Chapter 116: What are you saying! Betty didn't want a hug at all

"—See, I saw it. This reaction means Beako's been listening, hasn't it? Are you feeling sorry for me?"

Natsuki Subaru said this with a coy, simpering manner, his tone utterly insufferable.

And it was precisely this reaction of his that made an angry vein bulge on Betty's forehead outside the front door.

"You bastard..."

"Hm? What was that, what was that?"

Natsuki Subaru cupped his hand into a horn at his ear and tilted his head, the very picture of attentive listening.

Though Betty outside the door couldn't see what was happening inside, the moment she closed her eyes such an image automatically surfaced in her mind.

"What would someone like you even understand, I suppose!"

Betty finally couldn't bear it, lifting her head and shouting with all her might.

"You've forgotten everything from the past? Then stop putting on this familiar, affectionate act!"

Betty's face was filled with sorrow, the rims of her eyes red.

"Why? Even when you're ignored, you can always go on chattering by yourself. It's like this now, and it was like this before too."

"Wouldn't it be better to just let Betty stay quietly alone? Or it wouldn't matter even if she died in some corner somewhere!"

After venting all of this, Betty took a deep breath, her eyes fixed intently on Natsuki Subaru as she spoke.

"Or rather—Betty will ask you one more time!"

"Are you... Betty's 'that person'?"

As the words fell, Betty grew nervous despite herself. She'd wanted to say the line with feigned coldness, but once it left her mouth she found her voice trembling uncontrollably.

Her gaze clung tightly to the tall, silent front door of the manor before her.

But in mere moments her gaze turned to disappointment. Was it the same rejection as always?

A deep sense of powerlessness welled up in her heart.

Subaru, why can't you make Betty the number one person in your heart? Is Betty really so unworthy of your love?

"'That person,' huh... Hm, I can be, you know."

Suddenly, Natsuki Subaru's voice rang out from the other side of the door.

The words of direct acknowledgment stalled the despair surging up in Betty. Her little mouth fell slightly open, and she was somewhat at a loss.

And at this moment Natsuki Subaru was still going on.

"I can do it, sure, but is that really alright? Beako?"

"If you want me to make you the number one in my heart, can you guarantee you'll make me your number one?"

"What about Echidna, your mother, for instance? Hm... thinking about it, it really is a bit unfair."

Natsuki Subaru's voice was light, yet carried a teasing tone.

Judging from Betty's behavior, he had already concluded that the experiences of the Betty before him were exactly as Emilia had described to him not long ago.

Unable to be persuaded, she had been dragged out by force from the Forbidden Archive that was about to burn to ashes.

Betty—who had lost Puck, the only one resembling family to her; whose Forbidden Archive, fulfilling her promise with her mother, had been destroyed; and who had even been refused when she asked him to become her 'that person'!

In that case... handling it the way he had with Emilia—simply supplementing the words he'd once used to persuade Betty—probably wouldn't have much effect anymore.

Fortunately, though, having now integrated all the intelligence from the main line, the Greed line, and reality, he had no shortage of means.

On top of that, the day Rem confessed to him in reality, he had made a decision.

To give Emilia, Rem... and now Ram and Betty too, happiness—so there was no question of a single number one in his heart at all.

This time, he could no longer turn a blind eye to their love, so he would treat every one of them as the number one in his heart!

But it was precisely because of this that he couldn't simply agree outright.

Betty was a sharp child. If everyone was treated as number one, didn't that also mean no one was number one?

So he had to come up with a clever workaround.

Through the peephole, Natsuki Subaru indeed saw Betty caught in hesitation because of the question he'd just posed.

"Make Subaru the number one in my heart? This..."

Betty looked blankly at the Gospel she was clutching in her arms, not knowing how to answer.

Mother, it seems I'm about to find that person, but at a time like this, how should I answer?

Regrettably, the Gospel that could show the future and guide her remained blank, unchanged for four hundred years.

"If you don't know what to do, Betty—then just place them side by side."

At this point Natsuki Subaru's remark caught Betty's attention.

"Try putting me and Echidna tied for first place. It'll be the same on my end."

Natsuki Subaru said with a rather roguish smile.

