Re:ZERO -Starting Life in Another World- Vol. 3

by Tappei Nagatsuki

  “…And if…it becomes necessary?”

  Ram’s hesitation made it seem like she didn’t want to hear what would come next.

  The expression on her face remained the same, but Roswaal had spent long enough around her to read what she was feeling inside. Roswaal beheld Ram’s moment of weakness with his yellow eye as he made a small shake of his head.

  “This is a matter we must handle with great deeelicacy. Above all else, see to it that Rem does not get ahead of herself.”

  Ram nodded crisply in response to Roswaal’s command.

  The maid not participating in the conversation, Rem, had a tendency to act according to her own ideas from time to time. Usually, her rushed judgment could be met with just a cute little scolding.

  At times like these, however, independent action was likely to push things in a very poor direction. She might well eliminate the danger beforehand, worsening his relationship with Emilia in the process.

  The thought did not amuse him.

  “Yes, I shall…endeavor that Rem does not act on her feelings of distrust toward Barusu.”

  Roswaal leaned back with a creak of the chair. His voice felt tired somehow as he murmured.

  “I am deeply grateful. This is a time of great expectations… Indeed, time to put them all to the test.”

  Ram started to say something to him, but she closed her mouth and held her tongue. Silence descended between the two as the cool night air drifted in.

  “So, Ram, shall we concluuude your report here?”

  “…Yes. I apologize for not being able to convey a great deal.”

  “I shall not scooold you for such a thing. Now, then, shall we proceed? After nothing for two days, you are aching rather considerably, are you nooot?”

  “Ah…yes.”

  Ram somehow seemed bewitched as she obeyed Roswaal’s beckoning finger. From her standing position before the desk, she seemed to wobble as she stepped close to Roswaal and meekly sat on his lap.

  “Once again, if you will…excuse me.”

  “’Tis merely exercising a natural right. It is the same as always, nooothing to be embarrassed about. Your precious body does not belong to you alooone, after all?”

  He stroked her cheek. She gently closed her eyes as he tilted her head up. Stroking her pink hair with his other hand, Roswaal closed one eye, gazing down upon Ram with his golden iris.

  “Now, theeen, given what you are to us…we should get along nicely, yes?”

  Roswaal murmured mostly to himself as his consciousness switched to a different gear. He stared at Ram before him, his consciousness sinking into Ram and Ram alone.

  The first night at Roswaal Manor grew late as the suspicious conversation between master and maid came to a conclusion.

  4

  “Good morning! The weather’s great today, perfect for laundry! Let’s make this a happy day!”

  Subaru raised a shrill hip, hip, hurrah! to welcome the arrival of the rising sun.

  It was his fifth go at his second morning in Roswaal Manor.

  He stood in the middle of the garden, his body bathed in morning sunlight as he twisted his upper body all about. He used the popular morning warm-up exercise to get blood circulating through his whole body, making full use of the energy he had gained from sleep.

  “Yes, victory!”

  Finally, he thrust both hands into the sky and shouted in triumph as he finished the start to the start of another day.

  Subaru vigorously wiped away the light sweat on his brow and turned around with a smile. Emilia smiled back, albeit tersely, standing in the corner of the garden as she engaged in her daily conversation with lesser spirits under the shade of a tree.

  “You really are energetic in the morning…”

  “Hey, don’t talk like it’s all me here. Put your back into it, Emilia-tan!”

  Puck, Emilia’s little cat spirit, was hovering alongside her, cleaning his face with his paw.

  “When I see him clean his face like that, I’m like, he’s seriously a cat. I guess spirits get sleepy, too, huh? He looks half asleep there.”

  “You sleep when you’re tired, too, don’t you? When mana, the source of our vital power, fades away, well, it’s close enough. If we’re not getting enough mana…”

  Puck yawned generously. Emilia put her hand to her mouth and yawned a little, too.

  “Both up late, huh? You were staying up talking to a boy you like, weren’t you? Let me in on it! Huh? Which girl do I like…? That’s, ah, embarrassing to say, you see…”

  Subaru folded his arms, looking down as he glanced a little at Emilia.

