This part covers a bit of the eight volume of the original Re:Zero novels.

In the previous part, plenty of soldiers got injured or killed when Petelgeuse jumped to a new body and he faced duchess Crusch’s unsuspecting bunch. Both crews have retreated to the village and regrouped. Everyone is uneasy because they get the sense that the Witch’s Cult is not going to pack their things and go home for the day.

GPT-3 is a cutting-edge language processing algorithm used in the premium version of the online site AI Dungeon.

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Even though the duchess belongs amongst the wounded, she had organized which of the hired merchant carriages should park near the entrance of the village to serve in the evacuation, and then she had been directing her men and a few half-beast mercenaries to load up the corpses. You hung out close around that time, although you closed your mouth when it became obvious to everyone that you weren’t needed. However, you helped some of the wounded get on the carriages. Afterwards Crusch decided that other merchants should position themselves near the central plaza in a way that doesn’t block the defense, so later on the villagers can be carted off quickly if possible.
You walk around the entrance to the village’s plaza and point out to a couple of maneuvering carriages where to park, while some villagers standing guard move out of the way. When you turn back and walk away to massage your headache and distract yourself for a while, you find yourself staring at Ram, who was standing a few meters away from you, and then you realize that a mob-like crowd of villagers, some armed with their worn swords or pitchforks, but also unarmed people who were until recently hiding in their houses, is approaching you. Leading them is none other than the village chief, who seems to believe that dressing weird makes him a wizard.
“You!” The village chief points at your face while glaring. “You led the mercenary scum that raided our village! Confess your wrongdoings so that we may judge you accordingly and the spirits may rain their retributive justice upon you.”
“The Iron Fang? They didn’t raid shit! They even brought their own disgusting rations. What’s going on here?”
“What’s going on here? Perhaps you’re unaware that the village was raided, and all the adults were killed?”
You look behind him at the crowd of adults, who as usual only stare at each other in confusion instead of mutinying against the chief and hanging him by his wizardly balls.
“I never had any intention of going along with your delusions, chief, but today I’m inclined to order some of the half-beast crew to spank some sense into you. What’s the real issue here? Why have you gathered these good people?”
The village chief frowns in both disappointment and anger, but he doesn’t seem surprised by your lack of willingness to go along with his attempt at making himself seem like a hero.
“We haven’t been properly informed of the reason for the impending transfer of our beings to the capital. Don’t we, as the lord’s subjects, deserve an explanation? Any excuse?”
As you always remember when it’s convenient, it comes to your mind that you don’t technically belong to Roswaal’s camp any longer.
“Why are you asking me? Why do you come to me for explanations?”
The chief shakes his head.
“You went around the village telling people, particularly the children, that you were employed by the lord and that they owed you respect.”
You want to sigh. Your own words, coming back to betray you. You look around for support and your gaze falls on the pink-haired senior servant, who is standing a few meters behind you, arms crossed and eyeing you as if you were a stain on her favorite dress.
“Wait for one minute, guys”, you ask the mob.
You approach Ram.
“You were in charge of defense as soon as Puck told you what was coming, right? Didn’t you tell these people that we were planning on evacuating them?”
Ram’s expression clarifies that she doesn’t intend to forgive you for wanting to become part of her family.
“I told the chief that the lord intended to evacuate them, and that as his subjects they should obey. That is all they need to know.”
“Didn’t it cross your mind that they might get mad because they are treated like sheep?”
“I don’t have to explain myself to you.”
You sigh. You look over your shoulder at the concerned group, led by a lunatic who is waiting for you to come back to them and explain every little detail about why they should abandon their possessions.
“You are welcome to elaborate on the situation for them if you so please”, Ram says mockingly. “Doing so you would also be relieving your future sister of a little pebble in her shoe.”
Your shoulders slump. You have signed into a lifetime of performing hard work that the senior servant wants to free herself from. You steel yourself and return to the chief.
You take a good look at the crowd. Most of the armed men, and a few women, look rough after years of tending to the fields and livestock, or whatever the fuck these people do. An old woman stares at you with a perverted glint in her eyes. A couple of unsupervised kids look up at you, and one of them has snot hanging out of his nose.
