(A/N: The fic hasn't returned, but rather this is another fic.
Plot: After being insulted and humiliated by the royal camps when he asked for help against the White Whale and the Witch Cult, Subaru's mind finally snapped. In a moment of rage, despair, and madness, he did the unthinkable—he summoned her. The Witch of Envy herself, Satella. What should have been his end turned into something far stranger. For some unknown reason, she listened to him—obeyed his voice, responded to his will. Whether it was love, obsession, or something even darker, Subaru soon realized that he could command her... at least to some extent. And that was how Natsuki Subaru's path diverged—from a broken, desperate butler to the man who held sway over the most powerful being in existence.)
...
{3rd Pov}
Natsuki Subaru was, once again, having what could only be described as another absolutely terrible day — not that it was anything new for him at this point.
Ever since he got kidnapped (or summoned, depending on how you look at it) to another world by some mysterious gal, his life had been nothing short of a rollercoaster straight into misery.
First thing that happened?
He ran into a certain Half-Elf girl — dumb, silly, clumsy, and way too cute for his sanity.
She had that soft, almost ethereal kind of beauty that screamed "protagonist love interest," which was probably why Subaru's brain short-circuited the moment she appeared.
After she saved his sorry butt from getting beaten into the pavement by three lowlife thugs — you know, the kind of generic alley NPCs that pop up in every suspicious medieval city corner — Subaru decided right then and there that his new purpose in life was to simp for Emilia-tan.
And oh boy, simp he did.
So when things went sideways, people started dying, and he discovered that he had somehow been gifted a shiny new Isekai power — "Return by Death" — he thought, hey, that's neat!
Except, of course, it came with absolutely zero mental insurance and a psychological price tag big enough to make a grown man break down into tears.
Each reset felt like taking a hammer to his sanity, but did that stop him?
Nope.
Our boy Subaru kept crawling back through pain, despair, and a whole lot of screaming just to save Emilia-tan from a certain stabby-stabby, sexy, gut-spilling assassin lady.
And let's be honest — that woman?
She was hot.
Like, dangerously hot.
The kind of hot that could kill you and you'd probably thank her while bleeding out.
So, after being gutted, sliced, and diced for what felt like the umpteenth time — all while barely managing to do anything truly heroic in Emilia's rescue — Subaru finally woke up in a place that was both luxurious and suspiciously unsettling: a mansion owned by the nation's most flamboyant clown-man, Roswaal L. Mathers.
Or as Subaru mentally dubbed him, the pedophile Pennywise of Lugunica.
There he meets the classic, centuries-old, 400-year-old granny spirit — the kind of legendary being whose beauty is said to topple nations and make kings lose wars just for a glance.
Of course, calling her a "granny" doesn't quite fit, considering she looks like a ten-year-old loli straight out of an anime.
But hey, who's judging?
This is another world — age is just a number, apparently.
Subaru's confusion is valid though; nobody's ready to process a magical child-looking spirit who's technically older than entire bloodlines.
Along with the ancient not-so-granny, Subaru also encounters two Oni maid sisters — the ultimate dream for every overworked, underloved Otaku on Earth.
They're cute, devoted, and wear maid uniforms that probably cost more than Subaru's entire wardrobe.
But these two aren't your average anime maid tropes; they come pre-installed with an "Anti-Gooning" security system.
One of them can verbally slice your ego into pieces sharper than a katana, and the other?
She'll straight-up kill you with a smile if she feels like it.
Talk about quality service with a death warranty.
After several rounds of dying — again — usually in the most painful and humiliating ways possible, Subaru somehow manages to do something heroic for once.
He ends up saving a group of children from terrifying fantasy monsters that looked like someone threw a blender at a zoo.
It's messy, it's chaotic, but he pulls through.
And after all that, he even pulls off the classic "hero saves the beauty" scenario and earns himself the love of one of the Oni maids — Rem, the blue-haired killing machine turned sweetheart.
Though between you and me, he's still kinda terrified of her deep down.
You don't just forget the woman who once bashed your skull in with a morning-star.
Ahem.
Anyway, a month rolls by.
Life at the mansion settles into something that looks like peace — which, for Subaru, basically means the calm before the next catastrophe.
Then comes the snow festival, a cute little time-skip moment that lulls everyone into thinking things are fine.
Spoiler alert: they're not.
Because right after that, some strange, shady, and overly fancy people show up at the mansion wanting to meet Emilia.
Long story short, the country of Lugunica is about to pick its next ruler, and the whole circus is called the Royal Selection.
Guess who's dragged into the mess?
Yup, our boy Subaru, who tags along to the capital under the pretense of healing his messed-up magical gate — because apparently even your mana needs therapy in this world.
And just when he thinks he's about to have a chill trip, Emilia — his beloved waifu, the girl he literally died multiple times for — basically ditches him.
Or, in fancier terms, she "travels ahead" with a knight in shining armor, a dude who not only looks like he walked out of a fairy tale but also acts like the living embodiment of gentlemanly perfection.
So there Subaru is — stranded, confused, heartbroken, and third-wheeling from miles away — once again wondering what cosmic sin he committed to deserve this treatment.
There he finds another Royal Candidate — and let's be honest, this one's IQ has got to be in the negatives.
Actually, scratch that, it feels like every single one of the Royal Candidates has their brain running on potato mode.
Is having a negative IQ some kind of hidden qualification to be chosen by the Divine Dragon or something?
Like, "Step one: be insanely attractive. Step two: have the mental processing power of a rock."
Because if that's the case, Volcanica, the so-called Divine Dragon, clearly has a type.
Good taste, no doubt — and by "good taste," I mean those assets.
Seriously.
Damn.
Volcanica really said, "Brains optional, beauty mandatory."
Ahem.
Anyway, our boy Subaru — being the walking definition of a disaster magnet — decides to sneak into the Royal Selection ceremony.
Why?
Because, of course, he wants to be near his waifu, Emilia, and support her through the whole political circus.
Never mind that he's just some random isekai'd dude with zero nobility, no credentials, and about as much social awareness as a brick — love makes you do stupid things, and Subaru has been doing them non-stop since episode one.
But that moment?
That was where everything went downhill.
Because right there, right in that shiny, elegant hall full of royalty, knights, and nobles, his entire life did a backflip into humiliation.
From being the local village hero — the guy who saved kids and earned people's respect — he got downgraded to the nation's biggest clown.
In one afternoon, he became the walking embodiment of second-hand embarrassment.
The people mocked him, sneered at him, and whispered his name like it was the punchline of a bad joke.
Natsuki Subaru, the man who thought he could stand beside his beloved Emilia-tan, instead stood at the center of everyone's ridicule.
