Rem woke up during the trip back to the mansion. Leandro was carrying her over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes. She jumped to the ground, alarmed.
"What happened?! Where's the cultist?"
"You don't have to worry about that anymore." Leandro said with a tired expression. "He's dead."
To prove his point, Leandro reached into his pocket and pulled out the hood the cultist was using to cover his head.
The maid received the news almost in disbelief. She felt a mixture of relief and frustration at not being able to finish the job herself. Once again, she was powerless in a dangerous situation.
"How did it happen?"
"I killed him with his own weapon. Meili helped me with that."
"Now that you mention it, where is she?"
"She left with her older sister." He explained vaguely.
Rem fell silent after hearing the explanation of what had happened. Her head was bowed, her gaze lost in thought.
"I know what you're thinking, Rem." Leandro suddenly broke the silence. "You did much more than you realize. If it weren't for you, I would have died several times over tonight."
"That..."
She refused to accept that she had any merit of her own. Even her horn, the source of her power, the thing that made her relatively useful... She owed even that to her sister.
If Ram hadn't sacrificed everything for her, Rem wouldn't even be alive today.
So, nothing Rem 'owned' truly belonged to her. Rem's life was a debt she had to repay by supporting her beloved sister until her last breath. That would be her punishment, and her way of making it up to Ram for screwing up her life.
"You have that expression again."
"What do you mean?" She looked at him, irritated and embarrassed at the thought of being read like an open book. Rem didn't want to expose her inner misery to the world; she didn't want to be comforted or forgiven for the sins that tormented her.
"You're blaming yourself for things you can't control, I can see it in your eyes. You can't see beyond the self-loathing you feel."
"What do you know about me?!"
She burst out, her face red and her eyes filled with tears. Leandro smiled and replied:
"What I know about you is that you care deeply about the well-being of those you love, even putting aside your own happiness to ensure theirs. You worship your sister as a goddess and will do anything to protect her. You live without disturbing anyone and are polite to others, even if they are strangers and suspicious, like me."
"..."
Rem looked at him in surprise. He seemed to know her too well.
"Rem, I'm a social misfit who's never made an effort in his life. Today I defeated a man much stronger, more agile, and more experienced than me. Despite being a talentless slacker, I overcame adversity and outsmarted death. Do you know how I did it?"
"With the help of others?"
"I was going to say I did it because I believed in myself to make it sound cool, but that's a much more realistic explanation."
Leandro admitted the truth with a chuckle. Rem smiled a little, even though she was shedding tears.
"I... I am really weak and fragile. Even more than you."
She confessed, opening her heart a little. The mansion was now in sight.
"First of all, ouch. Secondly, that's not true. You're much stronger than the mental image you have of yourself."
"Everything I do is to make up for my mistakes... My only wish is for my sister to be happy."
"Ram is already happy. You should focus on finding your own happiness."
"I don't deserve to be happy. If I hadn't done what I did, everything would be better. It would be better if I didn't exist, if no one remembered me..."
"But you exist, Rem. You're in the hearts of many people. You'd be surprised to know how important you are."
"What do you mean? I don't understand what you're getting at."
"There are many things you don't know about yourself. For now, I can only tell you this."
He stared at her, his gaze filled with sincerity. Standing in front of her, he grasped her shoulders and said seriously:
"If you don't believe in yourself, I'll do it for you. From now on, I'll support you with all my being."
Rem didn't know how to respond to that; at that moment, she felt something inside her shake. Her chest, which had been tightening with pain, finally loosened when she heard those words. There was a new feeling she couldn't describe.
A small smile played on the maid's lips as she finally responded in a soft voice.
"That's the most embarrassing thing I've ever heard." She said, wiping tears from her face. "Were you trying to take advantage of me with that speech?"
At that moment they arrived at the mansion. Leandro's face was completely red.
"W-Well, I'm leaving now..."
"Leave your bedroom door open." Rem instructed me as we walked in. "I'll pay you a visit later."
"Oh?" Excited.
"We agreed to keep tonight's events a secret. I'll use my healing magic to heal your wounds, so there won't be any evidence."
"Oh." Disappointed.
***
When I got to my bedroom, I fell onto my bed and covered my face with my hands.
"Shit, how embarrassing! I can't believe I said that nonsense out loud, talking like a real anime character is just too ridiculous!"
I couldn't help but remember Rem's expression when I gave her that speech about love and self-improvement. She went from sad to mocking me in an instant.
My relationship with Rem would become very awkward after this, but at least I managed to improve her mood. Mission accomplished, I guess.
What I did wasn't as effective as what Subaru did when he made her fall in love with him, but it wasn't that bad either. Besides, I can't compare myself to the General; he'd always do everything better.
"I can't believe I've already completed the second arc... Holy shit! Then comes the fight with the white whale and the fight with Petelgeuse... Give me a break, Re:Zero."
Plus, I was still very confused by what I saw on the cliff. The cultist had my face, there was no doubt about it. But that wasn't even the weirdest thing that happened at that moment.
Flashback.
Meili stood beside me and stared at the cultist's corpse. I was paralyzed with shock, and I couldn't react at all. However, she didn't react the way I expected.
"Did you know him?"
"Huh?"
Why didn't she say anything about his face? The guy looked like my twin brother or my clone.
"What's wrong?" Meili tilted her head, intrigued by my expression.
"Don't you... notice it?"
"Notice what?"
"I... No, forget it."
If for some reason Meili didn't see the same thing as me, then it was in my best interest to keep quiet about this matter. No one else needed to know, anyway.