“So, you want an explanation of why you need to be evacuated, right?”, you ask slowly.
The people begin to shout inarticulate things at you. The old pervert raises her hand to ask you a question. You notice that she’s missing a few teeth, and her breath could kill flies at five meters.
“Are you our new lord?”
You are tempted to say yes.
“No, your beloved clown is fucking around somewhere else. That doesn’t answer my question, though.”
“We want to know why we’re being kicked out of our homes!”, a woman holding a baby yells from the back.
“That’s a reasonable thing to want to know. Let’s put it this way, would you rather be told a comfortable lie, or a horrifying truth?”
The crowd is unsure of how to react. In a couple of seconds, most of them begin to murmur to whoever is standing close.
“I like to feel comfortable!”, says a man in his forties with long sideburns and a wart under his nose.
“Me too!”, some woman adds.
“My back hurts”, the old pervert says.
You take a deep breath.
“Well, the thing is that we spotted quite a few demonic looking dogs in the forest. It’s well known that if we didn’t handle the infestation quickly, the dogs are bound to multiply in a matter of days, let’s say, and we risk them overrunning the village, biting people, stealing children and the like. We asked the duchess of Karsten as well as some nice mercenaries to help us take care of the dogs.”
The people are unsure of what to make of your explanation.
“We haven’t seen any of these demonic dogs, and we move through the forest fairly often!”, says some guy armed with a worn sword.
“Didn’t the servants already take care of the demonic dog like a week ago?”, a woman asks.
“I saw you sitting on your own pee when the demonic dog attacked!”
You narrow your eyes and clench your fists.
“Who said that? That never happened.”
The village chief raises a hand to shut his people up. The sleeve of his ridiculous wizardly robe slides to his elbow, revealing a pale, hairy arm.
“Where did these dangerous demonic dogs infesting the forests come from?”
You want to shake your head and roll your eyes.
“We don’t know. Hell, probably.”
“Why did the duchess of Karsten and some mercenaries agree to help you without knowing this?”
“Because we asked them politely.”
“Did you tell them that the demonic dogs were from hell?”
“No. They just looked like regular demonic dogs to us. Your everyday variety. Pretty much like that puppy we handled, but just the size of a regular grown dog. Very demonic though. Bad stuff if you want to keep your children unstolen.”
The chief is silent for a moment.
“Alright. We’ll organize a hunting team to go out in the forests and look for these demonic dogs.”
You contain yourself from stepping forward and grabbing his robe to yell in his face.
“No! You lot are to grab a few of your vital possessions, get on the carriages when we tell you to, and enjoy a scenic route through Flugel Road that will lead you to the capital. Along the way there’s a huge tree that’ll blow your minds, even though it plays no role in anything else.”
“Why would these dogs come to attack us? We haven’t done anything to them!”, says a woman in her mid twenties.
“You can’t be that naive in this fantasy world”, you say with a serious tone. “Anyway, that’s why you villagers need to shut up and allow yourselves to be evacuated to safety. You’ll return eventually, and your stuff will likely still be there.”
“Hey, but what about my….”, a young man says before you interrupt.
“There are more important things in life than a small hut and some potatoes, friend. Now, if there are no more questions, we have an evacuation plan to set up. Plenty of Crusch Karsten’s soldiers will escort you all safely through the dangerous road.”
“I have a question”, the chief says as he raises his hand.
“What’s the problem now?”, you ask without disguising your annoyance.
“You said our stuff will likely still be there. What do you mean by that?”
“I mean, you should expect that large demonic dogs with three heads will probably intrude in your homes when you aren’t there to cause chaos and mess. Look, I really can’t go into detail right now, I have to organize twenty carriages along with the soldiers…”
“I think you aren’t telling us the whole truth here”, the village chief says while glaring at you.
While you try to control your breathing, you look around to calm your nerves and your gaze falls on Ram’s smug smile. She must be loving to see you struggle with these morons.
“It’s not fair to lie to us! I pay my taxes!”, the village chief shouts angrily.
