"Oh, Beako, you're awake. This is old man Rom."
Rubbing her eyes blearily, she glanced at the gargantuan figure.
"A giant? It's been a while since I've met one, I suppose."
Subaru turned to Rom.
"Is that an actual race here?"
"Yeah, we were all practically erased during the demi-human wars."
Beatrice looked around, visibly befuddled.
"Where are we, I suppose? Emilia tasked Betty with keeping an eye on you, to not be reckless. I'll see you later, then."
Rom began, "There's a store called Cadmon on Market Street. Give my name to the grumpy-looking man there—he'll get in touch with me."
"All right, all right. Cadmon, Cadmon..." Subaru repeated, trying to drill it into his memory.
As Rom explained how to get in touch, Subaru tilted his head at the familiar-sounding word.
"Incidentally, me and my lovely little spirit are lost. I don't want my adventure to end before it can begin, so, uh... could you lead us back to the main street?"
"Mm, all right, leave it to me. Which street is it?"
"Back to the garrison, I suppose," Beatrice chimed in, somehow knowing where they were better than Subaru—even while asleep.
She must have memorized the capital's maps in the library, Subaru thought.
"You know I escaped from the garrison when I woke up, right? I'm not going back; I'm practically a criminal!"
Old man Rom's exasperated shout filled the sky above the alleyway.
After leaving, he set down Beatrice, who was stiff from being carried.
"These grimy streets make me feel disgusted. In fact, I am not accustomed to such filthy places."
She raised the hem of her dress and shook it—a blunt expression of her displeasure.
"You're acting like that's my fault," Subaru remarked, shaking his head.
"I can't control the world. I can barely control my own life."
Continuing to walk through the alleyways with the little girl trailing behind him, he seemed lost in thought for a few more moments, until Beatrice broke him out of it.
"Betty recognizes our location, I suppose."
"Really? Good job, Beako."
Subaru broke into a relieved smile, glad that his suffering was finally at an end.
Just ahead of a bend, the two could finally see the bright sun shining over the road. Subaru beheld the flow of people passing to and fro.
"Here we are. Now let's go find our other cutie pie companion."
Beatrice puffed out her cheeks in plain, obvious jealousy.
The instant the two exited the alley, they were greeted by a voice, Emilia's voice.
"I finally found you."
Subaru looked around to find a miffed hooded elf.
"Oh, Emili—"
Then he noticed a helmeted, one-armed man with an open shirt standing beside her.
"Wait, wait, wait! You can't just pick up Emilia while I'm away!"
The helmeted man leaned down and met Subaru's eye level with his own, hidden behind the visor.
"Now that's no way to talk to someone. I can overlook that since I'm a chill guy, but someone else I know, a certain arrogant princess, might lop off your head for that."
Beatrice's tiny demeanor stiffened as mana gathered around her, creating an oppressive force.
"Are you threatening my contractor?"
"Of course not, little miss," the helmeted man said in a placating tone. "Just giving advice."
"Relax, Beatrice. Subaru—his outfit surprised me too," Emilia interjected.
"Yeah, well, I was surprised when she asked for my help to find a lost child, too."
He pointed to Subaru.
"I'm guessing you are the child. But you look more like a child."
He then pointed to Beatrice.
Beatrice's adorable face turned red; she was miffed.
"Betty isn't a child! Betty is older than all of you combined, in fact!"
"I apologize. No offense intended."
The one-armed man raised his arm as if to complete it with a phantom hand pressed together to apologize, which made it look like he wanted a high five.
Subaru looked at the weird man and smiled at Emilia.
"Emilia, you're too soft-hearted. Most would think a guy dressed like this, looking for a lost child, was trying to kidnap them. Thank god we're tied by the red string of fate."
The other man, hearing this, went completely rigid.
"Well, who's the other lost child you're looking for?" Subaru asked, turning to the one-armed man.
Putting a hand to his helmeted chin and stroking it, the man replied, "How should I describe princess… without being rude…"
"She sounds like a piece of work, in fact," Beatrice chimed in.
Ignoring her, the man continued.
"Orange hair. Beautiful. Lucky. A true noble."
Hearing the basic description, Subaru's cheerful demeanor dropped.
"Ah… her."
"You saw her?"
"Yeah."
"And?"
"She decided to go around insulting muggers in alleys."
Growling, he shouted, "Which direction?!"
Subaru could see his eyes through the helmet, he sounded like a father figure, overprotective, and exasperated, at his beloved daughter.
"Hmmm… that way, I think."
Subaru pointed behind him.
At that, the helmeted man sped off, leaving the three of them in a trail of dust.
"Damn it, Princess, again," he yelled aloud.
I guess they get along pretty decently, huh, Subaru thought vaguely.
"I commend your dedication. I sympathize with you a bit, strange man," he muttered.
Beatrice sighed. "You should also commend Betty's dedication for putting up with you, I suppose."
Without thinking, he reached out a hand and absentmindedly patted Beatrice's head.
"Yeah, yeah…"
Thinking back on it, he realized he also sympathized with Dumb, Dumber, and Dumbest as well—something he never thought he'd do.
Meanwhile, the one-armed man with the helmet managed to find Priscilla. She was sitting atop three unconscious figures in an alleyway, peeling an appa with a giant red, glowing sword. Upon noticing her knight, she called out,
"My, how attentive of you to know where I would be. I commend your dedication, Al," she said in a condescending, smug voice, smirking at him.
"Princess… why do you ignore me when I warn you?" Al groaned.
With a snap of her wrist, the sword immediately reverted back into a fan.
"The world exists for my sake, so should not everything in it serve to amuse me? Listening to a warning simply because of fear is what the common rabble do. Why should I restrict myself to their social norms?"
"Princess, you're gonna be the death of me…" Al muttered.
