CHAPTER 59: SWEET PASTRY, SWEETLESS STORY
Frederica: “...Your return certainly came quickly.”
Mutters Frederica, her sharp eyes open wide, as she welcomes Subaru at the mansion's gates.
Subaru: “Got into a situation where I kinda have to pull a here-and-back. It's been two... no, three days? I know it's an early reunion without any notice, but please accept me.”
Replies Subaru, fatigued from a half-day of travel and mounted on a panting Patrasche's back. Frederica looks up at him, and seeing his rather poor condition, puts her hand to her mouth to conceal her fangs.
Frederica: “Regardless the time or the guest, a failure to provide impeccable hospitality would dishonour me as my Master's servant. I shall be returning your dragon to the stables, Subaru-sama, so please see yourself to the mansion. Petra will tend to you.”
Subaru: “That much care's really not nee... oh, actually, please do that.”
Says Subaru as he dismounts Patrasche, his knees almost buckling as he touches down on the ground. His grip on the reins keeps him from suffering any damages, but apparently his body's more tried out than he thought. It's natural—He dashed from SANCTUARY to the Mansion without any rest or pit-stops, and his body had just pulled an all-nighter. Even with Patrasche's WINDBREAKER BLESSING and quiet considerations not to burden her rider, the over-six-hours spent on the road has placed a large toll on Subaru's body.
Noticing his own exhaustion, Subaru nicely accepts Frederica's proposition. He hands Frederica the reins, stroking a concerned Patrasche's back.
Subaru: “It's okay, it's all okay. Gotta thank you for going along with my inclinations. When I visit the stables afterwards, I'll reward you with a brushing-down.”
Ground dragons lack the rich hair of horses and so on, but they do like their rough hide getting a rub-down. Patrasche is no exception. Excited by his promise, she butts Subaru with her snout, him sustaining a nose donk and flinching back with a 'guh'.
Frederica: “My, how energetic she is. Now then, let's be off, Patrasche-chan. I would offer to re-lay her straw and prepare her bedding.”
Subaru: “Yeah, please do that. —Right, Frederica.”
Frederica: “Yes?”
Reins in hand, Frederica starts leading Patrasche to the stables. But Subaru stops her with his call, and she glances back. Subaru clicks his neck.
Subaru: “—Are you planning to go to the mountain cabin today?”
Frederica: “...? I am not. Would there be something the matter?”
Subaru asks with his voice low. Frederica replies mystified. Paying mind to her style of answer, expression, and gaze, Subaru shakes his head.
Subaru: “Nevermind,”
Subaru: “It's fine if you're not. And when you're done with Patrasche, I'm sorry but could you immediately come back to the mansion? There's some things I wanna talk about, including SANCTUARY.”
Frederica: “Understood. I will return at once.”
Frederica gives a polite curtsey, this time definitively leaving the scene with Patrasche. Subaru watches them exit the mansion's front garden until they're out of sight, then stretching and peering up at the mansion. —Extravagant as always, here was the Roswaal mansion on the night of the second day.
His most belated visit had been night of the sixth day, with an earlier return on the night of the fourth. Both times, demise came bearing the guise of a knife. Before that—
Subaru: “Before the end can come, I have to find a way to put an end to the end.”
The sacrifices he had made for that purpose this loop were too many. His acquisition of recompense for even these sadnessess abandoned to a disappearing world is a necessity.
For Garfiel's grief. For Emilia's unseen sorrow. Because Natsuki Subaru had been given the resolve to, while averting his eyes to pain, keep fighting.
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Petra: “Woah! You certainly returned quick!”
Is Petra's first statement as she welcomes Subaru, her expression sparkling and loaded with sweetness. Although her welcome shares the same content and word choice as Frederica's, Petra's comes with love and connection, making it a good and clearly understood example case.
Petra: “You seem weary, are you okay? I mean, are you well? I can prepare the bath at once, and if you'd like to soak before... what's wrong?”
Subaru: “Nah, was just seriously thinking that looking at you's healing. Thinking back, you're the only one I can interact with this time without considering outsides or undersides or that tricky stuff or anything.”
Jumbling her polite and casual speech, Petra bounds and bustles circles around Subaru. Subaru sticks his hand in her chestnut hair, patting her head. The way she hums and happily draws closer is truly adorable. Indeed, healing. What simultaneously passes through Subaru's mind is the events at the mansion prior, and Petra's gruesome demise.