You groan and snap at the crowd.
“You bunch of sheep!”
The chief’s anger explodes. He tries to grab at you, but his movements are halted by his fellow villagers holding him back.
“Shut up! Shut up! Shut up! You shut the hell up!”
Ram raises her voice.
“If you resort to violence, the lord’s employees will handle you, and it won’t please you.”
You rub your eyes as your heartbeat calms down.
“Listen, folks, I’m going to tell you the whole truth. You won’t like it a bit.”
Silence takes over the crowd, as everyone is eager to hear what you’ll say next. The village chief keeps glaring at you while clenching his teeth.
“The Witch’s Cult was camped in that forest over there”, you say calmly. “We learned that they were about to massacre everyone in the village and to attack the mansion as well. We relied on the duchess of Karsten’s army as well as that friendly bunch of half-beasts in order to destroy the menace.”
“The Witch’s Cult? Why would they want to kill us? What have we done to them?”, says the same young woman who asked a similar question before.
“Because these people are evil and want to destroy the world. That’s about as much as you need to know. They might still be hanging around, which is why we need to get you defenseless people out of the area as soon as possible.”
The crowd gets restless.
“It’s because of that witch, isn’t it!?”, the man with the wart asks warily.
“Yeah, they worship the Witch of Envy…”, you say.
“Lord Roswaal is hosting the Witch of Envy!?”, the same man yells.
“What!? The fuck are you on about!? I meant to say that the Witch’s Cult worship that dead witch who killed half of the world hundreds of years ago. What does that have to do with Roswaal?”
“You’re lying! Our lord would never associate with witches!”, the woman holding a baby yells at you while pointing.
Your head is spinning.
“I wasn’t the one who suggested that!”, you say.
“Why would you protect that witch!? You’re a part of the Witch’s Cult and working with Satella!”, the village chief says.
Ram steps forward until she stands next to you.
“As expected, my fellow employee Mr. Natsuki hasn’t explained himself properly. He doesn’t belong to the Witch’s Cult, and I assure you that lord Roswaal has no relation to the Witch of Envy. You all need to calm down. We will evacuate you to the capital to ensure your safety.”
The man with a wart on his face starts laughing bitterly.
“I knew only trouble awaited us when I saw that a silver-haired half-demon was living in Roswaal’s mansion. No wonder the Witch’s Cult is trying to kill us all!”
“Yeah!”, some young guy armed with a sword says. “She’s the Witch of Frost, isn’t she? And lord Roswaal presented her as a royal candidate!”
“No, she isn’t! That’s slander!”, you yell, but the crowd starts getting unruly.
“Kill the demon!”, some voice cries.
The village chief, veins bulging on his temples, points at you with fire in his eyes.
“He’s a part of the Witch’s Cult and the government! Burn everything down!”
You opened your mouth to speak when you realize, due to the distortions dancing over Ram’s palm, that she’s ready to hurt some motherfuckers with her wind magic. You raise your hands.
“Please, listen to me. The half-elf living in the mansion is not a witch.” You stop for a moment, because you don’t actually know what qualifies a magic user to be a witch around these parts. That’s beside the point, though. “She’s a kind, honorable, generous young woman who has been declared a qualified candidate for the throne by those medallion things. Don’t get mad at her, she’s not at fault for this situation.”
“But the Witch’s Cult is attacking us because they want to kill lady Emilia, right?”, a meek young woman asks.
“Well, yes.”
“So it’s her fault that the cultists are attacking us!”, the man with the wart yells while spitting.
“I’m not saying it isn’t, but-“
“Then, we need to kill her! She’s a demon, and will destroy our world!”, he continues.
You realize why the notion of having to evacuate these villagers had never popped up in your mind. There’s no helping some people.
“Listen, you goat fuckers. I know you’ll always hate Emilia because she’s a half-elf, and for you that’s not normal. Your lord is a clown. What the fuck do you know about normalcy? It boils down to whether you want to stay and possibly get horribly murdered by cultists, or get on a damn carriage when we order you to, and live to waste everybody’s time. So what will it be?”
There’s a brief silence.
