Chapter 51 51: “Ram is already cute enough, if she gets any cuter the world will be in danger”

After the contract ceremony with Betty was finally complete, Natsuki Subaru shuffled back to his bedroom with an aching lower back.

Not that anyone should misunderstand — it was simply because, after signing the contract, Subaru was now responsible for supplying Betty with mana.

They weren't in the Sanctuary arc yet, so there was no Great Rabbit to drain Betty dry.

She still had the enormous reserves of mana she'd been stockpiling over four hundred years.

But Betty herself didn't see it that way.

She'd made quite a fuss about how, now that he was her contracted partner, he had a duty to take proper responsibility for her. For life.

Beako, it seemed, had turned into a frightfully demanding partner.

Well — no. Come to think of it, she'd always been like this after their contract, as far as Subaru could remember.

At the victory celebration, when it was time to go up on stage for the commendation, Betty had insisted on joining him.

She'd said something like, "The spot next to Subaru belongs to Betty."

And it didn't stop there. Even when he needed to use the bathroom, Betty would hammer frantically at the door, wailing:

"Betty wants to come in too!"

Not a single minute, not a single second apart. That was how she wanted it.

Well... he supposed he understood, in a way.

After all, as an ordinary human being, his lifespan was a mere hundred years, if that.

In the span of Betty's near-eternal existence, his whole life was nothing more than a firework — brilliant, brief, and gone.

If she didn't keep her full attention on him. If she didn't treasure every single moment they had together.

Then perhaps it would only be after he was gone that the spirit would finally realize — too late — and let the tears fall.

Still, Subaru didn't think it would come to that between the two of them.

He had every confidence in himself.

He would make memories with Betty — memories so vivid and precious they would never fade, not even after his death.

Before long, Subaru arrived at the door to his room. He stepped inside and closed it behind him out of habit.

Rather than collapsing face-first onto the bed for a rest, he went straight to the desk and chair set beside the headboard and sat down.

Too much had happened today. He needed a moment to breathe — and then to put pen to paper, get his thoughts in order.

All that said, he wasn't supplying Betty with very much mana at the moment.

And since the Great Rabbit hadn't been around this time to drain her four-hundred-year reserves dry, the two of them had drawn up a special kind of contract to prepare for the crises ahead.

The arrangement: in ordinary times, Subaru would sustain Betty using the overflow of his natural mana output.

But when it truly mattered — when Subaru needed it — he could freely draw on the four hundred years' worth of "savings" Betty had accumulated.

An unparalleled degree of trust, that.

Well — that's just the kind of relationship they had. Trusting each other completely, in both directions.

Soon enough, after a proper rest, Subaru had recovered his energy. He picked up the quill and was just about to start writing.

And then, at that very moment, there was a knock at the door.

One single, purely token knock — and without waiting for any response, the person on the other side opened the door and walked right in.

"Pardon the intrusion, guest."

Ram — the twin maid with pink hair who shared Rem's face — stepped into the room without an ounce of hesitation, a book held against her chest.

"Oh my. The guest is studying. How surprising."

Ram cast an expressionless glance at the sheet of paper on Subaru's desk, covered as it was in symbols she couldn't make heads or tails of.

Despite saying she was surprised, there wasn't the faintest trace of surprise on her face.

If anything, that line was pure Ram — her trademark flavor of deadpan sarcasm.

"I'm just jotting some things down. Helps me think," Subaru said, throwing up his hands with a long-suffering sigh.

"If you weren't so sharp-tongued all the time, Ram, you'd be even cuter."

Ram looked around the room as if he hadn't spoken, settled herself on the edge of the bed closest to Subaru with the book still in her arms, and said:

"Ram is already cute enough. Any cuter and the world couldn't handle it."

She kept her gaze down, fixed on the toes of her shoes, her small legs — wrapped in white stockings — swinging idly back and forth over the side of the bed.

"Hey, is it really okay to be this relaxed and familiar around a guest you only just met today?" Subaru asked.

Ram clicked her tongue and shot him a sideways look of mild displeasure.

"Is Barusu actually some pathetic creature like an amoeba? Didn't we meet for the first time in the Slums?"

"Oh — right. My brain completely forgot about that." Subaru smacked himself on the forehead with a groan.

"Well then, perfect timing, Barusu!"

Ram seized on the opening immediately. She stood up, stepped closer to where Subaru sat, and said in her usual flat tone:

"In order to enlighten this pitiful single-celled organism, Ram has decided to teach Barusu how to read."

For some reason, Ram's words came out just a little faster than usual as she continued — as though she was afraid he'd refuse before she finished.

"Don't ask Ram how she knows you can't read. It's obvious just from looking at you!"

"You have a girl as cute as Ram offering to teach you — be grateful and accept it!"

"Furthermore —"

Judging the moment right, Ram held out the picture book she'd been clutching to her chest and extended it toward Subaru.

"This is a simple fairy tale collection for children."

"And in the back, there are a few 'little stories' Ram wrote herself, off the top of her head."

"Well? For someone like Barusu, that's quite the dangling carrot, isn't it?"

"Hey, hey, hey!" Subaru threw his hand up in indignant protest.

"Don't talk about me like I'm some donkey that'll just keep plodding forward as long as you dangle a carrot in front of his nose!"

"Hmph. Aren't you?"

Ram gave a small sniff of disdain and patted the fairy tale collection in her hand.

"All right, enough idle chatter. We have an early start tomorrow, time is limited, and Ram is getting tired."

Subaru let out a wry smile. Ram, at least, hadn't changed a bit. Still as sharp-tongued as ever.

And still, every so often, disarmingly honest about what she was actually thinking.

"Ah — actually, it's fine, Ram! Don't worry about it!"

Before he could stop himself, Subaru noticed Ram stepping past him, clearly about to set the fairy tale collection down.

Learning to read was all well and good, of course.

But the problem was that he — with all his future memories — had already worked through fairy tale collections several times over, and was plenty familiar with the written language of this world.

It wasn't like he'd be needing to practice from scratch. Going through the whole thing again now — ?

The thought gave him a bit of a headache.

So he quickly reached out and caught Ram's slender white arm — and used a touch more force than he meant to, drawing a startled sound from her.

"What is it, Barusu? If you're suddenly planning to take out your pitiful animal urges on Ram, she won't agree to that right now."

Ram fixed him with a sideways stare, her expression catching the lamplight in a way that only deepened the look of utter exasperation on her face.

"Sorry, sorry — did I hurt you, Ram?" Subaru yelped, nearly losing his soul on the spot, and rushed to explain.

"I just wanted to say — I can already read and write normally. You don't need to teach me."

"Besides, I've already read through a fairy tale collection a few times. No need to go through it again."

At those words, Ram — who had been about to shake his hand off — went utterly still.

Something in what he'd said seemed to strike a nerve she hadn't known she had. She froze in place.

"No need to teach you?" she murmured.

"No need to go through it again? Right... there's no particular need, is there."

She repeated the words — no need — twice over. Then the arm Subaru wasn't holding dropped limply to her side.

The fairy tale collection she had been clutching to her chest all this time slipped from her grasp and hit the floor with a dull thud, its pages fanning out across the ground.

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