At the voice's dry tone, they knew not to expect something hopeful from this screen.
Emilia and her camp watched with worried gazes falling between the screen and the sleeping boy sitting amongst them.
Others were watching in annoyance or interest as this all confused them.
So they watched, as the screen stopped flashing for a moment….
And then went dark.
Season 1 Episode one Director's cut.
Begin.
The window showed a dark void with flickering lights. Heavy pained gasps could be heard as somebody struggled to breathe.
"Who's…" Rem immediately caught the sound and her eyes widened as she recognized the voice.
" This is bad… Very bad…" The person called out as they struggled and gasped in pain.
Emilia and her camp quickly leaned in attentive worry as they recognized what the blue-haired girl had.
"Subaru!" Emilia called out to the screen, worry painting her face for the struggling voice of her knight.
"He sounds like he's in pain." Felix was quick to point out, further worrying the Emilia camp and his own mistress for the well being of the boy.
"Subaru? What's wrong?" A much softer, silver-bell like voice cut in, seemingly filled with worry.
"I'm there with him?" The silver-haired lady asked in worry and confusion.
"Emilia-sama will protect Subaru! She is strong!" Petra voiced out in frantic worry as she held her hands together to relieve her nerves.
T he darkness briefly dissipated and revealed a hand with a pool of blood, growing beneath it.
"Wha?!"
"No!"
Emilia and Rem gasped in horror as they recognized the trademark threads of the boy's tracksuit. The two ladies holding expressions of disbelief and anguish as they clearly saw him in a desperate position.
"Where am I?!" Emilia asked as despair filled her at the thought of being unable to save the boy from suffering like she always does.
"Seems like he's bleeding out on the ground." Anastasia mused in a serious tone as she analyzed the screen.
"Cap'n's gonna need help!" Garfiel grunted, leaning forward and preparing to prance at the screen incase his captain needed him. It looked really bad and the blonde couldn't handle watching the bloody hand of his captain without doing anything.
Beside him, Otto wasn't doing much better either. The merchant-turned-minister is barely holding the fear and extreme concern overwhelming his expression as he watched on the edge of his seat like the many members of his camp.
The window changed scenes to show a series of square buildings with lights all over them. One of them in particular is displayed. Isles of assorted metal cylinders and small paper books were arranged inside. Next to one of these isles, a familiar young man with nasty sharp eyes and black-hair is shown reading a book with pictures on it.
"Ah, I see. This is where they suck you in," he said as he flipped through the book with an amused expression.
"What… just… ?!" The fiery-haired, Priscilla uttered softly as she blinked in confusion at the jarring change. She didn't notice how the one-armed knight beside her went rigged at the scene. "Damn… bro…" Al muttered under his breath as he watched through his helmet.
"Look at them builds!" Ricardo whistled in awe at the architecture.
"What is this place? Why does Subaru move so normally as if it's not an unusual environment?" Reinhard found himself asking while his expression showed nothing but awe at the foreign land.
"This must be his home… " Julius mused as he inspected everything in the room Subaru was in.
Emilia's eyes widened as she glanced back and forth between the screen and her sleeping knight. Feeling a little happy that she is able to learn more of the boy's origin.
"Look at all of these appliances! Those fancy decorations! All of those small towers!" Anastasia gushed in surprise, her serious aura gone as her greedy need for knowing everything about this foreign place and use it for her business.
"This looks like a noble's district. Is Subaru-kyun a servant there too?" Felix questioned the black-haired boy's placement in such a fancy looking nobles district.
"Subaru-kun mentioned that he hails from a place where everyone lives as equals. He might be a noble in this place as well. I never knew that it looked so… unusual." Rem looked at the scenery with a wide eyes. Feeling the need to learn and understand everything present on the screen because it might make her understand her beloved more.
"So Natsuki-sama is a noblemen from where he comes from?" The green-haired duchess sitting in the back inspected everything around the boy with great interest and fondness, wanting to learn more about the items around him and why this architecture was shaped in such a compact yet clearly advanced way.
"Where does Nastuki-dono hail from exactly?" Wilhelm asked politely of the boy's camp members as he showed interest in the aspect of Subaru's home as well but didn't show it.
The Emilia camp members looked at one another, expressions of confusion present on their faces.
"Barusu never spoke of his home to us. He only told us that he wasn't allowed to go back there again and that it was a small island nation to the east of Lugunica."
