After some time in a group snuggle session with the twins, I left the bed to let them rest. Both of them were completely flopped out, neither in any state to do much but take a nap. Of course, Sanctuary waited for no one, and I really needed to start preparing for the confrontations to come. Honestly, the thought of all the battles to come both paradoxically worried and excited me.

I’d always loved a good fight, my past in martial arts made sure I loved sparring competitions. On the other hand, I had so much more to lose now than I’d ever had before, and that scared me. When the Company had found me, I’d been at my lowest. My loneliest. I had to shake those thoughts away; I had Rem and Ram now.

I reached out to the door in front of me and turned the handle. There was another, most precious girl here, too.

“Beako!” I slammed the door open, making it rebound against the wall with a loud crash.

Beako jumped in her seat, flinching from the ruckus. “Don’t do that!” She let her book clatter against the floor, one hand clutching her chest. “You’ll give Betty a heart attack, in fact!”

“Awe, Beako, don’t be shy!” I walked up to her and began squishing her cheeks.

She started making mumbling noises, her cheeks squishing pleasantly against my hands. “Besides! Spirits can’t have heart attacks.”

Finally, Beako threw my hands away from her face. “Geez! Subaru is annoying Betty!” Then she mumbled, more of a whisper, really, “I guess it’s fine, though.”

“Beako, your dere is showing again. You better watch that; it could become a serious illness, you know?”

“Betty has no idea what you are saying, I suppose.”

“But you’re gonna figure it out, right?”

“Obviously.” Beako ‘hmphed,’ crossing her arms. “I suppose you are done playing with the maids, then? Good. Subaru ought to treasure Betty more, in fact.”

I tilted my head at her, forcing a fake accusatory tone, “Beako, you silly little spirit. Were you spying on me and the twins with your magic?”

She sputtered, waving her hands in front of her reddening face, “O-obviously not! In fact! I... I wasn’t!” She tripped over her words, her mouth opening and closing in panic.

“You are a naughty spirit, Beako.”

“B- Betty is not!” Beako lied. “I didn’t see you doing perverted things with the maids, in fact!”

I just stared into her eyes, letting her last sentence hang in the air.

Beako let out a high-pitched keening sound, burying her face in her hands. “W-what are you making Betty say out loud!”

I leaned toward her, my body shadowing over hers. I gently but firmly pried her hands away from her face, then used one hand to lift up her chin and make her look at me. “It’s okay to be curious.”

“Betty is not curious!” Her tsun showed itself again, but my words had the desired effect— bringing her out of the depths of embarrassment she’d crawled her way into.

I patted her head, a big smile across my face.

Beako let out a sigh, “If you’re done teasing Betty, then you must have something more for us to do, yes?”

“That’s Great Spirit Beatrice, for you. Always the master deduction-ess.”

“Bah! That wasn’t all that impressive, in fact.”

“Though, you’re right. I’m hoping to discuss battle plans with you. In summary, we’ve got two main problems now that Roswaal is gone. I think that, before Roswaal killed himself so foolishly, he hired two assassins to kill everyone back at the mansion. Luckily, I already shat all over that plan by not letting anyone stay over at the mansion, and by keeping Arlam village safe here in Sanctuary. But now, I have no idea what the assassins will do when they realize their targets aren’t at the mansion.”

“Well, just put whoever the targets are in your Sweet Home, I suppose. Problem solved.”

“Actually, the target is you, and possibly Ram, so, yeah.”

“In that case, the problem is already solved in fact.” Beako nodded in false confidence.

“Not really. I’ve recently realized that we need to do something about the assassins, thus my request earlier for battle plans. I don’t want to leave this problem lurking in the background.”

This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.

“Hmm? Subaru is actively looking for a fight, then?”

“More like hoping to stop all future deaths from Elsa and Meili’s hands.”

“I see. In that case, leave it to Betty. Together, we’ll crush them.”

“One last thing,” I reached my hand out to Beako, who used it to pop up from her chair, “I think the insatiable hare is on its way toward Sanctuary.”

“That stupid beast doesn’t go anywhere unless there’s a large amount of mana in the air, in fact. There’s nothing at Sanctuary to draw its attention, I suppose.”

I furrowed my brow, that didn’t line up with my memories from the show. But then again, the giant snowstorm that happened in the anime hadn’t happened yet. The memory clicked in my mind, and I snapped my finger, “That’s right! The hare is drawn in after someone kicks up a large snowstorm.”

“Such magic would be enough, I suppose. But who’s going to do something that foolish?” Beako asked me with a tilt to her head.

“Roswaal, I guess. But, he’s dead now. Hmm. Well, let’s keep the possibility in mind for either case. Do you have enough magic stored up to take out the hare and the assassins?”

“Betty is strong, I suppose, but it depends on how quickly and easily we can defeat the assassins, in fact.”

“Don’t worry, I’ve got a plan for that.”

