Chapter 62: Teacher Puck
"Anyway, Subaru, you have to seriously reflect! And promise me you'll never do something like that again!"
Subaru looked up at Emilia, who had her hands on her hips. Somehow, her angry expression was a little cute, and that sincere worry and care touched him somewhat...
Subaru turned his head, scratched his cheek, and softly replied,
"Mm."
"Really? You really won't go off alone doing dangerous things again, right? You won't run off and do those things without telling anyone anymore, right?" Emilia stepped closer, bent down, and stared at Subaru with her amethyst-like eyes.
Feeling Emilia getting closer, Subaru plopped down hard on the ground and waved his hands frantically, shouting,
"Ah! It's true! I really won't do it next time!"
"Then you have to make a promise with me."
Hearing that, Subaru froze for a moment.
He opened his mouth but didn't make any promise to Emilia. Instead, he suddenly said,
"Well... I saw..."
"Huh?"
Emilia gave Subaru a puzzled look at his embarrassed expression.
She thought about it and looked down at her chest, realizing her current posture wasn't very appropriate. Blushing, Emilia quickly covered her chest and straightened up.
At that moment, Subaru took the opportunity, quickly turned around, and ran out.
"I heard what you said! Don't say any more!" Subaru disappeared from Emilia's sight before she could say anything to stop him.
Escaping from Emilia's lecture hell, Subaru soon ran out of the mansion, glanced back but didn't see Emilia chasing after him.
He wiped the sweat off his forehead and sighed in relief.
Subaru took a few steps forward and sat down by the fountain.
The bright sunlight, the blue sky, and the white clouds above — everything was so beautiful.
A smile appeared on Subaru's face. Everyone in the mansion was alive, and the villagers were alive too. This crisis had passed.
"Ah, how unlucky, just arrived and already faced so many things... Did I get a bit closer to you? Well... not even close yet."
Muttering to himself, Subaru stood up and stretched widely.
"Alright! Work hard, study hard! I want to find a way home as soon as possible! I have so much to say to all of you."
With a bright smile, the boy named Subaru was about to return to his usual life... or so he thought!
Two days after waking up, despite being firmly opposed to any rest, Subaru dove back into his work at the mansion.
Although everything seemed roughly the same as before at a glance, it was just an illusion. Over these two days, Subaru clearly felt changes inside the mansion.
For example, Rem found ways to lighten his workload and spent more time with him during work.
Meanwhile, Ram was lazier than usual, still sharp-tongued as always, and he had more tasks assigned by her.
Though Rem wanted to help, Ram's attitude made her watch from the sidelines.
If it were only this, Subaru wouldn't have felt anything unusual. But after tiring workdays, when he tried to go to the library at night, Ram and Rem would stop him to teach him writing.
Even if he tried to refuse, they ignored him!
This made him study late into the night, and when he finally reached the library, Beatrice's attitude was often a bit cold.
Then, under Beatrice's teaching, he'd fall asleep.
For two days, he woke up in the library.
There was a silver lining though — he could see Beatrice sleeping, leaning on his shoulder. However, she'd wake up, scold him with her sharp tongue, and throw him out of the library.
During work, Emilia and Puck would come at random times to chat with him. So, despite being exhausting, those two days felt satisfying.
Today was the third day.
Thanks to Subaru's hard work, there wasn't too much to do at the mansion.
During lunch break, Puck found him and took him to the garden around the mansion.
"Ah... I almost thought I was going to die..." Subaru sighed tiredly while lying on the grass.
"That's because you're too popular, so busy like this. You're really something, Subaru. Even though you haven't been here long, you're already a full member of the mansion."
Looking at Puck floating in the sky, Subaru said helplessly,
"That's because the suspicion against me was cleared. I put in a lot of effort to get to this point."
"That's true. But Subaru, I'm curious — why do you fight so hard?"
Subaru looked at Puck's puzzled face, sat up, reached out, grabbed Puck, and ruffled his fur.
"How many times have I told you? Of course, I don't want to see a sad future. That's why I work so hard."
"Subaru, I really admire your spirit, but not everything in this world will go the way you want."
Seeing Puck's serious expression, Subaru just smiled and said,
"I want to hold onto what I want no matter what. So it will definitely turn out the way I want."
"You're really greedy, huh."
"No, no, no. I know there are things I can't change, so I just try to make sure the future around me isn't sad. You can call me very selfish."
"There are selfish people who get hurt because they care about others possibly being sad."
"There are."
Hearing Subaru's words, Puck was stunned for a moment and then shook his head helplessly.
"Yes, there's one right in front of me. But I guess you're probably the only selfish person like that in the world."
However, Puck saw Subaru think seriously for a moment and say,
"Hmm... Maybe there are others in the world like me, just haven't met them yet. After all, I know someone like that too."
"Is that so... Anyway, I brought you here today to teach you magic."
"Magic? Why should I learn magic?"
Confused, Subaru saw Puck spread his hands, biting his head cutely, looking helpless.
"It's because you're too selfish. To prevent you from dying someday because of your personality, as your friend, I have to teach you some fighting skills.
But since I can't use a sword, I can only teach you magic."
"Oh!!! Here it comes! The classic storyline! But I refuse."
"????"
Subaru lay back on the grass lazily and said,
"I'm not the protagonist or anything. I'm not going to encounter big events every day.
And I'm already so tired every day — learning magic on top of that sounds exhausting."
"You say that, but your expression clearly looks hopeful. You're really dishonest."
"Is it that obvious?"
"You know it too, right? If I hadn't shown up back then, you would've died.
Besides, I saw that sword in your room, you know."
"...Exposed... Well then, let's get started, Puck-sensei!"