  “All right, all right,” Emilia said, waving casually at Subaru’s act. “I like Puck. Puck likes me. The end.”

  “Mutual love?! Is there any room for me in there?!”

  “Not even a little, meow. My charm sets Lia’s heart a-flutter. You might not be a bad catch, Subaru, but all that is wasted before me. You should just give up on Lia right…meow, meow!”

  Subaru closed on Puck, glaring down at him with reproach, but Emilia’s fingers caught one ear on each of them before they could start anything.

  “Don’t get carried away. I’m going to be upset if that’s all you two do.”

  “Ow, ow, she’s upset, ow!”

  Subaru and Puck meekly endured Emilia’s punishment together.

  When Emilia let go of their ears, they both rubbed their aching heads as she stood before them, hands on her hips.

  “I’m glad you two are getting along, but no taking advantage of people just so you can play. Say yes if you understand.”

  “Yeees.”

  Both of them raised a hand and nodded firmly.

  Strangely, though being treated like a child should have bothered Subaru, seeing Emilia’s pleasant, satisfied smile made such minor concerns irrelevant.

  Emilia, not noticing that Subaru had completely fallen for her smile, abruptly clapped her hands.

  “Oh, right, now is good. Subaru, sit over here for a moment?”

  Emilia sat on the grass with her legs out to the side, patting the ground beside her to invite Subaru over.

  “You call, I come running! What, what? The timing’s good for what exactly? No matter what your request, Subaru Natsuki leaves no itch unscratched. If there’s a place you can’t reach, just command me to scratch it and I shall obey!”

  “All I said was to sit beside me. That’s a bigger reaction than I expected. What should I do?”

  Unsurprisingly, Emilia made a pained smile at Subaru’s fierce enthusiasm.

  “Err…yesterday was your first day at work. How did it go? Did you do well?”

  “Ah, yeah, failed at eighty percent of it!”

  “I see; you’re certainly full of confi… Eh? Failed? Eighty percent of it?”

  “Er, maybe eighty’s overstating it… Maybe more like six, no…seventy-five.”

  “That still means you flunked a lot of things…”

  Emilia acted like she felt responsible somehow for Subaru’s unexpectedly low rating of his own work. But she immediately lifted her face in a show of concern.

  “Ah, but, hey, that meant you got twenty percent of work right on your first day, huh? That’s fine; I’m sure it’s all right. Be confident, now.”

  “Hey, you’re right! It’s a long road, but if I start at twenty percent, I can raise that little by little from here!”

  “Don’t be conceited. Reflect on it properly.”

  “If you’re going to start sweet, why can’t you end sweet?! Ah, no, it’s nothing, very sorry.”

  Subaru, cowed by the pressure of Emilia’s glare, shrank and nodded meekly.

  In any case…

  “I do feel like I’m eating Ram’s and Rem’s dust somehow. Getting twenty percent right while trying my best means that’s just where I’m at, so no helping it. I’ll just expect better from myself going forward.”

  “If you’re going to be that optimistic about it, there’s nothing more I can say,
but…”

  Upon hearing Subaru’s positive declaration, Emilia tapered her lips into something that resembled a pout. The cute childlike behavior she indulged in from time to time never failed to light a fiery yearning in Subaru.

  But he restrained himself, smothering the embers.

  Subaru pointed at Emilia with a finger from each hand in a comical gesture.

  “So, so, you see, I’m spending every day with maid sisters tutoring me while I devote myself to life as a servant. If I get tired of that life I’ll just come running to Emilia-tan’s lap, so leave it open, okay?”

  “…I was only half listening to that, but it sounded kind of all right.”

  “Harsh assessment with a cute face! Well, if that half was the lap part, that’s A-OK! Like I said, leave that lap open for me for tonight, Emilia-tan… Don’t steal my spot, Puck!”

