Re:ZERO -Starting Life in Another World-, Vol. 2

by Tappei Nagatsuki

  “It’s all right, Lia. Oh, and I know what you were up to, Subaru. Naughty boy, using my mind reading like that.”

  “I’m honored. Let’s get along famously, my friend!”

  How Subaru addressed them put a look of shock on Puck’s face; he then broke into a wide smile.

  “It’s been a while since I got this kind of treatment. I like it.”

  “I’d rather hear those words from Emilia-tan. Oh well, as they say, to take down a general, first take down his horse… Well, you’re kind of a cat so does that still make sense? …I wonder?”

  A surprised look came over Emilia as she watched Subaru put a finger to his chin and sink into serious thought.

  When Subaru curiously raised his eyebrows, Emilia inhaled a bit.

  “—Really, Subaru, you are so strange.”

  “Huh?”

  “Giving leading looks to a…half-elf like me who speaks to spirits like it’s a normal thing…it surprised me, even as a joke.”

  In his heart, Subaru countered, Would you be as surprised if you knew it wasn’t a joke? But he forgot all about that as he fell for Emilia’s charming smile.

  This smile was on par with the one she’d given him when they’d exchanged names at the royal capital. It seemed fleeting and fickle, which only made his heart flutter all the more.

  Her beautiful, flowing silver hair was as surreal as dew in the moonlight; her skin was as pale as the first snow. Her violet eyes seemed to hold Subaru’s mind firmly in their spell and wouldn’t let go.

  He knew she was sublime, beautiful, with a heart of gold wrapped around an unshakable core.

  Subaru wanted nothing more than to put his hands on his cheeks and give thanks to Mother Nature, but he abstained.

  “Huh, wonder what’s with those two?”

  And, as Emilia mentioned something she’d noticed, Subaru looked toward the manor.

  The twin maids were walking down from the mansion. Both gave formal bows before Subaru and Emilia, speaking in perfect stereo, not off by the slightest bit.

  “—Master Roswaal, lord of the manor, has returned. Please come this way.”

  Their perfect combo surprised Subaru, but the maids’ change of demeanor surprised him more.

  Their earlier frivolousness was nowhere to be found, replaced by a sense of dignity befitting servants of the upper crust.

  “I see. Roswaal… We’d best go see him, then.”

  “Yes, and he said to bring our Dear Guest as well, should he be awake.”

  Puck wriggled into Emilia’s silver hair. Emilia’s face stiffened a bit as she patted down her hair. Watching her from the side, Subaru cracked his neck slightly at being addressed.

  “So, who is this Roswaal guy, anyway?”

  “Lord of this manor… Ah, that’s right, I didn’t explain.”

  Emilia put her palm to her mouth as she realized her own slip.

  “Err, right. Roswaal is… You’ll understand when you meet him.”

  “You gave up on that explanation too fast! What, he’s too plain to describe?!”

  Emilia, Puck, Ram, and Rem all replied in unison…

  “—No, the opposite.”

  Subaru’s jaw dropped open in a face of surprise multiplied by four. The blue-haired girl gently closed his mouth from below with her hand before giving a solemn bow.

  The pink-haired maid standing beside her motioned to the mansion.

  “One cannot describe the likes of Master Roswaal with words alone. You shall understand when you meet him, Dear Guest. It is all right; he is a kind lord.”

  The twins met each other’s gazes and nodded, with the repeated affirmation serving only to deepen his doubts.

  With Subaru bewildered, Emilia looked like she grudgingly agreed with the twins as she gently reached out to him. Giving Subaru’s shoulder a couple of pats, Emilia murmured in a grave voice.

  “—You’ll probably get along just fine, Subaru. He’ll wear you out, though.”

  CHAPTER 2

  THE PROMISED MORN GROWS DISTANT

  1

  In the dining hall the twins led them to, where breakfast was to be held, the girl with curly hair said in place of a greeting, “Watching from above, I felt…dismay at seeing your considerably disappointing head, I wonder?”

  Emilia had split off midway to return to her room to change clothes, so at that moment, only Subaru and the curly-haired girl were in the dining hall. Subaru made a sour face at her sarcasm.

