CHAPTER 3: PRETTY GIRL, PRETTY LADY, PRETTY GRANNY
Subaru: “And thus we hastened to speak with Lewes-san who we figure knows them best.” Lewes: “I'd call yer approach conscientious, all told. I don't mind yer relying on me... but I don't gert much I can say on the topic.” Subaru: “Meaning?” Lewes: “Meaning I agree with Ram and Lil' Clin'. Their problem ers their problem. It's not something outsiders need ter get too involved with.” It doesn't look like Lewes is too interested in Subaru's proposal as she sips her tea. However, she is undeniably a key figure in this whole affair. Subaru is sticking his neck into their business with too little frivolity to back down that easily. Subaru: “I get that their circumstances are an annoying mess. Since I've been involved in it if only tangentially.” Lewes says nothing. Subaru: “But I don't think it's something to just leave alone. I mean maybe it will resolve itself in time... but it's aggravating both to them and to onlookers how they're trying settle things, but it just isn't working. If a third party can do something about it, then they should.” Lewes: “That sounds like a load'erv hard-nosed meddling.”
Subaru: “Well I do have a reputation for being shameless and dense.” Subaru puffs his chest out in pride although it likely wasn't a compliment. Lewes smiles wryly at him. The two of them are in a corner of the large room given to Lewes, sitting across from each other at a table as they sip from their cups, silently wetting their throats with tea. When,
???: “Excuse me, guys?” A voice calls to them from a short distance away.
The speaker narrows their amethyst eyes, their gaze akin to glare as it pierces Subaru. Dissatisfaction laces the voice of the speaker, unincluded as she is in the conversation, Emilia. Subaru: “What's up, Emilia-tan? I mean you're cute when you're angry, but your forehead's getting all wrinkled.”
Emilia: “If you think so, then shouldn't you come and help!? Geez! You're so mean, Subaru! You ninny!” Subaru: “Who says ninny anymore?” Subaru smiles at Emilia's proficient and adorable use of outdated language as he sets down his teacup. He looks again at Emilia, and tilts his head at the situation she faces.
Subaru: “You can really call this a spectacle. A fantastical drama unfolding between a pretty lady and some pretty girls.”
Lewes: “Yer gonner make me blush, saying that.”
Subaru: “You mingle too and it'll be a drama between pretty girls, a pretty lady and a pretty granny.”
Lewes: “Yer gonner make me blush, saying that.”
Subaru: “Seriously!?”
It shocks Subaru that, just when he expected her to grumble at him, she accepts it. Lewes's cheeks as she watches on with Subaru are faintly red. The two of them gaze at a bunch of Leweses identical to the blushing Lewes, surrounding Emilia in a mob.
—They brought 26 Lewes doubles from SANCTUARY in total.
These are the subservient, non-sentient doubles who are not the representative Lewes. Though the faction has no tasks for them, they cannot simply leave them sitting there, so they present another issue for everybody to mull over. And the biggest problem here is,
Emilia: “Don't just look, Subaru, come help me.”
Subaru: “I'd love to, but they're not gonna listen to me. You and Garfiel are the only ones who can command them. Just gotta finangle them with some witty eloquent language.”
Emilia: “I know, but... we only just had a terrible fiasco when I told them to STEP AWAY. Did you forget, Subaru?”
Subaru: “Nobody would forget a three-days-passed organized search effort that went all the way over the mountains.”
Subaru thinks back on the debacle from three days ago. Crystals in Sanctuary govern the doubles' command right. One had been installed in the tomb, and one in the laboratory, each of which recognized either Emilia or Garfiel as rightholders, and presently continue to do so. Meaning that the doubles remain in a doll-like state, unable to act without Emilia or Garfiel's orders. They pay no heed to anyone else's instructions. Garfiel says that, if they leave them without any tasks, they will literally sit there doing nothing until they die and disappear.
The debacle from three days ago happened when Emilia, ignorant to the command right's limits, tried to have the doubles spread out a little distance from the mansion by telling them to 'step away'. The annoying part is that the doubles have their own personal differences, and interpreted the command in slightly different ways. Some of them perfectly adhered to Emilia's intentions, some of them exited the mansion, and some of them sprinted far from the mansion into the distance. Were it not for Garfiel's nose and legs, they might not have retrieve them all. They can't just leave these cute, doll-like girls to walk around undefended. And it's problematic if people start questioning the doubles.
