Chapter 201: Don't you want love? Next time we meet, I'll pour it all into you!

Ferris and Natsuki Subaru stared at each other for a long moment, neither willing to speak first, and the air between them gradually grew tense with silence.

Each of them felt, in that instant, that they shouldn’t act like they recognized the other, so the words that rose to their lips died there instead.

But Ferris had prepared for exactly this kind of situation—which was why she’d deliberately jumped down from the dragon carriage without her shoes on earlier.

“Ow, ow, ow! Ferris jumped down too hard and twisted her ankle, meow. She can’t even stand up now, meow~”

“It would be just wonderful if some kind soul could catch Ferris!”

Ferris pressed one hand to her forehead, striking a deliberately frail pose.

Then she stumbled forward a few steps and let herself fall, right into the arms of Natsuki Subaru, who caught her on reflex.

Plan successful!

Pressed against Natsuki Subaru’s chest with her face toward the ground, Ferris allowed herself a delighted smile where no one could see it.

But just then, her ears twitched, and she suddenly heard, from above her head, Natsuki Subaru’s voice—exasperated, and faintly disgusted.

“Don’t you know Healing Magic yourself? It’s just a twisted ankle. Anyone would think you were on your period.”

“Oh, though you probably wouldn’t understand what that means anyway~”

Natsuki Subaru spread his hands and shook his head teasingly, showing everyone behind him that neither of his hands was actually holding Ferris up.

It was entirely Ferris’s own arms wrapped around his neck, her whole body dangling off him.

Where Ferris was concerned, Natsuki Subaru always stayed on guard, never fooled by the affectionate act she put on.

After all, the very first time they’d met, she’d gone so far as to press herself against him and sniff him—an unmistakably intimate gesture.

In their dealings since then, she’d teased him from time to time, even biting his ear once, right before the campaign against the Bishop of Sloth, just because she thought he looked gloomy and wanted to mess with him.

What kind of behavior was that for a girl, honestly?

Natsuki Subaru suspected Ferris was simply like a cat—she just found it fun, not that she’d actually taken a liking to him at first sight.

By now, he wasn’t naive enough to think otherwise.

After all, he used to feel like he lived under some malice sent down from the heavens, one that shaped how everyone he met treated him.

Either they gave him the cold shoulder, wary and guarded,

or they smiled at him on the surface while, deep down, probably despising him enough to want to hold their nose!

As for Ferris—

Natsuki Subaru crossed his arms, closed his eyes, shook his head, and let out a sigh.

Should he chalk it up to the customs of this other world being just that fierce, always wary of outsiders?

By his estimate, that girl had probably been smiling on the surface back then while loathing him to death on the inside.

After all, don’t forget—Ferris herself was a knight, something you could infer just from that guy Julius.

People like that always respected the strong and looked down on the weak.

Well, nothing to be done about it—it wasn’t like he could just decide to get stronger, was it?

In the past, the only cards he’d really had to play were his Magic: Miasma Fog,

and the “Unseeable Divine Will” he’d gained back in Sanctuary when his Sloth factor awakened.

Of course, he’d always felt that name was a bit of an overstatement.

What he actually wanted was an Unseeable Hand!

He wasn’t asking for much—just the same Unseeable Hand as Petelgeuse would’ve been fine too!

“Ahh~ mmh!”

Just as Natsuki Subaru, eyes closed, shook his head and sighed to himself, lost in his own little world, a familiar voice suddenly sounded right by his ear.

Right after that, he felt one of his ears growing damp, wrapped snugly in something warm.

“Hiss! This familiar feeling—?”

Natsuki Subaru’s eyes snapped open, and he immediately saw Ferris, who had quietly sat up in his arms at some point and was now biting down on his earlobe.

“Stop it, you! Don’t go playing with a pure-hearted boy’s feelings here!”

Natsuki Subaru’s temper flared instantly, memories of past teasing at Ferris’s hands surging up, and he snapped at her without holding back.

“——”

At the sudden reprimand, Ferris’s body trembled on reflex, and she quickly lifted her head to explain herself, flustered.

“I just… suddenly felt like doing that, so I did.”

“I’m sorry! Ferris overstepped, Lord Subaru…”

Ferris twisted her hands together, her eyes blank, head bowed low in front of Natsuki Subaru, like a child who’d done something wrong and was waiting to be scolded.

