Chapter Text
“Hi” Normal speech
“Hi” Ghost speech
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Emilia slowly opens her eyes.
The first thing she noticed is that it was already evening. Then the sand beneath her body. The last time she saw those sands was in the desert when her camp, along with Anastasia’s, tried to conquer the watchtower.
Another thing she noticed is the water. Never in her life saw both sand and water in the same place. In fact, when she looked at the direction where those waters come from, she saw something beautiful. Blue water spreads across the land as far as she can see, the sun is setting as well.
“Wow” She marveled, “I don’t believe I ever saw this kind of view before.”
But before she could do anything, she heard groans from her left. What she saw granted her relief. Her entire camp, san Roswaal, is here. Even her competitors: Felt, Crusch, Anastasia and Priscilla. All of them slowly got up. Garfiel, ever the loudmouth, voices his thought, “Princess! Are you okay?”
“I’m fine.” Emilia answers “Where are we? Does anyone know this place?” She asks everyone.
“I don’t know, Emilia-san. Throughout my venture as a merchant, I never see lands like these.” Anastasia replied first as she too was confused by the unfamiliarity.
“Same with me.” Crusch followed suit, “In my entire career as military leader, I’d never think that—”
“C-Crusch-sama! You—your memory! A-And your body! It’s healed!” Felix interrupted. Everyone then looked at the duchess and they saw none of the injuries caused by the cursed dragon blood.
“Wait…I remember!. The white whale, my life! My memories have returned!” Crusch cried in joy. Wilhelm and Felix quickly hugged her. It was a sight to see that the duchess had returned in mind.
However, the joy didn’t last very long as Crusch noticed someone’s missing, “Emilia-sama? Where’s Subaru-dono?”
Everyone stopped. Then suddenly clutch their head as memory returned.
His appearance, deeds and antics finally resurfaced. A boy whose eyes are scary yet held gentleness behind it. His bravado, at first dismissed by everyone, is now a stuff of legend.
“No…!” Tears started to fall from her eyes as her camp members started to realize what they did to their dear friend.
“Erm…I knew we got memories of bro back, but shouldn’t we find out where we are currently?” It was Al who tried to steer the topic back to their current predicament.
“I agreed.” Priscilla joined in, “You peasant can wallow at your misery later. My divine self needs to find somewhere to rest.”
Everyone agreed, although begrudgingly. They are on foreign soil that no one in this group knew about. Except Al, who has an idea, “A beach? It’s been a long time since seeing those views.”
Then Ricardo, with his demi-human sense, noticed something from afar, “Hey, I see a girl there!”
Everyone then looks at Ricardo’s direction. They see a girl sitting there alone, looking sad.
“Let’s ask her then!” Garfiel suddenly runs toward the girl while Otto follows him to prevent any misunderstanding. The rest slowly jogged toward their goal.
Garfiel reaches the girl first, he tries to ask her, “Hey! Do you know this place?” He asked, but the girl seemed to pay no mind to him.
“Garfiel! You can’t just ask her directly like that! You’re going to scare her!” Otto chided.
“But Otto!” Garfiel tries to protest, but Otto continues, “Let me try. Excuse me, miss?” Otto asked the girl. Still no reaction.
“Well?” Anastasia asks, “Any clue?”
“That’s the thing, Anastasia-sama. We asked, but she didn’t answer as if she didn’t hear Garfiel’s loud voice or mine at all!” Otto reports to them.
“L-Let me try something.” Emilia, still shaken, tried to wave her hand in front of the girl. But still no reaction from her.
“This is getting nowhere.” Crusch’s now deep in thought. How did the girl not hear anything? She doubted that she was deaf or wallow in deep sadness.
“What are you doing out there, Izumi? Let’s go home. Dinner’s waiting on the table.” A gruff voice coming from behind the girl, now named Izumi.
When everyone is looking at the source. They couldn’t help but grasp in shock.
The man was wearing some kind of shirt with a flower pattern on it. A slack long pant and sandals on his foot. But what drew attention to everyone was his face. It was older, now with a goatee, but there’s no mistaking it.
It was Subaru.
“I’m not hungry…” Izumi replied.
“SUBARU?!” Everyone shouted, but just like the girl, he didn’t hear their cries toward him at all.
In a moment of weakness, Emilia rushes toward him, intending to apologize. But the moment she was going to make a contract…
She completely phased right through him.
“H-HUH!?” Emilia can only look in horror as her body completely passes through Subaru’s body. Everyone also shared the same look as well, finally understanding why Izumi didn’t hear nor react to Garfiel or Otto’s presence at all.
But before they can process their thoughts, Subaru sits down beside Izumi, “What’s wrong? Are you feeling okay?” Subaru asks, his voice full of concern for the girl.
He deduces that something happened at the school, so he asks Izumi in which she reveals that kids are making fun of her for not having any parents coming on School Day. She voiced her turmoil to Subaru, or Uncle Baru, who was listening to her. “So what if I don’t have a real family!?” She asked Subaru.