Emilia's eyes dimmed slightly in sadness for her knight as Ram recited his words spoken long ago when he was still the new butler working in Roswaal's estate. She always found it heartbreaking how Subaru wont speak about his family or home to them. She always wanted to learn about him and how he lived his childhood. He was such and interesting kid with so many cool and genuinely progressive ideas that it made her truly invested in understanding his culture and traditions more and more.
She was quite amazed by the scene before her. This city, this advancement… it was all so fascinating and mystifying to her.
"Subaru's home is really cool!" Emilia couldn't help but stare in wonder and awe at what she was seeing. Happy to finally be able to understand something about the enigma that she proclaimed her knight.
She wasn't the only one however.
"An island to the east?" Reinhard repeated with a dumbfounded expression on his face. "But that's…"
"...It's not possible since there are no island nations to the east." Anastasia mused unconsciously as a growing smirk found its way across her face.
Her suspicion was correct.
This boy… was truly from beyond the ends of their world.
Many in the audience looked at the screen in confusion and awe.
"Hmmm, Subaru-kun may not be as exactly described by the gospel." Roswaal whispered while staring at the scenery with wonder and surprise. Not being able to understand why this information was left out of his book of knowledge when he was still following its foreseeing ink.
"How arresting…" Priscilla's scarlet eyes honed in on every aspect around the boy as if she was truly interested in his world. She had her chin resting on her upturned palm and her face held an expression of boredom but her eyes were wide and awake as she looked at this world that held so many things she didn't understand or believe to exist.
And yet this black-haired commoner is pacing around reading weird looking picture books as if it was just another day for him.
Who was this kid?
The scene changed once again to the hand with the increasing amount of blood beneath it, now twitching in place as the person clearly lost consciousness.
"No… Run! Hurry!" The boy crowed out with trouble as pain overwhelmed him.
*THUMP! *
Another body suddenly fell right beside the hand with the blood-pool beneath it.
The body of a silver-haired girl with white and purple robes.
"Emilia-sama?!" Petra gasped and held her hands to her mouth in shock. The look of horror and surprise showed across the respective camp members and their allies from Crusch's faction, while Reinhard, Julius, and Felt looked angry and apprehensive at what the screen was showing as they were distrustful yet still deeply effected by the sudden death of a good friend such as Emilia.
Others like Roswaal, Priscilla, and Anastasia simply watched with either boredom, interest, or amusement as they all were just interested in how this relates to the boy and didn't care for the naive girl's death.
"Wha…" Said useless girl found herself uttering as the scene before her deeply disturbed and shocked her to the core. She was dead. She had died.
Fear and confusion suddenly filled Emilia's heart… and she began breathing heavily because of it…
"Emilia-sama." A speaker sounded firmly from behind the panicking half-elf. Making her turn to face whomever was calling.
Crusch was suddenly standing behind her chair and her hand was placed firmly on Emilia's shoulder. The green-haired duchess was the first to notice her allied camp head's distress, therefore, she was the first to comfort the silver-haired girl as a curtsy of the alliance they were in.
"We need to keep watching this to understand. I doubt this is real at all." The duchess nodded her head with a stern expression that filled everyone with determination. Crusch's commanding aura filled some of the weak hearted in the room with a little comfort as she challenged the screens showings.
"Princess wouldn't die that easy… " Garfiel growled with a hand on his chin as he watched with screen with narrowed eyes.
"Emilia-sama… Forgive me." A soft yet very passionate voice spoke from beside Crusch, making Emilia turn to face the blue-haired maid.
"Subaru-kun's struggle has always been to help you… I doubt he would've let you die that easily… He's always managed to get out of pressing situations on his own and help everyone. I think this is fake… or a future vision maybe… But you shouldn't let this effect you."
Finding encouragement from both, the politically apt Crusch and the apprehensive Rem as they both didn't believe in the screen's authenticity, Emilia found herself compelled to ignore the shocking sight of her own death and carry on watching with the same sense of suspicion. Her heart remained heavy in her chest as something told her that this is all wrong… something was so wrong with this.
Her only source of comfort was the fact that she had Subaru sitting beside her and so she calmed down after swiftly taking his arm in link with hers.
Her heart remained heavy.
"Useless…" Roswaal whispered boredly and looked up towards the screen with more interest than he had for the girl he sponsored.
"What a wonderful thing to happen… I can finally see what your power truly holds…" The clownish lord whispered gleefully as his multi-colored eyes shinning with merith and excitement at the events playing.
