6
“From the very start, I predicted you would lure Emilia into the Archive of Forbidden Books. Using your Passage to mess with people is kind of your thing.”
“Mrrrg, I suppose…!”
Beatrice growled bitterly and ground her teeth upon hearing the game postmortem. Subaru rubbed his sore solar plexus as he drank in her sweet, sweet tears of defeat.
Subaru’s double tag strategy was quite simple.
First, he would trick Beatrice into being chased by multiple its. He would lull her into a false sense of security with the Rem red herring, then slam her with child reinforcements. Once this robbed Beatrice of her composure, he would use Emilia as bait to string her along for the kill.
“I told Emilia where the start point was and told her to run into the Archive of Forbidden Books when the moment was right,” Subaru explained. “Then all I had to do was wait in the Archive and grab you. When a huntress lunges for her prey, that’s when she is most vulnerable, you know.”
Subaru’s smug account of his playbook received no rebuttals from Beatrice. Subaru had played her like a violin, and anything she said would make her sound like a sore loser. Sitting on her usual stepladder, hugging her knees to herself, it took everything in her to just glare at Subaru in silence.
“But man, tough break, huh? What was it you said at the end? You were ‘one step—nay, ten steps ahead of her’? Well, sorry, but it turns out I was eleven steps ahead!”
“Could you just get off your high horse, I wonder?!”
“Nah-nah-nah-poo-poo!”
The taunting was too much for her to take, and Beatrice’s rage exploded in a shockwave and slammed Subaru against a wall. Beatrice snorted at him and said, “You are shrewd. I’ll give you that, but you’ve no right to laugh at me. I was never all that invested in this game to begin with. And you—”
“You wanna pretend this never happened—isn’t that a little too convenient? Just think of how angry and sad poor Puck will be. Like, Waaah, I didn’t raise my little girl to be like this!”
“You really are an infuriating boy…”
Beatrice spat at Subaru’s mimicry. But as he looked at her emotional face from the side, Subaru sighed and said, “Well…if you’re that upset, I’ll at least consider it.”
“…What brought about this sudden change of tune, I wonder?”
“Well, even I’m kinda ashamed of how childish I acted. I came fully prepared and beat you to a pulp—I went too far. It’s just that you danced so nicely in the palm of my hand that I got carried away…”
“And you haven’t gotten enough dancing out of my magic, I suppose.”
Beatrice was displeased at the overly brazen way Subaru expressed his feelings. But they were his true feelings. However, it need not be said that he didn’t think the bet itself was a mistake.
“Yeah, and a part of me is sorry I forced you to do this. I assumed you’d hate it at first, but once you got into it, you’d like it—but it wasn’t my intention to be so pushy, either.”
“Then you should have said so at the start, I suppose… What exactly were you trying to do anyway?”
“Hmmm…it’s a mystery, even to me. But after playing this game today, I think I saw what I wanted to see—I didn’t know you could run with such spirit.”
“Grrr…”
Sitting cross-legged on the floor, Subaru smiled at the puffy-cheeked Beatrice and said, “Even though you were an unwilling participant, I had fun today. And I think Emilia and the village kids did, too. Not a bad compromise if I do say so myself.”
“Why does it feel like I keep drawing the shortest straw, I wonder?”
“That’s neither here nor there. Just take the L and give up,” Subaru told the pouting Beatrice as he stood and headed for the Archive of Forbidden Books door.
He had turned the mansion into a playground. If it wasn’t back in order as promised by the time Roswaal returned, Ram’s terrifying punishment would be awaiting him.
“Beako.”
Subaru stopped short of leaving the room and turned to look at Beatrice. She didn’t answer him. But Beatrice glared sharply enough to hurt him.
“Let’s play again sometime.”
Before she could say yes or no or give any reaction, Subaru shut the door. The Passage activated, and Subaru returned to the mansion dining hall. Emilia and Rem had just arrived there.
Subaru tiredly raised his hand and said, “’Sup. Good job, everyone.”
“And good job to you, too, Subaru,” Rem replied politely.
“Sorry to trouble you so much today, Rem. I felt bad shoving those little kids into your care out of nowhere. They’re noisy, and I’ll bet they wouldn’t listen to you, right?”
“Oh, not at all. Everyone behaved very nicely. And when I gave them all cakes to take home as parting gifts, they asked if they might visit the mansion again sometime.”
“Um, did you and I even handle the same group of kids?!”
While they were insolent with Subaru, they were apparently little angels with Rem. Subaru would have to give them the third degree about it when he saw them at their next radio aerobics.
He also needed to express his gratitude to them for helping him.
“So did you manage to talk it out with Beatrice? I hope she wasn’t too angry?”
While Subaru frowned grimly over the children’s behavior, Emilia tilted her head inquisitively. She really wanted to know how things turned out. Her gaze was directed at the dining hall door—her mind on the Archive of Forbidden Books behind it.
“Well, she did seem to accept defeat…but when it comes to our bet, things are kind of in limbo. The bet was sort of the icing on the cake for me anyway.”
“Really? Then why did we even play tag in the first place?”
“Because it’s fun, of course. I wanted to teach a little unhealthy shut-in the joy of running around with kids her own age. And in that regard, I’d say things went rather swimmingly.”
Emilia looked a bit surprised by Subaru’s playful wink. But she soon gave a tired sigh and smiled.
“No, you’re right. And I’m sure Beatrice did have fun. I mean, I had a really great time.”
“Glad to hear it… Now we’d better clean up this party mess.”
Subaru scratched his cheek to cover his embarrassment over how Emilia’s smile made him swoon. Then Rem tugged on his sleeve and said, “Tidying up is good and all, but we should rest first. Master Roswaal and my sister won’t return until tomorrow night. We still have plenty of time.”
“That’s right, Rem made us some sweets,” Emilia chimed in. “Why don’t we have some tea before we tidy up? Truth be told, I’d love to invite Beatrice to join us, but…”
“Yeahhh, she’ll turn us down…I think?” Subaru said.
“Then I’ll send some treats to her through Puck,” Emilia suggested. “Then we’ll be even.”
Even Beatrice’s sulkiest of moods would surely be improved by a visit from Puck. Though it was hard to believe Emilia would have had such calculations in her innocent suggestion.
“All right then, Subaru, let’s go have tea,” Rem said.
“Yes, yes, let’s go!”
“Okay, I’ll take a break. It would be bad to half-ass the job and face Ram’s wrath.”
The two girls seemed in high spirits to Subaru, but this was because the day had a special meaning for both of them as well. Perhaps this made Subaru’s putting his cunning to work that day worth it.
“I just hope you feel it was worth it, too,” Subaru murmured to the scowling little girl who wasn’t there.
And then he slowly opened the door to the dining hall and found himself enveloped by all the sweet smells within.
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