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Subaru Natsuki woke with the immediate certainty that his life had developed far too intimate a relationship with unfamiliar ceilings.
He did not open his eyes all at once. This time, his consciousness returned with a heavy slowness, as if he had been forced to climb up from the bottom of a well filled with warm water. First, he felt the softness of the sheets beneath his fingers, then the absurdly comfortable mattress under his back, and afterward the strange hollow in the center of his body, a clean, deep weakness different from the pain of a wound. There was no heat burning his abdomen. No blood between his hands. No knives, broken wood, or smell of opened entrails. Only exhaustion. Exhaustion so intense that, for a second, he thought every muscle in his body had filed a formal complaint against his existence.
Memory returned little by little, with the delicacy of someone who did not want to break him all at once.
He remembered the luxurious room. He remembered Link asleep on the sofa, whole, calm, and without horns. He remembered the mansion's hallways, long, bright, treacherous. He remembered a door that had led to an impossible library, a blonde girl with perfect curls and a look of eternal annoyance. Beatrice. He remembered her small hand against his chest, the draining, that horrible sensation of something invisible being torn out from inside him. He also remembered Link falling before him, the kagune emerging by reflex, books collapsing from the shelves, and Beatrice's irritated voice calling them problematic as if knocking two guests unconscious were a minor domestic inconvenience.
Subaru opened his eyes.
The white ceiling was still there.
There was no fruit stand. No appa vendor. No main street of Lugnica. No return to the beginning. The world had not reset.
"I'm alive..." he murmured, his throat dry. "Which, at this point, I don't even know if it counts as good news or a delayed threat."
He tried to sit up. The movement was clumsy, slow, and although his healed abdomen protested with a dull ache, there was no mortal pain. That was enough for him to release a long, trembling, almost incredulous breath. He had survived. He had not died again. He was not standing in front of Kadomon's stall again, pretending he could keep his sanity while the world repeated the same day with the cruelty of a clockmaker. He was still in the mansion. Still after the library. Still after Beatrice.
His relief lasted exactly until he heard a female voice beside the bed.
"It seems the guest has awakened."
Subaru turned his head so quickly his neck cracked.
Beside the bed were two girls in maid uniforms.
For an instant, his brain, exhausted, drained, and emotionally mistreated by the last twenty-four hours, produced no coherent thoughts. It only registered details. Perfectly ironed black and white dresses. Impeccable aprons. Straight postures. Very similar faces. Short hair falling over one eye, one pink and the other blue, as if someone had decided to split a mirror into two opposite colors. Both looked at him with such polished serenity that Subaru immediately felt guilty for having messy hair.
"Twin maids..." he whispered, too impressed to remember to close his mouth.
The pink-haired one observed him without changing expression.
"Ram, the guest has awakened, and his first words are already unpleasant."
The blue-haired one nodded with soft calm.
"Rem also considers it unfortunate. Although, given his condition upon arrival, it was unlikely he would begin the conversation with elegance."
Subaru brought a hand to his chest.
"I just woke up from a coma caused by magical draining, and I'm already being verbally executed by two maids. This world doesn't waste a single minute."
"Ram," said the pink-haired one, bringing a hand to her chest with a minimal bow.
"Rem," said the blue-haired one, imitating her with the same precision.
"We both serve in Roswaal-sama's mansion," Ram continued.
"And we were tasked with watching over the guests until their awakening," Rem added.
Subaru pointed at one, then the other, using all the little mental energy available to record the names.
"Ram is pink. Rem is blue. Ram, Rem. Pink, blue. Perfect. My half-dead brain still works for simple associations. I'm Subaru Natsuki, recent victim of a doll-sized librarian and, apparently, a guest specialized in causing problems before breakfast."
Ram looked at him with sharp neutrality.
"The guest speaks too much for someone who has just awakened."
Rem tilted her head slightly.
"Rem believes it may be a symptom."
"It's not a symptom. It's my personality."
"Then Rem regrets the severity of the case."
