Luckily, I already had a response prepared for this situation.
"You caught me out." I raised my hands in surrender. "I didn't tell you the whole truth."
"It seems so." He stopped in front of me with an arm around my waist and an uncomfortable expression. "What do you have to say in your defense?"
It was time. I had to manipulate the truth in a way that would say something convenient but without lying. My next words could condemn me or save me.
"Well... I want to protect Emilia."
"Are you referring to the royal candidate, Lady Emilia?"
"That one."
"What's your relationship with her? Why do you want to protect her?"
"I know her, but she doesn't know me. I wanted to get this insignia back to give to her personally and gain her trust so I could be close to her."
"Are you in love with Lady Emilia?"
"No. She's certainly beautiful and kind, but I'm not in love with her."
Reinhard frowned slightly, puzzled by my assessment of Emilia. I mean, calling the infamous silver-haired half-elf 'beautiful and kind' was basically an unpopular opinion.
"So, tell me what motivates you to want to protect her."
"My fate and the fate of many others depend on Emilia's happiness and safety. I have to protect her from any danger. I can't give you any more details, Reinhard; it would be dangerous for both of us."
"..."
He remained silent, thinking hard about my words. What was it that I couldn't tell him? Why was it so dangerous to talk about it? Why and in what sense was Emilia so important? All these questions ran through his mind, but he couldn't put them into words. However, there were no lies in what I said.
I wasn't a threat, and I didn't seem to have any bad intentions. But I knew a lot more than I was letting on, and that was suspicious or worrying, to say the least.
"You put me on the trail of Elsa earlier, so I assume you manipulated our first meeting. Had you planned this too?"
"What thing?"
"My discovery of a new royal candidate." He pointed at Felt.
"Not exactly." I grimaced again.
Reinhard remained suspicious, unwilling to let me go until he had satisfied his curiosity.
"How did you know about this girl?"
"Depends on what you mean. I learned of her existence because I was involved with Emilia, but then I realized she was qualified when I saw the shine of the jewel. You coming here and seeing what you saw wasn't necessary; I just wanted you to cover for me if things got dangerous."
"You really are a strange person. What would you have done if I hadn't found Elsa before she got here, or if I hadn't made it to the loot house?"
"I would have died or had to change my cell phone to get the insignia."
"You risked a lot of things based on the idea that I would live up to your expectations." He said in frustration. "That's not fine. I think you're overestimating me."
I smiled, remembering the first conversation we had.
"You've already saved me twice. You can't blame me for trusting you."
"Let me ask you one last question. Do you have bad intentions?"
"Hahaha, I know I'm weird, but I'm not evil."
Reinhard sighed, his body relaxing noticeably and he smiled again, although his usual mood was marred by stress and mental fatigue.
"In that case, you can have this." He gave me Emilia's insignia.
For several seconds, I couldn't open my mouth. I was so happy that he still trusted me despite everything. I also felt another pang of guilt.
"Listen, Reinhard, I..."
"Is the invitation you extended to me today still valid?" He interrupted me, smiling.
"What?" I blinked several times. "Oh, of course, buddy!"
"Well, it's late today and I'll be a bit busy for the next few days, but I'll look for you when I have time, does that sound okay?"
I nodded vigorously. We greeted each other, and he took Felt into his arms. I felt a little sorry for old Rom, but I was reassured to know he would be okay.
"Oh shit! I completely forgot that!"
I ran out of the loot house and searched for the traces of destruction left by the battle between Reinhard and Elsa. It took me no more than a minute to find the site that had suffered collateral damage.
"Where is it? It's only been five minutes, at most."
I searched frantically through the rubble of the destroyed buildings. I despaired when I found no trace of her.
"Shit! I can't pass up this opportunity."
I persisted, delving into the adjacent streets until a smell of iron caught my attention. I walked into a dark alley and my feet made a sloshing sound as I stepped on some sticky liquid that had dripped along the floor. A few meters ahead lay the body of a familiar woman.
"Finally." I murmured when I saw her.
***
Emilia had arrived at Kadomon's fruit stand looking for Felt. To her surprise, the man turned out to be the father of the missing girl, whom she reunited with her mother.
Since he was very grateful to her, Kadomon told her that a young man had appeared at his stall a little while earlier and asked her not to help Emilia meet Felt, as it would put her life in danger if he did. Because of this, he flatly refused to give her any more information.
The half-elf asked for details about the appearance of the young man who apparently knew and cared for her. Kadomon also mentioned that the young man would bring her the insignia before midnight if she waited for him in that area of Shopper's Lane.
Of course, that was very suspicious, and Puck advised her not to do it, because if that young man showed up after five, he wouldn't be able to protect her.
But Emilia wasn't willing to give up on her goals. She wouldn't give up on being the ruler of Lugunica. If she dropped the candidacy, she would be abandoning the discriminated halfling races who needed support; she would be abandoning the Elior Forest, whose people remained trapped in the ice she herself had created. Emilia was nothing without her dream, because that dream had given her an identity.
"Please bring it back..."
As if hearing her silent plea, a shambling figure appeared before Emilia. It was a sad-looking young man dressed in strange clothes.
—This is yours...
His voice was low and deep, a stark contrast to his soft-featured face. He had very short black hair and an unbalanced physique, with a slightly swollen belly.
Emilia watched the trembling hand extended toward her, her blood-soaked insignia was on it, which surprised her. Only then did the half-elf notice the young man's labored breathing.
