Subaru Natsuki's Return

The Ground Dragon carriage rolled on. After they had wiped out Sloth and his followers, nothing else happened, and the group soon reached the village below Earl's Manor.

The sun had just set. Thin trails of cooking smoke rose from the village, filling it with the warmth of everyday life.

Seeing the village still peaceful, Subaru Natsuki breathed a small sigh of relief. He had been right to hurry. Nothing had happened yet.

But a question surfaced in his mind. Had the Witch Cult really slaughtered the village and killed Emilia? Something about it felt wrong.

Sloth's target had been him from the start. In the previous loop, he had not encountered the Witch Cult on the road, but someone as deranged as Sloth would not have stayed away just because Subaru had brought others with him. The man was insane; ordinary reasoning did not apply.

There had to be another plot he knew nothing about.

Subaru Natsuki stopped dwelling on it. Everything would become clear once he saw his master. With his master's power, surely nothing in this world could be hidden from him.

Subaru Natsuki headed into the village with Will, Julius, and a rather nervous Otto. As darkness fell, most of the villagers had gone home for dinner.

There was hardly anyone around. Just as Subaru Natsuki thought he would not run into anyone he knew, a familiar little girl hurried out of her house.

He recognized her as one of the children he had rescued.

"Meili, where are you going?"

Subaru Natsuki called out at once.

Meili, who seemed to have come out on an errand, stopped and slowly turned around.

The girl with brown braids gave Subaru Natsuki a strange smile.

"Oh, it's you, Subaru! This makes things a little troublesome!"

Her words came out