Subaru was left with his mouth open for a second, processing the blow.
"You two are dangerous. Very dangerous. The pink one finishes people off coldly, the blue one does it with a kind voice. It's a perfectly coordinated combat system."
"We are not fighting," Ram said. "If we were, the guest would have no chance."
"Thank you for the clarification. My self-esteem needed someone to bury it with honors."
His attempt to sit up completely ended in a wave of dizziness that forced him to lean against the headboard. Rem approached with a glass of water that had been resting on the side table. Her movements were silent, measured, clean. There was no rush or clumsiness. She offered it with both hands, and Subaru, too thirsty to maintain a proud pose, accepted it.
"Thank you," he said, drinking eagerly.
"It is part of Rem's duty."
"Still, thanks. After Beatrice, anyone who gives me water instead of draining my inner energy rises quite a bit in my personal ranking."
Ram observed him with one eyebrow barely raised.
"Beatrice-sama did not kill you. The guest should be grateful."
"My standard for gratitude is dropping to worrying levels."
Subaru finished the water and carefully placed the glass on the table. Then, as if the recovery of liquid had restored power to a specific area of his brain, he remembered something more important than his wounded dignity.
Link.
His eyes traveled toward the corner of the room.
The sofa was still there.
And on it, covered by a light blanket up to half his chest, Link was sleeping deeply.
Subaru released the breath he had not realized he was holding. The Latino looked far too calm for someone who had gone through the previous night like a walking catastrophe. His face had no cuts. His hands were complete. There were no black marks around his eyes, no horns on his forehead, no red tentacles extending from his waist. The resting shirt he wore was clean, simple, and although his skin looked somewhat pale, there were no visible wounds. He slept on his side, his dark hair messy over the cushion and an expression so serene that Subaru would have liked to accuse him of enjoying an undeserved vacation.
"He's still alive," Subaru said, lower.
Rem followed his gaze.
"The other guest has not awakened since Beatrice-sama returned him to this room."
Ram crossed her hands in front of her apron.
"His condition shows no external injuries, but his sleep is deeper than normal. Beatrice-sama reported that his body reacted violently during the mana drain."
Subaru grimaced.
"Yeah. I was there. Technically, 'violently' falls short. There were flying books, red tentacles, and one very annoyed blonde girl. In my defense, I only opened a door."
"The guest opened a forbidden door," Ram corrected.
"The door had no sign. And even if it did, I can't read your language, which makes me innocent by involuntary illiteracy."
Ram looked at him without the slightest compassion.
"A very poor defense."
"It's the only one I have."
Rem watched Link in silence. She said nothing for several seconds, but Subaru noticed that her attention was different. It was not simple curiosity toward another strange guest. Nor did it seem like open fear. It was a very fine caution, almost imperceptible, like someone listening to a distant sound others could not perceive. Subaru remembered what Beatrice had said about him: abnormal, oni, something that did not fit. He looked at Link and swallowed. He did not know what that meant. He did not know what anything about Link meant since he had seen him rise with black and red eyes.
"Is he okay?" Subaru asked.
Rem answered without taking her eyes off the sofa.
"His breathing is stable. His temperature shows no dangerous abnormalities. If he wakes without incident, he can be evaluated better."
"'Without incident' sounds optimistic when it comes to him."
"Ram agrees."
Link moved.
It was barely a change in his breathing, a slight furrowing of his brows, the movement of one hand beneath the blanket. Subaru immediately straightened, forgetting the dizziness. Rem took a step toward the sofa, but did not come too close. Ram remained near the bed, though her gaze sharpened. Both maids seemed to prepare to act without making it obvious that they were prepared, and that, somehow, unsettled Subaru more than if they had drawn weapons.
Link opened his eyes.
For one second, he focused on nothing. His pupils moved slowly over the ceiling, then toward the window, and then toward Subaru. His gaze was loaded with exhaustion, but it was human. Brown. Normal. There was no blackness or red. No monstrous pressure in the air.