  “What’s with talking like that on a fine morning like this, loli?”

  “What is that term, I wonder? I have never heard it, yet it feels distinctly…unpleasant.”

  “It means you’re not on my list. I never go for girls younger than me.”

  “…Perhaps I should pity you for having insulted me so?”

  Deliberately ignoring the sarcastic girl’s words, Subaru looked over the dining hall.

  A table covered in a white cloth was at the center; the plates had already been set. If one was set for Subaru, it was surely the lowest seat at the table.

  “I don’t know anything about table manners. How about I let you give me pointers?”

  “Is that arrogance, I wonder? If you do not understand, simply say so and lower your head.”

  “If I could do that much, I might as well just sit in the big chair and really irritate you.”

  The girl shook with anger, her face going red as Subaru waved with a palm and sat in the big chair. It’d probably be Emilia or the lord of the manor who’d sit there, with fifty-fifty odds for each.

  Seeing Subaru genuinely unable to get comfortable in the chair, the curly-haired girl shook her exasperated face.

  “Well, fine. More importantly, have you no words with which to thank me?”

  “Thanks? I asked for help just now and you brushed me off, didn’t you? And what kind of person asks to be thanked? I’d wanna see the look on your dad’s face for that one!”

  “What are you angry for, I wonder?! I should be the angry one! After all I did…!”

  They kept egging each other on.

  The girl, her voice flustered at Subaru’s reply, never quite finished her sentence. Mindful of the unnatural pause, Subaru prompted her to continue, but…

  The door to the dining hall opened and the twin maids came in pushing a cart.

  “Pardon us, Dear Guest. I shall set the meal.”

  “Pardon us, Dear Guest. I shall set the tableware and the tea.”

  The blue-haired girl laid out an orthodox breakfast menu consisting of salad, bread, and the like, while the pink-haired girl briskly poured and placed cups of tea. The warm scents made Subaru’s stomach grumble out of nowhere.

  “Whoa, not bad at all. Now this is a breakfast fit for nobility… I was worried it was going to be some weird out-of-this-world thing.”

  Subaru, worried that any strange thing could potentially be served here, was considerably relieved.

  When he looked all around, he couldn’t place anything in particular that seemed to pose physical or mental danger.

  His enthusiasm rising, Subaru leaned back against the chair, making it creak. The sound echoed throughout the dining room, bringing a hint of annoyance to the girl’s soothing face.

  For some reason, Subaru couldn’t resist needling the curly-haired girl. Wanting to see her soothing face break down further, Subaru, full of mischief, decided to move his butt all around the chair.

  However, before he could do so, a new individual entered the dining hall, his happy-sounding voice interrupting everything else.

  “Ohhh my. You certainly seem raaather spry. That is good, veeery good.”

  He was a tall man, at least half a head above Subaru’s height, wearing his dark blue hair long to nearly cover his entire back. But his body seemed not so much slender as delicate, with his skin color ghastly pale.

  Combined with the look of his face, he somehow seemed like some sort of pretty boy. The effect was further accentuated by his left and right
eyes being different colors, the first yellow, the other blue.

  —Well, it might have if he wasn’t decked out in that weird outfit and makeup that made him look like a clown.

  “…Man, you hired a jester to entertain us before breakfast? I’ll never get how rich folks think.”

  Beatrice watched and commented.

  “I have some idea what you must be thinking, but I shall not get in the way.”

  “Don’t be that way, Betty. We’re friends, right? Let’s do some more small talk.”

  “What kind of relationship do you and I have, I wonder? Also, do not speak my name so casually.”

  The girl snubbed him with a shrug and withdrew from the conversation.

  Subaru scowled at her behavior as the clown walking into the dining hall opened his eyes wide, looking at both her and Subaru.

  “Oh my, it is raaare to see Beatrice here. Is it not fortuitous thaaat you decided to share a meal with me after so looong?”

  “If that man over there is the only optimist, wouldn’t that already be too many, I wonder? I wait for Puckie and Puckie alone.”