Subaru: “Petra, this's sudden, but... can I ask you for a favour?” Petra: “...? Sure. I mean, yes. When it's your request, Subaru-sama, I'll answer to anything.” Subaru: “Tahaha, that anything's reassuring. Right. We're gonna have a bit of an important talk.
Frederica'll be coming back real soon, so I wanna have the talk in the lounge. Can you make some tea for us?”
Petra: “Big Sis Frederica will be there as well?” Subaru: “Yeah. This talk could determine how things go afterwards, and you're not uninvolved in it Petra, in fact you're very involved. I want you to be there.”
Petra: “Not, uninvolved...”
Putting her hand to her mouth, Petra enters a thinking posture. Her head springs up as if remembering something, and with a slight blush across her cheeks, Petra: “Then, this is an important talk for me and you, Subaru-sama?” Subaru: “Hrnn, you could say that? It's definitely an important talk for you, and for me. Either way we can't finish it all up just between ourselves.” Petra: “But, for that, the feelings of those involved are very important.” Subaru: “Feelings? Their feelings? Feelings're... well, I guess important? It's true if it doesn't line up with their will they won't want to do it, that's definitely not mista... ken, am I?”
Subaru tilts his head at Petra and answers in a general positive. Her face beams as she does a spin on the spot, practically dancing as she runs to the mansion's centre. Petra: “At once! I will return at once! Don't you run away!” Subaru: “I'm not running anywhere, but Petra if you go too fast you'll trip.” Petra soars off, headed for the maid's rooms on the second floor, when Subaru remembers something and calls,
Subaru: “Petra!”
Subaru: “Petra, thanks for the handkerchief. It probably wasn't in a way you intended, but it really helped.”
Petra: “Really? Subaru, I helped you?”
Subaru: “Yup, saved my life... or well no, but something like that.”
The handkerchief becoming a weapon was irrefutably due to Echidna's designs, but the beginning of it all was Petra's feelings for him. Thinking about it, it might be that so long as Echidna's will is in play, the handkerchief could still act as a weapon even now. If the trigger's identical to last time, it'd be Subaru's life being endangered, or perhaps filling it with mana by using magic. That said the latter possibility is far too difficult and impossible for Subaru.
Subaru: “Either way, it's thanks to you, Petra. Gotta show my gratitude for it somehow.”
Petra: “Then, a dayt! One dayt!”
Subaru: “Er, did you hear about those from Emilia?”
Subaru's reward for the witchbeast kerfluffle was his first date with Emilia, in Arlam village. The tactful villagers and village children left Subaru and Emilia to themselves, and it looks like Petra remembers the whole affair.
Subaru: “Got it. Allow me to escort you. Though that said me being your partner for your first date's a pretty big luxury and privilege, too.”
Petra: “It's a promise!”
Subaru: “Oui oui.”
Raising her hand cheerfully, Petra smiles like a flower in bloom as she heads for the hallway. Seeing her off, Subaru directs his thoughts to Petra's future. Even now her future is something to look forward to, with her lovable appearance. In five years—No in just three, when she grows taller, she will unmistakably mature into a beautiful young woman. Subaru suspected that her yearnings for him would disappear by then, but that she chose Subaru as her partner for her first date would surely impart him a sinful sense of satisfaction. And so,
Subaru: “We'll definitely make that promise again, Petra.”
A promise shared in a vanishing world would not remain inside Petra. But Subaru would remember the promise's passing.
Once he had chosen the correct future, he would make that same promise again. Recollecting Petra's smile, and thinking such, Subaru enters the lounge.
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Seated on the living room sofa with Petra sitting on another opposite him, Subaru smiles wryly as she puffs out her red face in dissatisfaction.
Kicking her feet as they hang down from the sofa, Petra hides not a scrap of her displeasure following their conversation. Subaru finds her childishness charming, but the attitude apparently does not appeal to the elder maid sitting beside her.
Frederica: “What would that face be, Petra. Do you not find that discourteous when in Subaru¬sama's presence?”
Petra: “But, Big Sis Frederica...”
Frederica: “No buts. Your behaviour must be proper, even with those with which you have a close relationship. If you neglect to pay this mind in the everyday moments, how will you manage it during the essential junctures? You may be quick to learn, but in this respect you are as yet lacking.”
Petra: “Uuw...”
