Ram let go of the hug with her sister. She waved a knife-hand out toward the trees, “Al Fura!” Destruction ensued, an entire swath of forest destroyed in a moment, not even stumps remaining. Birds flew away, chirping madly from the chaos. Trees splintered and exploded, a shockwave churning the dirt into the air.
After the destruction ended, the forest fell into utter silence.
“I hope you don’t still think I’m a traitor,” I quipped.
Ram didn’t even have the presence to respond. She just stared out at the destruction she had unleashed.
“Ah~a.” Rem sighed whimsically, “I guess Onee-sama’s horn is back.” Though she said it teasingly, Rem was completely beaming with joy. A mistake corrected, perhaps.
“What happened?” Julius asked, shocked. “If you could display that much power, why didn’t you do it before?” He took turns staring at me, then at Ram. “You were holding back?”
“Onee-sama’s horn was cut off before,” Rem started explaining.
“Now it’s back.” I finished.
That level of power and skill should be enough for Ley. Hell, she’d been able to defeat Ley in the original timeline without even having a horn in the first place.
“Ram, I hate to ask you to go fight in this situation, but is it possible you can go backup Crusch’s forces? They are fighting two Sin Archbishops. Felis should be able to loop you in.”
“I don’t know what that means,” Ram started, “Barusu throwing out nonsense again, it seems. I would rather defend the mansion.”
“Rem and I have it handled. Can you trust us?”
“Barusu, no. Rem, always.” Ram nodded her head smugly. “Since it’s my dear little sister, I can listen just this once.”
“Perfect! Wait! Something about that sounded off!” I quipped back.
“I will go help the other forces, then,” Ram said. She looked at Rem in the eyes, and then me after. “Don’t die.”
“If you get into an emergency, summon the company phone like this,” I waved the phone in front of my face. “I’ll notice it’s gone and come get you.”
“More nonsense, I see. Alright.” Then, the Oni smiled, a vicious thing. “I’ve been waiting for an opportunity like this.” Then she leapt into the air, looking almost as if she were flying.
Rem watched after her sister in wonder. “Onee-sama really is amazing.”
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We reached the manor shortly after. Based on the fake info we gave Petelgeuse’s forces with our hijacked metia, we still had a couple of hours until Julius and I needed to face him.
It was a simple thing to convince the villagers to evacuate, and it went pretty much the same way as I remembered it did in Canon.
Convincing Emilia to join the evacuation went much the same—I hid my face behind the enchanted cloak so she wouldn’t recognize me, and then I convinced her to get on the wagon with the village children. The one major difference here was that we didn’t accidentally leave a bomb in the carriage with her. Honestly, how Felis missed that the first time was beyond me. If I didn’t know better, I’d almost suspect foul play from a mistake that egregious.
After everyone was evacuating, Rem and I headed back to the manor together.
I roamed through the manor hallways, listening to my inner Subaru-sense. It didn’t take long to find the right door.
I slammed it open, Rem walking in behind me with her hands held in front of her.
After we breached the threshold of the Forbidden Library, I pointed at the tiny blond girl who was sitting on a stool and reading a book.
“Drill loli!” I shouted at the top of my lungs.
“How annoying! Don’t call Betty that, I suppose!”
I ignored her indignant protest completely, and instead walked up to the girl and lifted her into the air by her armpits. I began to swing her around in a circle with me as the pivot point, “Beako! I’m sorry I was away for so long! You must have missed me!” I practically yelled into the library.
“Put me down I suppose!!!” Her face turned red and she puffed up her cheeks, her eyebrow twitching slightly. “Put me down or I suppose I’ll force you to!”
Without a fuss, I gently placed Beako back down on the floor, her shoes clicking slightly as she landed.
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“What would you be here for, I wonder? And Rem is safe, too, I suppose.” She added that last bit almost as an afterthought. “Betty will not leave the library, as she told you earlier. Betty is contracted to protect it.”
I processed her words for a moment, briefly surprised that she remembered Rem, but then I remembered that she had been able to remember Rem in Canon, too— something to do with the isolated nature of the Forbidden Library.
“I’ve come to destroy your contract with the library.” I let those words dramatically hang in the air for a moment.
“Don’t be a fool, I suppose! Just that alone would never be enough to get Betty to leave I suppose!” Beako huffed and turned her face away cutely.
“If you have nothing to add, then I’ll be asking you to leave, I suppose.” Even though she tried to say those words with heat, instead I found an undercurrent of sadness to them.
“Beatrice,” I said seriously, looking into her unique butterfly-shaped pupils and purple eyes.
Sensing the mood, Beatrice met my gaze equally serious.
“Did I ever tell you I’m a dragon?”
“Don’t look so serious if you are just going to joke around, I suppose!” Beatrice yelled, her hair flaring as she stomped her feet. I could already feel her magic activating to push me out of the Forbidden Library.