  Brushing off his chummy statement, the girl—Beatrice—shifted to behind the clown. The silver-haired girl, having finished changing her attire, entered the dining hall a bit after the clown.

  “Puckie!”

  Practically leaping from her seat, Beatrice ran over, her long skirt swaying. Seeing a smile like a flower in bloom come over her was so adorable that it made him forget how he’d pegged the girl as “cheeky.”

  Her gaze was trained on Emilia, but it was not Emilia who replied.

  “Heya, Betty. It’s been four days. Have you been happy and ladylike?”

  Beatrice nodded at the words of the buoyant little gray kitty popping out of Emilia’s hair.

  “I have been eagerly awaiting your return, Puckie. You would enjoy spending the day together, I wonder?”

  “Yeah, that’d be great! Both of us can take it easy for one day.”

  “That is wonderful!”

  Puck leapt off Emilia’s shoulder to land upon Beatrice’s outstretched palms. As she caught Puck, Beatrice lovingly embraced him and ran around in circles then and there.

  Subaru was struck senseless by the happy, carefree scene as Emilia walked over with a teasing smile.

  “Tee-hee, aren’t they merry? Puck and Beatrice are very close, you see.”

  “Nobody uses merry anymore…”

  When Subaru gave Emilia his stock reply for when she used outdated words, Emilia went, “Mm?” and pointed Subaru’s way.

  “Er, Subaru, that chair…”

  “Oh, right! Uh, it’s not what you think. I mean, a cold chair really throws you off, so I figured I’d warm it up a little. It wasn’t that I just wanted to sit where you usually sit, like an indirect sit-down, really.”

  “Sorry, I’m not really sure what you mean, but that’s Roswaal’s seat.”

  With Subaru’s big scheme foiled, he slid off the chair in front of the wide-eyed Emilia.

  “Oh, there’s no need for concern. I see, your warmth may not reach Lady Emilia, but I shall treasure it greatly.”

  The clown reached out and patted Subaru’s shoulder, smiling at him in consolation. The touch to his shoulder and the gently smiling, made-up face drew a sour frown from Subaru.

  “This clown’s acting real chummy. It’s not polite to touch the dancing girls, you know?”

  “Since when did you become a da… Er, no, Subaru, this man is…”

  “My, my, myyy, I do nooot mind, Lady Emilia. Considering how he went from being at death’s door to being in such high spirits, shooould we not be quiiite grateful?”

  The clown’s tone of voice excelled at getting on one’s nerves, yet his statement was extremely sensible. The others continued to watch the clown as he slowly sat down in the chair—the very chair at the head of the table that Subaru had been seated in just before.

  “Hey, now. Not that I should say this, but sitting in someone else’s chair is gonna tick people off.”

  Emilia made an exasperated face at Subaru’s statement as she murmured, “No need to worry about th… You, ah, really should introduce yourself to Subaru.”

  It seemed Emilia’s exasperation was also directed toward the clown.

  “What do you mean?”

  “In ooother words, she meeeans…this.”

  The clown seated in the chair replied to Subaru’s query as he spread his arms out wide.

  “’Tiiis I, lord of this manor, Roswaal L. Mathers. It is goooood that you feel so safe and comfortable under my roof, Subaru Natsuki.”

  And so, the deviant noble dressed as a clown introduced himself in a lively manner thoroughly devoid of shame.

  2

  Beginning with Roswaal in the seat of honor, they sat in prearranged seats and began breakfast.

  “Mm…this is better than usual…”

  Subaru was admiring the food before his eyes reminiscent of salad and soup. Roswaal nodded back, seeming to take personal pride in Subaru’s appraisal of the cooking as he looked at Rem.

  “Mm-hmm, iiindeed, indeed. She may not look it, but Rem’s cooking is quite something.”

  When Subaru looked at Rem, too, she made a fox sign with a hand. Subaru didn’t know what it meant, but it might’ve been this world’s version of making a V with your fingers.

  Subaru made a frog with both hands in reply.

  “So the blue-ha… Is calling you Rem fine? So you cooked this?”

  “Yes, Dear Guest. Rem handles the meals in this household. Sister is not especially good at it.”