“I’ll take that as you all being scared, so you’ll be getting on the carriages”, you say angrily.
Ram intercedes.
“You heard Mr. Natsuki. Now please return to your posts or to your houses. We’ll call you when we ready the evacuation.”
The villagers go away. You don’t wait around to find out if they are glaring at you or muttering something malicious. You had walked away a few steps when you realize that Ram is following you.
“What do you want?”, you ask with a tired voice.
Ram takes something out from the pocket of her servant outfit and pushes it into your mouth. You have already bitten a piece when, surprised, you take a look at what remains. It’s a cookie.
“What am I, a child?”, you ask.
“I thought you might like it”, she says with a deadpan expression.
Ram turns around and walks towards her post in the plaza.

You are walking towards the entrance of the village while trying to push down your sour mood. None of the wounded from both armies, that were either lying around near a fence or eating meals on outside tables, are hanging around anymore. They must be waiting on the queue of carriages ready to leave through the main road. Crusch and Rem are speaking with each other a few meters from the back of the last carriage, and Ferris, who is standing further away from the pair, notices that you are coming and walks up to you quickly. She has looked tense since she returned from the forest.
“Please, convince Rem to leave with my lady. The duchess isn’t as healthy as she pretends, and if she stays, she’ll run into trouble and possibly get killed. I trust miss Rem. She’ll take care of the lady.”
Rem is staring at you with concern, but she offers you one of her bewitching smiles. It seems that she has noticed that Ferris would rather speak in private with you for now.
“I don’t know, Ferris”, you say, your head still spinning from dealing with the villagers.
“You have something going on with that servant, right?”
“Why would you want to know?”
“You’ll also feel better if she leaves a battlefield, even though she’s actually able to fight.”
You shake your head while trying to weave the facts together.
“Wait a second, Ferris. Are you staying?”
She sighs.
“Do I really need to spell it out for you? Crusch likes you, and she’s fond of Emilia despite of it all. The only way I convinced her to leave was if you people had the best possible healer in the kingdom in case something went horribly wrong. I assure you, I’d rather leave. The Witch’s Cult must be waiting around for a sign to attack.”
By instinct, you look towards the forest that borders the road up to the village. Everything seems as quiet as the last time you looked at it.
“We haven’t finished, huh, Ferris?”
“Of course we haven’t, you dolt.”
“Fine. I’ll feel better with Rem out of danger.”
Ferris nods and walks away towards her duchess. Rem holds his hands in front of her waist and walks at a leisurely step towards you, but you move up to meet her. As you stand close to each other, you can tell that she doesn’t want to act like a couple in case that causes trouble of any kind with the onlookers, which include some of Crusch’s soldiers and some nasty looking half-beast mercenaries. Maybe Rem also contains herself out of modesty, despite the whole plunging her fangs into you and sucking all of your blood while eagerly fucking you thing.
“I suppose they have already asked you,” you say softly, “but what do you think about leaving this dangerous place to accompany the wounded, mainly Crusch, so you can all rest and recover at her place in the capital?”
Rem’s head lowers down a bit, perhaps contemplating on her options. She looks back up at you.
“Okay.”
“Just that?”
“I will go with them to the capital.”
“Really?”
“You want me to. I want to stay and make sure that you are safe, of course, but I know you will return to me. You promised me that we would marry one day and have a huge family.”
Every time you look at her beautiful face or speak to her, you are overwhelmed with affection, and you want to hug her tightly and for every other person to go away. If Petelgeuse hasn’t given up on performing the ritual tonight, Rem is the main person you’d need to focus on keeping alive, or else you’ll kill yourself with the nearest dagger and start all over again. What an annoyance that would be.
“Flugel Road is clear, right? No White Whale nonsense?”
Rem smiles softly.
“That whale always leaves after a couple of hours. She’s never been known to stick around for so long that it would cause us trouble now. It will be a somewhat long, yet straight route back to safety.”
You caress Rem’s beautiful light blue hair, and she lowers her head slightly as she puts her hands on your waist.
“You’ll come back soon, won’t you?”, she asks without disguising her concern.