"If this is another library," he murmured, his voice hoarse, "I'm going to set the books on fire."
"Good morning to you too," Subaru said, relieved to the point of sounding irritated. "I'm glad you're still just as diplomatic."
Link turned his head toward him.
"Are we alive?"
"Seems like it."
"Did we go back?"
"No."
Link closed his eyes for a moment.
The word needed no explanation. Subaru understood it. They had not returned to the fruit stand. They had not gone back to the forest, or the truck, or the start of anything. They were still there, in a room of the mansion, with two maids watching them as if they were a combination of guests, problems, and potential stains on the carpet.
Link raised a hand and touched his forehead. Nothing. Then he checked his fingers, his arms, his abdomen under the clothes. He found no wounds. His expression tightened in a strange, uncomfortable way. Subaru understood it all too well. After dying, waking up whole stopped being a simple miracle. Sometimes it was worse. Sometimes an intact body felt like a lie that did not know where it had put the pain.
"I don't have horns," Link said.
Ram and Rem did not visibly react.
Subaru made a quick gesture with both hands.
"Uh, yeah, important detail, but maybe not the most normal phrase to say in front of our hosts."
Link turned his head, and then he saw Rem.
Link's world stopped.
Not literally. There was no magic, no return, no appearance of shadows. The morning light continued entering through the window. The curtain continued moving softly. Subaru continued existing with his badly hidden worried face. Ram continued looking at him as if she could detect even the smallest stupidity before it left his mouth.
But for Link, everything lost clarity except her.
The blue-haired girl stood beside the sofa, with her maid uniform immaculate, her hands crossed in front of her apron, and a serene expression that did not try to please or draw attention. Her hair fell over one eye, leaving the other visible, soft and clear blue, calmer than the sky after a storm. There was delicacy in her features, but not fragility. There was calm in her posture, but not passivity. Her movements, even while still, seemed ordered by a silent precision. Link, who had seen blood, knives, ice, magic, death, and monsters, stared as if he had just found something he had not known he needed to see.
His chest hurt.
Not like a wound.
Worse.
"Goddess..." he whispered.
Subaru slowly turned his head toward him.
So did Ram.
Rem blinked once.
The silence was perfect.
It took Link two seconds to realize he had said it out loud. When he did, his face changed color at a speed that would have been admirable if he were not trapped in mortal embarrassment. He tried to sit up too quickly, grew dizzy, almost fell from the sofa, and had to grab the edge with one hand. Rem leaned forward a little, prepared to help, and that small gesture finished destroying what little emotional stability he had left.
"I... didn't..." Link began, swallowing. "I meant... good morning."
Subaru covered his mouth with one hand.
"No, no, please continue. I'm very interested in this religious version of a Latin morning greeting."
Link glared at him.
"Subaru."
"No, really. 'Goddess' is strong. Even I didn't open that directly with Emilia, and my history of shame is monumental."
Ram looked at Link with cruel calm.
"Ram understands. The other guest awakened with brain damage."
"Rem does not believe it is brain damage," Rem said, still serene. "It is possible the guest was surprised upon seeing Rem."
Link covered his face with both hands.
"Kill me."
Subaru raised a finger.
"Don't say that here. In our situation, the universe might take it as a formal request."
Rem tilted her head, genuinely confused.
"Should Rem apologize for surprising you?"
Link lowered his hands at once.
"No! No, no, no. You did nothing wrong. Sorry. It's my fault. I just woke up, I barely understand where I am, I got drained of something I still don't know how to name and... and you are very beautiful."
Silence returned.
Subaru opened his eyes with a mixture of horror and admiration.
"He said it. He actually said it. With his chest. With all the available Latin blood."
Link closed his eyes, resigned to his own social death.
Rem looked at him for a moment that felt eternal to Link. Her face did not turn flirtatious or teasing. She did not blush like in a cheap romantic scene. She only observed him with that calm of hers, processing the compliment as unexpected information but not necessarily offensive.
