[ Subaru pushed open the loot house door and stepped outside.
There, he spotted two thugs.
"Tch, stay still, damn it!"
One of the thugs snarled at a familiar-looking ground dragon—
Patrasche.
"Hey, hold up over there... Heh heh, this guy looks like a broke nobody, but who knew he had such a treasure."
The other thug noticed Subaru.
It seemed they were trying to take Patrasche away. ]
.....
~ Inside, the Theater ~
"Third Sister-in-law is here too!"
"Garfiel, stop calling her that."
Ram gestured to her ears in annoyance.
"But Patrasche really is a great girl. No matter which world, she follows Natsuki-san faithfully."
Otto remarked.
"Could these two thugs be those three familiar faces, just with one less guy?"
Al joked.
"But those clothes... Yeah. Why's Subaru wearing such weird clothes?"
Beatrice glanced at Al, then back at the screen.
"I thought I was the only one with terrible fashion sense."
Al didn't deny the oddity of his own outfit.
"Those two!"
Rem shouted.
On the screen, the two thugs drew knives and swung at Subaru.
"If Subaru has been training hard for revenge, these two shouldn't be a problem."
Yuriusu said calmly.
—
[ "Hey, you got business with my partner?" Just then, in the scene, Subaru noticed the thugs trying to take Patrasche and confronted them.
"Heh, is that so... Then you're just unlucky!"
One thug drew his knife and slashed at Subaru, but—
Clang!
The sound of metal striking metal.
Subaru blocked the attack with his left arm—a metallic prosthetic.
"That was a pretty sudden greeting."
Subaru stared them down after blocking.
"Ah... Sorry about that. That ground dragon just looked too good, couldn't help it..."
"Yeah... Right. Since we're all just trying to survive, how about letting us go?"
"I could let you go, but you'll need to pay a little price, right?"
Subaru demanded money and asked about the Witch Cult, but got nothing useful...
"Do as you please—Patrasche."
With that, Patrasche kicked the two thugs away.
He mounted Patrasche and left the scene. ]
.....
~ Inside, the Theater ~
"Why's bro missing an arm too?! Hey hey, what is this, some kind of imitation act? Not a funny one. Wait, no, that can't be..."
Al wondered how Subaru had lost his arm—if he used his ability, he could just restore it, unlike himself.
"Ha, are you two clown brothers or something?"
Priscilla laughed.
"I'm confused too, Princess. Is the cosplay really going this far? C'mon, Lil'bro!"
"Subaru-kun has been living by Rem's words, 'Keep living,' so he hasn't died yet..."
Rem murmured, lowering her head.
She no longer knew what was right anymore.
"And..."
Rem, Emilia, and Beatrice stared sadly at Subaru's missing arm.
"...Wait, hold on. This is weird... Same hometown, so similar in another worldline—could this weirdo have some connection to Subaru?"
Beatrice frowned in confusion.
"..."
But the most puzzled was Al.
After all, their similarities didn't end there—even their abilities...
"Are we actually brothers or something... Hah... Hah."
Al chuckled dryly at his own unfunny joke.
—
[ Night fell. Subaru and Patrasche arrived at a desolate wasteland.
"Sorry, Patrasche. Made you run all day, and all we have for dinner is this."
Subaru took out a single rainfruit and offered it to Patrasche.
Patrasche nudged it back toward Subaru with her snout, as if insisting he eat it instead.
"I already ate. So..."
Patrasche kept nudging, refusing to back down.
In the end, they split the rainfruit between them. ]
.....
~ Inside, the Theater ~
"Natsuki's living this rough? Hasn't he thought about getting a job?"
Anastasia sounded surprised.
Subaru was so strapped that he had to share a single rainfruit with his ground dragon.
—
[ Then Subaru muttered to himself: "At this rate, both me and Patrasche are gonna hit our limits. I didn't wanna do what Old Man Rom suggested, but I need to think about making money... Though, where the hell can I even get any?"
Then, something strange happened.
Subaru started talking to... thin air.
"You're here again tonight. Really... I'm starting to find myself pitiful... Stop. This pain is mine alone—no one else caused it."
After that, Subaru stood up as if given a hint and walked off in a certain direction. ]
.....
~ Inside, the Theater ~
"What... just happened?"
Otto was baffled.
"Finally, something different from me. Is Lil'bro schizophrenic or something?"
Al said.
"Hey, Boss, where's he going?"
Garfiel asked.
"This path looks familiar..."
Ram narrowed her eyes.
—
[ "We're back. Sorry, Patrasche, wait here a bit."
On the screen, Subaru arrived at the Roswaal Mansion—or rather, the dilapidated remains of it.
From previous loops, it was clear that without intervention, the result was total annihilation.
So the Roswaal Mansion at this point should be abandoned.
Subaru stepped into the ruined estate.
"Even though the mansion's doors are broken, there's no news of thieves looting the place."
As he spoke, he pocketed anything that looked valuable. Signs of battle were everywhere. ]
.....
~ Inside, the Theater ~
"So that 'schizophrenic' voice earlier might've been telling him to loot the Roswaal Mansion—no, the old Roswaal Mansion for valuables."
Yuriusu reasoned.
"But what was that voice?"
Otto couldn't make sense of it, chalking it up to Subaru's psychological state after such trauma.
The Book of the Dead...
A name flashed in Al's mind.
But he dismissed it as wild speculation, leaning more toward Subaru just being mentally unwell.
"...As expected, Betty's still here, huh."
Beatrice murmured, staring at the screen.
—
[ On the screen, Subaru opened a door, and then—
"—Huh?"
Subaru froze at the sight of the person before him.
"—"
The person remained silent.
"—"
Subaru stayed quiet too.
"—"
The other continued the silence.
Standing before Subaru was none other than the spirit girl, Beatrice.
The two simply stared at each other, wordless.
"...A ghost?"
Subaru broke the silence first.
"—What an infuriating thing to say. Is that really your first line? To Betty, you're the one who looks like a ghost."
Natsuki Subaru and Beatrice began their first conversation in twenty years ]
....