And just when he thought the humiliation was bad enough, the universe decided to remind him that his life runs on suffering DLC.
Because the moment he tried to recover from his social death, the real nightmare began — the endgame bosses decided to spawn early.
And not like, "Oh, surprise mid-game twist!"
No, more like "congratulations, you've unlocked despair speedrun mode."
Now Subaru's trapped in yet another of his signature death loops, where every decision is a lose-lose situation.
Either he abandons everyone to save himself — which, let's be honest, isn't happening — or he dies again and again trying to protect the people he cares about.
Because he's Natsuki Subaru, the number-one Emilia simp in the multiverse.
And quitting?
Yeah, that's not in his save file.
So, in true Subaru fashion, he decided to toss away whatever remaining dignity he had left — which, spoiler alert, was already hanging by a single, frayed thread.
Actually, scratch that — he had no dignity left.
It had been stomped on, set on fire, and scattered across multiple timelines by this point. Still, that didn't stop him from doing the only thing he could: begging for help.
And by help, I mean crawling on his metaphorical knees to the other Royal Candidate camps, hoping that someone — anyone — would be willing to save a bunch of innocent villagers from certain doom.
But, of course, this is politics.
And in the world of nobles and crowns, saving lives ranks way below earning political brownie points.
Every single one of those so-called "leaders" looked at Subaru like he was asking them to clean a sewer with their bare hands.
Benefits mattered more than morality, and compassion was apparently an optional add-on they all forgot to purchase.
So, one by one, they turned him down.
First candidate? Rejected.
Second? Laughed him off.
Third? Didn't even pretend to care.
Three strikes in a row, and Subaru's spirit was already halfway to the grave — again.
Now what?
What's next for our repeatedly traumatized, mentally collapsing, but still weirdly persistent protagonist?
How does someone keep moving forward after being rejected, humiliated, and emotionally bulldozed on repeat?
Well, that's exactly what we're about to find out.
Welcome, dear readers, to an alternate line of fate — a twisted reflection of the same world you know, but with new choices, new consequences, and a whole lot of suffering with a slightly different flavor.
I call this one "Re:Zero – Pride If Alternative." Because maybe, just maybe, this version of Subaru will finally live up to that title.
Maybe this time, he'll walk the path of pride instead of despair.
So sit back, grab your popcorn, and let's dive headfirst into this chaotic mess of emotions, death loops, and questionable decisions.
Let's discover it together — with me, your one and only Supreme Narrator, guiding you through every stupid, glorious, and tragic step of Natsuki Subaru's next downfall adventure.
...
Subaru stood frozen in place, his body refusing to move even after Al (or Aldebaran, as he had introduced himself) turned away, tossing a half-hearted warning over his shoulder — something about not annoying Lady Priscilla if Subaru ever had the misfortune of crossing paths with her again.
The man's figure disappeared into the mansion, leaving behind nothing but that cold, condescending tone echoing in Subaru's mind.
Rem, who had been quietly observing the entire exchange, stepped closer, concern flickering in her gentle eyes. She reached out, her soft hand resting lightly on his shoulder.
"Subaru?" she called out, her voice calm but laced with worry, as if afraid he might break apart the moment she spoke too loud.
But Subaru didn't answer.
He didn't even flinch.
He was just… standing there.
Silent.
Still.
Staring at nothing.
Something felt off — deeply, disturbingly off inside him.
There was this strange sensation clawing up from his chest, something unfamiliar yet terribly familiar at the same time.
His breathing grew uneven, his fingers curled into trembling fists, and his heart thudded hard against his ribs like it wanted out.
This feeling… when was the last time he had felt something like this?
He couldn't remember.
It had been buried so long under all the fear, the despair, the helplessness — yet now it came roaring back to life.
It was anger.
Real, raw, burning anger.
He remembered bowing down, lowering his head, begging those royal camps for help.
He had thrown away his pride, his dignity, his self-worth — all of it — just to protect a handful of innocent villagers who had done nothing wrong.
And what did he get in return?
Rejection.
Mockery.
Cold glares from people who thought saving lives wasn't worth the effort.
And now, standing there with Rem's hand on his shoulder, it all came crashing down at once.
The humiliation.
The exhaustion.
The bitter sting of betrayal.
He felt angry — no, furious.
A wildfire blazing through every vein in his body.
And then that memory echoed again in his head, sharper this time.
"You are nothing but a disgusting pig."
That voice.
That insult.
It cut deeper than any blade ever had.
It wasn't just words — it was a verdict.
A label.
A reminder of how little he mattered in the eyes of this world.
And though he wanted to ignore it, to laugh it off, to pretend he didn't care — he couldn't. Because, deep down, it hit harder than he ever wanted to admit.
When did it happen?
When exactly did he lose it — that feeling of self-worth, that fragile thing called pride?
Subaru couldn't pinpoint the moment.
Was it when he first knelt before those nobles, begging like a desperate fool?
Or maybe it was much earlier — when he started believing that throwing away his dignity was the only way to protect others.
Whatever the case, it was gone now.
Pride, self-respect, confidence — all of it stripped away piece by piece until nothing was left but the hollow shell of someone who once thought he could make a difference.
Now, here he was again — rejected, ignored, and standing in the middle of a world that refused to care.
Once more, he found himself completely alone.
Not just physically, but in every sense of the word.
Surrounded by people who could help but chose not to.
A situation that felt all too familiar.
"Rem…" he finally muttered, his voice low, rough, and tired. "Can I be alone for a moment?"
Rem's eyes softened, though worry lingered there like a quiet shadow.
She hesitated for a long second — the kind of pause that spoke volumes — but in the end, she nodded.
"...All right," she said quietly.
And without another word, she watched as Subaru turned away and began to walk.
He didn't look back.
Subaru just walked.
One step.
Then another.
And another.
He didn't know where he was going — didn't even care, honestly.
His legs moved on their own, driven by a numbness that had settled deep inside him.
The once-bustling streets of the royal capital faded into the background as he wandered aimlessly, his thoughts a tangled mess of frustration, shame, and exhaustion.
Morning bled into noon, and noon slipped into evening.
The golden light of the sun dimmed, shadows grew longer, and the city's noise faded away until the only sound that remained was the crunch of gravel beneath his shoes.
By the time he finally stopped walking, Subaru blinked and realized the world around him had changed.
The cobblestone streets and grand buildings of the capital were long gone.
In their place stood towering trees and rustling leaves, the cool forest air brushing against his face.
He looked around, his expression blank.
He hadn't even noticed when it happened — when his wandering had taken him beyond the capital's walls.
Somehow, without realizing it, he had ended up on its outer perimeter.
Subaru stared at the nearest tree, his mind blank, his breathing ragged.