Then she gave a small bow.
"Rem thanks you for the compliment. However, Rem considers that the guest should prioritize his recovery before issuing judgments about the staff's appearance."
Link let himself fall against the sofa's backrest.
"I want to bury myself alive."
"The mansion's garden is very well maintained," Ram said. "It would not be convenient."
Subaru bent forward, trying not to laugh too much because his abdomen still hurt. The attempt failed. He burst into laughter that turned into coughing, and Rem immediately turned toward him.
"The main guest should not laugh so hard. His body has not yet fully recovered."
Subaru lifted a hand, panting.
"Sorry, sorry. It's just that watching him fall in love in real time has healed a part of my soul."
"I'm not in love," Link said far too quickly.
Ram looked at him.
"Ram did not ask."
"That doesn't help."
Subaru smiled maliciously.
"Please repeat the 'goddess' thing when Emilia arrives. I want to see if this mansion can withstand two emotional disasters in the same room."
"Subaru, if I survive this, I'll smother you with that pillow."
"There it is. He's already regaining strength. Positive diagnosis."
Rem approached the sofa with a glass of water, just as she had done with Subaru. Link, who until then had been trying to look at anything except her, went rigid when he saw her coming closer. Rem offered him the glass with both hands.
"Please drink. Your throat must be dry after waking."
Link took the glass with absurd care, as if it were a sacred object.
"Thank you."
"It is part of Rem's duty."
"Still... thank you."
Rem nodded.
Link drank. Subaru watched him with an increasingly unbearable smile. Link tried to ignore him, but ignoring Subaru when Subaru wanted to be unbearable was impossible. It was like trying to ignore a bell ringing inside a pot.
"Don't say anything," Link warned, lowering the glass.
"I haven't said anything."
"Your eyes are talking."
"My eyes are expressive. I can't censor them."
"Try."
"They say: 'congratulations on finding a reason not to hate the mansion.'"
Link tightened his grip on the glass.
Rem looked at him.
"The glass belongs to the mansion."
Link loosened it immediately.
"Sorry."
Ram observed the scene with an impassive expression.
"Ram will inform that the secondary guest has also awakened."
"Secondary?" Link asked, escaping his embarrassment for a moment. "Why is he the main one?"
"By order of awakening," Ram replied.
Subaru pointed at himself with absurd pride.
"You heard her. I'm the main one by chronological merit."
"That doesn't exist," Link said.
"In this mansion, it does."
"Rem does not believe that classification has formal relevance," Rem clarified.
"Thank you, Rem. I knew I could trust your justice."
"Rem only corrected an incorrect conclusion."
Subaru received the blow again with one hand on his chest.
"Justice also hurts."
Link wanted to laugh, but his body chose to remind him that he was coming from a monstrous transformation, a mana drain, and sleep far too deep. The attempt at laughter became a gesture of exhaustion. Rem noticed immediately.
"You should not strain yourself."
"I'm fine."
Ram looked him up and down.
"The secondary guest lies worse than the main one talks."
"Hey," Subaru and Link said at the same time.
For the first time, Rem's expression seemed to soften slightly. It was so subtle Link did not know if he had imagined it, but his heart, which had already proven not to be a reliable source of reasoning, decided to accept it as a historic event.
"Both of you were found unconscious in Beatrice-sama's forbidden library," Rem said. "Beatrice-sama reported that the mana drain was enough to leave you out of combat. In the main guest's case, it was a normal reaction. In the secondary guest's case, there was an abnormal reaction from his body."
Link lowered his gaze to his hands.
The embarrassment over Rem cooled slightly, leaving room for a heavier concern. Subaru became serious too. The memory of the kagune emerging in the library was still too fresh. The comfort of the room could not erase the fact that, beneath Link's skin, there was something that responded to threats without asking permission.
"Did I hurt anyone?" Link asked.
Rem gently shook her head.
"No. Beatrice-sama suffered no injuries. The library received some minor damage."
