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—
-Lugnica-
In the innermost part of the capital, the main mansion of the Noble House Of Duke Karsten, inside was the office of the only heir of this prestigious lineage, Crusch Karsten.
Crusch was busy at the moment reading the daily reports of her camp, as she was engrossed in her work, she didn't realize a vortex the size of a fist above her head.
An object dropped from it, and fell directly into her table, her earlier concentration was cut off and her warrior instinct reacted before her mind could fully process everything.
Her hands were already in her hips, where her sword was at, ready to be drawn at any moment.
Then as her mind caught up, she stared at the square shaped object that looks like it was made out of some unknown metal at her desk.
Her eyes narrowed as she looked around her office, trying to find how this foreign object even managed to get past her reinforced room.
There's no gap between her room, so it's physically impossible for anyone to get in, so there's only one possibility and that is magic.
The Yin element, a type of magic that lets the user separate things from anything, but to achieve this kind of thing inside her territory no less.
There's no doubt that the culprit is definitely an expert with their craft.
"I should call for my trusted subordinates."
And so not long after, her most trusted subordinates arrived, which consists of The Greatest Healer Of the Kingdom Of Lugnica Blue Felix Argyle, The Previous Generation Sword Saint, The Sword Demon Wilhelm van Astrea and the most recent addition, The Strategist, Slayer Of White Whale Natsuki Subaru.
Despite being her subordinate for less than a few short months, she trusted this strange man as much as she trusted the rest of her other subordinate who has been with her for the most of her life.
Although there's a significant difference between them and him, there's no doubt that she could trust them with her life, but it's quite different with Subaru as recently there's been some sort of affection involved.
Unlike the rest of her subordinates, Subaru was someone who was open with his attractions toward her.
Normally she would have ignored it as long as it didn't affect the camp's atmosphere.
But lately, after the grand achievement of slaying the White Whale one of the 3 great mabeast.
Crusch finds herself looking at him more often than not, most of the time she doesn't even realize it herself.
She smiles unconditionally when he looks at her with those terrifying eyes of his that she found endearing lately.
Eventually she became aware of her feelings, it was surprising but strangely she doesn't mind as Natsuki Subaru is a unique individual, strange but oddly charismatic.
So, she becomes more open to his wooing but never thought of accepting it, yet.
Not because she doesn't want to, but because she's extremely busy at the moment and has no time to deal with dating.
Only when she finds the time, she would accept his confession, she might not look like it but Crusch is still a maiden, so it isn't strange for her age to have some sort of fantasy toward romance.
There are hardly any men that attracted her interest, the last one was the late Prince Fourier Lugnica.
But before it could bloom into a romance, tragedy struck as upon the royal family and all of them ended up dying from a cursed illness.
And when she thought that she wouldn't be able to feel that kind of attraction again, fate proved her wrong as this man suddenly appeared in her life.
Shaking her head, making those thoughts disappear as it is unnecessary for now.
"You called for us Crusch-snyama?" Felix asked.
While Wilhelm and Subaru were waiting faithfully for her to explain the reason why she called them.
Crusch nodded and started her explanation. "I've called you as there's something unusual that happened in my office just a while ago."
Subaru immediately asked with concern. "Is it anything dangerous to you?"
Crusch slightly smiled at his concern for her, she shook her head and replied. "No, at least not at the moment as the strange object didn't harm me."
Wilhelm raised a brow at his perfectly stoic face. "A strange item?"
"Indeed, it suddenly appeared in my office without any prior warning and I want you all to help me figure what sort of object is it, as I have never seen such a thing in my life, it's most likely a metia but I'm unable to prove it as I haven't touched it or move the object from its location. It might be cursed or something and such it warrants my caution."
"A smart decision." Wilhelm praised his liege at her caution, as it's unwise for her to touch a foreign object especially when she's currently the leading royal candidate.
Any accident toward her being is going to be fatal to her candidacy.
"So where's this strange object nya?" Felix asked straight to the matter.
Crusch took a few steps and pointed at the object in the desk. "This is the object I told you about."