"I'm fully confident that, in the time we spend together going forward, I'll win Betty's heart and draw all your attention onto me, you know."

"So what about you, Betty? Or are you saying you don't think you can become the number one in my heart over our long time together?"

Natsuki Subaru said with a thoroughly provocative air.

"Wh-what did you say!"

Betty grew flustered before she knew it, and her tsundere nature made her instinctively retort.

"Betty won't lose, I suppose! Betty will absolutely, absolutely become the number one in Subaru's heart, I suppose!"

Betty clenched her tiny fists. Even though she vaguely understood in her heart that this was Natsuki Subaru's goading tactic, she agreed all the same.

On this particular point, she would not lose—and could not lose!

"Heh heh, alright then, this contract is hereby formed."

Natsuki Subaru chuckled inwardly, then opened the heavy door before him and swiftly pulled Betty inside.

"C-contract? Was it established just like that?"

Betty looked dazed, still muttering feebly as she was pulled through the door.

She kept feeling that something was off, but couldn't put her finger on it.

"Bang!"

Having shut the door again, Natsuki Subaru turned around with a smile, intending to tell Betty some good news.

Though her memories had changed, the fact that they had signed a contract before remained true.

He really wondered what kind of expression Betty would make upon learning she'd already signed a contract with him long ago.

Natsuki Subaru stood still, reaching out to feel the contract between himself and Betty—and then his expression changed drastically.

The contract... was gone?

At the very least, he couldn't sense it at all!

Natsuki Subaru froze on the spot, a chill creeping up his spine.

Could it be that the Betty before him, the one he'd been chatting with for so long, was a fake?

Then where had the real Betty gone?

No, no, no—Natsuki Subaru shook his head, clearing the stray thoughts from his mind.

He trusted his own judgment: every movement and shift in emotion of the Betty before him was by no means false.

"Subaru...?"

Hearing Betty call out, Natsuki Subaru gathered his thoughts and lifted his head.

He was inwardly planning what to explain to Betty when he suddenly noticed something was amiss.

At some point, the Betty before him had thrown the Gospel down at her feet.

One hand pressed lightly to her head, she looked at him with a slightly dazed gaze.

"What happened? How did I suddenly go from... back to the manor?"

Betty glanced around and understood where she was now.

She instinctively went to mention the space where she'd watched the scenes, but when she actually tried to speak the sound cut out entirely, as if the related information weren't allowed to be spoken aloud.

Helpless, Betty returned her gaze to Natsuki Subaru and asked in confusion.

"Subaru, what happened, I suppose?"

"Beako, is that you?!"

On the other side, Natsuki Subaru didn't answer, instead asking back with an excited look on his face.

The reason was that, the instant he'd looked up and seen Betty just now, he had felt... the existence of the contract.

And drawing on the mana posed no problem either.

"Subaru, what are you talking about, I suppose! Betty is Betty!"

Betty stepped forward two paces and spread her arms wide, in a pose demanding a hug as if it were the most natural thing in the world.

"Hmph, don't get the wrong idea—the books say close contact helps a flustered companion regain their composure. It's not as if Betty wants a hug because she hasn't seen Subaru in a long time!"

Betty cocked her head and lifted her chin in a haughty pose.

"What kind of books are you even reading? No matter how I hear it, it sounds made up on the spot."

Even as Natsuki Subaru couldn't help quipping, he skillfully scooped Betty up and nuzzled cheek against cheek, his heart brimming with affection.

"What are you doing!"

Betty immediately hissed like a kitten, and at the same time used both little hands to forcefully push away Natsuki Subaru's face—just now he'd pressed so hard that her little face had been squished out of shape.

Natsuki Subaru, however, paid this no mind; right now he was in a great mood.

The one before him now was indeed Betty—and the very Betty he knew from reality!

Most important of all was the contract, so her identity could not possibly be false—she had to be one of the good ones.

In this bizarre world full of Imitation Humans, Betty's existence was like a lighthouse, a delightful surprise to him.

Although Emilia had been proven to be human, he always felt she was different from the Emilia he'd known before—there was, in the end, a certain distance between them. But Beako was different!

____

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