"Books," Subaru murmured. "I think that, for Beatrice, counts as serious emotional damage."
Ram nodded.
"Beatrice-sama was irritated."
"Beatrice-sama seems irritated by breathing."
"The main guest learns quickly," Ram said.
Link ran a hand over his face.
"I didn't control it. The thing from my back. I didn't mean to attack her."
Rem observed him attentively.
"That was reported."
"By Beatrice?"
"Yes."
Link released air through his nose.
"How convenient. She drains me first and then writes the report."
Ram narrowed her visible eye.
"Beatrice-sama is an important person in this mansion. It would be prudent to speak of her with respect."
Link held her gaze for a second. There was pride in him, an automatic response to any tone that sounded like a warning. But he was tired. And, more importantly, Rem was standing to one side with a calm that seemed to ask for less stupidity without saying it out loud. So Link swallowed his answer.
"Understood."
Subaru looked at him with a slow smile.
"Oh. Wow."
"What?"
"Nothing. I just witnessed the first documented case of Rem reducing your aggression without raising her voice."
"Subaru."
"This deserves study."
"Subaru."
Ram looked at Rem.
"Rem, it seems the secondary guest responds better to your instructions."
Rem tilted her head.
"Rem has not given any special instruction."
Link wished the bed would swallow him. He was not even in the bed. That made the situation more unfair.
To escape Subaru's gaze, Link searched for another topic. The worst topic, perhaps, but the only one weighing on him more than embarrassment.
"Where is Felt?"
The room became a little more still.
Subaru stopped smiling.
Ram and Rem exchanged a brief look. It was not long or dramatic, barely a movement of the eyes, but it was enough to confirm that they knew who he was talking about.
"The blonde girl was taken by Reinhard-sama," Rem answered. "That is what we were informed."
Link tightened his grip on the blanket over his legs.
"Is she okay?"
Ram answered this time.
"We do not have detailed information about her current condition. However, if Reinhard-sama took her with him, her life should not be in immediate danger."
"That doesn't answer if she's okay."
"No," Ram said, without harshness. "It answers what we can answer."
Link closed his eyes. The memory of Felt struggling against Reinhard, insulting him, looking back with anger and fear, returned with uncomfortable clarity. He did not know her well enough to feel this way. That was the absurd part. He had met her amid theft, death, sweets, shouting, and blood. There was no long history between them, no years, no promises. And yet his unconscious body had tried to attack Reinhard out of pure instinct when he saw her resisting. That frightened him more than he wanted to admit.
"Idiot," Subaru murmured.
Link opened his eyes.
"What did you say?"
"That you're an idiot. I say it with fraternal respect. That face of yours says you're thinking about getting up, stealing a ground dragon or a carriage, looking for Reinhard, and demanding explanations when three minutes ago you were drooling over Rem and five minutes ago you were in a magic coma."
"I wasn't drooling."
"Mentally, yes."
"I'm going to kill you."
"Rem, help, the secondary guest is threatening the main one for revealing uncomfortable truths."
Rem looked at Link.
"Rem recommends not killing the main guest. It would cause problems for the mansion."
Subaru lifted both hands in indignation.
"Only for the mansion?!"
"Also for Emilia-sama," Rem added.
"That matters more to me, but it still hurts to hear it."
Emilia's name caused an immediate change in Subaru. His expression lit up with a mixture of relief, expectation, and nervousness. Link noticed and, for the first time since waking up, had ammunition to return the blow.
"There's your idiot-in-love face."
Subaru turned red.
"Don't change the subject to me to escape your religious cult toward Rem."
"I didn't say cult."
"You said goddess."
"It was a slip."
"A slip makes you say 'hello.' Not 'goddess.'"
Ram observed them with the serene exhaustion of someone who had decided both were lost causes.
"Ram will inform Roswaal-sama and Emilia-sama that both guests have awakened. Until then, do not leave the room."
Subaru straightened.
