30 Subaru’s resolve. Meeting Beatrice

After a moment's lag, Mordred rushed to the door and opened it, being greeted by the sight of Rem squatting on the floor with a panicked and frightened expression.

'I must behave normally, I can't let him know I heard him. Damn With Cultist!' Rem thought as she was frantically wiping the floor with a handkerchief, sending a wary look at Mordred.

However, the pieces of the glass jar were scattered all across the corridor; what she was doing was neither working and it looked natural. She was just that traumatized and frightened.

"Rem… made a mistake…" the oni murmured.

Mordred let out a sigh. 'Ok, this just sucks. It would be best if I simply reset.'

Mordred knew that he had to reset without doubt, but before that he thought if he could perhaps somehow benefit from this failed loop or perhaps tease Rem, but after looking at the frightened Rem for a while he decided to simply loop as soon as possible - he didn't want to take a reckless risk that his checkpoints would change after he does or says something terribly wrong.

Mordred closed the door, summoned his sword and suicided once again.

This was, perhaps, the fastest Return by Death after Return by Death in Re:Zero history, both canon and fanfic.

***

Some time ago. While Mordred was receiving the tour of the mansion with Rem, Emilia brought Subaru away for a talk.

The silver-haired girl's expression was quite angry as she stared at Subaru. "Subaru, you embarrassed me so much. Why did you behave like that in front of Mordred inside the carriage?"

Subaru snorted. "Emilia-tan, he's your enemy for the throne. Why am I supposed to be nice to him? He just rubs me the wrong way."

"Even if he's my enemy, you still can't behave like a child and insult him like this. You're so troublesome to deal with, Subaru. Why couldn't you just be quiet?"

"He's your enemy, while I'm on your side. Why do you have to defend him? I didn't say anything that bad anyway. If he takes it the wrong way, it's his problem for being a sissy," Subaru rebuked by instinct; even though he knew that he was wrong, his pride made him refuse to admit it.

"No, I don't want excuses. Subaru, just listen. You must apologize to Mordred and you can't be rude to him anymore. Mordred is a Royal Candidate and my benefactor," Emilia said as she looked at Subaru with her large amethyst eyes.

Subaru snorted and looked away. He simply couldn't keep looking at Emilia's gorgeous face as she looked straight at him, as she looked even more cute when she was angry.

"Subaru, please," Emilia said seriously, her voice and pleading expression unimaginably charming.

Looking back at Emilia, Subaru was stunned.

Emilia's beautiful, flowing silver hair was as magical as dew in the moonlight. Her white skin was as pale as fresh snow, and her amethyst eyes seemed to capture his attention as if he were under a spell. Subaru was also aware that her delicate body equipped with long, thin limbs was so fragile that it might break if he were to hold her in his arms. She was noble, kind and beautiful, and an ideal woman.

No matter how Subaru looked at it, there was no way she would show interest in a smelly shut-in from another world.

Despite being all loud and fooling around, the main reason that he refused to 'give up' on Emilia anyway was to defend his manly pride. Inwardly he honestly didn't think that he had a chance with an elf Princess; the difficulty was just too high!

Subaru lowered his head, unable to keep looking straight at Emilia. 'Yeah, I set my sight on the wrong girl. Getting roped up with a Queen Candidate sounds like a really thorny path.'

In the first place, he never wanted to get summoned to another world or anything. He was satisfied with his life as a shut-in back on Earth. It was fun to imagine arriving in another world to obtain incredible power, but to actually end up in such a situation, what could he really do?

Subaru was fine with being the protagonist and the hero, but only if he was super Overpowered from the start, didn't need to do anything and could defeat all of his enemies with a single strike. After he heard from Puck that he would need months and years of hard training to learn magic and increase his mana reserves, his enthusiasm had died down by a lot.

Originally he thought that after learning a single spell from Roswaal he would shock everyone and already be really strong, but it turned out that magic was much more boring and realistic than expected. Subaru didn't feel a desire to improve at all.

Unfortunately, the truth was that Subaru could no longer escape reality now. He tried to act like the protagonist, but he would much prefer to have a comfortable and easy life as a side character. A part of him even wanted to return to his comfortable room back on Earth.

