11
Subaru had proposed a simple scheme to go on the offensive against the goons who were after Liliana.
“It wasn’t practical to follow you back to your home base, so we obediently let ourselves be kidnapped and let you take us straight to your mastermind. Luckily for us, you guys aren’t that trigger-happy.”
“With everything you put me through, success was inevitable, I suppose.” With a sigh, Beatrice rubbed her face and limbs with the towel Subaru handed her. The makeup gradually came off, revealing her original skin tone.
As he watched Beatrice painstakingly wipe her body all over, Subaru folded his arms and said, “But dang, the more like Beako you become, the weirder that outfit looks on you.”
“And exactly whose plan forced me to dress like this in the first place?”
“Well, my plan, obviously… I just didn’t realize I would cringe this hard.”
As Subaru gave a disappointed shrug, veins popped on Beatrice’s forehead. She was currently dressed in a costume to fool their assailants—in other words, Liliana’s very-revealing dance outfit. Neither Liliana nor Beatrice looked particularly grown-up, yet for a reason Subaru couldn’t explain, seeing Beatrice in the skimpy outfit was somehow worse.
(He wondered if it was because he knew her better and knew how she normally dressed.)
“If you hadn’t asked me to and if that girl didn’t need help, I wonder what could’ve possibly made me do such a thing.”
“When I came up with the idea of using you as bait… Even I’m surprised by how rotten I can be sometimes… Still, at the end of the day, you’re kind of a ditz.”
“It sounded like you said the most insulting thing possible just now.”
“Oh, no, it was a compliment. It’s the most cutting-edge expression of moe in the current era. Dunno about ten years from now, though.”
Ignoring the sour stare from Beatrice, Subaru surveyed the carnage in the hut. All the goons were splayed on the floor after being beaten mercilessly by Beatrice. Kiritaka was down like the rest of them and had apparently broken the fall of a large goon. Subaru pressed his hands together and muttered a quick prayer for the man.
One provision for the kidnapping ruse was that Liliana would not be put in harm’s way. It also wasn’t an option to bring Rem along as protection, since the men knew to keep their distance from her. And since putting Emilia in anything even resembling danger was unacceptable, that just left Subaru and Beatrice.
To make it work, they asked Puck to persuade Beatrice, who had been very reluctant. After a quick makeover by the giggling girls, Subaru took Beatrice out to initiate their ruse.
Not even Subaru, the grand architect of this ruse, dreamed that it would go this well.
“My own resourcefulness scares me sometimes,” he muttered. “But the fact that we made it all the way to the mastermind means Ram’s on a fool’s errand. Now it’s even more likely she’ll give me an earful when she gets back. Beyond lame.”
“If you have time to grumble, you ought to tie them up so they can’t escape. I suppose the younger twin will arrive shortly and will need to take them back to the manor.”
“And there, Roswaal’s interrogation of terror awaits… I feel sorry for you guys…even though you brought it on yourselves.”
This is what happens when you let infatuation get out of control. Subaru mused that stalkers were probably just as scary in any world. Though as for what exactly was so appealing about Liliana when she wasn’t singing…only Kiritaka, currently unconscious and foaming at the mouth, would know.
“Well, either way, this was an unexpected resolution. When the men in white find out their mastermind got caught, they’ll either surrender or back off. So…case closed, I guess.”
While he felt the ending was a bit anticlimactic, Subaru let himself relax for the time being. Then he reached for the cased lyulyre, which had gotten flung across the room. Beatrice had brought it along as an accessory to her Liliana disguise.
“It’s okay, I hope? If it’s broken, there’s no telling what Liliana would do to me.”
He carefully retrieved the lyulyre from its case and ran his fingers across the strings. Once he heard their gentle sound, he began to improvise a song.
Beatrice shot him a surprised look and said, “Hey…can you really play that instrument, I wonder?”
“Yeah, it’s not much different from an acoustic guitar. I borrowed it now and again over the past three days; so as long as it’s seventies folk music, I can stumble my way through it.”
In his former world, he would sometimes borrow his father’s guitar and kill time by playing folk songs. It was a pointless exercise, as nobody was around to hear him, but now, in another world, his work was finally bearing fruit.
“Since the rights holders can’t hit me with a cease and desist here…maybe it’s time I bring a musical revolution to this world.”
“From what I know about you, when it comes to pointless skills, you’re second to none. I do wonder, what point is there in becoming so accomplished in pointless pursuits?”
“Oh, burning with passion over pointless pursuits is what romance is all about, my dude.”
Beatrice shook her head and gave a frustrated sigh from the bottom of her heart. Then she inexplicably closed her eyes and listened to the music. Her expression was strangely peaceful.
“Geez, what am I gonna do with you?”
As Beatrice quieted down and respectfully listened to him play, Subaru was reluctant to stop. And making these little excuses to himself, Subaru would keep playing in a private concert for two—until Rem ran into the hut with a concerned look on her face.
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