Gojo Satoru In Re:Zero Chapter 103 103: Return by Death!!!

The portly middle-aged man's eyes lit up the mont he spotted Gojo.

"You must be Mr. Gojo. I'm Leon Walker. We were at the sa assembly, though I doubt I left much of an impression."

Gojo regarded the man's almost aggressive warmth, then lowered his sunglasses and shot Felt a questioning look.

"Baron Walker has been an exceptionally generous supporter," Felt said smoothly, "and a great admirer of your abilities."

The ssage landed instantly. This baron had opened his wallet wide.

"My apologies for not making ti to et you sooner, Baron. A real sha on my part."

"Not at all, not at all!" Walker waved the comnt away, his round face creased with an easy smile. "Anyti you'd like to visit, my doors are open."

A few more pleasantries, and the baron took his leave.

The second he was out of earshot, Felt seized Gojo's arm.

"Do you know how much I pulled in?"

"Enlighten ."

"Two etings this morning. Five hundred Holy Gold Coins. Five. Hundred." She was vibrating. "There are two more this afternoon. I could hit a thousand by tonight!"

"Five hundred?" Gojo didn't share her excitent. "That's it? These nobles are cheap."

"You think everyone's sitting on a fortune like Roswaal? The Mathers family has been accumulating wealth for generations. Most minor nobles can't even match a rich rchant. Squeezing this many coins out of them is already impressive."

Felt's tone shifted, more asured than he expected.

"Besides, the coins aren't the point. What matters is what these people represent. Once a few nobles back publicly, others follow. It's montum. Pretty soon, they'll be lining up to throw money at us."

Her eyes glead with a hunger that had nothing to do with politics. Every noble who walked through that door wasn't a person to her. They were a walking purse.

"Fair enough," Gojo conceded. "It's a solid start."

"Oh, and the knights. I had Reinhard ask them. They've agreed to another group challenge tomorrow. Sa deal as before, one Holy Gold Coin per entry fee, except this ti they're fighting you directly."

"You really don't miss a single opportunity, do you."

He flicked her on the forehead.

"It's called earning a living. What's wrong with that?" She rubbed the spot but didn't flinch. "The faster we stack coins, the faster we can leave. I'm setting the target at ten thousand per person..."

Gojo's eyes rolled skyward. He opened his mouth to tell her she'd lost her mind, to ask if she had any concept of what ten thousand Holy Gold Coins actually ant, when Reinhard approached.

"Lady Felt, you handled yourself wonderfully today. I'm certain more nobles will co forward to pledge their support."

"Thanks."

"However, there is sothing I don't quite understand." He paused, choosing his words carefully. "Why insist that every contribution be settled in Holy Gold Coins? In many cases, trade connections or material resources would be far more valuable."

"Your vision's too narrow, Reinhard."

She didn't elaborate.

"I'm not in the mood to explain right now. I need rest before the afternoon visits."

And she vanished down the hallway before he could press further.

Reinhard turned his puzzled gaze on Gojo, who was already backing toward the door.

"Don't look at ."

He slipped away without another word.

Evening arrived. Felt wrapped up her final two etings, and for the first ti since entering the royal selection, her support base extended beyond Roswaal's shadow. Three nobles and one wealthy rchant now stood behind her, openly and on record.

"One thousand Holy Gold Coins."

"I told you we'd hit it!"

Dinner had barely ended when Felt burst into Gojo's room clutching several bulging coin purses. She shook them triumphantly in his face, then upended every last one onto his bed.

Gold cascaded across the sheets. She threw herself onto the pile and rolled once, grinning like a cat in sunlight, before sitting up to count.

"If you want to count money, why can't you do it in your own room?"

Gojo stared at the girl sprawled across his bed, exasperated.

"Don't you want to know the total?" She didn't look up, fingers flying through the coins. "Watching the number climb doesn't get your blood pumping?"

"Just tell when you're done. The process doesn't interest ."

He yawned.

"Absolutely not. Fair and transparent, that's the rule. I won't have you accusing of skimming later." She waved him off. "Now shut up and let count."

Her hands moved fast. It didn't take long.

"Not counting your three hundred and change, the total cos to one thousand two hundred and thirty-four!"

She shouted the number like a battle cry.

"We're well on our way to thirty thousand..."

She was still mid-sentence, still buzzing with excitent, when sothing shifted.

A crawling wrongness blood in the pit of Gojo's stomach. Felt stood right in front of him, her expression frozen mid-word, vivid and sharp, but the world around her had stopped. Not slowed. Stopped.

He recognized the sensation instantly.

And then the room was gone.

He was standing in the Great Hall. Gilded columns soared overhead. The Royal Guard Knights flanked his left, nobles and officials his right, the crowd already filtering toward the exits.

The assembly. He was back at the assembly.

Understanding hit like a freight train, and his gaze snapped toward one person.

Subaru used Return by Death.

The assembly was the checkpoint. Everything since then, the etings, the coins, the planning, all of it, erased.

He found Subaru in the thinning crowd.

What he saw stopped him cold.

The boy stood rooted to the floor, eyes vacant, staring at nothing. The muscles around his eyes twitched and spasd uncontrollably. His pupils had contracted to pinpoints, trembling, as though whatever they'd last witnessed had burned itself so deeply into his mind that the afterimage refused to fade.

