Rem moved to stand up beside me, ready to defend her lover. I admired her protective spirit, but now wasn’t the time.

I forcefully clamped my hand on her thigh. Not enough to leave a mark, but enough to push her back down into her seat.

“You heard me. I’m gonna keep both twins and repopulate the Oni-race.” I didn’t take my eyes off of Garfiel for an instant.

His nostrils flared. He opened his mouth, probably to shout at me, but he closed it again a moment later— reconsidering. Then, he turned around and deftly kicked the foot of the bench behind him, flipping it back around right side up with a clatter. He slammed himself back down onto the bench and scooted it forward closer to the table.

He stared off to the side. “I suppose if yer gonna declare that without an ounce of shame, while lookin’ so manly to boot, my amazin’ self ain’t gonna fight ya over it.” Then, his gaze once again met mine, his eyes hard as steel. “But that don’t mean I’mma just let ya get yer way.” He jabbed at himself with his thumb. “I’m tellin’ ya right now, but my amazin’ self’s gonna be the one to marry Ram.” Garfiel leaned forward, practically daring me to contradict him.

I stared back, my gaze equally as hard. I leaned over the table, extending one arm out in the universal symbol for a handshake. “May the best man win. But, I don’t plan on losing either.”

“Tha’s fine wi’ me, then.” Garfiel reached out and gripped my hand like iron.

“If ya boys are done measuring yer dicks then let me through,” Ryuzu spoke with the same accent as Garfiel. She forced our hands apart as she placed a giant bowl of steaming something on the table.

It looked like brown goop. I side-eyed her, “What is this, exactly?”

“Well, the village ain’t exactly rich with food, or we wouldn’t be in this mess to begin with! It’s watered-down gruel, and yer gonna eat it.” She nodded her head once.

“Not that I’m opposed to it, and actually I’m grateful you’re even willing to share, but we brought food with us, you know?”

“And where are ya fittin’ it, then?” She looked me up and down, drawing attention to the fact that I didn’t have anything except the clothes on my back.

“I’m contracted with a greater Yin spirit. We’ve got a pocket dimension.” Technically, those two sentences were both true, though I’d placed them together on purpose to intentionally mislead Ryuzu and Garfiel’s conclusions.

“Here, let me bring out some more food; I’m sure everyone would appreciate some meat and fruit.”

“Yea, if ya really got that much’n I’d love to have some, too.” Garfiel chimed in.

With his feline disposition, he’d probably benefit a lot more from meat than some gruel.

I summoned my phone to open the portal, no one able to see it but Rem and I. I reached my hand through the portal, willing food into my hand. When I pulled my hand out of the portal a giant leg of what seemed like lamb came out with it— already pre-roasted per the magic of a Sweet Home. I put it on the table with a small clatter.

“What’n the hell?!/Where’d ya get that?” Garfiel and Ryuzu said, respectively.

I smiled with amusement, “The wonders of magic.”

“That sure is a fancy Yin spirit ya got there, I ain’t never heard o’ one that could do that.”

“Subaru-kun is being silly. Beatrice is his contracted spirit,” Rem added.

The room fell into silence for a second as everyone digested that.

“Well, that would explain that, then,” Ryuzu said with a wistful look.

“Anyway, please, have as much meat as you guys want. I’ve honestly got enough to feed the village for a day or two if the need arises.” Another technically true statement. What was left unsaid was that my Sweet Home could continue to provide food for much longer than just a day or two. I didn’t want to share that info right now, though, since I felt it would only make Garfiel double down on not letting anyone break through Sanctuary’s barrier.

Honestly, I was surprised he had even let Emilia try tonight. He must have figured she’d fail. To be fair, I thought she would fail tonight, too. In Canon, she never got it so easily.

“I’m kinda pissed ya aren’t already givin’ out the food to the village right now, but since ya said ya’d hand it out if necessary I guess I’ll let it pass.” Then, Garfiel took the entire leg all for himself and slammed it down on the wooden plate in front of him.

Good thing it wasn’t glass or ceramic.

I chuckled slightly, seeing him dig into that massive hunk of meat all by himself. I shook my head, and then I pulled out another leg for the rest of the table.

The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

We ate in silence for a little while, Rem taking tiny, dainty little bites of her food. She kept cutting the meat into the smallest cubes possible before spearing one cube at a time with her fork. The bites only fit on a single prong. I found it adorable.

All four of us had bowls of porridge to share as well. Surprisingly, it wasn’t half bad at all despite how it looked. Just tasted like plain oatmeal— since that’s basically what it was. The grains were shaped differently than on Earth, though. About halfway through my bowl, I realized I was a bit dumb since I could just pull out a big jar of brown sugar. I put some in my bowl, but for some reason, no one else touched it. Maybe sweet porridge was only an American thing? Or maybe it just wasn’t a Luginica thing...

The door to the cabin slammed open. The bang shocked me halfway out of my seat, my body instantly preparing to react. My eyes darted to the door, where a cold breeze was blowing in from the night air.