Then, without a single thought, he drew his fist back and drove it into the trunk with everything he had.
The dull thud of impact echoed through the quiet forest, followed by a sharp sting running up his arm.
"Damn it!" he shouted, voice cracking as the frustration he'd been holding in finally tore free.
Tears welled up in his eyes, spilling down his face uncontrollably — not because of the pain in his hand, though his knuckles were already split open and bleeding, but because of the weight crushing his chest.
It wasn't the physical pain that broke him.
It was everything else.
No matter what he did, no matter how hard he tried, it never worked.
Every time he reached out to help, to protect someone, to make a difference — he failed.
Every single time.
He failed, and then he lost.
He was always the one left behind.
Always the one abandoned.
Always the one standing alone when everything fell apart.
His fists kept moving, striking the tree again and again.
Each impact sent a jolt of pain up his arms, but he didn't stop.
He couldn't.
The bark tore at his skin, blood smeared across the rough surface, but Subaru only hit harder.
The sound of his ragged breathing filled the silence between every strike.
"Why?!" he screamed, his voice breaking completely as anger and despair twisted into something ugly and raw.
"Why does it always turn out like this?!"
The fury built until it had nowhere left to go, and in a moment of blind rage, he slammed his head against the tree with a sickening thump.
The impact made his vision flash white for a second, and he stumbled backward, dazed and dizzy.
"Arghhhhh!" he roared, more a cry of exhaustion than fury now, before losing his balance entirely and collapsing onto the dirt.
He lay there, panting, chest heaving, his entire body trembling.
His hands were bleeding freely, his forehead throbbing where it had struck the wood, but none of that mattered.
The pain was distant — background noise compared to what was churning inside him.
As he stared up, his blurry eyes caught sight of the orange-streaked sky peeking through the forest canopy.
The sun was sinking, the light fading, painting everything in a dull, dying glow. He could feel warm blood trickling down the side of his face, seeping from the cut on his forehead.
For a long, silent moment, Subaru just lay there on the cold ground, staring at that orange sky — and for the first time in a while, he didn't know what to do next.
"Why? Why? Why?!" Subaru's voice cracked as the words tore from his throat, raw and shaking.
The question wasn't aimed at anyone in particular — it was directed at everything.
At himself, at his situation, at this damned world that refused to give him even the smallest mercy.
His body trembled, his bleeding hands clenched into fists against the dirt.
"Why?!" he shouted again, louder this time, his voice echoing faintly through the quiet forest.
"Why, for you people, are your pride and your benefits worth more than innocent lives?!" His voice was hoarse, almost breaking apart from the sheer force behind his words.
"Why do you all care more about your stupid image, your politics, your useless titles, than the people who are suffering right in front of you?!"
His breathing grew heavy, every inhale sharp and uneven.
"Why… even when I gave my everything… even when I threw away everything I had left — my dignity, my pride, my sanity — why did you all still deny me?"
He bit his lip hard enough to taste blood, his voice lowering into a rough, shaky whisper.
"It was fine… if I didn't get Emilia's love. I didn't need that. It was fine if I had to live like a slave, if I had to crawl in the dirt and pay off every single debt I might owe any of you. I could've accepted all of that…" His voice faltered, his body shaking as tears began to pour freely down his cheeks.
"As long as Emilia… and everyone else could survive. That's all I wanted. That's all I ever wanted."
The tears kept falling, tracing down his dirt-streaked face.
He could barely see now, the world blurring through a haze of exhaustion and hopelessness.
"What do I even do now?" he whispered, his voice cracking.
"What's left for me? I have nothing left but… Rem."
He let out a bitter laugh — broken, hollow, filled with despair.
"But even with her… what can I do? Run away again? Be a coward again? Sacrifice what little pride I already lost just to keep breathing in this miserable world?"
He gritted his teeth, the frustration building until it felt like it might tear him apart from the inside.
"What's even left for me to do here anymore?!" he screamed, pounding his fist into the ground until more blood stained the dirt.
"What's the point of all this suffering if no matter what I do, it always ends the same way?!"
He collapsed forward, shoulders shaking violently as he cried harder.
His words were barely audible now, just fragments between sobs.
"I just… I just wanted to help… I just wanted them to live…"
The thought hit him — dark, cold, and suffocating.
'If dying could end it, if death could free me from this nightmare… maybe that would be better.'
But even that, even death itself, was something he had been denied.
He clenched his teeth as a chill ran down his spine, his eyes wide and filled with despair.
Because he knew.
He knew that no matter how many times he died, he would always come back.
He would always wake up in that same cursed loop, forced to relive the pain, the fear, the loss — over and over again.
All thanks to that twisted, cursed power — Return by Death.
It was supposed to be a miracle.
A gift.
A second chance.
But to Subaru, right now, it felt like the cruelest punishment imaginable.
Subaru hissed sharply through his teeth, pushing himself off the ground despite the searing pain shooting through his palms and the throbbing ache pounding in his forehead.
His legs trembled, his balance wavered, but he stood anyway — half from stubbornness, half from desperation.
Blood still dripped from his knuckles, his breaths came out ragged and uneven, yet none of that mattered anymore.
He looked up toward the fading sky, the orange glow dimming into night, and screamed at the top of his lungs, voice breaking with fury and despair.
"I can Return by—!"
And then everything stopped.
The world around him froze in an instant.
The sound of wind, the rustle of trees, the distant cry of birds — gone.
The air thickened, heavy and suffocating, as if time itself had been strangled.
Subaru's body went cold, a chill running down his spine as the familiar, horrifying sensation washed over him.
He knew this feeling.
He hated this feeling.
It was her.
The presence.
The one that always appeared when he even thought about speaking those cursed words.
The one responsible for his suffering, his torment, his endless loops of death and despair.
The one who had dragged him into this nightmare of a world and tied his fate to this cruel, merciless power.
The Witch of Envy.
Subaru's body went rigid as something unseen slithered deep inside his chest — something cold, dark, and alive.
It coiled around his heart like a living shadow, squeezing, caressing, claiming it as if it belonged to her.
The sensation burned and froze all at once, filling him with a suffocating mix of agony and terror.
He gasped, clutching at his chest, his entire body trembling violently.
Then, from the edge of his vision, something black began to form — a hand, made entirely of writhing shadow, stretching toward him with eerie slowness.
It slid across the air like liquid darkness before pressing itself firmly against his lips.
It was gentle.
Too gentle.
Almost affectionate — and that made it even more horrifying.
The touch was cold, yet it burned like fire.
His breathing hitched as the shadow hand tightened slightly, silencing him, forbidding him to speak the words he'd almost dared to utter.