After fiercely 'fighting' for Emilia for the last several hours purely out of principle, Subaru was at his limit and about to give up. Since Mordred didn't even fight back, Subaru didn't feel the desire to 'compete' anymore. It was simply too much work and trouble for a girl that he just met, that threated him rather coldly today and that he didn't actually think he had chances with.

And it isn't that Subaru fell in love with Emilia. He simply found her to be stunningly beautiful, kind, and thought that she was his fated one.

However, he felt that it didn't seem to be the case.

'I hate to admit it, but it's clear that Mordred and Emilia are a good pairing, even if just for their royal backgrounds... If Mordred faced all the dangers and I simply profited, living in luxury, then that would just be perfect.'

"Subaru, please," Emilia said once again.

"Eh, sure. I'll try to be a bit nicer from now on. Sorry, sorry," Subaru forced himself to say casually, for the comfort of his future life. Although he admitted his mistakes, agreeing to apologize to Mordred was another matter altogether - he could never do it sincerely.

"Thank you, Subaru. I'll believe in you," Emilia said with a pure gentle smile. After noticing Subaru's expression she added: "If you don't want to apologize to Mordred, I'll do it myself."

"Emilia-ta..." Subaru began and then let out a sigh.

In his heart he had already fully given up on Emilia. Unless he was forced to or his pride was severrely insulted, Subaru Natsuki was simply too lazy to keep at it. He would honestly prefer to cut corners to live a lazy life, if he could.

'On the other hand, I think Ram-chan has a thing for me. She's such a tsundere,' he thought.

***

After killing himself and looping once again, Mordred allowed Rem into his room as she brought the jar of water - this time without overhearing Mordred send his prayers to the Witch of Envy and without her breaking anything.

In the first place, it was Mordred's luck that Rem actually brought the jar out of fright - otherwise if he didn't notice Rem overhearing him, then he would really have to play on hard mode when trying to gain her trust from that point onwards, especially if he would overwrite the safe point later.

"Thank you, Rem," Mordred said as he walked toward the jar.

"As a servant, it's my duty, Mordred-sama."

While taking a glass into his hand, he looked at Rem once again and sighed. He said, "Hm, Rem, you can leave."

It was apparent that Rem was relieved when she heard that. "Then Rem will take her leave."

A while later Mordred poured himself a glass of water as he watched the doors close behind Rem. 'I want to have a chat with her, but first let's just get her more comfortable with my presence in the mansion.'

After having a nice refreshing drink and making up his mind, Mordred wanted to take this chance and attempt meeting Beatrice for the first time. However, just as he got to the door, he heard knocking from behind and then a voice.

"Mordred, are you there? It's Emilia."

Not a moment later Emilia jumped in surprise as the door in front of her suddenly opened right after she called out and Mordred appeared in the doorframe.

-Too fast!

"Yeah, I'm here. Do you need something, Emi?" Mordred asked with a slight smile.

"Yes, I want to talk about Su… What? What did you just say?"

Mordred chuckled. "Emi. I found Emily a bit too long and too hard on the tongue, so I think Emi is a better nickname."

"Emi?" she parroted, putting a finger on her lips.

"Lia!" Puck called out as he jumped out of Emilia's hair with his paws raised, surprising the two people present.

Mordred smiled, caught on and said, "Emi…"

"Lia!" Puck jumped up into the air with a V-pose.

"Emi…"

"Lia!" Puck did somersault in the air and landed on top of Emilia's head. "Emi-Lia!"

Emilia chuckled with her knuckles near her lips, smiling. "Puck seems to like it."

"Humu, don't tell Subaru, but it's better than Emilia-tan…" Puck whispered with a playful wink.

Mordred laughed, while Emilia let out a wry yet happy smile.

Unable to stand the atmosphere anymore, Puck then shook his entire body as if he was a phone on vibration mode. "Arrrr! Honestly, can you stop having these feelings, Mordred?! As a parent it just makes me feel so weird and pissed off!"

Puck sent Mordred a cold look.

"Eeeh? How is that my problem?" Mordred crossed his arms. "My feelings are my own, stop reading my mind!"

"-Actually, I can do this. Now, try reading me." Mordred inwardly considered Puck as a threat and fully activated Magic Resistance against him.