  “Oh-ho, so it’s like, you twins have different specialties. So, your sister’s really good at cleaning?”

  “Yes, Sister specializes in cleaning inside and doing the laundry.”

  “So since you’re good at all the cooking, you’re not so good at cleaning and laundry, Remrin?”

  “No, I excel at all domestic chores, including cleaning and laundry, more than Sister.”

  “What’s she here for, then?!”

  An older twin sister worse at everything under the sun than her little sister? This was a new one.

  The older sister seemed to pay no heed to Rem’s statement. Subaru couldn’t prove it, but he guessed the words were true. So why wasn’t Ram bothered by it at all…?

  “So maybe it’s different fields, huh? Ramchi does combat stuff and the other does more domestic stuff?”

  “Not a baaad guess. Though Ram and Rem make a poor first impression because of their idiosyncrasies, yes?”

  “Hard for that to stand out now when their master’s so unique, Rozchi.”

  By Rozchi, Subaru was addressing the man in charge by a pet name, but Roswaal let the statement pass with practiced ease. Subaru had an ingrained tendency to get a rise out of people, but not so here. That said, the items on the menu vanished from the plates one after another before they knew it.

  “It’d be something of a dilemma if the food wasn’t good, but it’s delicious, so no prob. Right, Emilia-tan?”

  Emilia wiped her lips with a napkin, grimacing at Subaru’s carefree words. Subaru tilted his head, wondering what was up, as Emilia exhaled slightly.

  “You know, Subaru, you shouldn’t speak at the dinner table. It’s rude to Ram and Rem, who prepared this all by themselves. Without proper manners, you’ll make blunders during important occasions, so…”

  “No one uses blunder anymore… Table manners, huh. Kind of late to learn them now, though, right?”

  Subaru delivered his cliché while motioning toward the dining hall with his hand. In spite of the spacious hall, Subaru was sitting right beside Emilia.

  By rights, the two would be seated quite far apart to make full use of the dining table.

  “But I moved closer because I wanted to eat with Emilia-tan. Roswaal didn’t say he minded, so what’s the big deal? I mean, you can give me any veggies you don’t like.”

  “All right, you can have my green bepper— W
ait, that’s not the point. I’m being an idiot.”

  Subaru laughed, finding it cute how Emilia tapered her lips in a pout at being outdone in their verbal jousting.

  After that, Subaru belatedly brought up an issue Emilia’s words had raised.

  “Incidentally, Rozchi, I thought I heard Emilia-tan say this household has only two maids working here?”

  “Ahh, yeees, such is currently the caaase. Ram and Rem are the only ones left.”

  “Two people handling a place this huge? You’d think people would die from overwork no matter how good they are. That said…it doesn’t feel like you’re going to be hiring any new maids here?”

  Roswaal was silent to Subaru’s question, crossing his arms at the table. Roswaal’s face displayed a smile, but the eyes with which he regarded Subaru had subtly changed.

  “You truly are a mystery, having come to the house of Mathers at the far reaches of the Kingdom of Lugunica, yet you do not know the circumstances? Amazing that you made it past royal customs.”

  “Well, I am kind of an undocumented immigrant in a sense…”

  Subaru’s casual reply startled Emilia; she gave him a glare like she was scolding a young child.

  “I can’t believe it. If you say things like that so easily, bad people will make mincemeat out of you.”

  “Nobody uses mincemeat anymore.”

  “Don’t joke about this. Hey, Subaru, is that really true? Is everyone where you come from like this, or is it really just you who doesn’t know?”

  Subaru, feeling bad at how Emilia was genuinely worried, reflected upon his own behavior.

  “Err, more like my education’s especially lacking. So if it’s no bother, I really would be grateful if you filled me in.”

  “You seem an educated enough child to me from the big words you’re using, but…”

  “I mean, this here’s my debut with high society. I mean, there’re things you don’t know either, Emilia-tan? Honorifics like that and extra-polite words seem to throw you off?”

  “Err…you do have a point.”

  Emilia seemed to shrink at Subaru’s observation. Seeing Emilia like that surprised him, but it was not the wilting Emilia who followed up but Roswaal, previously silent in the seat of honor.