Petra bites her lip, looking down, and a little frustrated. This girl, hit with some considerably sound logic, becomes quite the pitiful thing. Subaru goes to calm her down with a “Well but it's not so...”, which earns him a glare, him shutting up. Frederica has returned from the stables and reunited with Petra, who readied some tea, and the three of them are having their drinks in the lounge, engaging in a vital conversation. That conversation had started recently, with a subject that displeased Petra. The contents being,
Petra: “Why must I leave the mansion? And I've only been working here for a week and a bit...”
Entreats Petra, near crying. Guilt ravages Subaru. But considering the events that will occur in this mansion, succumbing to the guilt and spoiling Petra would be no good at all. His heart an oni, Subaru shakes his head.
Subaru: “I'm not saying for you to get outta here forever. It isn't your dismissal, it's that I want you to go to Arlam village... or actually, go back to your house for a week or so.”
Frederica: “And you cannot discuss why, can you now?”
Subaru: “...Not the details. But it's true that there's danger pressing in on the mansion. Frederica, I told you about how the Witch Cult targeted this place recently, yeah?”
At the words Witch Cult, Frederica's expression shifts. She hadn't been around for it, but the Betelgeux-led cultists' attack on the mansion was about two weeks ago now. A Frederica raised in SANCTUARY would surely understand what rigamaroles heresies, including Emilia's lineage, would invite.
Just as Subaru planned, Frederica nods, her expression complicated.
Frederica: “Should this be true, then I believe even Subaru-sama's judgement as proper. You do not yet possess means to protect yourself, Petra.”
Petra: “I'll be fine! Subaru'll protect me!” Subaru: “What I wanna do's be manly and say 'leave it to me!', but when it comes to my inadequacies or I guess lack of ability, or stuff in that vein, I'm too self-aware to just be saying that.”
Petra stands up as she refutes Frederica, but her efforts are interrupted by Subaru himself. Petra's shoulders slump in dejection as Frederica consolingly pats her head. Frederica: “You mustn't be downcast, Petra. You are surely not so foolish as to fail to understand how it frustrates Subaru-sama to voice the insufficiency of his own abilities, yes?”
Petra: “...Yes, Big Sis Frederica.” Frederica: “All are the same in lamenting their inadequacy. That remains true of Subaru-sama, and of yourself. Subaru-sama has recognized such, and has proceeded to search for what he may ably do. What is it that you will do, Petra?” Petra: “Uuw...” Petra forces down her frustrations, almost crying. Her teary eyes snap onto Subaru. Petra: “Wh-what I may ably do... would not be, at the mansion?” Subaru: “...Mn, I'm sorry. This time, Petra, there's nothing you can do at the mansion. My deficiency means I don't have the room to be vigilant for you as well. I'm sorry for that.” Subaru bows his head. Petra closes her eyes firm, rubbing at her eyelids with her sleeve.
No tears remain when she raises her head again. Only the redness around her eyes, as she politely grips the hem of her skirt and curtsies. Petra: “I humbly comply, Subaru-sama. From this night onwards, I will partake in a period of retirement. I request I be called back instantly once the problem is safely resolved.” Subaru: “Right, I will be doing that. When the problem's all resolved...” If the people of the mansion, and if possible the SANCTUARY bigwigs, can all be smiling then— perfect.
Petra accepts Subaru's proposition, getting this talk through the first stage. —Petra, tasked with cleaning up the emptied teacups and organizing everyone's stuff, leaves the living room. Frederica and Subaru are thus left behind to occupy the room. Watching her go as the door clicks shut, hearing her footfalls down the hall grow distant, Subaru reaches for a tea-accompaniment pastry, savouring the sweetness on his tongue. Subaru: “Am I fine to ask, Frederica?” Frederica: “That would depend upon the subject in question, Subaru-sama.” Subaru smiles wryly at the rather deserved reply. Frederica waits, her expression composed, for
Subaru to get things started. He takes a deep breath as he puzzles over what to say first. But, if there were anything Subaru wanted to ask Frederica face-to-face, it would be,
Subaru: “What do you think Garfiel wants to do with SANCTUARY?” Frederica: “—Has something occurred between yourself and my foolish younger brother?” Subaru: “We've had lots of chances to bash into each other. What I wanna figure out's whether those bashings'll result in something we absolutely can't come to mutual understanding about, or if they're something where you'll understand it if you talk about it.” Subaru's actions from hereon would shift direction depending on which it was. Was Garfiel an enemy to defeat, or a friend whose allegiance would be valuable?