Puck's eyes widened. "You can actually shield your mind from me! Let me just tell you this, if you have too many dirty thoughts about my daughter, I'll erase you."

Mordred could tell that Puck was completely serious.

"Sure, sure. What did you even feel from me earlier anyway? Actually, never mind, don't say it! But I don't think I thought anything bad."

"Humu, right and that's what pisses me off the most. There wasn't anything that I could really complain about. It's so frustrating!" Puck crossed his arms.

"But that's good, right?" Mordred asked.

Although Mordred really didn't feel comfortable with Puck reading his mind, he didn't feel that his thoughts were too dirty or bad in regards to Emilia for the most part - although he certainly viewed her in a romantic way because she was extremely gorgeous, he felt that first came his concern for her and her mental problems along with her growth as a person; he thought that perhaps it could instead help him to gain Puck's and Emilia's trust.

Mordred's face then reddened in embarassement as he realized that they were basically talking about his feelings for Emilia all this time in her presence. He coughed. "Uh. Eh. Why are you here anyway?"

Emilia placed a finger on her lips as if she recalled something. "Riiight. Mordred, I want to talk with you. Can I come in?"

"Sure," Mordred lightly said and then simply left the door wide open as he walked deeper inside himself.

A while later Emilia walked in and closed the door behind her.

Behind Emilia, Rem couldn't help but be stunned as she watched the interaction. The man that she was so afraid of - his acting was simply too terrifyingly good.

"Mordred, I want to apologize for Subaru's behavior in the carriage. I hope you don't feel insulted. Subaru is aaa biiit childish." Although Emilia's tone was rather casual after the earlier conversation, Mordred could notice the pleading expression in her eyes.

"It's okay. I don't blame you and I'm fine." Mordred slightly smiled. "Anyway, Subaru is new around here and doesn't know how things are run. Me and you are not petty, so we can tolerate him, but if he was talking to anyone else with our status with his disrespectful attitude and without even using honorifics, then he could get executed. I hope someone teaches him some things."

"Yep, you're right." Emilia nodded seriously. "Subaru acts a biiit too overly familiar with anyone he meets."

Mordred only faintly smiled and didn't respond.

The room fell silent for a while.

"Hmmmm." Emili then hummed as she placed a finger on her lips in contemplation. "That's all I wanted to talk about. I apologize for Subaru."

"It's fine. Apologies accepted." Mordred smiled.

Emilia nodded and soon left the room.

At that time, seeing the innocent light smile on Emilia's face, Rem reminded herself to never lose her guard against *that man* and get fooled by him like this girl.

Meanwhile Mordred looked at the door for a long while. Thinking back to meeting Beatrice - he wasn't entirely sure how Subaru managed to convince Beatrice to break her contract, as his memory of that part was quite hazy, he could only recall that Subaru sort of begged her out to leave with him, and that's about it.

Mordred himself had a few ideas and wanted to try them. Even if he was wrong, he didn't feel like there was a problem with testing them even if his loops would get updated.

After having made up his mind, Mordred once again left his room and entered the corridor. Looking both left and right, the hallways seemed to extend into infinity.

'Looping hallways, huh? Beatrice must want to keep me here without letting me wander around or it's a test or something. I can't sense Rem nearby either. She's probably too scared and left…'

Go forward, go left, go forward, go right, go right…

Mordred walked across the hall in a zigzag by following his instinct and then approached a random door.

"Here!"

He gently opened the door slightly and then knocked on it with his knuckles.

Knock, knock, knock.

Following that, he opened the door fully, and the response he received was: "… Ow, how did you get in here without invitation?! And without triggering any mana sensing traps, in fact!"

Mordred received a suspicious look from a curly-haired little girl staring at him in an unfamiliar library. Naturally, it was Beatrice. Behind her was the Forbidden Library. This room was also around 40 square meters big but instead packed with bookshelves.

"Beatrice, it's nice to finally meet Echidna's daughter," Mordred said and lightly smiled, as his light green orbs fixated on the little girl.

Beatrice's face flashed with shock, before her expression turned serious. "How do you know about mother, I suppose? Who are you?"