The cast, or rather, the ghosts are now listening to the conversation. Well, only Priscilla, Al, and Wilhelm since everybody else freak out about their new status with some of them trying to calm them down.
“Being a ghost aside. To think that seeing Subaru-dono again is…something I never imagined, let alone seeing kid with him.” Wilhelm speaks in a low tone, sadness evident in his voice. Yet at the same time proud of him.
“Me too, old man. Never thought bro opened an orphanage and raised those kids as his own. The kid even called him ‘Uncle Baru’. Heh, it seems he truly has an affinity for kids.” Al praised Subaru.
Priscilla didn’t say anything, though she did a little smirk toward the half-elf, ‘It seems he looks happier than the time he spent with you, half-devil.’
Subaru then answers her question. His reasoning is long, yet filled with wisdom. It’s not like his usual motivational speech, but words that came from experience and understanding, even going so far to offer a new perspective.
However, one thing that caught their attention was a part of the answer, “I once took my family for granted, always believing that I was a parasite to them. But turns out, they never looked at me that way. They always loved me. So even though I can’t replace your dad. But since the moment you walked in…you’ve been like a daughter to me.”
Izumi then started to cry while Subaru consoled her. By now, the remaining ghosts look teary toward the heartwarming scene, their current grief forgotten. Subaru may have grown up, but he still carries the same kindness in his body.
Emilia actually tears up at the scene before her, Subaru has truly grown up to be a father figure just like Puck, ‘I wished Puck could see this, he would be proud of him.’ She smiled.
Felt herself also tearing up as well for a different reason, ‘Old man Rom…’ She thought. The giant was the closest thing to family for her life before the royal selection. Seeing big bro comforting a child as a father figure touched her heart more than she likes to imagine.
As for Reinhard, maybe it was his imagination but even he felt like crying. His friend-no, Subaru, took care of his surrogate daughter as his own ‘father’. The mere thought of him started to anger before quickly recovered himself. ‘That was weird. My divine protection should be preventing that wait—’ His eyes widened at the discovery, though he waited to let the scene play out before sharing the information to everyone.
Petra, however, felt a bit jealous toward Izumi. She knew she’s a ghost or spirit or whatever. But seeing this make her yearns for his headpat again.
Another girl walks toward the two, “Izumi-chan. Everyone’s waiting for you. Let’s go home, okay?” Izumi then stands up while the older girl wipes off her tears, “There, there. No more tears.”
Izumi then smiles. Subaru decided to wrap up the conversation, “Now come on. It’s curry tonight. How about we go eat while it’s still warm?. Both of the kids nodded. Then the three walk toward their orphanage.
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At night, the cast now huddle together in a corner of the beach. They discuss the findings since their arrival.
“Let me summarize what we learned today.” Crusch started, “One: We don’t have any Divine Protection or magic anymore as Reinhard can attest. Two: We are in some kind of future since Subaru-dono is older than the last time we saw him. And three: We are basically dead.” The last causes everyone’s mood to go down.
“Come on, everyone. I think being a ghost is better than being alive if you think about it.” Al offers his insight, “If we are alive, we gonna have to explain to bro how we are here. Even if bro for some reason forgives us, there are matters of us that appear out of nowhere. The government will be quite an obstacle to us and I doubt our former title meant anything in this world. I’d say this is a blessing in disguise.”
“Al-san is correct, unfortunately.” It was Anastasia who agreed with him, “I’m also reminded about how we are completely blind about this ‘technology’ in this world. And Al-san here admitted that it was advanced far from his time. And we don’t want to increase his workload now, do we?”
Everyone agrees with those statements. They remembered that Subaru has 9 children to feed. It’s not right for them to burden him more than he already has.
“*Yawn* As much as I wanted to know about big bro’s new life and many, many questions that I have in mind right now, I think we should rest. Damn, I don’t think ghosts need to sleep, huh?” Felt replied, already feeling sleepy.
“Yeah, we can just continue tomorrow. I guess we can just sleep anywhere on this beach then.” Emilia concludes this meeting, “Goodnight, everyone.”
One by one, the ghost went on to rest in their selected place. They sleep with their own camp members. Though Emilia herself sleeps by her lonesome.
She looks at the star in the sky, ‘Is this what you had to deal with ever since coming to our world?’ She wondered, ‘Maybe…I will understand you more, Subaru.’ With that last thought, she drifted into sleep.
Meanwhile, Rem also thought to herself, ‘I guess this is my turn now, Subaru-kun.’ She quietly sighed. Ever since she regained her memory, she can’t stop blaming herself for her actions that caused suffering to her hero. She had hoped that with this ‘live’, she would finally understand her hero more than before, ‘Let’s start from zero’, huh. Guess I should take my own advice this time then.’ Then she too fall asleep.