The words echoed like a cruel joke in Emilia's ears.
Memories surged forward, unbidden, relentless, dragging her back to a time soaked in despair and loneliness.
She remembered the man. A bitter, hateful man. A poacher who, through means beyond her understanding, had temporarily seized the body of one of the Four Great Spirits, "Melakuera" for the sole purpose of erasing her. Not judging her for her deeds. Not for who she was. But solely for hatred. For how she looked.
The forest around them had been a winter grave. Snow blanketed the earth, and the trees stood like jagged spears of ice, frozen stiff by a temperature too unnatural to be called mere weather. In the heart of that cold, he burned, waves of bright orange, suffocating heat radiating off his body, in contrast to the frozen stillness around them.
She had been on her knees, sobbing. Her spirits, her only friends in that frost-bitten forest, her world, had just been vaporized, consumed while shielding her from a beam of searing fire.
His words, jagged and venomous, rang out:
"You… must… cease… to exist… horrid… half-elf…"
"What do you mean… I'm a half-elf?" she had asked, her voice breaking, confusion battling grief. "Is that… why everyone else in the forest is like that?"
Her jewel-like eyes, violet and blue, dimmed as she gripped her head, arms wrapping tightly around herself. Her voice trembled, barely above a whisper.
"Is that why I'm the only one who woke up…? What did I do…? Why is the entire forest frozen? What did I do to them…?"
Then, more images. More pain.
A memory of saving a lost couple from a raging Mabeast, only to be met not with thanks, but with fear. A sword was directed toward her face. Followed by cries of "Witch!"
"Why does everyone hate me?"
"Why am I always alone?"
"…Why?"
The Great Spirit, whose true form had once been a majestic horse wreathed in hypnotic waves of blue and orange flame, now stood before her, humanoid, unfeeling. Unsympathetic.
"I… know… nothing."
"Then… why?" Emilia's voice cracked. "Why are you after me? Why are you trying to kill me? What do you want? Why do people always hate me… for things I can't change, things I can't do anything about?!"
The heat pouring from the spirit intensified, waves of searing air curling around her like the breath of a furnace.
"You… are… a… half-demon. You… are… a… witch. Being… alive… is your… sin. Existing… in… this… world… is your… sin."
Her skin began to burn, pain blooming across her arms, her face, her legs. In that growing inferno, her voice came out as little more than a plea:
"Puck… save me…"
Snapping back to the present, Emilia stood trembling before the terrifying boy, Crimson. Everything about him felt scary and overwhelming. Wrong.
But… he had to be lying. He had to be.
At first, her words were a whisper.
"Liar…"
Her heart pounded. Her breathing quickened. The murmurs of the crowd around her became faint, distant, like echoes under water. Her chest tightened as her emotions surged violently to the surface.
How could she believe a stranger over the one who had always been by her side?
The one who had saved her… loved her…
Even if it was true, even if Puck had done something, then it must have been to protect her.
He must have had a reason.
"You're a liar…
A liar… liar… liar… liar… liar… LIAR!"
Her voice rose with every repetition, her emotions spiraling out of control, until she was shouting, screaming, through uneven, ragged breaths.
"You don't know anything about Puck."
The boy stood motionless, his blindfold veiling his eyes like a mask. A heavy silence hung around him, thick with a kind of melancholic indifference.
"I know more about Puck, the Beast of the End, than that cat knows about himself."
He didn't say it to argue. It wasn't some dramatic comeback. It was just… a truth. A sad, hollow truth.
"And as for me lying… you already know I'm not."
His voice lowered, almost gentle.
"Your memories have already started to return, haven't they?"
Then, without warning, his tone sharpened, cruel.
"You used your power. You froze them. All of them, turned every person in that forest into an ice statue. Whether you meant to or not, it doesn't change what happened.
You need to take responsibility."
Emilia flinched. His words hit like physical blows.
"The fact that you're still so damn naive—"
His teeth clenched mid-sentence.
"It irritates me."
He stepped closer. Her legs felt heavy. Her breath shallow.
"Ignorance… is one of the Best things a person can have. An ignorant person feels no guilt. They can't grasp anything beyond simplicity, think the world is black and white. That good people get good things and bad people get punished.
But once you lose that ignorance, you can never get it back."
His voice trembled, not with weakness, but fury barely contained.
"So after everything you've seen, everything you've done—
WHY ARE YOU STILL SO F*****G NAIVE?!"
Emilia stumbled a step backward, her face paling. Tears welled in her amethyst eyes. She hugged her arms close, trembling under the weight of the words.
"Why… are you being like this…?"
But Crimson didn't let up. His voice remained cold, relentless.