Subaru's eyes went wide, bloodshot and wild.
His veins bulged against his skin, his muscles spasmed as that unbearable pain spread through his body.
His mind screamed at him to stop, to give up, but another voice — his own — screamed louder inside his skull.
Move.
He couldn't breathe.
The air refused to enter his lungs, the pressure in his chest unbearable, but still he fought.
Move! Move! Move!
He shouted it in his mind again and again, his teeth gritted so hard it hurt.
Every nerve in his body felt like it was being ripped apart, but he didn't care.
He forced his body to resist — to move even when time itself had stopped.
His veins pulsed, his muscles twitched violently, his face twisted in agony as the darkness tried to hold him still.
But he kept fighting.
Because even though he was powerless, even though everything inside him screamed that resistance was useless — he couldn't stop.
Not now.
Not when that cursed witch was watching.
Then, against every possible law of logic, nature, and sanity, he moved.
Subaru's body convulsed, his lips trembling before forcing out a single broken, strangled cry that tore through the frozen silence—
"Deeeaaaathhhhh!"
The sound ripped out of him like a dying scream, echoing unnaturally through the still air.
And then—time resumed.
The world jerked back into motion all at once.
The suffocating stillness shattered, replaced by the violent rush of reality slamming back into place.
Subaru dropped to his knees, gasping for breath, clutching at his throat as if he had just escaped drowning.
His chest heaved, each breath a desperate wheeze.
Then everything changed.
The sky darkened without warning, the faint orange glow of evening swallowed by an overwhelming, creeping blackness.
Clouds twisted unnaturally, spreading across the heavens like ink poured into water.
From the earth itself, a thick, purple fog began to seep outward, curling through the trees and blanketing the forest floor in a suffocating haze.
The air turned heavy.
Every sound was drowned out by an eerie, unnatural silence that made Subaru's heart race faster with dread.
He could feel it — the shift, the presence.
That dreadful, all-too-familiar aura pressing down on him, crawling under his skin, into his soul.
His instincts screamed at him, every fiber of his being whispering that he wasn't alone anymore.
And then he heard it.
"I love you."
The words came from nowhere and everywhere at once — soft, almost tender, but dripping with a madness that chilled his blood.
The voice was feminine, beautiful, and utterly wrong, carrying a weight of emotion so twisted it felt like it could crush him.
"I love you," the voice repeated, each syllable trembling with desperate obsession.
It wasn't just affection — it was possession.
The meaning behind those words was pure madness, a declaration that devoured everything else.
It was all she had.
The entire reason she existed.
The only thing she could say, the only truth left within her — to love him.
To love Natsuki Subaru.
"I love you."
Each repetition echoed louder, heavier, until the forest itself seemed to breathe her words.
Her love wasn't beautiful.
It wasn't gentle.
It was hunger — endless, consuming hunger.
The kind of love that tore apart everything it touched just to keep what it desired.
Subaru's body shook.
His heart pounded so violently it hurt.
Because he could feel her — not just her voice, but her intent, her need.
It poured into him like venom, filling his mind with images that weren't his own.
She wanted him.
Not just to see him.
Not just to be near him.
She wanted all of him — his mind, his body, his soul.
She wanted to be held by him, kissed by him, devoured by him, to the point where the line between them no longer existed.
She wanted to become one with him, to merge completely, eternally, until nothing remained except them.
It was the only way for her to satisfy that endless craving inside her — the thirst that could never be quenched, the hunger that no power or eternity could fill.
Her love was her curse.
Her envy, her madness, her existence — all of it revolved around him.
And as the purple mist thickened and the voice whispered again, Subaru realized just how truly cursed he was.
"I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you…"
The voice echoed over and over again, broken and unending, like a damaged record stuck on the same three words. Each repetition carried the same weight, the same suffocating intensity — as if those three words were the only ones she remembered, the only thing she was capable of saying anymore.
Subaru's body stiffened. His breathing hitched. Slowly, with his heart hammering in his chest, he turned his head toward the source of that haunting voice — and then froze completely.
She was there.
The air around her was thick with purple fog, swirling and twisting like a living thing that refused to disperse.
It cloaked her form in an eerie haze, yet not enough to hide her entirely.
Even through the shifting mist, he could make out her silhouette — the curve of her body, the faint outline of her dress, and the unnatural stillness in her movements.
She was wearing a long, black dress, the kind that clung tightly to her body, emphasizing every curve in a way that felt almost unreal.
The fabric itself seemed alive, moving faintly with the mist as if breathing in sync with her.
A thin, transparent veil covered her face, fluttering slightly in the air.
But even through it, he could see her eyes — two glowing orbs of deep amethyst, radiating an otherworldly brilliance.
They shone brighter than the fog, brighter than anything around them, piercing straight through the darkness like two beacons of madness.
Those eyes didn't just look at him — they devoured him, burning with an emotion far too twisted to be called love.
Her skin was pale, almost with a faint purple tint that reflected the fog surrounding her.
Her silver hair, long and shimmering faintly, cascaded down her shoulders, framing her face in strands that looked almost ethereal.
Her pointed ears — unmistakably elven — peeked through the hair, twitching slightly as she whispered those cursed words again.
Then she moved.
Without warning, she leaned forward and closed the distance between them.
The mist swirled violently around her as she lowered herself onto him, her knees pressing against the ground on either side of his waist.
She was now sitting right above his crotch, her figure towering over him while her glowing eyes stayed locked on his face from the moment she appeared.
Subaru couldn't move.
His breath hitched again as she tilted her head slightly, studying him with the same fascination one might have for a fragile toy about to break.
Her hands moved — slow, deliberate, trembling with obsession.
Pale fingers reached toward him, brushing against his chest.
The touch was almost gentle, yet it sent a jolt down his spine.
Her palm lingered there, caressing his chest as if she was memorizing the shape of his body, the warmth of his heartbeat, the proof that he was alive.
Then she leaned closer — so close that he could feel her breath ghosting across his skin, hot and uneven.
Her lips moved as she kept repeating those same words again and again, in the same cracked tone that no longer sounded human.
"I love you… I love you… I love you…"
The fog behind her thickened, and something darker began to stir within it.
Black shadows extended outward from her back — long, shapeless, writhing forms that slithered through the air like living tentacles.
They spread out, crawling over the ground before coiling around Subaru's limbs, waist, and neck.
He could feel them — cold, smooth, almost gentle, yet terrifyingly invasive.
The shadowy hands began caressing every exposed part of his body, tracing along his skin with the same kind of perverse affection she showed with her touch.
She moved even closer still, until her face was only inches away from his.
Her eyes filled his entire vision, those glowing amethysts staring directly into his soul.
