2
On the spacious grounds of Roswaal Manor, Subaru and Emilia were having a lively chat. Rem smiled as she watched them from a distance.
“Subaru looks so cute when he’s having fun.”
As she quietly murmured that while Subaru became even more animated, Rem was happy and content. Every morning in the central garden, Emilia communed with the lesser spirits—conversing with them. This had become a habit ever since she came to the manor, and Subaru had joined since he started living there as well.
“Intruding on her treasured time with the spirits—could he be any more incorrigible, I wonder?”
Rem had been so distracted by the scene in the garden that hearing an unexpected voice startled her. She was even more startled when she saw who it was.
“Lady Beatrice.”
Rather than respond, Beatrice simply stood beside her, quietly folding her arms. Based purely on outward appearances, she was a cute little girl. Her blond hair was in ringlets, and she wore a gorgeous dress covered in frills. Her face was as flawless and perfectly symmetrical as any doll’s.
It was as if the word lovely was made for her—that was just how peerless she was.
“Though she still can’t compare to my sister…,” Rem murmured.
“I’m not sure why…but I have a sneaking suspicion that I was just insulted.”
“Oh, not at all, Lady Beatrice. Nobody can hold a candle to my sister. But you have your own charm, Lady Beatrice, so please don’t despair.”
“The more you say, the more pitiful I sound!”
As Beatrice stamped her feet in anger over what Rem meant to be words of encouragement, all Rem could do was bow low and apologize profusely. She didn’t mean to anger Beatrice—had she hit a nerve?
“Are you hungry, Lady Beatrice? Breakfast won’t be for a little while—”
“I am not in a bad mood because I’m hungry. Nobody makes a fool out of Betty! The behavior from the household staff has been intolerable as of late! And I am certain that boy is responsible…!”
Beatrice’s face twisted into a sneer as she glanced toward the central garden. Subaru and Emilia were still chatting excitedly.
“His influence has changed you and your sister, I suppose. How infuriating!”
“Influence? Well, yes… Subaru is a wonderful person.”
“Why did that make you smile, I wonder…? Betty is starting to sorely regret initiating this conversation.”
Beatrice sighed and pressed a hand to her forehead. At the same time, her words reminded Rem of her original surprise. Beatrice’s regrets aside, it was unusual for the two to chitchat. And the number of times Beatrice initiated conversation could be counted on one hand.
“Well, Lady Beatrice, I shall have to write about our little exchange in my diary today.”
“Ohh. You keep a diary? How meticulous.”
“Yes, I recently started one so I could document daily interactions with Subaru and my sister. I’m only on my sixth volume, though, so I’m a little embarrassed by my poor writing habits…”
“Your sixth volume? But I thought that boy just came here a month ago…”
For some reason, Beatrice shuddered, but Rem was too preoccupied with her inadequacy to notice. There were so many things to write about in her diary. Sadly, without the time or talent, she had no hope of documenting it all. Expressing Subaru’s charms and Ram’s greatness was a truly daunting task.
“I hope to someday write well enough—is that presumptuous of me?”
“Why should I care?! Do what you want! Good grief…if that’s all that’s bothering you, then I wasted my time worrying, I suppose.”
“Worrying?”
Beatrice scowled and spat out a sigh that seemed slightly out of place. “I refuse to get wrapped up in some other harebrained scheme to give you a day off. That’s why I decided to keep an eye on you—so I can intervene before you need one.”
Rem’s breath caught, and her eyes went wide. Beatrice had said something unbelievable.
The “harebrained scheme” Beatrice bemoaned was undoubtedly the day off Rem had received recently. Subaru had suddenly proposed to Roswaal that Rem needed a vacation for her physical and emotional well-being.
Truth be told, the sudden proposal had startled and scared Rem. She had mainly been worried about leaving her work in everyone else’s hands, but in the end, that day off helped her realize just how immensely blessed she was.
Ever since, she poured her heart and soul even more fiercely into her work. And it seemed like Rem wasn’t the only person at Roswaal Manor who was forever changed by that day.
“Could it be, Lady Beatrice…that you’ve been worried about me?”
No answer.
“Thank you so much, Lady Beatrice. That makes me happy. From now on, I shall work myself to the bone even more!”
“That’s exactly what we’re telling you not to do! Can’t you pace yourself, so you don’t get exhausted, I wonder?! It’ll be such a pain otherwise!”
Beatrice immediately rejected Rem’s renewed determination to work harder than ever. As Rem hung her head dejectedly in reply, Beatrice tugged on a ringlet and said, “We have more staff than before—so why are you more exhausted than before, I wonder? Even if he’s useless, if we pair that boy up with your slacker of a big sister—”
My sister is perfect. She is flawless in every way.”
“…I’m sure you can find a flaw or two if you look for it. When you do find a hole in your precious sister’s flawlessness, take that boy and have him patch it up. It’s about time he does something useful.”
Rem wanted to argue that she would never find such a flaw, but she bit her tongue. What mattered most was not how big one’s shortcomings were, but Beatrice’s expectations.
She also realized that having those expectations at all meant their relationship had evolved.
“Hey. Why are you smiling, I wonder.”
“Do forgive me, Lady Beatrice, but I’m just overcome with joy. You never worried about me like this before.”
“…I wouldn’t say that’s true. Betty is a font of compassion.”
As Beatrice puffed her cheeks and turned her back, Rem didn’t say a word.
Beatrice’s words might have been true. She was kind and cared for Rem. She just never put her feelings into words until today.
“Lady Beatrice, you said earlier that Subaru changed my sister and me…but I think he’s changed you, too.”
“A bit of sarcasm, I suppose.”
“I didn’t mean it that way…”
“All the more disturbing, then.”
Beatrice turned her back to Rem with an unamused snort and touched the door in front of her. It normally led to one of the guest rooms, but since Beatrice could use Passage to connect any door in the house to the Archive of Forbidden Books, to her, it was no more than an entrance to her chambers.
Right as Beatrice was about to return to her library, Rem called out to her tiny back.
“I’ll call you when it’s time for breakfast, Lady Beatrice.”
Without another word, Beatrice waved back. Then the space in the mansion warped, and the little girl disappeared into the Archive of Forbidden Books.
And once the girl had disappeared and was well out of earshot, Rem whispered, “I really do think Lady Beatrice has changed.”
In the past, Beatrice rarely attended breakfast. But in just one month, she had become a regular (and she hadn’t turned down that morning’s invitation, either).
A look out the window revealed Subaru and Emilia leaving the garden. She watched them walk out in the direction of Earlham, the village near the mansion. They were probably on their way to do the radio calisthenics that had become a morning ritual for the villagers. Breakfast would come immediately after that once the two returned to the mansion.
“Time to get to work.”
As the two silhouettes grew smaller in the distance, Rem scurried off to the kitchen.
All residents of Roswaal Manor would be in attendance at breakfast. Rem hastened her footsteps as she crossed the carpeted floor of the hallway.
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