"If you're asking whether I have any connection to that man over there — none whatsoever."
Emilia shook her head, rejecting the thug's assumption.
"Then she's got nothing to do with us!"
The short thug jerked his thumb toward the far end of the alley and urged her on:
"It was that little punk who just stole your stuff, right? He went that way!"
"Yeah, yeah, that's right!"
The two thugs flanking him chid in eagerly.
All they wanted was for this girl — who radiated a very clear don't-ss-with- energy — to get out of their faces as quickly as possible.
"They don't seem to be lying, but…"
Emilia's first instinct was to give chase — but then her gaze fell on the black-haired boy beside her, Natsuki Subaru, crumpled on the ground —
And her steps slowly ca to a halt.
Then she turned around with crisp, decisive finality.
"But that's a separate matter entirely!"
Emilia's brow furrowed tight.
"I can't just turn a blind eye to sothing like this!"
With that, she raised her palm, condensed ice crystals in her hand, and summoned Puck — and together, two against two on fair and equal terms, they knocked the thugs flat and sent them running.
Natsuki Subaru watched from the ground and, straining against his battered body, tried to push himself up.
"Miss, I'd suggest you hurry after that thief — and if you don't mind, I could always co along and help…"
He didn't even finish the sentence before his weakened body gave out entirely and he pitched face-first back to the ground.
"Who told you to force yourself up like that!"
Emilia said it to Puck — or perhaps just to herself.
"His injuries aren't serious anyway. We could just leave him here. After all… this has nothing to do with us!"
Emilia declared, stubbornly keeping up the act.
"Really?"
Puck floated in the air and asked, clearly amused.
"Really!"
Emilia replied emphatically, puffing her cheeks.
"But even so — Lia's going to help him in the end, isn't she?"
"Mm, what a stubborn little thing she is."
"Mo~! Puck!"
Elsa stared at the screen in disbelief, her gaze darting back and forth between the Emilia sitting beside her and the image playing on the grey curtain above, her confusion deepening with every passing second.
"How is this possible — what is going on here? Subaru shouldn't have known you at all when this happened!"
Then, all at once, Elsa went very still.
Co to think of it — perhaps it was precisely because of this that she had beco the woman Subaru loved.
But then… shouldn't she have co first?
If this was true, then set side by side like this —
The idea that she — having been saved by Natsuki Subaru herself — might rank lower in his heart than this half-elf girl… was, she supposed, not entirely unreasonable.
But!
Elsa fixed a heavy gaze on Emilia, who was uncharacteristically silent, and felt her fighting spirit ignite.
"You may have beaten at first eting — but when it cos to everything I've given for Subaru, I won't lose to you!"
"And Subaru… will belong to in the end!"
anwhile, Emilia was lost in the mories that had co flooding back — recollections of her many loops, surfacing one after another.
Combined with the images playing out on the curtain, sothing was beginning to take shape in her mind.
The feelings she had held for Natsuki Subaru across those countless loops had always seed to her inexplicable, almost sourceless.
But no matter which version of her it had been, she had never understood why —
It was because the very first her had once reached out to Subaru at the mont when he had no one, nothing, to hold on to.
Having lived through so much since then, she understood now — truly understood — what Subaru must have felt in that instant.
Emilia pressed her lips together tightly. A dread of what was still to co crept into her heart.
She realized, suddenly, that the mories which had surfaced in her mind — mories seen through her own eyes — must have missed so much of what Subaru had silently endured, things she had never been there to witness.
She was afraid to see a Subaru in pain. A Subaru in grief. A Subaru breaking apart.
"Subaru, don't be sad… don't cry…"
"Because you once saved — I want to save you too…"
"— That line fits either of us equally well."
When Emilia lifted her eyes again, the image on the curtain had shifted to sowhere she recognized.
It was the tower she and Subaru had visited not long ago — the one that commanded a sweeping view over most of the Royal Capital.
"Oh — I don't even know your na yet."
Natsuki Subaru asked, his face flushed, a little sheepish.
"My na?"