"Are you okay?" The answer became clear when the young man collapsed to the ground. At that moment, the moon illuminated the street, and Emilia could see that her mysterious benefactor was seriously injured.
***
I slowly opened my eyes. The agonizing pain that had overwhelmed my body was completely gone, which meant I was healed.
The softness on which I lay and the elegant decor of the room that surrounded me were proof enough that I was in Roswaal's mansion.
"Well, two birds with one stone." I muttered, getting out of bed.
In my opinion, I cleared the first arc with a pretty high score. I even went further than Subaru and solved some things ahead of time, even though it almost went wrong.
I straightened the robe they'd put on me and left the bedroom, stepping out into a long, spacious hallway. I walked for a while without getting anywhere.
"Ah, that's right. She must have cast the spell."
When Subaru arrived at the mansion, Betty trapped him in an endless corridor as a prank, but for some reason Subaru was immune to such tricks and reached the forbidden library on the first try.
I didn't want to anger her by foiling her prank so quickly, so I feigned confusion and started to get desperate, swearing and trying to jump out of windows without success.
To make it more believable, I also tried to exit the hallway by opening seemingly random doors, but that wasn't actually the case: somehow, my instinct told me which one was the right one.
After a few minutes of acting like an idiot, I walked over to one of the duplicate doors (this time it was the right one) and entered the room.
"Hmph, I guess you got lucky." A little girl's voice said as I walked in. Fortunately, she sounded more disappointed than angry.
"Lucky? It took me forever to get out of that clever trap. Were you the one who trapped me there?"
"I suppose so." She boasted with a proud smile. "That was just a display of my power, so you should show me respect and reverence if you know what's good for you."
"Understood." Smiling wryly, I bowed before her and intoned sarcastically. "It's an honor to meet you, Miss Librarian. I hope we can get along and hang out together in the near future."
"I refuse." Betty shook her head, looking away in disdain. "It's not worth wasting my precious time on a human."
"That hurts my feelings, but I'm not a man who gives up at the first 'no'."
I stared at her, almost challenging her.
"I need to make a good first impression and show her how determined I am, so I can convince her to join me when the time comes."
"If you don't understand the words, I suppose actions will have a more powerful effect."
Irritated by my attitude, Betty came over and placed her hands on my chest. I knew what was coming, but I still wasn't prepared. When she drained the mana from my body, I felt something squeeze me inside until I fainted.
For a few seconds, my consciousness returned, but there was no light or sensation. There was only me, empty inside in an abyss of darkness. Then, an existence manifested, filling my soul with an inexplicable feeling.
"It's you?"
Then I woke up. I was back in bed, and I had no memory at all of what had happened while I slept. The residual pain from being magically sucked out still bothered me.
I tried to get up but I had lost a lot of my physical strength.
"Shit, I'm all limp and soft. That damn girl..."
"Sister, the dear guest has already woken up."
"It seems so, Rem, and the dear guest seems to be suffering from some kind of impotence."
I gave a wry smile. Now I was in a truly dangerous arc. The main difference was that in the mansion, I couldn't let my guard down because they'd be watching me.
"What kind of conjecture is that?" I sat up in bed and turned my head toward the two maids. "My sword hasn't lost its sharpness. I'm always polishing it, but I've never stabbed anyone with it."
"Sister, the dear guest believes he has a sword between his legs."
"Rem, the dear guest has a great imagination, but it only embarrasses others."
"And when did you see what I have?! I'm team blood!"
Obviously, they didn't understand what I meant by that term. They continued their teasing for a while, and I defended myself as best I could until the door to the room opened.
"You've barely recovered and you already have enough energy to cause such a ruckus in the morning?" Emilia looked at me with a grimace of resignation.
For some reason, my heart started pounding at the sight. I'm not Subaru, I'm not someone who falls in love at first sight, no matter how beautiful the woman is or how lonely I feel. Yet somehow, I felt smitten by that silver-haired, purple-eyed half-elf.
"Hi, Emilia... I'm sorry for showing up like that and causing you trouble yesterday."
I stood up and bowed to her. Why was I suddenly so nervous? Emilia wasn't even in my top five favorite female characters in Re:Zero; in fact, Satella ranked higher than her.
"It's okay, you don't have to apologize!" She waved her hands, dismissing my guilt. "Actually, I want to thank you for bringing me my insignia. Did you get those injuries trying to get it back?"
"Ah... Not exactly. This was my fault for being careless."
"I see. I would hate for you to have risked your life for me." Emilia relaxed and nodded, as if telling herself that no one but Puck could do that for her.
She had such a twisted mental image of herself that she believed that no one but Puck could love her.
Or so I think. As I said, I haven't read the novels.
"I wouldn't mind doing it." I answered quickly.
I had to make a difference. I would make it clear that I was here to stay in her life. That's how it should be, right?
Right, Satella?
"Can I ask you something?" She asked.
"Sure, whatever you want."
"How do you know me? You know my name, you returned something stolen from me the same day, and most importantly, you did all of that without ever speaking to me."
"I..."
This again. Obviously, my attitude was very suspicious, and just like with Reinhard, I ended up having to explain myself. The good thing was that I could lie, but I was very nervous. Emilia made me nervous, and both Rem and Ram would be hanging on to everything I said.
"I need you to destroy the Witch Cult." I explained seriously.