He looked broken.

Gojo crossed the distance without hesitation.

"You alright?"

At the sound of his voice, Subaru's entire body flinched violently, a full-body recoil like a cornered animal, and he pitched backward.

"Hey, buddy, you don't look so good." Al caught him by reflex as Subaru stumbled into him, one hand steadying the boy's shoulder.

Subaru scread. He wrenched free and launched himself away as if Al's touch had been a branding iron.

Gojo didn't waste ti with questions. Two steps forward, one precise strike, and Subaru crumpled.

"What was that about?" Reinhard stared at the unconscious boy in Gojo's arms, bewildered.

"He's not feeling well. Felt, let's go. We're heading back."

One look at Subaru told him everything he needed to know. This was nothing like the previous two tis. Before, Subaru had died in his sleep, painlessly, without even knowing it happened. Whatever killed him this ti, he'd been awake for every second of it.

No point trying to interrogate soone in this state. Knock him out, get him sowhere safe, deal with the rest later.

Felt had only just returned to the hall herself and had no idea what was happening. Confusion was written across her face. But she trusted Gojo, so she swallowed her questions, nodded, and climbed into the Dragon Carriage without a word.

Inside the carriage, she watched Gojo prop his chin against his fist and stare out the window.

"What happened to him?"

Betty glanced at Felt but said nothing.

As a Great Spirit, she could sense it with piercing clarity. The Witch's miasma clinging to Subaru had intensified in a single instant, thickening to sothing many tis denser than before. The sudden change was impossible to ignore.

But what occupied her mind even more was what Gojo had told her before. About ti reversing. If she rembered correctly, that phenonon was tied to Subaru, and the surge of Witch scent on him right now could only confirm one thing.

Everything she was experiencing, she had already lived through once.

"Probably fell asleep standing up and had a nightmare," Gojo said flatly.

"You're the one who called him an idiot. Seems about right for him."

Felt's eyes rolled so hard they nearly left her skull.

"If you don't want to tell , just say so. Don't insult my intelligence with that."

"Then why'd you ask?"

"Hmph."

She crossed her arms and refused to look at him for the rest of the ride.

The Dragon Carriage pulled through the gates of the Astrea estate. Gojo carried Subaru to his own room, Betty following close behind. She shut the door and turned the lock.

"How many tis has this happened now?"

She leaned against the door, watching him lay Subaru on the bed.

"So you figured it out."

"I'm not senile."

"Since we left Roswaal's territory, this makes the second ti."

"Oh? Then sothing happened that I don't know about."

"It'd be stranger if you did know."

Betty crossed the room and sat on the edge of the bed, studying Subaru's slack face.

"Physically, he's fine. Not a scratch. The damage is all ntal." She tilted her head. "And unlike what you demonstrated for before, this body hasn't been regenerated."

"Betty, that analysis almost makes you sound as dense as he is."

"You're welco to stop talking anyti."

"So what now? We just wait for him to wake up?"

She poked Subaru's cheek.

"I don't have that kind of patience."

Gojo grabbed Subaru by the collar, hauled his upper half over the edge of the bed, snatched the teacup off the nightstand, and splashed it directly into his face.

The water hit. Subaru's eyes cracked open, bleary and unfocused. Still hollow, still distant, but marginally better than the catatonic shell he'd been at the assembly.

Gojo, ever considerate, dragged the dripping boy off the bed and onto the floor. No sense ruining perfectly good sheets.

"Moshi moshi. Can you hear ?"

He crouched beside Subaru and spoke directly into his ear.

No response. No flicker of recognition.

"Hey. Give sothing here." He snapped his fingers in front of Subaru's face. "This whole routine is getting old."

Subaru sat on the floor, silent, expressionless, eyes like dead glass.

Gojo looked at Betty.

"Do the thing. Give him a little jolt."

"What thing?"

"Drain a bit of his mana. I rember it being an intense sensation."

"Sotis I wonder if you two are actually friends."

Betty muttered under her breath but knelt in front of Subaru and pressed her palm against his abdon.

The effect was imdiate.

Mana ripped from his Gate, and agony tore through every nerve in his body.

"AAAGH!"

The scream ripped out of him, raw and involuntary.

It passed as quickly as it ca. Betty withdrew her hand, and the pain evaporated. But the shock had done its work. Subaru's eyes refocused, just slightly, consciousness clawing its way back to the surface.

"Can you hear now?" Gojo leaned in close, waving a hand in front of his face. "Because if you can't, we're doing that again."

The threat landed. Subaru shuddered, and finally, sothing behind his eyes stirred.

"...Gojo?"

His voice ca out thick, slurred, saliva trailing from the corner of his mouth.

"There we go. Knew it'd work." Gojo nodded, satisfied. "Talk to . What happened?"

He held Subaru's gaze, steady and unflinching.

"If you want payback, start by telling everything. From the state you were in, soone put you through hell. With Puck and Grimm both there, the fact that it still went this wrong ans Emilia probably didn't make it either."

A beat.

"Or did you watch it happen? Soone you love, tortured to death right in front of you, and you couldn't do a thing about it?"

The words ca out light, almost casual, each one a scalpel.

It wasn't cruelty. If he softened now, if he let Subaru sink back into that void, they'd lose him again. The only way through was forward, and forward ant keeping the wound open long enough to drain it.

...

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