Chapter 35 35: Mule, you wouldn't want to never see Echidna again, would you?

The moment Rem caught sight of Ram, her footsteps quickened almost imperceptibly, and the faint trace of disappointment that had lingered in her eyes was instantly replaced by a sudden, luminous glow.

She crossed to her sister's side in quick, light steps, her voice carrying a subtle brightness she couldn't quite suppress:

"Sister, so you were already here."

Ram's pink eyes lifted from some figure near the doorway and settled on her younger sister.

Something like a faint flicker of emotion passed across her otherwise unruffled face — but it vanished just as quickly, giving way to the familiar expression she always wore: composed, and ever so slightly haughty.

"Rem, you're late. Keeping guests waiting is not the standard expected of a personal attendant."

Her tone carried its customary note of reproach — yet in the same instant, the corner of her eye swept over her sister from head to toe in one swift, unobtrusive glance, as if silently confirming she was unharmed.

"Yes, Sister. Rem will be more mindful."

Rem responded at once with a respectful dip of her head, a faint puzzlement briefly passing through her gaze.

Sister seems a little… different today. But none of that really matters.

The corners of her mouth curved upward on their own, into a small, contented arc.

— Just seeing her sister standing here, safe and sound — that was already more than enough.

Emilia watched the exchange between the twin sisters with a warm smile, her long silver hair catching the soft morning light of the dining room and scattering it in shimmering ripples.

She turned toward the small figure seated near the long table, her voice gentle:

"Betty, you're here too?"

At being addressed, the Great Spirit — Betty — finally deigned to lift her gaze from the spellbook she had produced from somewhere or other.

Betty cast Emilia a lazy, sidelong look, her pink-gold spiral curls swaying lightly with the motion.

Then her eyes drifted around to take in Natsuki Subaru and Rem as well, before settling back onto the page — and her little nose gave a soft, dismissive sniff.

"Betty just suddenly felt like having a snack, so she came out to see about it, I suppose. She wasn't waiting for a noisy lot like you lot at all, in fact."

She grumbled, her voice carrying that childlike lilt, and as always, she punctuated the end of her sentence with her habitual verbal tic.

But as she said it, the fingers holding her book tightened, ever so slightly, without her even noticing.

"Hm, Betty — I haven't seen you in four days. Something on your mind? You look like you're brooding over something."

Puck drifted slowly from Emilia's shoulder over to Betty's side, crossed his little paws over his chest, and tilted his head in inquiry.

"N-nothing… there's nothing at all!"

"Brother, let's read together — yes, reading! Come on!"

Betty panicked for just a second, then lunged forward and pulled Puck toward her, pressing his small head up beside her own and striking an industrious, we're-very-busy-reading pose.

"Ah… well, a Great Spirit doesn't exactly need to study spellbooks, but I suppose there's no harm in passing the time."

Puck let himself be tugged along without much resistance, and in the same breath, gave Betty a graceful way out of her awkwardness.

As a Great Spirit gifted with the ability to read the hearts of others, he could vaguely sense something of what his counterpart was feeling.

Oh well — let her have this one.

"Hm? Betty's usually so attached to Puck, but today she's acting a little strange."

Emilia tilted her head thoughtfully in the doorway, a note of puzzlement in her voice.

"Honestly, at this point I'd be more surprised if things started going normally…" Natsuki Subaru muttered under his breath, lips pulling into a wry grimace.

"Oh my~ Beatrice is actually here in person~ Now that really is a rare sight~"

At that moment, a voice with a distinctive, drawn-out, melodic cadence floated into the dining room, snagging Subaru's attention.

The voice arrived before the man did.

"How delightful~ It's been a while since you've wanted to dine with me~"

A man in a purple jester's costume, his face painted in heavy theatrical makeup, yet draped in a cape that only a lord had the right to wear, strolled leisurely into the dining room from behind Subaru.

"Don't go saying things that are easy to misunderstand! And stop flattering yourself — it's absolutely revolting, I suppose!"

Betty shot him a glare cold enough to frost glass, her tone turning sharp and full of undisguised contempt.

"Betty is only here waiting for… Bro—" she started, then stumbled, and her cheeks flushed ever so faintly.

"…For Brother. Don't get the wrong idea!"

She insisted it was her brother she'd come for — but even as she said it, her gaze slipped, quiet as a shadow, toward where Natsuki Subaru was standing.

"Mm… Roswaal, right?"

"Interesting name, but a bit of a mouthful. How about I just call you Roz the Mule from now on?"

Natsuki Subaru put on an air of easy familiarity, stepped forward, and slung an arm around Roswaal's shoulder.

His mouth curved into something between a smile and a smirk, but his tone was ice-cold — the open provocation in it not even remotely concealed.

Subaru replicated the same gestures he remembered making the first time he had met Roswaal at this moment, smiling as he gave the man a firm slap on the back.

At the same time, he split off a sliver of his attention and let his gaze drift sideways toward Ram.

If memory served, after he said something that amounted to a blatant insult to Roswaal's face, Ram would be the first to voice her objection — because at this point in time, she was still firmly on the Mule's side.

But the moment Subaru glanced over, he found himself locking eyes directly with Ram.

He had no idea how long she'd already been staring at him — only that the instant he looked, their eyes met.

Ram blinked her dewy eyes, registered his gaze first, then tilted her head slightly to one side — leaving Subaru with nothing but her elegant, perfectly composed profile.

That gesture of hers meant… she didn't want to look at him?

Subaru blinked, a little thrown.

He couldn't read Ram's expression either. Her eyes seemed to hold several layered, complicated emotions at once — but not a single trace of anger among them.

One thing was clear, though: Ram had no intention of speaking up to contradict him. And that was a problem.

He quietly filed away that conspicuous anomaly in Ram's behavior, then redirected his attention to the man in the jester costume standing right in front of him.

This man, who had poured everything into the single-minded obsession of resurrecting the perfect teacher he had conjured in his imagination — the Witch of Greed, Echidna…

Only to be left with nothing, grasping at air — and in the end, become nothing more than a madman. A pitiable wretch.

Subaru really, truly, could not be bothered to pretend.

Having to play nice with someone like this made him feel sick to his stomach.

A person driven by a fixed obsession, whose obsession Subaru already knew the shape of — such a person posed absolutely no threat to him whatsoever.

And as luck would have it, now that Subaru also held the power to influence the outcome of that obsession, the initiative was already, completely, in his hands.

Want to know whether Echidna is still alive?

Want to know what state Echidna is in right now?

Oh, Roz — you wouldn't want your dear Teacher to never be able to stand before you again, alive and in the flesh — would you?

While Subaru was over here quietly calculating exactly how to keep Roswaal right where he wanted him —

Elsewhere —

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