And then, in that moment, as her lips parted slightly and her veil fluttered away, Subaru finally saw it.
Her face—when Subaru finally saw it clearly—made his entire body freeze.
It was her face.
It was Emilia's.
The same delicate features, the same silver hair, the same soft, angelic beauty that had once been his source of comfort, the light that pulled him out of despair again and again.
But this face… this version of her wasn't the Emilia he knew.
There was no purity in those eyes, no innocence, no warmth.
Her expression was warped — utterly consumed by madness.
Her smile twitched at the corners, her pupils trembled with obsession, and her gaze locked onto him with a fixation that made his stomach twist.
It wasn't love.
It wasn't affection.
It was something far darker — something primal, suffocating, possessive beyond reason.
The way she looked at him wasn't like she was seeing a person.
It was like she was staring at the most precious thing in all creation — her only treasure, her reason for existing.
Her lips, painted pitch black with a glossy, almost wet sheen, stopped moving for a moment.
The endless chant that had echoed nonstop — those cursed, repeated words I love you, I love you, I love you — fell silent.
And then she moved again.
Slowly.
Deliberately.
Her head tilted slightly, her glowing amethyst eyes still locked onto his.
Then, with a faint, sickening sound of her tongue sliding across her lips, she stuck it out — long, soft, and trembling with hunger — and dragged it across his cheek.
The sensation made every hair on his body stand on end.
It wasn't gentle.
It wasn't playful.
It was desperate.
Like a starving animal — no, like a dog deprived of affection for far too long — licking the one person it adored, craving attention, craving touch, craving acknowledgment.
Subaru sat there, stunned.
Completely paralyzed.
His mind blanked for a moment as he processed what just happened.
The Witch — the one whose presence alone warped reality — was now acting like a lovesick beast.
Her body pressed even closer.
He could feel it — the warmth of her against him, her soft, generous breasts pressing firmly against his chest through the thin fabric of his shirt.
Her every movement seemed to radiate need, obsession, and possessiveness.
She buried her face near his neck, nuzzling against his cheek affectionately while murmuring the same three words again and again.
"I love you… I love you… I love you…"
Each repetition sent a chill down his spine.
But it wasn't just her touch that terrified him.
Because beneath that display of twisted affection, pain surged through his body again — sharper, deeper, far more invasive.
Something cold slipped through his skin.
A shadowy hand — one of those inky, shifting appendages made of darkness — phased straight into his chest.
He gasped, eyes widening in disbelief and agony.
It wasn't cutting or tearing.
No, it was worse — it was touching.
It was feeling around inside him.
He could feel it.
The hand wasn't reaching for his ribs or lungs.
It was caressing his heart.
Every beat was met with that eerie, unnatural sensation — a cold, wet stroke that sent jolts of pain mixed with suffocating discomfort throughout his entire body.
It wasn't just painful.
It felt violating.
"Y-you gotta be kidding me…" he thought, his mind spinning, disbelief written all over his face as he struggled to process what was happening.
His breathing turned ragged.
His vision flickered between horror and confusion.
The Witch, meanwhile, continued her chant as if nothing was wrong — rubbing her face against his, moaning her love with each breath, while the shadows deepened around them both, tightening their hold on him.
It was madness.
Pure, inescapable madness.
Satella — the Witch of Envy — looked exactly like Emilia.
The same delicate facial structure, the same silky silver hair that shimmered faintly in the dim purple light, and the same amethyst eyes that could both melt and freeze your heart.
The resemblance wasn't just uncanny — it was identical.
If Emilia was the image of purity and innocence, Satella was that same image corrupted, older, more mature… and, infuriatingly enough, hotter.
Her presence alone radiated something both divine and sinful, like a goddess dipped in shadow.
Everything about her screamed danger — and yet, she looked so much like the girl Subaru loved that it made his blood boil with confusion.
'What the hell is this supposed to mean?' he thought bitterly, clenching his fists even as pain pulsed through his body.
Is Emilia actually Satella? Or is Satella Emilia?
Are they the same person, or two different beings sharing the same cursed face?
Was Emilia born from her? A clone? A daughter? A reincarnation?
The thoughts rushed through his mind like a storm — loud, violent, and endless.
Every possibility only made his chest hurt more.
Then came the sting — a deeper, sharper pain that wasn't physical this time.
It was the ache of betrayal.
He felt like he had been played with from the very beginning.
Like his entire journey, his struggles, his love — all of it had been nothing more than a cruel setup in some cosmic joke.
His eyes widened as memories came flooding back, one after another.
That first encounter.
That first moment when he was saved by "her."
He remembered it vividly — the mysterious silver-haired girl who helped him in that alley when he was beaten half to death.
But now, with Satella's image burned into his mind, a horrifying question twisted its way into his thoughts:
Was it ever really Emilia who saved me that day?
Could it have been Satella all along?
It sounded insane.
Ridiculous.
A conspiracy theory only a lunatic would entertain.
But when he pieced together every memory, every reaction, every strange inconsistency… it stopped feeling so impossible.
He remembered the way Emilia reacted the first time he called her "Satella."
Her eyes — wide with shock and fear — her trembling voice as she told him not to call her by that name.
And in later loops, when she outright declared that she would never use the name Satella, that even saying it went against everything she stood for…
Those words echoed in his mind now like a hammer slamming into his skull.
The more he thought about it, the more the idea made a twisted kind of sense.
If Satella and Emilia truly shared a face, if they were connected by something deeper — then what if his affection, his devotion, his so-called "love"… had been directed toward the wrong person all this time?
His throat tightened as that thought hit him like a blade.
Have I been in love with the wrong person all along?
His breath caught in his throat.
His pulse raced.
Every emotion he'd buried — love, anger, confusion, despair — surged all at once, overwhelming him completely.
Was Satella… the one who had truly saved him?
The one who brought him into this cursed world?
The one who gave him Return by Death — the power that had both saved and destroyed him countless times?
His hands trembled.
His vision blurred with rage and sorrow.
If Satella had always been the one behind it all, then what did that make his feelings for Emilia?
Genuine love?
Or just a delusion born from the face of the Witch who had chained his fate from the very beginning?
He didn't know anymore.
Then why?
Why make him go through all of this?
Why force him to crawl through hell over and over again if she could have stopped it so easily?
Why watch him die, scream, and break a thousand different ways when she supposedly loved him?
The thought clawed at his mind like a parasite, digging deeper with every second he listened to her soft, haunting voice echo through the purple fog.
"I love you…"
Those three words — the same three words she had been whispering nonstop since the moment she materialized — now felt like knives digging into his skull.
What once might've sounded like affection now felt twisted, mocking, wrong.
