"Can you hear anything?"
Inside the Dragon Carriage, Subaru—collar pulled open—watched Yimi with nervous eyes.
Yimi pressed the stethoscope solemnly against his belly, holding it there for a good while. After all these days of eating and sleeping and playing and causing trouble, she'd only now remembered she'd gone to find him in the first place because the pot kept multiplying.
She lowered the stethoscope and looked up. "No. Aunt Eirin said this one is broken—she gave it to me to play with."
"It's broken and you were listening that dramatically for that long! Just for fun?! If you want to play doctor, you could just say so—I'll play along!"
Subaru quickly straightened his clothes.
She had, technically, been doing a real examination. But if she activated this world's magical energy, she'd immediately fall into a mana-rage she couldn't suppress. And since this ability was something even Subaru himself couldn't understand, and also had nothing in common with any of the systems Yimi already operated within, there was nowhere to even begin researching it.
Yimi hunched over in a small sulk and leaned toward Beatrice, grabbing her arm and tucking it behind her own head as a pillow.
"Don't make Betty hold her arm up forever." Beatrice simply laid her down and let her use her lap instead.
"Damn it—I want that too." Subaru made a mournful sound, then added quickly, before Beatrice could throw him out the carriage: "I meant using Emilia-tan's lap—"
Though that triggered an unpleasant memory. The first day he'd arrived in this world, he'd gotten exactly that—a lap pillow—and then opened his eyes to find Puck, grown to human size, staring down at him with that enormous cat face from about two inches away…
"Subaru." Emilia placed her hand on top of his, worried. "Are you having side effects from the time-stasis again? Why did you want your body checked all of a sudden?"
"Ah—it's something I can't talk about. Don't worry, Emilia-tan." Subaru gave her a thumbs up.
He looked around at the girls seated in the same compartment. "Speaking of which—it's been so long, and Ro—Roswaal still hasn't come back. Communication in this world is really inconvenient. Normally he should be present for something like this."
It was the kingdom summoning the Dragon Priestesses who were Royal Selection Candidates. No explanation had been given for why. The two who'd come seemed to be supporters of another candidate—Emilia had also apparently reached some agreement with that cat-eared girl about treating her "Gate."
Worried about leaving Meili unattended—or starving—and intending to wait for Roswaal, Ram had stayed behind. But Rem had also stayed, out of concern that Ram's cooking might poison everyone. And since it wasn't right to leave Emilia with zero protection, Rem had asked the one who regularly fed Yimi to come along and keep an eye on Emilia.
Subaru looked at the one large and one small girl sitting across from him and nodded. "It's almost like a married couple taking two daughters out on a family trip."
Beatrice fixed him with a look, and let it go only because they happened to be in a Dragon Carriage.
"By the way, Emilia-tan—the Royal Capital is completely safe, right?" Subaru produced a self-stitched coin purse, rooted through it, and reluctantly pulled out half the contents.
"That's what they say—though you do occasionally run into pickpockets."
"Yeah, that's fair…" Subaru thought back on it—the place he'd died the most since arriving in this world was the Royal Capital.
But that had been a freak situation. That kind of thing couldn't happen every single day. Running into street thugs and a serial murderer simultaneously—what were the odds.
He placed the money he'd taken out into Yimi's hand. "Once we get to the Capital there's no need to follow me around. Take this and go explore on your own—don't bother the grown-ups on their date."
"Who do you think is Betty's mother and father?!" Beatrice brought her heel down onto his foot.
"Ow!"
The eternity fixation struck again at the worst possible moment. Subaru buried his face in his hands, curled up over his foot.
"Subaru! Are you alright?" Emilia rushed to comfort him.
"Yes—because Emilia-tan is absolutely fine!" Subaru shot up his thumb again, sitting back up properly.
He fanned himself, puzzled. "Odd. Is anyone else feeling it get warmer?"
"Oh, you noticed, little bro? That's because after what happened out there, that stretch of road has the fewest witchbeasts now—so I took a small detour. Hope you don't mind. No extra charge." The driver slid the partition window open.
"So this carriage isn't soundproofed at all? But more to the point—what does the detour have to do with the temperature?"