  Subaru thrust a finger at Puck, calling out his name. Puck reacted to the declaration of war with a casual flick of his own whiskers.

  “It doesn’t matter what you say, Lia’s pact with me means her heart and body are already mine. There’s no changing our relationship meow, meow!”

  Emilia grabbed Puck’s ears for his incorrigible behavior and tossed him into the air to make him ponder the error of his ways.

  “Goodness, don’t change the terms of our pact behind my back.”

  Maybe Puck was just used to it, for despite that, he simply landed in Emilia’s hands and happily wriggled in them with a look of complete calm. Subaru couldn’t help but feel envious of their relationship.

  “Well, now that I’ve energized myself I’d better start the morning work.”

  “What do you mean, ‘energized yourself’?”

  “By teasing Emilia-tan.”

  “There you go again. If all you do is tease people, they won’t trust anything you say when you’re actually telling the truth, you know?”

  “That sounds like something out of a fairy tale. If that happens, guess I’ll be reaping what I sowed…”

  “Wait, you’re telling me that…?”

  With Emilia giving him an exasperated look, Subaru sent a bright smile back her way as he rose, brushing off his backside.

  “They’ll be seriously ticked if I don’t get going, though. I’m supposed to help them with this morning’s breakfast. Emilia-tan, you don’t like eating green beppers, do you? I’ll make sure they’re not on your plate.”

  “You have to eat even the veggies you don’t li—When did I tell you I don’t like green beppers?”

  Emilia tilted her head with a questioning look as Subaru departed with a little smile and a wave.

  She actually had talked to him about it; he’d even seen her distaste for them with his own eyes.

  He focused on staying on the path, always joking whenever Emilia set eyes on him.

  —He had to focus, focus, always focus, to keep the smile on his face.

  5

  Emilia watched Subaru wander off until he was out of sight before letting out a small sigh.

  Puck, watching Subaru from her palm, abruptly looked up when he realized Emilia was now watching him.

  “That’s a gloomy face. What’s wrong?”

  “I just feel down somehow. I can’t really put it into words.”

  Emilia cringed at the wishy-washy attempt to express her internal unease. But what caught in her throat didn’t have a chance to become proper words as she sighed again.

  Puck’s pink nose twitched as he watched Emilia’s conflict.

  “You’re worried about Subaru? It’s not often you worry about other people like this.”

  “Don’t go off and phrase it like I’m some sort of klutz at dealing with people. I’m not bad at getting close to others… I just haven’t had many chances to do it!”

  Emilia puffed out her cheeks, an expression she refused to show to anyone save Puck.

  Though it looked like the act of a spoiled brat, it was a testament to Emilia’s absolute faith in Puck. The spirit, fully accepting her trust, smiled up at her like she was his own daughter.

  He offered a nod toward the delicate emotions Emilia couldn’t put into words.

  “Well, it’s no surprise it’s throwing you off. Because this has become a little bit of a problem.”

  “Bit of a…problem?”

  He’d said the words in a casual manner, but Emilia’s face grew tense; she couldn’t miss the tone behind them.

  By nature, Puck behaved exactly the same no matter how high-pressure the situation. She didn’t know if it was because he was a spirit or if it was simply his personality that made him that way, but he reserved grave observations as a spirit to provide input for hard, important decisions—namely Emilia’s.

  Seeing Emilia’s breath catch, Puck casually toyed with his whiskers. He still spoke in his peculiar manner to the end.

  “I only touched him a little, but Subaru’s mind is all scrambled. What he shows on the outside doesn’t match the inside. At this rate, it won’t be long before he reaches the end of his rope.”

  6

  The high-pitched ting and the sound of pottery breaking made Ram’s eyebrows shoot up in surprise.

  The young manservant prancing around like a dancer—Subaru—raised his voice as he grabbed hold of a broom and dustpan.

  “It’s okay! It’s okay! Don’t worry! I’ve got this!”

  He quickly cleaned up the ceramic fragments scattered at his feet and pretended to wipe sweat off his brow.