Subaru: “Twins or triplets is one thing, but nobody'd believe in twenty-sextuplets...” Subaru doesn't remember what the Guinness World Record was, but it was probably less than ten. There's no point even considering it; there is no way they can use the siblings excuse here. And as for why they have to come up with excuses in the first place,
Lewes: “They were obviersly made using forbidden techniques. Frankly said, it'd be an uproar if people found out what we were.”
Subaru: “Aaas figures.” Lewes: “Yer taking someone as a foundation point, and constructing mock-od of a similar nature to them to make them—essentially yer making infinite soldiers. There's people out there who'll want that.”
Leaving aside the question of practicality there, they are useful for research. Since they're basically an infinite subject base. You can use the command right to keep them from rebelling, and they disperse into mana when they die so there's nothing to clean up.
Subaru: “Which is all absolute shit.” Lewes: “It relaxes us ter know yer think that, Lil' Su.” Subaru feels something indescribable as he watches Lewes smile thinly.
Repulsion that his acquaintance could be exploited, and aversion due to the ethical issue. Those feelings are why Subaru feels adverse to the concept. But when he dispels those feelings, and considers the technique detachedly, how long will his resistance really hold against the sheer convenience of it?
Everyone, including him, pursues an easier and easier course. Hate being so weak, he thinks. Emilia: “Okay! So what am I meant to do?” Emilia yells, having been somewhat excluded from the situation, as she hits her limit.
The mob of Leweses isn't doing anything, but the silent pressure they exert on Emilia isn't sanitary for her mental health. Subaru crosses his arms as he wonders what to do.
Subaru: “Maybe try pacifying them with an order they can't misinterpret?” Emilia: “Like? They went so far when I just told them to step away, so I don't know what to...” Subaru: “I think saying 'sit down' would work?” Emilia: “...Subaru, you're a genius.” It's nothing that brilliant, thinks Subaru while Emilia asks the Leweses to sit, and they each plonk themselves down on the spot. It feels like Emilia is the teacher at a kindergarten now that all these little girls are sitting cross-legged around her, but actually the situation is more desperate than that. They have to come up with some smart way to deal with this. Subaru has some relevant proposals he wants to make when Roswaal returns, so now it's an issue of waiting for him.
Subaru: “Since there's 26 of them, naming them after the letters of the alphabet might work to individuate and remember them all.”
Lewes: “Yer look like yer up ter some nefarious plotting again, Lil' Su.”
Subaru: “'Nefarious plotting' makes it sound bad. All I'm doing is working my brain so everyone I know reaches a happy conclusion.”
Subaru gives her a big grin. Lewes sighs, looking astonished. Did she find his efforts credible or not credible? Subaru decides optimistically that his smile just looked untrustworthy. When Emilia, freed from the swarm of doubles, approaches Subaru and Lewes. Subaru presents her with her teacup.
Subaru: “You did a good job, Emilia-tan. Putting in good efforts as always.”
Emilia: “Thank you. But compared to Garfiel, I'm barely doing anything. Garfiel does such good work, ordering them all whenever it's mealtime...”
Emilia takes a sip and sighs as she looks at the doubles. The people usually looking after these girls are the representative Lewes, and Garfiel, the other command right holder. Garfiel especially is tending to the girls with exquisite care, ensuring that none of them starve to death or get stranded, grumbling about it all the way.
He's had far more experience with them for he's been interacting with them throughout his time in SANCTUARY. Though that's unlikely to console Emilia.
Subaru: “Well, just gotta take it easy. Garfiel's doing some amazing stuff, but I think it'd be nice to have a more advanced solution.”
Emilia: “Advanced solution?”
Subaru: “I'll tell you once Roswaal's back. Until then, care to soothe my mind by freaking out some more in a herd of little girls?”
Emilia: “You are so mean!”
Emilia puffs out her cheeks in indignation, which is adorable. Either way, his plans are still in the draft stage and thus unready for the public. He'll iron out more of the details before he reveals it and basks in the praise.
