this rate." Subaru's awkward smile turned more bright.

"Don't make fun of me, Subaru. You're now supporting me in the Royal Election, so it's normal that I worry about you," Emilia said.

"Emilia-tan? You're calling a girl you just met a -tan? And you do it in public?" Mordred asked as he looked at Subaru, his expression turning into a teasing one.

Mordred was quite surprised that Subaru seemed to have fallen for Emilia already. He expected that it might happen over time, but it was just too quick! It wasn't like Emilia saved his life this time around…

After a moment's lag, Subaru's face gradually turned more red and sweat started building on his forehead. "No way, don't tell me you know what it means…"

"What it means? What does a -tan mean?" Emilia asked.

"No, no, no. Please, don't tell her! It would just be way too embarrassing!" Subaru pleaded as he looked at Mordred, clutching his palms in a bowing motion. "I beg you!"

"What does a -tan mean?" Emilia asked again, looking at Mordred curiously and innocently.

Mordred faintly smiled, clicked his tongue and shook his head. "Oh, Subaru-kun, you naughty boy…"

Subaru's eyes widened after he heard what Mordred just said. "Don't make her misunderstand, you're just making it worse!"

Subaru looked at Emilia in a panic. "Emilia-tan, it isn't anything bad. Don't listen to this guy!"

Emilia blinked her eyes. "If it isn't anything bad, then what does it mean?"

Subaru's forehead drenched in sweat again, as he thought of a comeback. Soon he had an idea, 'Quickly, change the subject!'

"By the way, can a match box? No, but a tin can!" Subaru said as he thought of a pun.

"… What's this all of a sudden?"

"No effect… Ah! Damn it! Does this world not have tin cans! Uh. Um… Is your refrigerator running… No refrigerators either?!"

"Mordred, what is Subaru talking about?" Emilia asked as she looked at Mordred.

"He seems to be trying to change the topic by telling a joke, but they are not applicable in this world," Mordred answered honestly. In truth, Mordred didn't know what Subaru was talking about either - Subaru used Japanese words that he didn't know.

Subaru looked at Mordred. "Damn, you have no brotherhood code at all. Why won't you help me out here?"

"So you want me to lie to Emilia?" Mordred asked. Thinking about something, he faintly smiled and said, "But having feelings for someone is normal. No need to feel ashamed of it, Subaru."

Subaru felt drowning in depression. Mordred actually said something like this.

"Can you two quit playing around? Subaru, what does a -tan mean?" Emilia looked at Subaru, her expression indicating that she demanded a clear answer.

******

(BTW, according to my research, -tan would be used by adults in a close romantic relationship when speaking in an affectionate way. It would only be used in private though and be refrained from using in public.)