He can finally learn how this boy's road was shaped by the gospel… and eventually how the boy broke away from that path and instead made his own path instead of letting the gospel… his teacher… decide where to go.
"It's the answer to my frustration… this viewing is an immense gift." Roswaal thought in his head once more. Not showing anything on his face but the same eccentric smirk he always wore.. he could feel the eyes of a certain noble woman scanning him suspiciously.
"Such a filthy cricket." Priscilla snorted as she turned from the clown that's been setting off many annoying instincts within her and watched the screen to see why the world was showing her these events.
What's required of a goddess such as herself to be here? Why would this boy be worthy enough for her to care?
She didn't even know the useless child!
The scene changes to Subaru picking up colored cups and plastic bags of food from one of the shelves.
" N ah, Natto."
"This is becoming a bit too jarring…" Reinhard mused while watching Subaru's environment with interest.
"I do agree that this is becoming a bit redundant if it's not gonna explain what's going on." Julius nodded as he found himself agitated at the desperate tone shifts the screen was pulling as if it was using Subaru's pain for an entertainment purpose.
The scene cuts back to the now limp body of the lady as blood suddenly filled the area beneath her.
The struggling hand scene from the beginning slowly moved towards the limp one of the girl's.
"Wait there…" The boy gasped, clear determination filling his voice.
Many, including Emilia, Otto, and Beatrice were full on glaring at the screen as it showed this entire struggle of Subaru's without explaining anything. They didn't believe in it nor cared but an explanation would still be nice.
A little blonde girl was suddenly wide-eyed as she noticed… that place looked really familiar.
Felt's heart started getting heavy as well…
Something wasn't right.
Again, the scene changes to Subaru at a counter speaking with another person.
"Ah.." Ricardo groaned as he was getting enticed by the previous scene but then it got changed back to this weird place which he understood nothing of.
"That'll be 363 yen."
Subaru picked up a metal coin and stopped to look at it.
"Oh, a grooved-edge ten."
"I guess that would be his home's currency?" Anastasia mused, more to herself than to anyone else as she watched with great interest. While everyone was waiting for the screen to change back to the struggling Subaru, Anastasia was actually the one person that didn't car about that part of the viewing… her focus was only on one objective that's been nagging her for the past few months… Subaru's origin… and the more she looked at it, the more she wanted to learn about the boy and his home.
She must know what everything was there and if she can use any of it to her own advantage. She had an urge to learn it. To use it. So she will take whatever she can of this viewing… it was the only reason why she invited the useless half-devil and her camp anyways… That boy's origin is a goldmine that she was trying to reach since the very first report from her network about him… Since the moment she learned that her best agents couldn't find a single thing about him from before he showed up at the palace halls that embarrassing day.
Anastasia's eyes were focused to the maximum as she analyzed every single object and shape on the screen.
Having paid for his items, Subaru exits the building.
He stops short of a road and watches a metal box speed past him.
The sight of the speeding vehicle shocked many in the audience.
"What was that?!" Otto asked as he saw the cube passing Subaru. Garfiel gaped beside him after he saw the machine.
"You wouldn't know what that machine is, I suppose."
Everyone turned their eyes to the small blonde twin-tails sitting beside the unconscious youth's side, a hand on her chin as she looked to be thoughtful of everything around the boy and the machine that had just passed him.
"So you were actually telling the truth, huh. I never doubted my contractor's stories but I never thought that… I'd ever see them, I suppose." The small elegant girl muttered while staring at the screen with great deal of interest and analytic focus to learn everything she could from Subaru's home.
"Telling the truth? Beatrice-sama," Otto suddenly turned to the little girl spirit with a look of understanding as everyone around him followed his lead. "Have you… heard of this unusual place before?" The merchant boy asked with his eyes shining with interest.
"Why would the little lady know anything relating to Natsuki-kun's residence?" Unable to hold her humor at how lost all of them were upon realizing Subaru's origin, Anastasia decided that this little girl should be a source of some nifty pieces of knowledge about the boy. According to Joshua's report at least, from when he invited the Emilia camp to visit.
The merchant wasn't going to waste a chance to squeeze the great spirit for information. Especially, when it comes to this kid.
"You'd do better to understand your place when talking to a spirit much older than you, girl."
Anastasia's eyes narrowed as her potent smile thinned once the blonde girl spat her response from the front row without even looking back at the people behind her. As if none of them were worthy of talking to her.
But Anastasia wasn't about to quit now, especially when this arrogant little twat took the road of insults.
Before she could press on more, a firm hand was placed on her gloved one…