Frederica: “Your lack of surprise would mean that my brother has told you of the relationship between he and I.”
Subaru: “Lewes-san didn't deny it either. You know Lewes-san, yeah?” Frederica: “Of course I would. She is the parent who raised myself and my brother, us lacking relatives, in SANCTUARY... although with consideration to her years, she should more likely be called a grandmother than a mother.”
Subaru: “You got Garfiel fucking calling her granny the granny the granny, too.” Subaru can't get that grieving scream of NANNA out of his head.
That might have been what Garfiel used to call Lewes. Presently he acted bad and used a rude form of address, but were that Nanna sincere, then, Subaru: “Is Garfiel just maybe a bit of a nan's boy?” Frederica: “If you would mean in his stance towards grandmother... then indeed, he is. Being that my brother in fact possesses a deeply emotional disposition, I believe his affection for grandmother to be quite intense. He may be attempting to hide it, however.” Again, from his sister's perspective, Garfiel's familial love for Lewes seems to stick out. Subaru can't tell how some messup somewhere in that connects to him protecting SANCTUARY, and then results in his acts of barbarity.
Subaru: “His behaviour pattern is a different story from the question of whether or not I forgive that.”
Frederica: “Subaru-sama?”
Subaru: “It's nothing. Just some remembered hostility boiling up. Though the mindset I need to have is one of making my decisions on everything without having any preconceptions.”
Subaru still didn't understand the fundamental question of what Garfiel was thinking in dragging the villagers into the slaughter. That said, it's certain that he possessed the command right for Lewes Meyer, and was the one taking care of the facility. Why would he destroy the facility? Or, why did he even have the command right? There were so many things Subaru didn't understand, but—
Subaru: “Frederica. I know that you used to live in SANCTUARY. And I know that, you being a quarter-blood, you can leave the place without triggering the barrier.”
Frederica: “To already know this much...”
Subaru: “And that Garfiel shares your position, and can actually go outside, but stayed in. Y'know, Frederica. You... do you know for what goal SANCTUARY was made?”
Only four days have passed on this timeline since Subaru set off for SANCTUARY. His rather impossible information load surprises Frederica, but it's his last question that makes her eyes widen further.
Frederica: “No, I would not be aware of the particulars. Although, I do comprehend that SANCTUARY was created for the purposes of the former Witch of GREED's experiments...”
Subaru: “You don't know? Really? Not changing that answer?”
Frederica: “I would not know what it is you are finding dubious, but I shall not be altering my answer. SANCTUARY is the testing site of a witch, of which now only the witch-placed barrier remains, which will not come undone absent the surmounting of the TRIAL. That is the entirety of what I know.”
Frederica ends her piece with a slow shake of the head. There's no way to divine her statement's veracity, but Subaru at least doesn't perceive her as having lied. Meaning, Frederica doesn't know about the truth of the immortality experiment. That also implied a scant understanding of the creations produced from the experiment.
Subaru: “Hold on. Then, Frederica... you don't know anything about the command right for the duplicates?”
Frederica: “Dyuplicates... is it? No, I have never heard of such a thing.”
Her denial carries the same nuance that everything has. Subaru is speechless at her reply. Devoid of strength, he leans his weight back against the sofa.
Frederica: “I offer my deepest apologies. It appears I have provided an answer contrary to what was expected.”
Subaru: “No, it's fine. You're not in the wrong on anything here. ...How long ago was it you left SANCTUARY? Have I asked that before?”
Frederica: “My departure from SANCTUARY and gracious entrance into the mansion would have now been seven years prior. Ram's arrival soon followed, which would make me the longest serving.”
Subaru sighs at Frederica's lack of mentioning Rem, and at the lack of change in Frederica's information load re: SANCTUARY since last loop. This makes Frederica's probabilities of meaningfully hiding information from Subaru practically zero. Stepping into the same subject from a different perspective, and receiving an identical answer as before, indicated that truth. Frederica didn't know about the immortality experiment, and most likely not about the Lewes doubles. Either the Leweses played their daily swap-outs considerably well, or young Frederica had some deficiencies to her.
Subaru: “But then with that, what I don't get's Garfiel. For just how fucking long's he known the truth of SANCTUARY?”