"Wait. Roswaal-sama... this is his mansion?"
"Correct," Ram said. "This is the mansion of Roswaal L. Mathers-sama."
"And Emilia is here?"
"Emilia-sama is in the mansion," Rem replied. "She was the one who requested that both of you be treated as guests."
Subaru lowered his gaze to his hands, and for an instant his face lost all theatricality. Emilia had brought them. Emilia had decided not to leave them lying around, not to hand them over to anyone, not to treat them as nuisances after what happened in the capital. For Subaru, that fell on him with warm and painful weight. He had wanted to repay her favor from the first moment she saved him. And now, even after everything, he was still the one accumulating debts.
"I have to thank her," he said.
Ram looked at him.
"That would be appropriate."
Link, on the other hand, said nothing. He looked at Rem for a second, then awkwardly looked away and forced himself to think about something else. Roswaal. Emilia. Reinhard. Felt. Beatrice. Mana. Ghoul. Oni. Horns. There were too many new words and too many problems. But, strange as it was, Rem's presence in the room made part of his mind want to sort itself out, as if he suddenly had a ridiculous reason not to look like a complete disaster.
Rem took a step back and took the empty glass from his hands.
"You must rest a little longer until you receive instructions."
Link nodded.
"Yes. Thank you, Rem."
Subaru opened his mouth.
Link raised one finger without looking at him.
"No."
Subaru closed it, but his smile remained there.
Ram walked toward the door with silent steps. Rem followed her, though before leaving, she looked back at both guests. Her visible eye stopped first on Subaru, then on Link. It was not a warm look, not yet. It was professional, careful, perhaps a little distant. But Link felt his heart, the traitor, decide to turn that distance into hope.
"Please do not leave the room," Rem said. "The mansion is large, and it has already been demonstrated that guests can end up in problematic places if they walk without guidance."
Subaru raised a hand with exaggerated solemnity.
"I promise on my recently murdered pride. I will not touch another suspicious door."
"I don't plan to move," Link said. "My legs still think they resigned."
"A sensible decision," Rem said.
"Surprising from you," Ram added.
The two maids left the room and closed the door behind them.
For several seconds, neither of them spoke.
The room was wrapped in a strange calm, almost comfortable. Birds were singing outside. Morning light continued entering through the window. Subaru was sitting on the bed, exhausted but alive. Link was on the sofa, pale, confused, and emotionally destroyed by a blue-haired maid he had just met.
Subaru slowly turned his head toward him.
Link looked away.
"No."
"I didn't say anything."
"No."
"I was just going to say Rem seems very competent."
"Subaru."
"And beautiful."
Link grabbed a pillow from the sofa and threw it at him.
Subaru received the impact in the face with a muffled sound and fell backward onto the bed, laughing enough for his healed abdomen to hurt. He complained, hugged his stomach, and still kept laughing, because after so many deaths, so much blood, and so much fear, seeing Link reduced to an awkward teenager by one look from Rem was, somehow, absurd proof that they were still alive.
"Attacking a convalescent is immoral!"
"You attacked my patience."
"Your patience died before we did!"
Link let himself fall against the sofa's backrest, covering his eyes with one arm. Despite the exhaustion, the fear, and the questions still breathing beneath his skin, a small part of him felt something like relief. Subaru was still Subaru: loud, unbearable, alive. He was still himself, even though something red and terrible slept inside his body. Rem existed, and that idea was as ridiculous as it was powerful.
Subaru lowered the pillow from his face and looked at the ceiling.
"Hey, Link."
"What?"
"We didn't go back."
Link took a moment to answer.
"Yeah."
"That means, for now, we did well."
Link moved his arm away from his eyes and looked at the window.
"For now."
The answer was not happy, but it was not empty either. In that world, "for now" was more than they had had many times. And while the mansion woke around them, with Ram and Rem going to inform their masters, Subaru Natsuki and Link remained in the room, alive, exhausted, and trapped at the beginning of something they still did not understand.