His breathing grew uneven as a dark, disturbing thought surfaced from the pit of his mind.
'Was all of this just to make me love her?'
That single idea made his stomach twist with disgust.
His heart throbbed painfully in his chest as rage mixed with sorrow, betrayal, and disbelief all at once.
If what she felt for him was "love," then it was the most deranged, warped, and cruel form of love imaginable.
He wanted to deny it — to throw away that thought as nonsense — but the more he recalled everything, the more it made sense in a horrifying way.
Every death, every loss, every loop… all of it could've been her doing.
All of it could've been her way of molding him.
To shape him into someone who would eventually break so badly that he'd have no one left but her.
'She loves me so much,' he thought bitterly, his lips twisting into a pained grimace, 'like some obsessive maniac — like a goddamn yandere — that she'd let me suffer through endless deaths just so I'd finally say I love her back?'
The thought disgusted him, but it also terrified him.
Because somewhere deep down, in the part of him that still feared her — that still felt her presence even when she wasn't around — he knew she was capable of it.
His mind spiraled further, dragging him deeper into the pit of doubt and paranoia.
'What if that's been her goal from the start?' he thought, his chest tightening with grief and fury.
'What if every single loop, every single time I broke apart, every tear, every scream, every death… was just her way of guiding me into her arms?'
The image played vividly in his mind — him, stripped of pride, sanity, and humanity, reduced to nothing but a hollow shell of a man who lived and died for her alone.
A puppet.
A broken toy.
Someone who didn't even care if he died again and again, as long as it made her smile.
That thought — that horrifying possibility — burned through his veins like poison.
His entire body trembled, his jaw clenched so tightly it hurt, and his fists curled until his nails dug deep into his palms.
He didn't even notice the warm blood dripping between his fingers, or the sting of torn skin.
All he could feel was rage.
Rage at her.
Rage at himself.
Rage at the cruel, twisted joke this entire world had become.
His shoulders shook, his breath ragged, eyes wide with raw emotion as that single question refused to leave his head:
'Did she make me suffer… just so I'd love her?'
The more he thought about it, the more it hurt — because deep inside, he feared the answer was yes.
All this time… all the pain, all the deaths, all the tears — it suddenly felt like everything had been a setup.
Every single emotion he had poured out, every desperate attempt to protect Emilia, every ounce of resolve that had kept him crawling through hell — all of it might have been nothing more than a puppet show.
He had been dancing to her tune.
The thought struck him like lightning.
His entire existence since coming to this world — every decision, every sacrifice — had been because of her.
Because of Satella.
Because of that damned Witch who had twisted his life into this endless nightmare.
He had been dying for her.
Over and over again.
And what was worse — he had been doing it willingly.
He had thrown himself into despair, smiling through the pain, bleeding out for Emilia, because that smile — her smile — was what kept him alive.
But now, in this twisted realization, it hit him like a cruel punchline.
He hadn't been fighting for his will.
He had been fighting for hers.
The man he used to be — the normal, stupid, awkward Natsuki Subaru who once stood in convenience store light and thought the world was boring — that man was long gone.
He had died somewhere between one of those countless loops.
What stood here now wasn't the same person anymore. Something inside him — something fragile that he never noticed before — finally snapped.
It wasn't loud.
It wasn't dramatic.
It was just a click.
A silent, irreversible click inside his mind that changed everything.
And that was the moment Natsuki Subaru broke — and was reborn into something else.
Satella leaned forward, her movements slow and deliberate, her purple eyes glowing with a hunger that made the air itself shiver.
Her face inched closer to his — her lips parting slightly, trembling with desperate longing.
She wanted him.
Entirely.
Utterly.
She didn't just want to touch him — she wanted to consume him, to merge, to become one with him.
Her breath ghosted over his skin, hot and cold at once, her voice trembling with emotion as she whispered his name between her broken repetition of "I love you."
And she would have gotten what she wanted — the kiss, the union, the twisted, sick fantasy — if Subaru hadn't moved.
Because the moment her face hovered above his, waiting for that kiss, she didn't get tenderness.
She got a fist.
A sharp, furious punch straight to the face.
The impact echoed through the quiet forest, breaking the oppressive silence like a thunderclap.
Satella's body jerked back, her veil fluttering as she stumbled, rolling across the dirt. She didn't scream.
She didn't fight back.
She simply let herself fall, more out of choice than pain — because even then, she refused to hurt him by resisting.
She could've stopped it easily.
She could've shattered his body with a thought.
But she didn't.
Because that's how much she loved him — enough to take the hit from the one person she adored.
Subaru didn't stop there.
Ignoring the throbbing pain in his chest, ignoring the tremor in his arms, ignoring every ounce of love and pity he still held for the half-elf who shared her face — he pushed himself up, teeth gritted in pure fury.
And before Satella could rise, he lunged forward, tackling her to the ground.
In an instant, their positions reversed — Subaru now on top, panting, his knuckles bleeding, his eyes blazing with rage and despair.
The once helpless victim now pinned down the being who had played god with his life.
But even now, even with his hand raised, even with his glare burning holes into her, Satella didn't resist.
Her body trembled beneath him, yet her voice — calm, broken, and endlessly devoted — didn't stop.
"I love you… I love you… I love you…"
The words spilled out of her lips like a broken record, a haunting mantra that refused to die — no matter how much he wanted it to stop.
And hearing it, Subaru's fury only burned brighter.
But Subaru didn't care anymore.
He didn't care about reason, about consequences, about who or what she really was.
The floodgate had burst open, and all the rage, pain, and helplessness that had been festering inside him for so long finally exploded.
He roared, his voice breaking into a raw, guttural scream, and brought his fist down on her face.
Then again.
And again.
And again.
Each strike came heavier than the last — wild, desperate, overflowing with years of agony that had nowhere else to go.
His fists slammed into her with every ounce of strength his body had left, each blow carrying the weight of his despair.
Blood splattered across her cheek, her lips, her pale skin — but it wasn't hers.
It was his.
No matter how hard he hit her, her skin didn't bruise, didn't break.
Not even a single scratch appeared on her flawless face.
Her cheek still felt impossibly soft beneath his knuckles, warm like human skin, but unyielding — like punching through air that refused to acknowledge pain.
Meanwhile, Subaru's own hands were being destroyed.
His knuckles split open, blood gushed between his fingers, and small shards of bone dug into his skin.
Every punch made his hand tremble, the pain spreading up his arm like fire, but he didn't stop.
He couldn't stop.
"Why?!" he shouted, his voice echoing across the dead forest.
His words came out ragged, broken between sobs and fury.
"Why did you bring me to this world?!"
His next punch landed squarely on her jaw — useless, but satisfying.
"Why the hell did you make me fall in love with you?!"