The soft white silk beneath her feet dragged unconsciously against the ground, torn open by a bit of gravel, and she didn’t even notice the cut on her sole.

Lord Subaru? Was she calling him that?

Natsuki Subaru froze for a moment at the words, but quickly caught himself.

He was stunned by Ferris using that title for him—had he, in some other world, taken Ferris on as a subordinate?

That Ferris, the one so unshakably loyal to Crusch?

Hmm… well, it wasn’t impossible, was it!

Natsuki Subaru rubbed his chin, suddenly realizing that in other worlds, he probably wasn’t nearly as pathetic as he imagined.

Even Reinhard had become his underling in one of them, and Priscilla, Crusch, and the rest had become his wives.

So winning over a little thing like Ferris was hardly worth mentioning, was it?

If there weren’t so many people around to make it awkward, Natsuki Subaru would’ve loved to plant his hands on his hips and swagger a little.

Ah, uh-oh!

Had his hands already ended up on his hips without him noticing? How careless of him!

Natsuki Subaru made a show of wiping away nonexistent sweat from his brow, marveling to himself over it.

But Ferris, with her head bowed, missed all of this entirely—instead, she mistook his silence for anger, and her panic only deepened.

Just then, from the driver’s seat behind Patrasche, an old but powerful voice rang out at just the right moment.

“Lord Subaru, I believe Ferris has already learned her lesson. Why not let this one slide, and simply call it a lesson learned?”

Wilhelm climbed down from the carriage’s driver’s seat to the ground, straightened his back, and, with his carefully groomed mustache and hair, faced Natsuki Subaru with a faint smile at the corner of his mouth.

“Oh! Well, since this handsome old gentleman has spoken up, I suppose forgiving her isn’t out of the question!”

Natsuki Subaru said with a grin, tossing out a few flattering words for good measure, which instantly had old man Wilhelm beaming with delight.

Even his own grandson Reinhard, standing right there watching with envious eyes, got completely ignored in the process.

“So, you all came rushing over because you heard the huge noise from Sanctuary too? Is Crusch coming along behind you?”

Natsuki Subaru looked left and right without spotting Crusch anywhere, and asked, puzzled.

Among the four candidates besides Emilia, Crusch was the one he had the highest opinion of.

Back when he’d rushed unprepared into the campaign against the White Whale, his immaturity had gotten him into plenty of trouble thanks to Crusch’s blessing, which could detect lies.

But that hadn’t really been her fault—and the process of fighting alongside her against the White Whale afterward had proven as much.

Crusch was no mere figurehead; she was a genuine commander who could hold her own on the battlefield, with formidable strength of her own.

After having her memories devoured by the Archbishop of Gluttony, she’d actually softened, filling in the feminine side she’d originally lacked.

Later still, in Water Gate City, he’d fought alongside her once more, and the two of them had grown steadily closer.

Memory loss or not, Crusch’s consideration for others, her clear sense of right and wrong, her kindness paired with resilience—these were part of what moved him.

Of course, it was just comradeship… purely comradeship, that’s all!

Natsuki Subaru rubbed his forehead; these days, whenever he felt anything remotely improper toward Crusch, he found himself recalling those words Capella had once said to him.

“Ahahahahaha!!!”

“See? Drooling with longing for a nice piece of meat like that, aren’t you?”

Capella’s provocative sneer surfaced in his mind.

“Can you swear you’ve never had a single indecent thought about her, not even for a second?”

“Tch!”

“You want to stroke her hair, don’t you? You want to touch her lips, don’t you?”

“Too scared to admit your beastly desires out loud, so you dress them up with a nice word like ‘love’ instead!”

That vile little brat—

No, wait, can’t judge by appearance alone—she’s an Archbishop of Sin, after all. For all he knew, she could be far older than he was.

Natsuki Subaru gritted his teeth at the thought.

Next time they met—he’d give that Capella, with her twisted logic, a proper talking-to!

She wanted love, didn’t she? Well—he could give her plenty of that!

Heh heh heh!

Without realizing it, Natsuki Subaru’s face slid into a rather sinister grin.

And somehow, he had a feeling that the next time they crossed paths wouldn’t be very far off at all.