Subaru: “Anyway, how about we leave the Lewes double problem for a moment, and get back on topic?”
Lewes: “My answer's still the same. I'm not thinking ter do anything... much ter get them moving. I think they're trying ter keep from werrying me. They act like things're going reasonably well between them whenever I'm erround.”
Emilia: “That is so saucy of them...”
Subaru: “Who says saucy anymore?”
Subaru averts his gaze to disregard Emilia's glare, and thinks about the wily siblings. They are equally unwilling to make Lewes worry. And they've figured out how to compensate for it without actually discussing it with each other. Though they know each other so well, they can't make that last step. The key reason for that has to be—
Subaru: “Yeah, it's because of their mother.”
Lewes says nothing.
Emilia: “Their mother... you mean, the one who left them behind in SANCTUARY when they were little?”
Subaru: “I've only heard the second-hand story, and I haven't asked about what she was like. Actually no, Frederica told me she was extremely unlucky, but that's about all. I mean I figure it's a given, but you did know her, right, Lewes-san?”
Lewes puts her teacup to her lip, letting the time drag on and on. But this is not enough to escape Subaru and Emilia's focused gazes. She gives a long sigh, and without looking at the couple,
Lewes: “Their mother, Leashia Tinzel, isn't a topic I perticulerly wanner talk abert.”
Subaru: “So she's someone you'd rather not remember?”
Lewes: “I didn't dislike her 'er nothing. Liked her a lot actually. She had that friendly kind erv charisma, and... her circumstances were the unfortunate thing, which yer can see since the misfortune didn't kill her. Her household was ruined and she wers sold inter slavery, then bandits attacked and destroyed the traders. The bandits took her home as their spoils, got her pregnant... it's essentially the picture erv misfortune.”
Subaru: “—”
Frederica has told him all this before, but it's still a horrible story. Emilia has no words for how heartrending it is. Though that final part of the tale may have eclipsed her understanding.
Lewes: “But Leashia didn't end in misfortune. The bandits took a liking ter her so she lived and raise her child. Until another band of bandits destroyed the ferrst one, and they entertained themselves with her again.”
Subaru: “Most people wouldn't recover after all that.”
Lewes: “But she did. The bandit group collapsed, she met Lil' Roz on her travels and gained his patronage, entrusted Frederica and Lil' Gar ter him, then left SANCTUARY ter search fer Lil' Gar's dad.”
Subaru: “—She did? Garfiel said he thought his mother abandoned them.”
Lewes: “...Thert's probably his weakness talking. Since there's hope in being abandoned.”
Subaru's breath catches at the seemingly inappropriate word: hope. Where in this tale is there any hope? Before Subaru can figure it out, Emilia lowers her eyes.
Emilia: “She isn't coming back because she abandoned us... means that their mother might still be alive, is that the hope?”
Lewes says nothing.
Emilia: “If she promised that she was leaving for a purpose, but still wasn't coming back... it's too frightening to think about.”
Lewes shakes her head, looking miserable. Lewes has told them the real reason why their mother left SANCTUARY. And why had Leashia's promise never been kept? —The question lends itself to a horrible answer.
Garfiel has seen his mother's passing. And that fits everything perfectly.
Emilia: “I wonder if they know.”
Lewes: “Leashia left them after Frederica wers old enough ter be self-aware. I doubt she's fergotten it. And Lil' Gar... well, who knows.”
Emilia: “I think Garfiel remembers... no, remembered too. Otherwise he wouldn't look so joyful when looking at Subaru.”
It's possible that Emilia's thinking of something different from Subaru, but he figures that the happening in Garfiel's past—his farewell to his mother—has been resolved and reached conclusion. The problem is that Frederica and Garfiel have not secured that closure equally. Frederica might still feel something very deep-rooted about the whole issue. It does seem like Frederica is the one avoiding Garfiel. That's the impression Subaru gets when thinking back on their exchange.
Subaru: “Incidentally do you know anything about what happened to Leashia-san after that, Lewes¬san?”
Lewes: “...I never asked abert it. And that ain't a lie. Sermetimes you just don't want ter know the truth, and so it goes for me.”