End of Flashback.
I took a nice hot bath to wash away all the blood, sweat, and dirt that had accumulated on my body. The wounds hurt a lot, especially the hole in my arm; however, I consoled myself with the promise of receiving Rem's healing magic.
Although of course, I was also nervous because the situation was too uncomfortable.
With everything that happened, I hadn't been able to rest well, and my eyelids were getting heavy, but I held on as best I could. A while later, I heard footsteps in the hallway.
"Excuse me."
Rem entered the room. She was no longer wearing her uniform, but a light blue nightgown that matched her hair and eyes. Her appearance harmoniously combined beauty and delicacy.
That sight completely robbed me of sleep. I unconsciously shifted my posture, straightening my back to get a better look.
"I'm sorry you have to go to this trouble with me."
"It doesn't matter. Take off your shirt."
Rem was direct, something I wouldn't complain about. Nodding awkwardly, I removed my top. She sat down next to me and placed her hands just below my shoulder.
"Mana of Water, grant me the power of healing."
Rem's hands glowed with a faint light. I could feel the exact moment she poured her magic into my most serious wound. The pain I felt largely faded.
"I can't cure it completely, but this should be enough to speed things up. Your body will do the rest."
She then applied the treatment to the rest of my wounds, which were mostly superficial. The swollen areas returned to normal, as did the color of my skin in those areas.
"Thank you."
"..."
She'd finished healing me, but she didn't move. We stared at each other for a few seconds until I couldn't stand the tension anymore.
"Um... Is something wrong?"
"No, it's nothing..."
As if regretting something she was going to do or say, Rem shook her head and stood up.
"Good night, Leandro. Rest well."
"Likewise..."
I said goodbye with a feeling of bewilderment. I went back to bed, this time intending to sleep soundly and rest for another day of work.
There was only one thing that stood between me and sleep.
"Damn, I really want to shit right now."
***
I took a deep breath, adjusted my posture, and threw the stone.
My throw traveled a precise trajectory of twenty meters, ending its journey by striking a small bell hanging from a tree branch.
I was immediately greeted by applause and whistles, followed by a chorus of children's voices.
"Great!" Mild was thrilled with my demonstration.
"How can you hit from this distance?" Lucas gasped.
I shrugged. I didn't really understand it either: I'd never had that level of aim.
Recently I began to feel that my senses had become more acute, and my manual skills saw a huge improvement: my knife handling was almost perfect.
To tell the truth, I already made a hypothesis.
Just as Subaru obtained the authorities of the archbishops when they died, I was able to assimilate the abilities of my Doppelganger when his life ended.
Yes, that's what I decided to call the cultist who had my face. After thinking about it for a while, I came to the conclusion that this guy was a replica, a copy, or an alternate version of myself.
But how was that possible?
Simple: Pandora.
Still, I don't understand how she has anything to do with me or why she would send copies of me to kill me, especially if she knows about Return by Death (I'm pretty sure she does).
A small hand tugged on my arm, interrupting my train of thought. I looked down and found Petra staring at me with a puppy expression that made me feel so tender.
"What's up?" I asked, smiling.
"Do you know when Meili will be back?" She missed her friend, who disappeared from the village after the incident with my Doppelganger.
"In the fourth arc, probably, I answered unconsciously."
"What?"
"What?"
We were both a little confused.
I didn't have time to clear up the misunderstanding, because at that moment a silver-haired half-elf arrived whose stellar presence immediately attracted attention.
"It's Miss Emilia!"
"Yeah! You came!"
The children flocked to her, wanting to grab her attention. I smiled proudly. Over the past few days, I'd done my best to connect Emilia with the people in town: from including her in the events I organized with the children, to using her ice magic to create ice cream and having everyone try it (in canon, Subaru did something similar with mayonnaise, but it had nothing to do with Emilia).
I wasn't so lucky with the adults and elders, as some were still a bit uncomfortable with her; however, the children quickly accepted her after getting to know her a little.
Her presence had already become common in the town, no longer an uncomfortable sight. I knew that with a little more time, the entire town would welcome her with open arms.
I'd done a great job with Emilia's social advancement. In that regard, I think I'd surpassed Subaru, at least at this point in the story.
As considerate as ever, Emilia took the time to greet each of the children, listening with genuine interest and acting like a true big sister.
Since we both had free time in the mornings, we used to stay here for a while. She always arrived a little after me, because the first thing she did was have her morning chats with the lesser spirits.
The only "problem" with this routine was that spending so much time with Emilia intensified my artificial crush. I've handled it well so far, but I'm not sure how long I can keep this up.
As I thought about that, I saw her look in my direction and smile, stirring my heart which was completely defenseless against a surprise attack like that.
A few minutes later we headed back to the mansion.
"Do you want to hear a joke?" Emilia asked suddenly.
"I'd love to." I nodded, curious about what kind of joke he would tell me.
"What do mabeasts and taxes have in common?"
"Don't know."
"That people hate them."
"Ha! Not bad."
"Now you tell one."
"Okay, here goes. Do you know what happens to someone who enters the White Whale's fog?"
"Nope."
"Ask Larry."
"Who is Larry?"
"Exact."
Emilia seemed confused by the punchline of my joke, but didn't ask any questions because we had reached the entrance of the mansion, where a dragon carriage was located.
"Oh, I know what's next."
I was not surprised to see the imposing and familiar figure of Wilhelm Van Astrea leaping out of the carriage to greet us with a bow.