“I will.”
You lift Rem’s chin and kiss her in her soft, warm lips. You hear a couple of men comment something about it with a merry tone. You couldn’t care less about who is looking.
When Rem opens her eyes again, they are moist.
“When you come back I want a whole day just for the two of us. And plenty of it will involve us holding each other in bed.”
Your heart hurts, and not in an entirely good way.
“I wish I was there already.”
Shortly after, you bid each other farewell and Rem walks slowly towards the carriage that will take her to the capital. Your gaze waits for hers when she inevitably looks over her shoulder to glance at you.
An uncomfortable warmth rises to your throat, and you feel lonely. When you lift your head again, Ferris is passing you by on the way to the village’s plaza, and to your surprise, Crusch is approaching you with a soft smile. She’s wearing her breastplate again, and the bandages around her torso show up through the holes in her military uniform.
“Can we speak for a moment, Subaru?”, she asks.
You feel honored that someone like her would want to, despite having known her for far longer than she has in her lifetime.
“Of course, m-… We can speak whenever you wish, lady duchess.”
She looks down at the dirt for a moment.
“I have no doubt that Emilia is going to embrace you back into her camp after you have risked this much for her.”
“I wouldn’t be that sure, to be honest…”
“She will. And it’s sad for me. I have grown fond of you, in a similar way I’m fond of my Ferris.”
“I like you a lot, Crusch, although I suppose that much is obvious, with the whole mother thing.”
She lets out air through her nose, but her amusement remains mixed with notorious sadness.
“I don’t like that we belong to different camps. Make no mistake, I will push my hardest to become the ruler of this kingdom, as I believe that amongst the candidates I’m the most experienced and suitable. And one of the candidates would be an utter disaster.”
“Yeah, you are certainly the most suitable person to sit on that throne.”
When you return your gaze from the wolves playing in a nearby field back to Crusch’s face, she’s stunned, with her mouth open and her eyebrows unevenly arched.
“What’s with that face?”, you ask, confused.
“Did I hear you say that I’m the most suitable to become the ruler of this kingdom?”
“Of course! You were governing as a duchess even before you became an adult, you come from a long line of competent rulers, you have that cool superpower that cuts into spacetime, you are fair, good, honorable, tough when you need to… Not to mention, a total smokeshow! The kingdom would be in great hands with you.”
Crusch blushes, and she makes an effort to hold your gaze while a smile grows on her lips.
“But… you serve lord Roswaal, who backs Emilia.”
“Ah, I see. I never said that Emilia would be the greatest ruler, or even a better than average one. As far as I understand she might be gunning for it due to some personal trauma she wants to overcome, and becoming the queen could make her feel that a lifetime of being despised for reasons beyond her control might have been worth it. It would be good for her, you know? It’s not like she can go to a therapist. Although if Emilia rules, then probably Roswaal rules, which might be the point for all I know. If somehow Emilia wins, as unlikely as it probably is, I’ll try to contain her from going all Satella on everybody. You know, fingers crossed. She’s probably not Satella.”
Crusch lowers her head and her gaze goes vacant. Then she lifts her head again and stares at you with determination.
“Subaru, after all this is over, why don’t you join my household? I’d love to bring you in. I’d gladly smooth things out with Roswaal if you agree.”
Your mind goes blank for a second. Warm tingles are building up in your limbs and in your gut. Feeling yourself losing it, you try to imitate Wilhelm’s poker face, but the moment you close your eyes, your mind offers you a picture of Crusch touched by lamp light in the dark, wearing only a nightgown and leaning against the headboard of her four-poster bed. Her beautiful green hair falls on the pillows and her right breast bulges in her generous cleavage. She’s lifting the sheets and the fluffy comforter to show you the place that awaits you next to her warm body. She’s fixing on you her glistening eyes as she tells you to come in. You follow her order and slip under the sheets, and she covers you with them. After she leans over to shut the lamp off, in the darkness she presses her soft, warm bosom against you and entangles your legs with hers, as she caresses your hair.
When you open your eyes, your heart beats so loud and your mouth is so dry that you feel as if you are going to pass out. Your legs are trembling. Oh, no. Calm down.