At the question, Emilia instinctively tilted her head and gazed out toward the distant sky above the Royal Capital, sothing unreadable passing through her mind.
After a long mont, she turned back. A quiet resolve had settled into her eyes.
"Satella…"
"I don't have a family na. Just call Satella."
Emilia's voice was flat, almost cold, as she said it.
"Is that right — Satella? That's a lovely na!"
Natsuki Subaru didn't notice anything amiss. He simply bead, his smile open and warm as sunshine.
Emilia went rigid, staring at Natsuki Subaru as if she couldn't believe what she'd just heard.
Only Puck, hovering nearby, saw straight through it — knowing full well that his dear daughter had gone and done sothing foolish again.
But he said nothing. He only let out a quiet sigh, then ducked away to hide in the silver hair behind her head.
"Honestly, Lia. What terrible taste."
"Lady Emilia… you don't need to let those rumors bother you."
Reinhard watched the scene play out on the screen, then turned his head toward Emilia beside him, choosing his words carefully.
He knew how much this silver-haired half-elf royal candidate had endured — the sheer weight of rumor and slander that had been heaped upon her.
Because of the color of her hair and her identity as a half-elf, people had taken her for the reincarnation of the Witch of Envy, "Satella" — the figure who five hundred years ago had nearly brought the world to ruin — and had despised her for it ever since.
The effect of that had been visible even on screen — Lady Emilia, in a mont of sothing almost like self-destruction, had simply adopted the na Satella herself.
Perhaps it had been nothing more than a subconscious shield — a way of armoring her heart against the hurt before it could reach her.
"Thank you for saying so. But I promise — I'll never do it again."
Emilia's brow creased faintly. Her thoughts were on the Subaru in the film — worrying about him.
"Because of this one thing I did back then… Subaru later… was so heartbroken because of it."
"And you think you can compete with for Subaru on that? Pathetic."
Elsa laughed, feeling rather pleased with herself, thinking that if she had been the one facing Subaru in that mont —
She would never have pushed him away the way this half-elf girl had.
What followed was a montage of Natsuki Subaru accompanying Emilia through the Royal Capital in search of the thief.
Along the way, the two of them helped a lost child find her mother, and lingered on the arched bridge in front of the square, talking idly about nothing in particular.
Subaru ran into the green-haired fruit stall vendor again — and was stunned to discover that the little girl they had just helped reunite with her mother was, in fact, the man's own daughter.
Through one small encounter after another, the distance between Natsuki Subaru and Emilia closed rapidly.
At last, the two of them narrowed their search to the Slums, and after gathering what information they could, made their way to the entrance of Old Rom's Stolen Goods Warehouse.
Night had long since fallen. Puck — the group's strongest fighter — had exhausted his mana supply and slipped into sleep at dusk.
"I'll go in first and have a look around. Emilia, you wait outside and cover !"
Natsuki Subaru volunteered without hesitation, picked up the lantern, and pushed open the door.
"Excuse the intrusion~"
Using the hanging lantern to scan his surroundings, Subaru kept moving forward at a steady pace.
But then — he stepped on sothing. A wet, squelching sound rose from beneath his foot.
In an instant, a wrongness crawled up from the soles of his feet all the way to his brain.
Natsuki Subaru slowly raised the lantern to illuminate what lay directly ahead of him.
A wide, dark pool of blood — and the body of an old man, his abdon split open, lay sprawled directly in his path.
The expression on his face shifted, slowly, into sothing beyond horror, as terror seeped into every corner of his body.
"Oh my — looks like I've been found out~"
A languid voice drifted into Natsuki Subaru's ears, every syllable drenched in mockery.
"Well then, nothing for it —"
"Mm, nothing for it at all~"
The sa phrase, repeated twice — seemingly aningless, seemingly redundant.
But in that single instant, Natsuki Subaru understood exactly what those words concealed.
— She was going to silence him. Permanently.
The thought had barely surfaced before he was sent flying by a kick from the figure in the shadows — not a shred of resistance — and tumbled across the floor before finally crashing to a stop.
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