"I know many mysteries of the world, so of course I know about the greatest of witches." Mordred faintly smiled, shocking Beatrice even more. He then gently said, "Beatrice, can I come in?"

Beatrice was stunned for a long while. "Hm, you have some manners at least, I suppose. Betty allows it, in fact."

Mordred closed the door and entered the library, noticing that Beatrice's wary eyes didn't leave him even for a millisecond.

Letting out a sigh, Mordred took a more thorough look through the library. There were bookcases set up all over the place, going from one corner of the room to the other. Every bookcase was so tightly packed with books that it was hard to imagine how many books it truly held.

There were so many books there that Mordred felt incredibly excited.

"It's a wonderful library! So many books, and it's all spotless clean," Mordred commented honestly as his finger caressed the spine of one of the thick tomes.

"You have a good taste, I suppose…" Beatrice remarked with a cold tone. "Now tell Betty who you are. Betty has been watching you from the start, in fact."

Mordred returned his eyes to Beatrice. "My name is Mordred Pendragon. I'm the son and heir of Arthur Pendragon - the King of Britain and the King of Knights. I'm also a Royal Candidate to be the next King of Lugnica. But all this isn't very important. I'm simply Mordred, a person from beyond the Great Waterfall."

Beatrice looked at Mordred with suspicion. She then shook her glittering dress as she began walking toward him.

"Wait, what are you trying to do?" Mordred asked as Beatrice was approaching him. He already knew what she was planning and he had a bad feeling about it.

"Don't move, in fact," she then said coldly.

At that moment Beatrice's hand touched Mordred's abdomen.

Boom!

With an explosion the little girl was sent flying backwards away from Mordred like a cannonball. She flew through the room for a few meters and landed on her back. It was only a while later that Beatrice lifted herself off the floor slowly and shook off her dress with an angry and hostile look on her face.

"What was that, in fact?!" Beatrice called out loudly to Mordred, demanding an answer.

Mordred lightly snorted. "You tried to siphon my mana, right? You should have told me then. I have a magic resistance skill."

"That's not how magic resistance works, in fact."

"Well, mine is different I guess." After a moment's pause, Mordred let out a sigh, "Sigh. I tried to stop you, but I suppose I apologize. I hope you're not hurt."

"Betty is fine, I suppose," Beatrice coldly replied as she shook off her clothes once again. She then added, "You are lucky that no books got damaged or you would have paid the price, in fact."

She was so distressed and shocked all this time after meeting Mordred that she couldn't help but speak with her usual mannerism even more than usual.

Mordred then began to slowly walk toward Beatrice. "If you want to take some of my mana, then you can go now. I disabled my magic resistance."

Although [Magic Resistance B] was usually a passive skill, Mordred found out that he could consciously disable it if he wanted, determining who is his enemy and who is a foe; as he thought about this, otherwise he wouldn't be able to receive buffs from others.

Beatrice only snorted and then approached Mordred once again, not leaving her wary eyes off his face. She then extended her hand which Mordred took into his own instead.

"You can go ahead. I'll cooperate with you," Mordred said.

Keeping her eyes on Mordred's, Beatrice soon focused on absorbing the Saber's mana, while the latter injected it into her.

"~Aaaaaaah!" immediately the little blonde girl let out a loud pleasured moan as a huge mana injection entered her, her face flushing bright red in ahegao.

She rapidly pulled back her hand and then looked at Mordred angrily.

"What are you doing, in fact?! Can't you be any more decent? Pouring so much mana into Betty all at once, in fact?!" Beatrice raised a protest with a flustered and angry face.

***

(AN: Yes, I'll copy some ideas from the Why Me fanfic, as I don't see a reason to reinvent the wheel when some things would likely go the same way anyway. {Why Me is a Re:Zero story with Arthur Prototype Self Insert MC that gets summoned instead of Subaru - you can find the original on fanfiction.net, the webnovel ones are plagiarism.})

(And yes, this is everyone's favorite protagonist Natsuki Subaru! Unfortunately he's too lazy to even be a proper antagonist, if he could help it.)

(Next chapter drops on Tuesday (in two days from now) when Power Stones reset at 18:00 CEST (Europe/Germany) / 12:00 ET (USA).)