His voice cracked as he shouted those words, the confusion and heartbreak bleeding into his tone.
His eyes darted between her face — her face, Emilia's face — and the Witch's calm, adoring expression.
The same silver hair.
The same eyes.
The same gentle features that once gave him hope.
He hated it.
He hated how beautiful she looked.
He hated how much she resembled the one person he wanted to protect.
He hated that he couldn't tell where one ended and the other began.
"Why did I have to die over and over again?!" he screamed, his throat raw, his whole body shaking from rage and exhaustion.
"Why did you make me suffer like this?!"
He slammed his fists against her again, blood flying everywhere — painting the ground, the grass, and her skin with streaks of crimson.
And then, finally, he stopped.
His arms dropped limp to his sides.
His breath came out in ragged gasps, his vision blurry from tears and blood loss.
His hands were a mess of torn flesh and shattered knuckles, trembling as they hovered over her face.
Satella just lay there, staring up at him.
Her eyes — those same cursed, amethyst eyes — still gleamed with obsession.
She didn't defend herself, didn't move, didn't even blink.
Her expression hadn't changed — still soft, still affectionate, still completely mad.
But Subaru's expression had changed.
Gone was the desperation, the panic, the pleading look of the boy who once wanted to save everyone.
Now there was only emptiness.
His eyes were hollow — void of warmth, void of compassion, void of anything remotely human. What replaced it was something cold, hateful, and deeply unsettling.
His glare — sharp, cold, and venomous — could have frozen fire itself.
It was the kind of look that could make even Ram, the queen of sarcasm herself, shut her mouth and step back.
Subaru's entire body trembled, but his voice, when he spoke again, was frighteningly calm.
There was no sadness left.
No fear.
No hope.
Only disgust.
Only hatred.
And every bit of it was directed toward the woman lying beneath him — the Witch of Envy, the one who looked exactly like the girl he once loved.
"I hate you."
Those three words left Subaru's mouth like bullets — sharp, cold, and venomous enough to freeze even time itself.
For the first time, Satella — the Witch of Envy — actually stopped moving.
Her body stiffened, her smile froze, and her glowing eyes widened ever so slightly, as if those words had physically pierced her chest.
"I hate you," Subaru repeated, his voice trembling, not from fear, but from the sheer force of emotion burning inside him.
Then again — louder this time.
"I hate you! I hate you! I hate you! I hate you!"
The words spilled out of him like an eruption — wild, uncontrolled, unstoppable. It was his turn now.
Her endless "I love you"s that had once filled the air like a broken lullaby were now drowned out by something colder, harsher, crueler.
Every "I love you" she whispered was crushed by his "I hate you."
Every tender word she offered was torn apart by his rage.
Every ounce of affection she poured out was burned away by his hatred.
He said it again and again, his tone getting darker each time, his voice cracking with every repetition.
It wasn't just anger anymore — it was exhaustion, betrayal, despair, and disgust all fused into one.
"I hate you," he spat through gritted teeth, eyes bloodshot and wild.
"I hate you for bringing me here! I hate you for making me suffer! I hate you for ruining my life! I hate you for looking like her! I hate you for pretending to love me!"
He didn't care if she heard the words or not.
He didn't care if it hurt her.
He wanted it to hurt.
He wanted her to feel even a fraction of what he had endured because of her.
For the first time since her manifestation, the Witch of Envy looked shaken.
Her lips parted as if to speak, to repeat her eternal phrase of devotion — "I love you" — but the words didn't come out.
They died on her tongue, trembling there as if something inside her had shattered.
Her expression twitched — eyes flickering with a pain she didn't seem to understand.
Then, slowly, her lips moved again.
"I… love yo—"
The phrase broke midway, like a record skipping.
Her mouth quivered, her voice faltered, and for a brief moment, her tone shifted — no longer smooth and obsessive, but desperate, pleading, begging.
And then she said something she had never said before.
"Love me."
The words came out broken, almost childlike.
Then again, louder.
"Love me. Love me. Love me. Love me. Love me. Love me. LOVE ME!"
Her voice rose, echoing through the forest, filled with pain — raw, trembling pain.
For the first time, the Witch of Envy sounded… hurt.
Not in body, but in soul.
The tone of her chant changed — it was no longer the obsessive repetition of a monster declaring ownership. It was the desperate cry of something that couldn't understand rejection.
But Subaru didn't care.
He didn't flinch.
He didn't soften.
He just kept going.
"I hate you."
"I hate you."
"I hate you."
Each repetition sounded colder, emptier, darker — until it didn't even sound human anymore.
And then, slowly, the bitterness began to twist into something else entirely.
Subaru started to laugh.
It was quiet at first — a low, shaky sound that escaped his throat like a dying breath.
But it grew louder, unhinged, mocking.
His shoulders trembled as his laughter filled the silence, mixing with the Witch's broken cries of "Love me!"
He laughed until his voice cracked, until his breath caught in his throat, until it was impossible to tell if he was laughing or crying.
The Witch begged for love.
The boy answered with hate.
And in that moment, both of them looked completely, utterly insane.
"Love you? Love you, bitch?" Subaru asked, his tone dripping with mockery, his voice trembling with a mix of rage and bitter amusement.
"Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes!" Satella repeated, each word desperate, frantic, her voice trembling like a malfunctioning echo stuck on one emotion — obsession.
She was begging.
The Witch of Envy, the most feared being in the world, was actually begging.
Subaru stared at her, and then, a twisted chuckle escaped his lips.
It wasn't the laugh of someone sane.
It was broken, bitter, filled with venom and exhaustion.
"Then that's sad for you," he said, his tone sharp and cruel, every word stabbing deeper.
"Because I will never love you."
Satella froze.
Her hands twitched.
Her breath hitched, and then, for the first time, actual tears rolled down her pale purple cheeks, sliding down from beneath her veil.
The Witch of Envy — the monster who devoured half the world — was crying.
Subaru tilted his head slightly, looking at her trembling figure with a smirk that didn't belong on a human face.
"Ah? Crying already?" he mocked, his voice rising.
"What's wrong now, huh? What are you gonna do? Kill me again? Kill my friends again? Maybe rip out my heart and crush it like last time?"
He laughed — loudly, violently, manically — his voice echoing across the clearing.
"Do it! Go ahead! Do it again! You think I care anymore?"
He glared at her, his grin widening as his pupils dilated with rage.
He raised his blood-covered hands and spread his arms wide, as if embracing the madness that had long since consumed him.
"Do I look like I give a fuck?" he spat, his voice cutting through the silence like a blade.
His laughter subsided, replaced by a chilling calmness that was far more terrifying.