"You have the mentality of a child. The education of an eight-year-old. So tell me, why do you think you have what it takes to rule a nation? Just because some body-swapping clown backs you?"
He turned his hand toward Roswaal, pointing.
The eccentric lord flinched, visibly shaken.
"I don't give a damn if you look like the Witch. But if this is all you are, this weak, this blind, this lost, then you'll be nothing more than a damsel in distress. Kind… but useless."
A fist flew out of nowhere, landing square against Crimson's cheek. Yet, a fraction of a second before impact, he had tilted his head, moving with the punch. Still, a solid sound echoed through the chamber.
BAM.
Crimson staggered back a step.
Then he grinned, slowly, sharply, not at Emilia, not at Roswaal, but at someone else entirely.
Someone... overlooked.
A young butler, fists clenched and brimming with righteous fury, had thrown himself forward. His blow had struck true, an explosion of raw, unfiltered emotion.
Crimson, the blindfolded boy, licked the inside of his cheek, testing for blood. Making sure nothing was broken.
He wasn't angry. He wasn't shocked.
He looked... satisfied.
As if this, this exact moment, was something he had been waiting for.
And then, like a dam breaking, all the muffled background noise snapped back into Emilia's awareness.
The gasps. The whispers.
The shifting of feet.
The sudden crackle of rising tension.
The world around her, once drowned out by her spiraling emotions, slammed back into focus.
Eyes widened. Voices murmured in confusion or awe.
And there, standing between her and Crimson, was the trembling figure of the boy who had thrown the punch:
Subaru.
His voice cracked the silence.
"I don't care if you're a king or a god, don't talk to Emilia like that. No man should ever make a woman cry."
"Su-Subaru, I told you to stay put… and not cause trouble," Emilia said, her voice trembling as she turned to Crimson, panic rising in her chest. "Please, I'm sorry. He didn't mean any harm. He just… cares too much."
She moved quickly to grab Subaru's wrist, trying to gently tug him away from the stage. "Subaru, come on. This is my fault, please just apologize and let it go."
But Subaru didn't budge.
His eyes were locked forward, his voice steady but full of fire.
"No. I won't."
He shook his head, tearing his arm from her grasp.
"You were crying. And he's the one who made you cry. So why should you be the one apologizing?"
Crimson smiled, purely for the fact that he both hated and admired this heroic characteristic of Subaru. Moments before, he had been waiting for Subaru's move, knowing that no one would come to his aid to stop Subaru's outburst. He had, before this, explained the entire situation to Rei, telling her what would happen ahead of time.
His Grey World not only gave him 360-degree and X-ray vision, but also perfect situational awareness. When combined with Gluttony, perfect memory, and enhanced prediction of any physical movement based on how muscles contracted, as well as suppressed emotions, Subaru's emotions had only been getting more and more transparent.
Seeing his emotions heightening, and the muscles in his fists, calves, and thighs contracting, he waited, letting Subaru's rush appear to take him by surprise. Predicting the path his fist would take, angling his face with it, combining it with a minor repulsive force from his cheek as slight padding, to make a louder impact, the scene was perfect.
Beatrice closed her eyes, inhaling through her nose. She wasn't going to interfere.
Not yet.
It was clear this was what that boy, Toyota, had wanted from the beginning.
She just hoped it wouldn't end in blood.
However, if her contractor was badly injured, it wouldn't matter if it was Toyota or Reinhard; she wouldn't hesitate to attack.
Roswaal smirked widely, as if he was beginning to find this outcome favorable.
None of the knights, none of the mages, and not even Reinhard stepped forward to stop Subaru's reckless approach.
They didn't move because they knew, interfering now would only put themselves in a specific line of fire.
Crimson grinned, ready to reenact the same moment that once made Subaru the enemy of the knights.
Subaru shook off Emilia's grip and stepped forward, squaring up against the blindfolded boy. Face to face, he tried to match Crimson's presence. He had the height advantage, barely an inch taller, but standing this close, something about the boy triggered a flash of déjà vu.
That was when Subaru noticed it.
The charred, blackened skin at the edge of Crimson's neck. The way it had seared and cauterized, like fire had eaten into the flesh and stopped just short of killing him. The image made Subaru shiver. He imagined his own skin flaking, the nerves fried and dead beneath it.
Crimson raised a hand and casually pushed Subaru back, increasing the distance between them.
Subaru stumbled a step, glaring.
"Apologize to Emilia," he demanded.
"Subaru!" Emilia's voice cracked as she shouted, distressed.
Subaru flinched. Crimson, however, ignored her completely, his grin only growing tighter as he held back a laugh.