  When he looked at Rem, who’d stared at him during the entire sequence, he flashed his teeth in a fiendish smile.

  “Don’t worry. I took care of it super fast, and there wasn’t even one casualty.”

  “I think your concern is praiseworthy, but were you not the one who dropped the vase, Subaru? I need to get a replacement vase, wipe the floor, put the flowers in order…”

  “No, it’s all right! I can get a vase and put the flowers in myself! Go ahead and focus on your own work!”

  Driving Rem off almost like he was ordering her, Subaru headed to the storage for furnishings and returned several minutes later with a proper vase. He promptly put the new vase in the same place as the old and added water and the flowers, returning things to as they were.

  “Whew. Feels good to get a job done, Remrin.”

  “It is extra work you made for yourself, but at least you took care of it… Subaru, where did you hear where the spare vases are? From Sister?”

  “Mm, ah, er… Right, your big sis! It’s me we’re talking about here—she was pretty sure I’d break one at some point. So she told me in advance exactly where to get a new vase!”

  Listening to the clumsy excuse, Rem did not think, That is Sister for you, such foresight. She was less concerned with the vase and more with the fact that Subaru had such a grasp of the mansion’s layout that he’d retrieved the broom and dustpan to clean the broken vase with, then gone to grab a spare, without any hesitation.

  Rem really doubted someone working for only a day or two would do such a thing.

  That said, rather than raise her suspicions…

  “You all right? You’re so swamped with work, go ahead and send some my way. I’ll do it; I’ll do anything.”

  …He was so friendly about it that she just couldn’t put a finger on the problem.

  It was not the behavior of someone bearing malice or hostility, but neither was it how a guileless person behaved. More to the point, for someone hiding something, his facade was riddled with openings.

  He looked like he was genuinely trying to get used to the job and attempting to get along well with Rem and Ram.

  Rem knitted her brow, looking like she was warding off the emotions bearing down on her at his earnestness.

  The sight of Subaru striving so hard, even when no one acknowledged it, stirred up a throbbing ache in her chest.

  “Subar—”

  “Oh, I forgot the work Ramchi asked me to do! Sorry, I’d better hurry up and take care of that! I’ll hoo
k back up with you right after!”

  Subaru rushed into the hallway faster than she could call out to stop him. Rem withdrew the fingers she’d reached out to him with, looking over her shoulder as if she should discuss her misgivings with her older sister, but—

  “—No, it is not enough to trouble Sister over.”

  Rem walked toward her own work space, trying to wrap up her remaining work and reduce the lingering ache in her chest in the process.

  7

  —I feel sick.

  “Oh, Ramchi! Did you see me? I’m doing pretty well with a kitchen knife after just one day learning it, huh? Maybe my talent is taking bloom!”

  —I feel sick I feel sick I feel sick.

  “Remrin, look, look! Right now, my fingers are miraculously imbued with the skill that makes such fine workmanship possible! The power of illusion!”

  —I feel sick I feel sick I feel sick I feel sick I feel sick I feel sick.

  “Meeting Emilia-tan really puts my heart in a jumble! It’s too sinful! I feel so guilty!”

  —I feel sick I feel sick I feel sick I feel sick I feel sick I feel sick I feel sick I feel sick I feel sick I feel sick I feel sick I feel sick I feel sick I feel sick I feel sick I feel sick I feel sick I feel sick I feel sick I feel sick.

  He kept a smile nailed to his face as he continued trying to sound playful. He wrestled with his entrusted tasks full force, resolutely attacking problems with no fear of failure, and when he was done, he wandered around looking for more to do.

  He had to. He needed to.

  He didn’t have a single second to waste. It was like a video game where you simulated in your head every potential outcome to a particular event. He had to manage the event flags. That was his specialty, right? The more he encountered them, the better his odds.

  —I should be able to make them smile more. I should be able to make them laugh more.

  His actions were meaninglessly exaggerated. He tried to convince them he was an oblivious fool. He tried not to make them think he was useless. His head spun and spun, always weighing his actions.