His eyes were no longer trembling — they were steady, focused, and empty.
"No matter how many times you kill me," he said slowly, his voice low but filled with venom, "no matter how many of those people you made me care about die because of you, I'll keep going."
He stepped closer, glaring directly into her glowing amethyst eyes.
"I will keep hating you," he said, his voice dark and unwavering.
"I will hate you every single time I die. I will hate you every single time I'm forced to live. I will hate you when you kill everyone I love, when you tear apart everything I try to protect, when you torture me, when you break me, when you destroy everything I stand for."
He leaned forward, their faces only inches apart now, his tone dropping to an icy whisper.
"So no matter what you do to me… I'll keep hating you."
He paused, his lips curling into a crazed smile.
"I'll hate you for you," he said slowly, almost as if savoring every word.
"I'll hate you obsessively, endlessly, till the end of everything — till eternity itself collapses."
His words hit her like blades, cutting through her obsession and piercing straight into the core of her being.
Satella's breath trembled, her entire body shaking as if the weight of his hatred was too much to bear.
The Witch who once demanded his love was now left frozen — broken by the very emotion she had forced him to feel.
And Subaru, standing before her, covered in blood, with that sick smile on his face, didn't look like a victim anymore.
He looked like something far, far worse.
"Please," she muttered, her voice trembling, raw with desperation.
"Please… please, please, please, please!"
The Witch of Envy—Satella—was begging like a child clinging to something she could never have, her tone breaking between words, as if the very air refused to carry her voice.
She wasn't commanding or manipulating anymore.
She was pleading, begging for him not to hate her, begging for him to love her, just once, even if it was a lie.
Subaru gritted his teeth so hard that his jaw cracked audibly.
His hands trembled, blood still dripping from his knuckles.
"Stop your yapping, you bitch! You freak!" he shouted, his voice filled with unfiltered rage.
And then, without thinking, he slapped her across the face with all his strength.
The impact echoed through the still forest.
But as always, it wasn't her who was hurt.
The pain that followed only belonged to Subaru.
His palm burned, skin splitting open from the force, yet Satella didn't even flinch from the hit.
What broke instead was something inside her—her composure, her illusion of control, her delusion that love could fix everything.
For the first time in her existence, the Witch of Envy looked confused.
Her amethyst eyes flickered with something strange and unfamiliar—panic.
"Forgive me… forgive me, forgive me, forgive me!" she began chanting, her voice trembling, filled with fear.
The words spilled out of her uncontrollably, as if she was trying to force them to work, to undo everything she had done.
Her chant had changed.
The obsession remained, but now it was tainted with dread—she was terrified of losing him.
Terrified that the man she loved more than the world itself now despised her from the very core of his being.
Subaru looked down at her, his expression dark, merciless.
His voice came out as a low growl.
"Even if you got on your knees and kissed my feet right now," he said slowly, each word cutting through the air like a knife, "I would never forgive you."
He glared at her, his eyes bloodshot, veins visible on his forehead.
"You don't deserve forgiveness."
Satella's lips trembled, her words breaking apart as she struggled to form a coherent sentence. "I— I— I— will… will… will…" Her voice cracked as she tried to force the words out.
Subaru clenched his fists again, the blood from his split knuckles dripping down his wrist.
"You'll what?" he spat.
"You'll do anything?"
Her head snapped up, her eyes wide and desperate, her tone rising to a feverish pitch.
"Anything! Anything! Anything! Anything! Anything! Anything! Anything! Anything! Anything! Anything! Anything! Anything! Anything! Anything! Anything! Anything! Anything!" she cried, her words overlapping, blurring together until they barely sounded human anymore.
She begged continuously, her body trembling, her tone bordering on hysteria, as if repeating those words over and over might somehow undo the hatred now burning in Subaru's eyes.
The Witch of Envy, the one who had cursed the world with her love, was now reduced to a sobbing, broken mess—begging the one man she loved to forgive her, while he stood there, glaring down at her with nothing left in his heart but disgust and rage.
"Do anything?" Subaru repeated, his tone dripping with venom and mockery, his lips curling into a twisted grin.
"You really said that, didn't you?" He leaned closer to her, glaring directly into those glowing amethyst eyes that once terrified him but now only disgusted him.
"You loved playing with my life, didn't you?" he sneered, his voice shaking with a mix of fury and deranged amusement.
He let out a dry, broken laugh.
"Maybe it's time we switch things up a little. Maybe it's my turn to play with yours!"
His tone turned dark, sharp, and unhinged.
"You've toyed with me, killed me, broken me, again and again—so why don't you beg for once? Beg me. Obey me. Serve me like the miserable dog you are!"
Subaru's laughter grew louder, maniacal, uncontrollable, echoing through the trees as if mocking the entire world. "
Hah! Then maybe, just maybe... I'll love you for it," he said, his grin stretching wider, his voice laced with pure insanity.
"Wouldn't that be poetic justice? The Witch of Envy herself groveling before the world's weakest man? Hah! 'The World's Strongest Witch Serving the World's Weakest Fool'—doesn't that sound like a nice anime title?"
He barked out a laugh so wild that even the shadows seemed to retreat from him. He had lost it completely.
His sanity, his pride, his restraint—everything had burned away, leaving only madness behind.
"So tell me," Subaru said, his voice suddenly calm but his eyes still blazing like a wildfire. "Will you do it? Will you become my slave?"
The words hung in the air like a curse.
For the first time, Satella—The Witch of Envy, the being who brought nations to ruin, who swallowed half the world in her love—hesitated.
Her lips quivered, trembling as if she couldn't comprehend what she had just been asked.
"I-I-I… I-I-I-I-I-I…" she stammered, her voice glitching like a broken record.
"Will? Will? Will? Will? Will? Will? Will?" she kept repeating, her words collapsing into incoherent fragments.
Her hands clenched tightly, her entire body trembling—not from fear of him, but from the dawning realization that she was no longer in control.
Her eyes lifted to meet Subaru's.
His hatred burned so intensely it almost looked alive, a fire she could never extinguish no matter how many times she whispered I love you.
And then… something inside her broke.
That same love that had once made her unstoppable now made her weak.
For the first time, she felt something she had never known before—submission.
"I…" she whispered, her voice cracking.
Then louder, more desperate, her tone hollow yet sincere.
"I will obey you."
To be continued...
(A/N: FOR THOSE WHO DON'T Understand, this is another re zero idea fic, and the fourth one.
First one was Re Zero: Campione.
Second One was Re Zero: Template System
Third One is the currently ongoing arc of Re Zero: The Great Sage, the fic Sloth if: Starting from Zero all over again.
And this one's name is Pride if: Alternative
I will start a poll soon! Be ready!)