“I, ah… When I came here, I had nothing at all, duchess. My clothes weren’t even from this world. I came across Emilia, who was dealing with a problem that honestly if she were more intelligent she would have prevented, but in any case, I chose to help her.” It’s not stopping. Please, Crusch, don’t look down. “Ah… In the end we didn’t have that much trouble solving her problem, and she was so glad that I didn’t treat her poorly for being a half-elf, that I was honestly on her side, that she agreed to bring me to Roswaal’s place.” It shouldn’t be able to get that hard. How is this possible? “S-Since then I’ve realized how much she’s hurting, how delicate she is despite her powers, due to having been rejected and forced into isolation for so long, and I just want to be there for her, you know?”
Crusch sighs.
“I can’t disagree with your honorable motives. I just wish I had come across you first.”
You feel your cheeks getting hotter and hotter.
“If we… get separated like you say, I will miss you. I will miss your bed, I will miss seeing you girls eating breakfast in the morning. I know it was a short time for you, but for me… you became a family.”
Everything burns behind your eyes. You want to cry. Oh, no, you are actually tearing up.
Tears leak from Crusch’s eyes. She takes a step forward and hugs you, and as she does, your diamond-hard erection bends against the duchess’ waist. She freezes, and you stop breathing. Then Crusch leans towards your ear. Her warm breath sounds like wind against your eardrum, and her lips make a wet sound as she separates them to whisper in.
“You naughty boy.”
When the whiteness that had overwhelmed you clears up, the line of carriages carrying the wounded is leaving through the road that borders the forest. Your legs wobble, and shivers ripple through you. You fall to your knees and support yourself on the dirt with your fists. Your underwear is as wet as if you had pissed yourself.
As you attempt to control your breathing and produce saliva again, someone pats you on the head.
“What the hell are you doing, Subaru? Stand up”, Ferris says.
Before you know it, Ferris is dragging you by the hand towards the village’s plaza. You don’t recognize what street you are passing through, nor can you focus on anything. You need to sleep.
Ferris stops near a covered carriage parked in front of a two-story house, maybe a couple of minutes away from the plaza. Before the cat-girl turns around, you realize that her literal tail’s hairs stick out. She hugs you tightly, pressing her small tits against your chest, and rubs her jaw against your neck.
“W-What is it with you, Ferris?”, you ask, confused. “Even if I intended to do something with you, you’d need to let me rest first!”
“Shut up and get on the carriage”, she says sharply, straight into your ear.
You barely react, so she pushes you up. Once you are standing in the shadows of the carriage, Ferris jumps in and slides the tarp as if for privacy. When you open your mouth to complain or at least ask her about her actions, she walks up to you and presses herself against your body while crossing her arms over your back. Her flax-colored, perfumed fur tickles your cheek.
For a moment you are tempted to grab her ass.
“H-Hey, if I had known some time ago, I would have loved to bend you over and test drive a half-pussy’s pussy while squeezing that bubbly butt, but I’m in love with a demon, and something’s going on with my mother…”
Ferris gasps and punches you on the back with one of the hands she’s hugging you with.
“Just shut it. Shut your nasty mouth and pretend.”
You get the feeling that something weird is going on. You lower your hands to her slim waist. Shortly after, the tarp slides open forcefully, and a tall, rough looking merchant in his forties gets on the back of the carriage. He’s frowning, and clenching his right hand.
“Did you take my carriage for a brothel?”, the man says with a stern tone. “Get out of here, go screw on the grass.”
Ferris lifts her hands and steps back. Then she prances to the merchant’s side while narrowing her eyes and deploying a smile in a seductive expression.
“Couldn’t help myself!”, she says cheerfully, “I’m just a silly cat-girl in heat, tee-hee!”
When the merchant moves his gaze to you and opens his mouth, Ferris drops her fake expression and grabs the bare skin on the back of the merchant’s neck. The guy goes unconscious as if a switch had been flipped, and falls forward until he faceplants on the floorboards.
You let out a surprised noise.