Possessing the duplicates' command right meant Garfiel knew about the facility. Even without that, the one to destroy the facility was most likely him. Garfiel knew the experiment which used Lewes Meyer. Him knowing a truth that his sister didn't then meant it something after Frederica left SANCTUARY. Otherwise it was precisely because Garfiel knew it that he stayed behind in SANCTUARY.
Subaru: “—Ah,”
Mulling this over, Subaru notices that he's overlooked something very important. So much so that the moment he notices it, his idiocy truly astonishes him.
Subaru: “Him having the duplicates' command right mean he's cleared the same condition as me. Meaning basically he's got the something or other status of being an apostle of greed, and so...”
That surely made proof that Garfiel had met the WITCH OF GREED Echidna before. Why didn't I notice it, stresses Subaru. If Garfiel's met Echidna before, then that explained his ownership of the command right. As well as his somewhat narrow views toward the TRIAL, and his sympathy for an Emilia broken from challenging the TRIAL.
Subaru: “Frederica. —Garfiel's challenged the TRIAL before, yeah?”
Frederica: “—! Why do you—”
Subaru: “After putting together some conditions and thinking about it, that's what it all connected to. Of course, I think he failed, but... how'd it all go, in detail?”
Subaru pumps his fist, having grasped a piece of the truth. Frederica sighs as she closes her eyes, trawling back through the past.
Frederica: “...I would not be the only one who desired for SANCTUARY's release. My brother, too, had a time wherein he was eager to show grandmother and the others the outside world. My yet-young brother crept into the tomb, and challenged the TRIAL. I do remember envying that rashness.”
Subaru: “You've never gone in?”
Frederica: “I lacked the courage to. I knew that I could free SANCTUARY if I overcame the TRIAL conducted inside, but I lacked. I had always been told not to enter the place. I envied my brother, capable of leaping straight in.”
Subaru can definitely imagine it. Make his current reckless personality even more intense, and young Garfiel likely challenged the tomb's TRIAL with full enthusiasm. Wholehearted and entirely honest with his desire to show his beloved family the outside. However,
Frederica: “He was not coming out of the tomb, and I regretted my neglect to stop him, then calling for grandmother... grandmother also did hesitate, but she firmed her resolve at once and entered. Some time passed, and she returned to me as I prayed, my brother in her company. However,”
—Never enter the tomb again. Forget about today, and never speak of it to anyone.
Was what Lewes apparently told Frederica. Following this conversation, Subaru recollects on the contradictions in Lewes' former statements. Lewes stating she had entered the tomb before, and Lewes asserting she had never entered. Subaru knew there were several Leweses, and that they were bound not to lie, which he can now comprehend. The presence of a Lewes who had experienced it and a Lewes who had not now cleared up the contradiction. So what Subaru's learned from this talk is,
Subaru: “Garfiel's taken the TRIAL once. And there he should've met the Witch of GREED. And then finally, things're lining up.”
The emotions Garfiel harboured toward the TRIAL. Why he possessed the command right. The questions are, what did he see in past? Why did he reject a Subaru attempting to free SANCTUARY? And why had Echidna never mentioned anything about Garfiel to Subaru? All of the answers laid inside the tomb.
Subaru: “I absolutely need to see Echidna at least one more time.”
To excavate everything hidden, from the witch who knew everything. Frederica silently looks up at Subaru, firm in his quiet resolve. Noticing her gaze, Subaru scratches his cheek.
Subaru: “Sorry,” Subaru: “For everything. I think I asked things you didn't want asking.” Frederica: “No, it was essential that you did so. I have further been ordered by the Master. If our talk will aid in Emilia-sama's... and additionally SANCTUARY's freedom, I would find not any issue in it.” Subaru: “I am freeing SANCTUARY. There's a reason I have to, so I'll use any means I can, and free it. But, how much I can let Garfiel's wishes manifest there's, honestly, secondary.”
Frederica goes quiet. Subaru: “I don't have the slightest clue what Garfiel's thinking. If worst case, no matter what he thinks he aligns against my intended actions, I'll force my ideas though even if it means crushing him. I'm choosing the highest number of happinesses. Sorry though.” The Mansion and SANCTUARY, both facing oncoming calamity. If Garfiel's going to hinder a Subaru acting to avoid those disasters, he best prepare to be sent flying. Subaru's reply prompts Frederica to blink, firm, once. Frederica: “I bid you may care well for my foolish younger brother.” —She says, head bowed.
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