I grit my teeth and forced myself forward. I grabbed onto Beatrice’s arm and opened my company phone. The next moment, a portal appeared in the air behind Beatrice. She couldn’t see it, but I did hear Rem gasp from behind me as she saw the portal to my Sweet Home open for the first time.
Beatrice briefly glanced at Rem with confusion, but then she doubled down on trying to eject me from her domain. My feet began to grow scales, though no one could see it under my shoes. My claws dug through the soles and into the ground, anchoring me in place. I sprinted forward and lifted Beatrice into the air, throwing her like a sack of potatoes onto my shoulder.
“Let go!” She shouted and petulantly pounded against my back with her tiny fists. I barely felt it. My back was already starting to grow scales.
I jumped through the portal, the scenery around Beatrice and I changing in an instant. After Rem followed us through, I closed the portal, temporarily trapping us inside the pocket dimension.
“What?” Beatrice asked, trying to figure out what had happened.
I gently shrugged her off my shoulder, and her tiny feet landed in the lawn outside my Sweet Home.
I began to grow a few inches taller as wings sprouted from my back. Beatrice didn’t even notice, she was too busy examining the foreign surroundings.
Rem certainly noticed though. I caught her eye as she stared at me in shock, her mouth gaping open. Her surprise only seemed to grow as I continued to transform.
“Beako,” I tried to pull her attention back toward me with a raspy voice, but she just replied without looking at me.
“Where did you take Betty?” She didn’t even bother trying to add on her ‘I suppose’.
“Beako, look at me.”
She turned her head, and I allowed my transformation to finish. Within no more than a second, my body changed: I became quadrupedal, my flesh giving way to jet black scales. Horns grew from my head, elegant purple horns crowning my forehead. The world seemed to shrink around me as I grew to equal the size of my Sweet Home. I pawed at the ground, my dangerous claws black with the tips dipped in purple.
“Beako. I’m a dragon.”
“Betty must be dreaming I suppose.”
Rem seemed to finally gather her wits, “Beatrice-sama, spirits don’t dream.”
“Oh, that’s right, I suppose.”
“Also, Beako, I’m that person.” I smiled a dragon’s smile— all teeth.
Beatrice opened her mouth once, then twice. She closed it again, and finally let out, “Don’t just add that on as an afterthought I suppose!”
The remnant Subaru inside me chaffed at the idea of calling myself ‘that person’, but remnant Subaru was a retard so I ignored him.
I laid my head down on the grass, my enormous skull still taller than Beako. Like this, our eyes met. “Make a contract with me great spirit Beatrice. For my side of the deal, I promise to always keep you by my side. I promise to cherish you. I promise to stay with you past death itself. I promise to empower you, develop and research new magic with you. I promise to act in what I believe are your best interests, and otherwise ask if I am unsure.” I smiled a toothy smile, “Join my hoard. I promise to love you.”
Beako hiccupped, her face morphing into one of wonder, but also something slightly tragic. “And what of Betty? What shall she promise, I suppose?” Tears began to pool in the corners of her eyes.
“Promise that you will stay by my side as I will stay by yours. Promise that you will defeat my foes with me. Promise that you will be loyal to me.”
“Betty can promise that. In fact, Betty would love to promise that.” Tears streamed down her face, as her voice choked up.
“But, Betty waited so long, don’t you know? For four hundred years Betty has been waiting to hear those words, I suppose.” Her voice broke, “Why did it take you so long to come for me, I suppose?
“Betty has been waiting and waiting and waiting and waiting!” She stomped her foot, “Every day, I’ve sat in that forsaken, horrible library. Every single day Betty has been waiting for you, Subaru! Why did it take you so long, I suppose!?” Her eyes turned red and puffy as she cried. She stared at me, demanding something of me.
“Betty gave up hope, I suppose! Believed I would fall into sadness and die I suppose!” Then, in a quieter voice, “Betty never thought you would come, I suppose.”
I slowly transformed back into my human form. Beatrice sobbed as I approached her— her shoulders shaking as she gripped the skirt of her dress in tightly balled fists. Her face looked torn between angry and sad.
So, I walked to her. I held my hand out to her. When she didn’t respond, I just reached behind her and placed a firm hand underneath her waist. I slowly lifted her up, causing her to stumble when she tried to catch her footing. She needn’t have bothered— I picked her up and pulled her into my chest, resting her against my waist. Her tiny body fell into my chest. I stood there, holding the small spirit against me.
“You’ll never be alone again,” I promised.
She hiccupped. Finally, she wrapped her arms around me and returned the hug. Beatrice broke down crying as I gently patted her back, Rem watching us patiently just off to the side.
“Betty will enter a contract with you, I suppose.”
“And I, you,” I promised right back.
“You have to add one more thing to the contract, I suppose.” Beako sniffled and then pushed away slightly so she could look up at my face.
I stared back into her eyes, waiting.
“You will hold Betty’s hand whenever she wants, I suppose. Betty also loves Subaru, I suppose.”
My company phone vibrated.