“Hey, Ferris, don’t go around assaulting random people!”
“He is not a random person. Besides, I’ve just switched his consciousness off.”
“Is that a thing that people do in this fantasy world?”
Ferris frowns and blinks a few times as if wanting to interrogate you about your words, but at the same time not wanting to.
“As long as I have touched them, yes.”
“If people knew, they wouldn’t let you heal them!”
Ferris smiles on one side of her mouth and takes a step towards you.
“But you will shut up about it, won’t you.”
“I don’t want my blood to boil.”
Ferris rolls her eyes and then pushes the unconscious guy’s torso with her foot.
“This guy is a cultist spy, you clown.”
“What!? How do you figure?”
Ferris crouches and searches through the guy’s pockets.
“He has some sort of weird spell embedded in him, I noticed it when I was checking on the merchants as they were hired.”
“That’s it? Isn’t your world filled with spells? What if the spell embedded is related to virtually anything else?”
She glares at you.
“The type of spell checks out! The rank and file of the Witch’s Cult are known to have allowed themselves to be hexed with spells that reduce their independent will and their fear. This is well known. Weren’t you aware?”
“It didn’t come up in conversations, nor did I live through anything that featured that notion.”
“Subaru, you need to read up on the subjects you are dealing with.”
“I’d like to read anything at all!”
As Ferris shakes her head, she takes out a small trinket that looks like a makeup mirror. The cat-girl is surprised for a moment, then she furrows her brow.
“This bastard. I knew it.”
She throws the trinket at you.
“No, don’t open it”, she says. “It’s a metia.”
“A makeup term, I’m guessing.”
“No! It’s a magical artifact that allows long distance communications with whoever has the other half of the pair!”
“How was I to know?”
Ferris shuts her eyes and takes a deep breath.
“Please,” she says with a tired voice, “help me turn this guy around.”
The supposed spy now lies on his back. His nose is busted, and is leaking blood all over his mouth and cheeks.
“Clearly I cannot leave gathering intelligence to the Iron Fang…”, Ferris says.
“C’mon, Ferris. They are pretty cool murderers.”
“… And neither can I expect it from you. You didn’t even notice Julius messing with you when I was healing you earlier.”
“Messing with me? What did he do?”
Ferris blatantly ignores you.
“I’m going to wake this guy up, but just enough so for the most part he’ll just be able to talk and speak. If he moves at all, he’ll do it slowly. You punch him hard if he attempts something.”
You shift your weight. Your heart beats fast. You crouch on the other side of the guy and prepare your fist.
Ferris touches the guy’s forehead, and a second later he opens his eyes.
“What are you…?”, the guy says with an aggravated tone.
“You will feel your blood warming more and more”, Ferris says with a steely voice. “Where is your leader, cultist? Where is Petelgeuse?”
“I don’t know any…”
He shuts his eyes. His skin is getting redder, and sweat is beading as if he were in a sauna.
“You either tell us what that madman intends to do, and when, or I’ll vaporize your insides”, Ferris says.
With a deep grunt, the merchant spits blood. It’s dripping from his nose and his mouth. He opens his eyes again, eyes as red as blood. He grins.
“Satella will return and drown the world in eternal love.”
The man has extended his hand over a floorboard next to his body, and from his palm glows a yellowish magic. Through the slits in the floorboards you realize that a reddish light is increasing under them, like a growing fire.
Ferris gasps.
Although you punch the merchant in the balls as hard as you can, the man doesn’t even flinch. Ferris leaps onto you, and as you fall on your back, she yells.
“Ia, shield us!”
A burst of light and thunder envelops you.

---

I think I mentioned it in a previous part, but in the original novels, the crew waits around for the White Whale to appear, they fight it, and through plenty of hardship and some bullshit they end up killing it. However, there are plenty of casualties. Rem herself has gotten badly injured. Around half of the entire crew gets on enough carriages, turn around and head back to Crusch’s place. Amongst them was the duchess herself, as well as Rem. They never got even close to Roswaal’s domains. That’s the last we see of them for the remainder of this arc, which in the anime adaptation fills the rest of the first season.