"By the way… what exactly is your relationship with Emilia?"
Emilia tried to answer for Subaru, but her voice faltered.
"Um… well, he's…"
"It's okay, Emilia," Subaru said firmly, cutting her off. "I've made up my mind."
Emilia blinked. "Your mind? W-What are you going to do—wait!"
Subaru took one bold step toward the Dragon Throne, planted his feet wide, brought one hand behind his back, and bent both knees dramatically.
"Nice to meet you officially, royal candidates and council of elders!" he declared, fire burning in his eyes. "My name is Natsuki Subaru! I'm a manservant at Roswaal's mansion, and I proudly serve this royal candidate…"
He pointed straight at Emilia, his voice filled with certainty.
"…as Emilia's best knight!"
A stunned silence fell over the chamber.
Felix blinked, taken aback. Though it was clear they shared no love for Crimson, even he found the butler's audacity baffling.
"To call yourself a knight... nya, seriously?" he muttered under his breath.
Murmurs filled the hall. A mage near the back asked, "Hmm… a knight, is he?"
Roswaal turned his head slightly, hiding his expression behind a lazy grin.
"He knoooows little of our wooooorld," he sang under his breath.
Beatrice's mouth fell open, adorably aghast. "What in the name of all Spirits is that fool doing…"
Al rubbed the back of his helmet, muttering under his breath like he was reliving secondhand embarrassment. "Ugh… not this…"
Julius stepped forward, golden eyes fixed on Subaru.
"Do you truly proclaim yourself to be Lady Emilia's knight?" he asked, voice calm but stern.
The question wasn't a challenge, it was a lifeline.
A chance to walk it back.
But Subaru stood firm.
"I want to make Emilia the ruler…" Subaru said.
Then, firmer:
"No… I will make her the ruler."
Julius' gaze narrowed, piercing into him.
"And you believe you have the strength to do that?"
Subaru hesitated. His jaw clenched. He didn't have some noble answer. Nothing flashy.
"…I don't have anything as grand as 'resolve'," he said, voice raw. "And I know I'm not strong. I know how weak I am better than anyone."
He looked toward Emilia, then back at Julius, his eyes flicking toward Crimson.
"But even if it's a hopeless dream… even if I'm pathetic... I'm going to make her wish come true."
His eyes locked onto Crimson's grin, now stretching wider.
"I'll make Emilia the ruler. No matter what it takes."
Julius exhaled slowly and shook his head.
"…While I do admire your spirit, that answer—"
He stepped forward, cape brushing the floor.
"—is far too arrogant."
Subaru blinked.
"Weakness is not a badge to wear with pride," Julius continued, voice steady but sharp. "Have you truly earned the right to stand here? Before the throne? Before the Council? Before knights who've bled and trained for years to stand by their chosen candidate?"
The Royal Knights behind Julius began to stir. It was one thing for a candidate to speak boldly; they could tolerate that. But a manservant comparing himself to them?
The knights' bloodlust toward Subaru only grew. Teeth were gritting. Hands hovered near weapons.
And then, crack.
Crimson cracked his knuckles as he stepped forward, voice low and icy.
"A knight, huh…? Then I suppose it's only right, an eye for an eye."
Subaru's body jolted.
His face, no, his head, was yanked forward as if by a vacuum, an invisible force dragging him toward Crimson. He stumbled, arms flailing, unable to keep balance—
"Clench your teeth," Crimson muttered.
CRACK!
The punch landed with horrifying force, snapping against Subaru's lower jaw. The suction gave it unnatural speed, bone met flesh with a sickening crack, and in an instant, Subaru's body crumpled to the floor in a limp heap.
A dull thud followed as he hit the carpet, unconscious.
The silence that followed was short-lived.
Fwip—shing—fwip—
From Beatrice's outstretched palm, four jagged, pink, crystal-like spears materialized with a hum of mana. Her eyes were cold, unblinking, and focused only on Crimson.
At the same time, eight gleaming icicles hovered around Emilia, orbiting her like a deadly halo. Her hands trembled, but her voice didn't come. Her eyes were wide with rising fury.
The temperature in the hall plummeted.
"You mad?"
(AN: I had to rewatch the special Emilia OVA to write this chapter, not going to lie, watching it made me understand that Emilia is a way better and way more complex character than she seems. The next chapter should be Julius versus Crimson in a duel. I'm not good at fight scenes, but I'll try my best.
I've set an official release schedule: Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Although when I get bored, I add extra.
Bonus chapters will drop on Saturdays if my demands are met. 🔫
Trade deal:
You give me 150 power stones, and I give you a bonus chapter.
"Sounds fair, right?"