Wilhelm and Felix were unable to recognize this object which was given, but it was different for Subaru who was shocked to see an item he never thought he'd see again in this world and blurted. "A smartphone?"
Everyone's attention was into him, as he seemed to recognize this foreign object.
"You know this object?" Crusch immediately asked as she saw the undisguised shock on her subordinate face.
Subaru managed to snap out of it and replied. "Y-yeah, it's called a smartphone. It's a metia from my hometown."
Crusch has been hearing about his 'hometown' dozens of times now, from what she could gather it seemed that his hometown is very advanced in terms of technology compared to their kingdom.
Although she was curious about it, she didn't pry much as it was obvious to see that her subordinate didn't really like talking about his hometown. Perhaps in the future when he's ready, she shall ask of him.
"A smarthaphone nya? What a weird name!" Felix said.
From the looks of it, Subaru wanted to return but held himself, muttering about saying the name wrong.
"A smartphone? Interesting name, what does it do?" Crusch tested the odd name, which she was able to pronounce correctly for the first time.
Subaru then proceeded to explain. "You know about my metia right?"
All of them nodded, of course they're very familiar with his metia, after all it was crucial for locating the White Whale.
"To explain it in simple terms, my metia is an inferior version of that smartphone, it can do more things than my metia combined."
That made them more astonished, after all they know how valuable Subaru's metia was but to think this object is a superior version of it.
Crusch become most interested in this object, then asked. "How does this metia works?"
Subaru then proceeded to take the object without any caution, normally she would have scolded him for such carelessness but he knew more about this object than anyone around, so she let it be.
He pressed the small button at the side of the metia, but after a moment he spoke. "Huh? It won't open at all, is it low in battery?"
"Is there something wrong?" Crusch noticed his reaction earlier than anyone else.
"Well…I don't think this is going to work.." Subaru hesitates a bit before admitting.
Hearing those words, Crusch was a bit disappointed.
'Of course, it was way too good to be true.: She thought, as it was asked suspicious enough that this object arrived at her desk.
With a sigh, she said. "No matter, since it doesn't work, we might as well get rid of it."
Then she looks at Wilhelm, the old gentleman nodding knowing her intentions.
Wilhelm took away the object from Subaru and threw it into the air and swung his sword at a speed incomprehensible to a normal human.
"Wait-" Subaru was too late, as the sword was already in contact with the smartphone.
But unlike their expectations, the object wasn't destroyed like they thought it would; instead it was Wilhelm's sword that shattered beyond recognition.
"Wha-?!" It wasn't only Subaru who was surprised, but also everyone else in the room.
The smartphone fell harmlessly into the floor, and everyone was looking at it in a different light.
"Subaru…is this kind of metia has some sort of indestructible enchantment to it?" Crusch couldn't stop the astonishment in her voice.
"No! If that was the case then there was no need for us to replace it with another, this one is special. I don't think I've ever seen a smartphone this hard." Subaru added as he was staring at the object in a new light.
This time, it was Crusch who picked up the phone and she started inspecting the metia from all angles, astonishingly there wasn't a single scratch from it.
And when she tried to press the button at the side like Subaru did, unlike him the object vibrated on her hand almost making her throw it away.
The object lit up, like the light was trapped inside of it.
"It worked?" Subaru was confused as he was surprised.
—
A/N: A short explanation as to why Subaru is part of Crusch camp, in this timeline Crusch alongside with Felix was the first one to find him and saved him from the thugs in the first loop.
Which means the devotional and affection that was supposed for Emilia was now converted into Crusch, admittedly at first Crusch wasn't exactly his type as he preferred girls with silver hair and has a pure personality, which Crusch was a completely opposite of.
But thanks to his gratitude to her, he remained with her even when he met Emilia later, in this timeline things from the Arc 1 are mostly the same except for the slight divergence which is Crusch who wasn't supposed to be there.
He joined her camp after Reinhard beat Elsa, from then on his feelings toward her grew from a mere gratitude to a full-blown affection.
[email protected]/charlottes143
There's 9 chapters ahead.
This fanfic finally has R-18 chapter, lol. Although it's not what you expect. It's about Kanoko of course.