A disheveled Ram stood in the doorway, both of her horns out and glowing prismatic white— framing her face in their light and matching the full moon in the sky behind her. Her eyes were red, but not crazed. It took a moment for my brain to register, but she looked distraught, not fearful or anticipating a fight. Tear streaks marred her cheeks, and her normally impeccable hair had stray strands drifting in the wind.

“Roswaal-sama...” Ram began, but she took in a wracking breath— interrupting herself involuntarily. She let out a sob. “It’s Roswaal-sama.”

“Ram?” Rem said from behind me, concern in her voice.

Ram moved her eyes over to Rem, but her eyes quickly moved back to me again. My heart dropped slightly at the sight. How much was the stamp affecting her? I couldn’t help but worry about it. In what world did Ram’s upset face focus on me over her dear little sister? I tried to comfort myself by saying it only made her loyal, not affectionate. But, what if Ram’s definition of loyalty included affection?

Ram let out a shuddering breath, “Roswaal-sama,” she moved her face to the floor with a bitter look, biting at the edge of her lip. “Roswaal-sama killed himself.”

The wind howled, and the door creaked as it moved, before slamming back against the wall.

I hurriedly stood up, the bench scooting out as I did so. Rem stood at the same time as I did, so the bench moving didn’t destabilize her. I half-ran half-jogged over to Ram’s side. Without waiting to see her reaction, I pulled her into a firm hug. At the touch, her horns slowly but surely began retracting back into her skull.

Her body shuddered under my embrace, the side of her face leaning into my upper chest. A moment passed, and then she moved her arms around to my back. She balled the back of my shirt up into both of her fists as if clutching onto me for dear life. Her whole body shook as her lungs took in stuttering breaths. She let out a long wail, hauntingly crying out into the night. I stood there, helping to stabilize her body.

She seemed so weak like this. It forced me to remember how small the twin Oni-sisters were— barely tall enough to reach my chest and incredibly thin. It wasn’t natural to see them as frail girls, both sisters easily outclassed me in martial might as well as pure brute force. Ram especially so now that she had both of her horns back. Rem had two now, too, but I hadn’t seen her use them yet.

“Roswaal... how dare he?” Ram said from underneath me, her voice stabilizing just enough to shift from despondent to furious.

I quickly glanced behind myself at Rem, who stood there shell-shocked. I prompted her with my eyes, trying to grab her attention. I also moved my head as if to prompt her forward into action, and then pointedly looked down at her sister in my arms.

Rem seemed to get it, since she quickly marched over as well. She stood there awkwardly for a moment, but I prompted her again with my eyes, telling her to go on. Gently, Rem joined the embrace. I held Ram from the front, eclipsing her body with my own and wrapping her up. On the other side, Rem sandwiched her sister, acting as a gentle blanket from behind.

“What happened?” I whispered below me.

“That stupid asshole.” Ram snarled. “How dare he say he needs me, relies on me? How dare he make me care for him? How dare he save me? How dare he give me such a warm home? How dare he hold me so gently. How dare he leave me.” Then, she sobbed and moved her head back a little to look into my eyes. “Why did he do that?” Her face broke as she hiccupped a gasping breath, tears again pooling in her eyes.

I moved my left hand away from the embrace, Rem letting fully go from behind and moving to our side instead. With my now freed left hand, I put my thumb pad to Ram’s cheek and wiped away her streaming tears. Her face was soft and damp on my thumb— her cheek easily giving way under my firm touch.

“What happened, Ram?” I said again, just a tad louder than a whisper this time.

Ram clicked her tongue and looked away, her face fighting between an angry frown and a choked up sob. “He killed himself in the bedroom and left a note.” Ram reached into her bosom and pulled out a half-torn piece of paper.

To me, it looked like Ram had started to tear the paper to shreds, but had held herself back halfway through as she realized others might need to see it, too. That was just my guess, though, looking at the half-torn letter.

I gently took the note from her hands and tried to read it over. It only took me half a second to realize I barely understood a little more than half of the words... Subaru hadn’t quite finished learning how to read the language, after all. It was enough to get the gist of it, though. Roswaal claimed that we were all ‘doomed’ anyway, and so he was taking things into his own hands just a little bit early. The last line had a cryptic message that I only understood a few words of, but based on context it seemed to be a poorly coded message telling specifically me that he wanted to force this loop into failure and this was the only way how. He was practically telling me to kill myself and try again for Roswaal’s selfish intentions.

I handed the letter off to Rem, who broke the hug so she could also read over it. I moved my left hand back to Ram’s back and pulled her into a tight hug again for just a few seconds. Then, in a single fluid motion, I bent down and scooped Ram up into a princess carry.

“Rem, can you open the portal?” She summoned the Company phone a second later, the portal appearing behind her five seconds after she gave the phone its command.

I paused in reaction to hearing Garfiel’s voice, “Ya better take proper care of’n Ram, yea?”

I turned halfway backward with my upper body. Garfiel held both fists tight at his sides, one of his canines digging painfully into his lower lip and drawing blood. I hadn’t paid any attention to him from the moment Ram came in, but it looked like he cared about her in his own way, too.

I nodded my head to him before turning and stepping through the portal, Rem following close behind.