Follow the fallen stars

Pride Chapter 5: A Struggle Not Too Late

Subaru and Julius were both silent after hearing everything Roswaal had said from what he knows of this worlds Subaru. Julius was completely shocked yet understanding just how dangerous and intelligent this Natsuki Subaru is, not knowing that both his version and this world's version of Natsuki Subaru are only intelligent because of their ability to loop back in time while Subaru himself started to understand what he was seeing.

'So this bastard and insane version of me uses Return By Death...no, he abuses it. If he wants to know the maximum amount of information, he will die as many times as it takes until he gets it right. That's just...wrong in so many levels.'

Subaru says this in a disgusted way, seeing his counterpart has the opposite of him. This made him think back on the second trial of the sanctuary he took a little over a year ago, how he witnessed how he had to witness the worlds after he died and how they continued. Had his counterpart tried to take that trial, he knows that he wouldn't pass due to the amount of worlds he in theory would've left behind thought he knows one crucial detail.

'Even if he did took the trial and saw how much pain he left behind, he wouldn't care. He is what Roswaal wanted me to be, a person who can only save one and no other.'

Being reminded of the events of Sanctuary only made Subaru want to move on to something else. He crossed his arms and with a serious facial expression he said to the Roswaal of this world,

"Take me to Natsuki Subaru, I want to deal with him myself."

"And why shoooould I do that, Subaru-kuuuun?"

"I mean I can always have your book destroyed, right Julius?"

Julius nodded and had his fire spirit, Ia, standing by as the spirit prepared to burn the book, causing Roswaal to quickly responded to this.

"No need to do that, Subaru-kuuun. I'll take you to my co-conspirator."

Roswaal was closing in on Subaru, ready to take him only to do something different by grabbing Subaru's neck and creating a fireball on his free hand, holding it next to Subaru. As this happened, Julius and Ram both got ready for a fight only for Roswaal to say,

"Noooooot so fast, I have your friend hostage. Do any suuuuudden moves and Subaru-kuuun dies."

"Of course you would do something like this, Roswaal-sama."

"You know me, Raaaaam. Always playing my caaaards right."

"Julius, don't listen to this clown."

"Thaaaat is quite hurtful, Subaru-kuuun."

"Oh shut it you wannabe clown. Even if you do anything to me, I can still get out of this situation."

"Is thaaaat right?"

Roswaal looked at Subaru and could see that he is smiling with confidence, not afraid of dying there. This tipped Roswaal off that something is off since his version of Natsuki Subaru was also the same, not afraid of dying, as if death is only the beginning. While Roswaal did this, Subaru was bluffing since he doesn't have Return by Death and can only loop when his counterpart dies. There was a silence in the room with everyone on edge until all of a sudden Roswaal let Subaru go, confusing both Ram and Julius.

"What are you—?"

"Pardon me buuuut I must take care of something first. Pleeeease excuse me."

Roswaal begins to fly before leaving, causing Subaru, Ram, and Julius to all three be left confused by this altercation. Subaru approached Julius to get Roswaal's gospel in hopes of being able to read his book to find out what he is up to. Once he opened the book, he tried to read through the pages yet like Petelguese's book, he couldn't read anything.