Chapter Text
“Finally, you’ve all realized your mistakes.” said the gruff, silver haired prisoner who was escorted out of the royal dungeons for the first time in decades. His legs were full of scars, his arms were home to tattoos that polite minds would rather not hear about. But his eyes were his worst feature. One look at him could ruin your day. Few ever looked twice.
“... No. Definitely not. Next!”
Confused, Triton the Manslayer was pushed back down the hallway he came, making room for the next mass murderer to be brought before the head of the royal guard – a very exasperated Julius Juukulius.
Time had been kind to the finest of knights. On any other day he could only be described as dashing. But ever since his memories returned, the whole palace had been in a panic. Julius most of all.
“No, that’s not him either! How many more prisoners do we have to work through?” he said, nervously pacing as his guards kept the line moving.
“Well, we have a lot of prisoners in the dungeon sir. At a certain point they all have grey hair, and, well ‘mean eyes’ isn’t exactly that rare around here.”
“Well we had to cast a wide net, nobody has seen him for 60 years!” 60 years, the phrase couldn’t stop echoing through Julius’ head. 60 years ago was the last time they saw Subaru. The last interaction with his friends. And he had been carted away.
At first the line of prisoners had horrified Julius. He needed to fix things as soon as possible, and this could take hours. But as the line dwindled, he found himself dreading the other reality more. The fact that there might be a reason that they haven’t found him yet.
“No, wrong! Bring in the next one.” It wasn’t worth thinking about. If anyone could survive this place for so long, it would be Subaru.
And if anyone deserved it less… but Julius was interrupted from his spiral as the grand queen of Lagunica graced the dungeon.
“Julius, change of plans. You’re coming with me.” Anastasia said, literally grabbing his jacket by the back of the neck as she hurried out of the dungeon.
“But, your majesty!” Julius protested, torn between his honour and duty.
“I’ve got good news and bad news for you Jul.” The queen said with a dull smirk as she pulled out a freshly opened letter.
“He’s alive.”
***
“I promise, I’ll feel much better if you let me pace around and start pulling my hair out.” said Natsuki Subaru, still stuck in the Oni’s bed. Rem had one soothing but firm hand on his shoulder as Ram prepared a delicious smelling tea in the kitchen downstairs.
“Subaru, I know you are truly amazing, but even you should be wary about pulling your hair right after cracking your skull open. And bedrest is a must, I'm afraid.” Rem said warmly, exerting almost zero effort keeping her hero on his bed.
“But if I just sit here I feel like I’m going to explode!”
“I still don’t understand Subaru, what’s the problem? Wouldn’t it have been worse for everyone to think you were dead?” Rem said, successfully fighting off the urge to brush her fingers through his hair. Surely she’d get a better chance soon.
“Maybe? I don’t know, it’s not like I want them to think I’m dead. But at the same time, it’s a delicate conversation. I was sort of hoping not to break the news en masse. If I did talk to someone after all this time, I’d want to tailor it a bit. Every relationship’s a bit different, you know?”
***
“Meili! Meili, Meili, Meili!” an overexcited Petra shrieked as she ran onto her property she shared with her partner. Nobody would describe her as young anymore, but she could still move when the moment called for it.
“Who did we forget about this time?” Meili said, her eyebrow raised in a curious glance as Petra crossed their wide estate. The nice thing about living in the Augaria dunes is that the land is dirt cheap. That, and the multitude of Mabeasts roaming the lands, had made it the perfect home for the duo to set up when they weren’t adventuring across the continent.
It was as nice a season the area ever gets, and as such they had been planning on finally spending some time together on the homestead. But that had all gone up in flames when Subaru came back into their brains. Petra had insisted that they start looking for him right away, and Meili was glad that she could act like it wasn’t her idea.
But an impromptu trip was not something they had the luxury of rushing. Although their neighbours were far away, they could not leave their menagerie unattended under any circumstances. And there were very few people out there who had the skills to do what Meili did, even if only for a few days. They had been just about finished with hiring and preparations when Petra had made one last trip into town and checked their mail.
“He’s alive! I got a letter from Rem, and he’s alive!”
“Well, at least we didn’t go through all of this preparation for nothing.” she sneered with a smile that she couldn’t hide.
“I used to see him a bit like what I’d imagine a big brother would be like.” Meili added slyly. “It’s a bit late but maybe you can ask him for his blessing on our marriage.”
“Oh, maybe.” Petra said blushing. “I guess the same goes to you though.”
“Petra, I already made your dad give his blessings, bless his soul. And if you saw Subaru as a big brother … well I’m glad you didn’t have any siblings.”
“Meili!”
***
“That sounds like an excuse to never tell anyone at all.” Ram said as she sat down and started drinking her tea.
“Oh, you weren't making that for me…” Subaru sadly trailed off, momentarily lost staring at the warm glass of tea. “Well, no I would tell people. Maybe not everyone, but I’d tell a few people. I actually had a list in case this happened. Haven’t thought of it in years though.”
“Who was on the list?” Rem asked, enraptured.
“Well, you two were at the top of course.” Subaru said, receiving absolutely nothing from Ram’s deadpan.
“How bold, telling the two women 15 feet from you that you were alive.”
“Hey! Well, actually that’s fair. But there were some others on the list too! There was… well, hm I thought about Reinhard but if he wanted to talk to me he could just come to me. Maybe, well, hmmm.”
“Can you believe it sister? Subaru made a list and it was just the two of us!” Rem said with a glow almost radiating off her.
“It’s more and more believable every minute we spend with Mr. Natsuki.” she said before taking a luxurious sip.
“It wasn’t just two, ok? I just forget the details. Like, oh! Beatrice!” he said with an excitement that soon faded.
“That’s a conversation I can’t put off too long.”
***
Beatrice had been in a spiral before the letter arrived. So many emotions hit her all at once. Everything in her life that had taken decades to try and work out all clicked into place before shattering. And although Emilia had tried to reassure her, Beatrice had dragged her under instead. Because they both knew, the only way Subaru wouldn’t have found them after all these years is if he was dead.
They spent several nights discussing what could have happened to Subaru. They spent their days tearfully wallowing over the time with him that they had been robbed. And they occasionally, at their lowest, thought about how they could have prevented all of this if they had just listened to him at his lowest.
It had been an entire weekend, and both Beatrice and Emilia knew they couldn’t do this forever. As sad as it was, they had to emerge back to the real world. They had an important role in the revived Elior forest, a job that gave them both much meaning and joy.
‘Just like he had before’, Beatrice sadly thought to herself.
But when they thought they had run dry of tears, the letter arrived. And a whole new reserve of tears flowed as they realized it wasn’t too late. He was alive, and they could make it up to him.
60 years was but a drop in the bucket to a great spirit and a half-elf. And they’d make Subaru realize that. Nothing had to change at all.
***
“And what about Emilia? Or Garfiel and Otto? Did you figure that they didn’t need to know?” Ram said with a judging tone. Subaru could only sigh.
“Look, it’s different for the three of us. We’ve been friends for years now. But most of these people you’re naming I knew for under a year, and haven’t seen for the lion’s share of my entire life. The truth is it’s not going to help anybody to tell them I’m alive. Because the Subaru they’re looking for died years ago.”
Ram shook her head. It was going to take a while to crack this nut.
“Don’t worry Subaru, your Rem made sure not to tell anyone where you live. So even though I regretfully sent out those letters, no one will be able to track you down until you’re ready to talk!”
“Rem, you do realize the first thing everyone who gets that letter is going to do is get in a carriage and go straight to your house, right? The house I live right beside?”
“You better take the nameplate down.” Ram said with a dry snort.