I picked Beako back up into the air, cradling her against my chest— making her ‘wawawa’ in surprise, but quickly relaxing into her new position.

“To the Sanctuary!”

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What I didn’t have a plan for was the purple miasma that appeared the moment I stepped outside of our Sweet Home.

“The witch!” Beako shouted directly into my ear.

“What the fuck? Why—”

“No time for questions, I suppose! Jump!” Beako commanded.

I quickly obliged, Beako waving her hand at the ground which somehow launched us flying into the air.

Beako grimaced, clenching her teeth as we stared down at the undulating purple miasma below us. Luckily, the miasma was still isolated directly underneath us, so the village was probably still safe. Unluckily, the miasma seemed fixated directly on us.

“If I have to take care of this witch I won’t have any mana left for anything else, in fact!” Beatrice’s teeth creaked as she clenched them even harder, before she replied, “Even then, we’ll still probably die, I suppose.”

Off in the distance, a bestial roar sounded out, echoing through the treetops and sending the birds flying away.

Different thoughts and strategies raced through my mind: perhaps we could evacuate everyone to sweet home, or perhaps we could team up with Ram and try to fight this thing.

But, the miasma wasn’t inclined to give us time to strategize. The center of the purple mist began climbing up into the air, looking not unlike a black cloth being pinched at the center to raise it up.

“Flee or fight?!” Beatrice shouted in my ear, still cradled against my chest.

“Both!” I decided at that moment. “Draw her away from Sanctuary! She’s after me.”

Why on earth was she after me? This happened once in the anime, but it had only been after Subaru had gone to the witch’s tea party, that had never happened in this timeline!

“Subaru is wasting time thinking about pointless things, in fact!” Beatrice punctuated the statement by sending purple crystals flying into the mass chasing us.

The top of the miasma was getting close to us, an unholy tentacle of envious mist trying to drag us from the air. Quiet murmuring could be heard from within, “Love you, love you, love you.”

I half expected to feel my company phone vibrate in my pocket, but it decidedly did not.

“Fucking crazy bitch,” I muttered.

We were soaring amazingly fast through the air now, the miasma chasing after us with dedicated glee. The wind rushed past us with physical force, making me shiver. Fortunately, Beako’s warm body against mine mitigated the worst of the cold.

I noticed a blond head of hair peek out from on top of one of the treetops below us, then in the next moment, Garfiel sailed through the air on a direct intercept with Beatrice and me.

Beatrice turned her gaze toward him, reaching out her hand and beginning to cast magic.

“Stop! Let him come!” I shouted back.

My words must have reached Garfiel because his face turned surprised right before he collided with us in midair. He slammed into Beako and me with insane force, knocking the wind out of me as I turned slightly to guard Beako from the impact. To Beatrice’s credit, we never stopped flying through the air, still dragging the witch’s attention further away from Sanctuary.

“My amazin’ self’d like to know what’n the hell is goin’ on!” Garfiel raged at us, gripping onto my shoulder while being dragged along for the ride.

“That’s what I’d like to know!” I screamed right back, Beako clicking her tongue in annoyance.

“Just turn inta a dragon ‘n smite ‘em then!” Garfiel shouted.

Oh, right. I could do that now.

That was the moment a glimmer of silver reflected off the sunlight, before Garfiel shot his hand out and caught a wickedly curved dagger by the blade inches away from my neck.

Oh shit. “That’s the Bowel Hunter’s dagger!” I hurriedly informed my two passengers.

“Ah damnit! It’s all goin’ ta hell!” Garfiel complained with a bitter frown.

“Subaru, look off in the distance, I suppose.”

We were coming up on Arlam now. I hadn’t noticed, but we were already pretty far out from Sanctuary at this point, the miasma not letting up in its chase in the slightest. I followed Beako’s pointed finger, to see a horde of mabeasts, led by a hippo with a certain lavender haired little girl riding its back.

While I was lost in shock, Garfiel took the initiative, “Oi, where’s Ram?”

“Safe!” I hurriedly said back.

“That ain’t what I asked! We need her! An’ turn into a damn dragon already!”

“Oh, right.”

“Beatrice, take care of Meili and the mabeasts. Keep Meili alive if you can. She’s a weak little girl but can command the beasts. Garfiel, you take care of the Bowel Hunter.” We could see her chasing after us now, jumping through the treetops in pursuit.

“I’ll deal with the naughty witch. If you get the chance, summon Ram from our Sweet Home.”

“Finally, yer gettin’ yer act together!” / “Betty can do that, I suppose.”

My muscles began to bulge, my clothes disappearing to wherever they went when I transformed. I wasted no time, black scales forming around me as horns grew from my head. Garfiel launched himself away from me, colliding head-on with Elsa. Beako flew away much more elegantly, her red and white queenly dress fluttering in the wind. But, I couldn’t waste any time focusing on them.

I angled my nose down into a dive, my massive wings magnificently jetting through the air and toward the Witch of Envy.