Lewes averts her gaze, ignoring the truth that she has likely already grasped. Subaru is not heartless enough to call it weakness.
A ripple crests through the dregs of tea in the teacup on the table. He watches the wave melt into nothing, a gloomy silence upon the scene.
※※※※※※※※※※※
Subaru: “I'm feeling that if this goes on, everything'll end as us prying further and further into their affairs like a couple of nosy rubberneckers, but how're your feelings on this Emilia-tan?”
Emilia: “Uhrm... I-I'd sooo rather avoid doing that.”
Subaru and Emilia leave Lewes's room and walk down the hall as they consider their accomplishments, terrified that they may fail to produce any decent results. They would rather this not end as them uncovering gossip and indulging in rumours. Naturally, their top priority is to improve Frederica and Garfiel's relationship, but it's just life that problems spring up when you're dealing with problems.
Emilia: “But since neither talking to Ram or Lewes-san went anywhere... maybe we're out of options? Since Roswaal isn't back yet either.”
Subaru: “If we're assuming that we shouldn't rely on the passive approach of 'it'll resolve itself over time', then we can say that yeah the issue is probably family. But where their mom is... or rather, whatever happened to her after their goodbye, isn't the issue. It's their mental states back then compared to now, and the stances they held when they parted ways.”
Emilia: “Wouldn't it be easier to just lock them in a room together?”
Subaru: “Here I am in shock at Emilia-tan's unexpectedly barbaric plans.”
Subaru looks startled, but Emilia looks serious as she puts her finger to her lip.
Emilia: “I mean, right?”
Emilia: “I think what they need isn't really time, but a reason to start talking. They've considered so many things over these ten years... so if they get the time to talk about it, I'm sure they'll manage something.”
Subaru: “Hrnhmhm, but that feels passive too. It's not really any different from the majority opinion of 'it'll resolve itself over time'. When people say 'it'll resolve itself over time', they mean that the conversation you're talking about will naturally occur during that period.”
Emilia: “So why don't we make that conversation happen for them, unnaturally? I know my idea was pretty extreme... but I think it's basically what Ram and Lewes-san are saying. That we just have to leave it to them while they're alone together.”
Emilia lifts her finger from her lip and gives it a wag. Subaru listens to her with his arms crossed and brows crinkled in deliberation.
Is that really all they need to do? Subaru does understand what she's saying. In fact it makes perfect sense. He's just troubling himself over simple anxieties.
But is it really safe for their involvement to be so shallow? They don't have to pre-arrange things in more detail for this to work out? Nothing will hit any kinks, and needlessly escalate in complexity? Emilia: “Subaru.” Subaru: “Nuh.” When Emilia pokes Subaru in the forehead.
She looks up at him, brought back to reality. Emilia: “I know you're a worrier, and work so hard for everybody's sake...” Subaru: “You're going to make me blush, saying that...” Emilia: “But I worry as much about you as you do for us. You need to know that you don't have take everything upon yourself like this. They'll be fine.” Subaru: “...I suppose.” With everything dismissed by the word 'worrier', Subaru feels the weight fall from his chest.
The burden in his heart was that kind of intangible boulder—which he had gone shouldering upon himself.
Emilia: “It'd make me happy if you trusted me, and went along with my ideas too sometimes.” Subaru's shoulders untense as he sighs. Perhaps it's not the conclusion he was after, but it seems like events are going to wind up according with the general consensus of opinion.
Subaru: “Okay. Then we'll figure something out and—” ???: “—Goodness, if it isn't Natsuki-san and Emilia-sama. What are you doing here?” And just when he tries to adopt Emilia's plan, someone intrudes.
A grey-haired young man carrying a massive stack of papers shows up before the two. Recognizing him, Subaru puts his hand to his chin in thought. Actually, of all the important people in the mansion, there is only one they haven't spoken to due to reasons other than absence. With that thought, Subaru considers how useful this man will be for tackling the problem, and nods.
Subaru: “Okay. Then we'll figure something out and make that happen.” Man: “Do you mind me asking why it feels as though I don't exist in this conversation!?” The shout from the familiar voice echoes loudly through the Milord Mansion.
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