"What, little bro, you haven't heard the legend of the 'beastman girl child killer'? They say one night out of nowhere, a demi-human girl showed up covered in blood and started eating people—even took bites out of the sky and the ground—"
"But don't worry. The kingdom has guaranteed the monster left the area. It's actually the safest road now."
And then he turned to smile at Yimi: "Hope the story didn't scare you, little one."
"If she comes back, I'll beat her off!" Yimi declared, confident paw raised.
"Oh, very brave!"
"…"
She's the one who did all that, isn't she?
Subaru leaned out the window, took one look at the sky that was all blue and clear as ever, then snapped his head back around to stare at Yimi in horror.
...
The person in the Royal Capital that weighed most on Subaru's mind was probably Felt—the girl who'd stolen Emilia's badge. She'd done something wrong, sure, but she was just a small girl in the end, and in a society that wasn't modern, there was no telling what kind of treatment awaited her after being caught.
When Emilia stepped outside she'd pulled on a white cloak with two beast-ear shapes along the hood—a Metia that could conceal the wearer's distinguishing features. Even if you knew exactly what the cloak looked like, you couldn't connect the person wearing it back to the Metia itself. Because silver-haired half-elves were too conspicuous, Emilia wore it most of the time to avoid discrimination—and it was precisely because of this item that Subaru, despite finding the world around him quite dangerous, wasn't too worried about anyone targeting Emilia for her identity.
As arranged, Subaru showed up early with Emilia for a walk around the city—a date, if this world had a word for that—while Yimi, now in possession of money, made a beeline for wherever food was being sold.
"Our signature flavors today are strawberry and apple, little miss—which one would you like?" The bread stall vendor leaned down with a smile.
"Is this enough?" Yimi held up the coins Subaru had given her, first things first.
The vendor looked at her patiently. "That's enough for six, little miss. And as a rule, you don't show your money when asking the price—care to buy?"
Not that Subaru's wages were especially low. It was the expensive stolen tea that had cost him—that Ram had even paid him at all was evidence of hidden generosity beneath that sharp exterior.
"Apple—and strawberry—three in total."
"Here you go." The vendor tucked the bread into a paper bag and handed it over.
The little cat trotted to where Beatrice was seated on a bench and settled in beside her.
Every world had its own flavors.
Yimi reached in, pulled out a piece of bread, and tore it in half, holding out one piece to Beatrice. "For you."
Beatrice stared at the paper bag beside Yimi's hand, made a small sound of displeasure. "Betty saw you buy three. Betty assumed that since she'd looked after you for several days, you'd at least give her a whole one."
Her heart went a little cold. She'd spent the past few days caring for this little cat like her own younger sister—even the child from four hundred years ago hadn't had the chance to experience this kind of treatment.
Hearing that, Yimi hugged the paper bag close and shook her head. "One is for Mama. One is for Grandma. Whenever I buy cake—I always save at least one for each of them."
That was Yimi's rule. And if she ever made it back home, she wanted to bring things for the friends from the other worlds too.
"Mama? Grandma?" Beatrice's brow creased slightly—this was the first time she'd ever looked more closely into where Yimi came from. "You mean the Witch of Gluttony?"
"Mm? Mama and Grandma—aren't a witch. Probably."
Yimi didn't fully understand her Mama's and Grandma's true identities.
All she remembered was that Mama and Grandma played with her, fed her, and took care of her when she felt unwell.
"Probably?"
That qualifier was genuinely strange. After everything that had happened, Beatrice was fairly certain Yimi had some connection to the Witch of Gluttony.
Was she unaware that the Witch of Gluttony was already dead?
Beatrice accepted the half piece of bread and watched Yimi begin dividing the next flavor.
"Maybe you and Betty are alike in some way…"
"Alike?" Yimi tilted her head.
Beatrice looked away, swinging her little legs. "So what do you plan to do next? Keep freeloading at Roswaal's place indefinitely like that lolicon guy?"
"Get rid of Diego. Then go home." Yimi offered Beatrice the other half of the second piece.
Remembering Beatrice's complaint about getting too little a moment ago, Yimi's ears drooped slightly. "I'm giving you half of my own share, too."
"…"