Turning his head to the three unconscious men, he tilted it in confusion. "Hey ah princess you seeing whats happening here."
"Whatever you wish to say speak it clearly, I dislike all this indirectness."
"You… didn't kill them?"
"I was feeling merciful," she said coolly, "after learning something new."
She twirled the half-peeled appa in her hand before taking a bite.
"Mmm… bittersweet. It is indeed an appa on the inside. I am forced to conclude that the clown from earlier did not simply dye them red as some kind of joke. I am shocked."
***
Toyota was looking at a tearful Rei, attempting to console her.
"I'm sorry, but this is the most optimal way for us to get what we need. I know the whole point of learning all these manners was to make this possible… but if it succeeds, it will pay off tenfold. You need to think of the future benefits."
Rei was clearly distressed by what he had told her regarding the plans for the ceremony. Her voice cracked as she clung tightly to his arm, her grip fierce.
"What will my friends think of me if you act like that? I'm responsible for training you!"
"Like I said, it's only temporary. If it really bothers you, we can send a private letter to each candidate afterward, explaining that it was all an act."
"Noooooo…" she whined. "If we do that, then it's like admitting to emotionally manipulating them!"
Without Rei's approval and help, he wouldn't be able to succeed. Gritting his teeth, he tried to negotiate.
"What if I tone it down a bit and make the insults more subtle?"
"How subtle?" she asked, her voice still whiny.
Rei's current mental state was skewed. The longer he spent with her, the more clingy and less serious she became around him. It was most likely due to her lack of personal connections—she was afraid to shake even the weakest of bridges.
Then a cold, seductive voice swooned in his ear, making him flinch.
"To think the Sword Saint, the Knight of Knights, acts like a bratty baby when she's with you… it's so amusing, it almost makes up for being dead."
It was the voice of the newest visitor Elsa who had arrived one night after receiving the final fragments of Wrath's memories. She had scared the stuffing out of him when he woke up to find two women on either side of his bed.
Ever since that first time, when he had woken up to Rei hugging him, she had insisted on guarding his room for safety. That meant she had brought her own bed into his room, moving it right beside his.
His skepticism only grew. This was starting to feel like the slow build-up to a sappy romance movie. If this continued… would it turn into a harem? He didn't know.
"Come on… I know you can hear me—or at least sense me," the vampire said, tilting her head as if unsure.
Ignoring Elsa, he pleaded, "Just a few short personal jabs, and maybe a bit of intimidating the Council of Wise Men. I promise it'll be 20—no, 10 percent of the previous plan's rudeness."
"Fine," Rei replied, pausing before looking at him with an unreadable gaze. "What are you looking at?"
"Huh? I have a blindfold on."
Her gaze sharpened, suspicious. "I feel like your full attention is elsewhere."
The pressure in her voice bore down on him. It was really starting to tire Toyota out—how he always had to remain submissive around her. The upside of having Rei as a knight was that she was perfect in everything—and strong. The downside was… she was so strong that he never felt fully in control. It was like having your hands on the steering wheel of a car, but she decided whether the car was even on—and how fast it was moving.
"Oh, she's onto you."
Elsa giggled.
If he responded to this dead psychopath in any way, it was her win. So he just played dumb.
"I can see a lot going on. Anyway, we only have, what, a day? So can you please focus? If we succeed, we liberate and save countless lives, all while reaping the benefits. We'll lose almost no resources, we'll get the valor from the achievements, and we'll become the favorites. Come on."
Elsa stepped between him and Rei, raising an eyebrow.
"Your plan is too reliant on your intel. If it's wrong… you lose everything."
She was right—but wrong at the same time.
Recently, he had been receiving Gluttony's memories, though they didn't seem to be in any particular order. Just a strange version of Subaru reading a multitude of Books of the Dead. But from this scattered information, he was able to gain insights into specific people's views of various events, creating a kind of timeline from multiple perspectives.
Most importantly, he now knew the skeletons in the closets of each candidate—information that would come in handy for pissing them off.
His mana control and quantity had increased drastically—almost tenfold compared to before. He could now create a basic mana wall construct: 13 meters wide, 2 meters tall. His Unseen Hand, while not physically stronger or larger, had become more mobile. He'd managed to reshape the fingers—sharper now, more triangular—allowing him to strike to kill, if needed.
He didn't know yet if it would work on Sloth. If the Cultists were able to see the hand, its effectiveness would likely diminish. But still, it was useful—a third, unconscious hand. Practicing with it while multitasking had been difficult at first, but after some training, he came to understand it fully. Rei seemed to grasp how his power worked as well, sparring with him daily and forcing him to incorporate it naturally.
But out of everything he had learned, the ability with the most potential was the Flow Method.
With his Grey World, he was able to see the mana flow within his own body—not just that, but even the breathing and muscle movements of Rei, who now seemed to telegraph her attacks. She had been astonished by his rate of growth, calling him a "once-in-a-century genius."
His training efficiency with the Flow Method had elevated him from a kid with a bunch of tricks to a knight-plus… with a bunch of tricks. If he used all his resources, he could stomp Heinkel into the ground. As for Julius—if he used his spirits and magic, it might cause some trouble, but Toyota was confident he'd win.
The Flow Method increased his initial speed and durability nearly a hundredfold. Although, while using it, he couldn't focus on manipulating his Unseen Hand or his Repulsion. But even just that—combined with Rei's swordsmanship and a mana sword that could shift into a shield or spear at will—was already too overpowered.
(AN: I will be gone on the 16th for vacation, so no chapters for a while after today. At the very least two more chapters then there will be guaranteed action and trash talking. For my fellows who have stuck with it this long.
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 100 power stones, and I give you a bonus chapter.
Sounds fair, right?)